To fix this problem is to basically make more Pre season leagues, it's really not that difficult.
We already have 3 in game admins that can make 2 pre seasons each, get a couple of more admins and there you go. I am more than happy to do this and so is Antony... I can message Junior sometime today to try make us admins and explain to him the situation.
Why not just make all Private Leagues give users extra training then? This would encourage users to make PL's and also create a fairer playing field for all. In my opinion these Pre Season Leagues are just over-complicating the way users look at training, especially new users. Many of which who will look at the Friendly Schedule as very expensive and feel they can't compete without spending a fortune on credits. My opinion is just get rid if people will be unhappy with just adding more admin and leaving this open to exploitation.
If all PLs were to be given extra training then there is no point in playing any friendly games.
Adding admins is not a need yes you are right there Borg but since there seems to be a high demand for Pre Season Golds, if you and the other in game admins are willing to open up more Pre Season Golds making you play more games and setting up then that is fine by me. I only suggested adding a couple more admins to ease any burdens on you, Brian and Jason.
The easiest thing to do without the need of adding extra admins would be to increase the number of teams from 8 to lets say 10/12 and opening up these competitions earlier than usual. If a a particular league does not get filled up within the time, the creator can easily reduce the amount of total teams.
It seems there is a lot of controversy surrounding this and it is quite baffling.
IMO the Official Day, Cider and Gold leagues should be removed as soon as they are finished and never re opened. Only open up knockout competitions under this banner and then include Pre Season Golds when needed to cover the training you miss out during the end of the season. Re open knockout competitions during the season until a set day i.e when it is time to open Pre Season Golds, don't open up any KOs until the new season.
If you remove these league structured competitions then everyone will have to use friendlies for extra training benefit which is the ORIGINAL and should be the only way of getting this benefit. I understand it might hurt teams/2nd teams and spending more credits but if everybody follows this routine then you can not complain about anything as everyone will be following one certain system.