What changes await Extraliga and First League?
The last few days saw rumors about the changes in baseball leagues circulate. This also includes the schedule proposals. If the both of them were to pass, we get to see interesting changes in the top two leagues.
One thing that won’t change, however, is the number of teams in Extraliga. Based on the proposals, we shouldn’t see a short regular seasons followed by TOP 6. Sport and Technical Committee (STC) suggested each to team to play each other six times, which would result in 42 games in the regular season.
The first six teams would advance to the playoffs, top two of which would automatically advance to the semifinals. Quarterfinals would be played as best of three, semifinals as best of five and Czech Series as best of seven. Playoff should start at the end of August and we should know the winner by the end of September.
Big changes in First League?
First League would go through even bigger changes as it could be merged with U21 Extraliga where there are only 3 teams right now. “If everyone plays in this league, then with Kladno and Bučovice we have 12 teams,” describes the situation STC. STC proposes two variants of the league, either the 12 teams playing each other, or they could end up divided in two groups (East and West). The proposal doesn’t include the option to split First League to three divisions with teams playing mainly with the division with a few inter-division games. Playoff would also see U21 teams split from First League ones. The best four teams from First League would once again play the Promotion League for Extraliga spot against the bottom two teams from Extraliga.
The first glance of Champions League?
Schedule proposal also offers an interesting glance into non-league games. All Star Game was set for 30th of June, while Prague Baseball Week follows a week later between 6th and 9th of July. The national team will then play German Series against the German national team in the middle of August.
Champions League should be played as six series with two games during the season followed by Final Four between 28th and 29th of September. It is most likely it will be played in two groups with four teams each. The first two teams from each group will advance to the finals.
It is important to note all of these are just proposals and not the final decisions. But based on the files we saw, we might be saying farewell to Czech Baseball Cup, which is not showed in any schedule.
