The next ten years - MLS 3.0

Discussion in 'MLS: Commissioner - You be The Don' started by deejay, Oct 30, 2012.

  1. deejay

    deejay Member+

    Feb 14, 2000
    Tarpon Springs, FL
    Club:
    Jorge Wilstermann
    Nat'l Team:
    Bolivia
    For the NHL it's 2.9 billion. For MLS it's hard to get exact figures but a lot of people are estimating figures of $15 to $58 million for the different clubs. So we can ballpark them about .5 billion. However it's really hard to know if teams are fudging attendance numbers and if MLS is hiding revenue through SUM. Ah darn it! There we go! Fuzzy numbers again. We might have to look solely at the size of their TV deals.
     
  2. CoconutMonkey

    CoconutMonkey Member

    Aug 3, 2010
    Japan
    Club:
    Chicago
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm skeptical too. Don't get me wrong, I think the league has been doing a fantastic job, but they haven't been all that willing to share a more specific long term vision for the league.

    I'm super curious about this rebranding as well. I really hope they add a flaming bucky ball to the logo.
     
  3. HailtotheKing

    HailtotheKing Member+

    San Antonio FC
    United States
    Dec 1, 2008
    TEXAS
    Club:
    San Antonio Scorpions FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Honestly, I'm not sure they can get all too specific with the way the dynamics shift quickly (relatively for the business/sport world of course) for them.
     
  4. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    In the next 10 years, MLS 3.0 or the post-Beckham era, success should be evaluated by:
    • Increase the number of DP's to anywhere between 5-7.
    • Increase the salary cap by 20%.
    • Find and sign the next generation of high profiled DP's like Henry and Beckham.
    • Build SSS or find more acceptable stadium situations to New England, to DC United, and to any new club that enters the leagues.
    • Reinvigorate brands for existing clubs, Crew and Dallas. (Sporting KC used as an example to use as a barometer for success).
    • Rebrand Chivas USA, and relocate somewhere in the Southwest.
    • Increase the national footprint.
    • Bring the League to 24 teams. Split the league into West/East. Teams play teams in their conference twice (22 games) plus playing outside the conference once (12 games) for a total of 34 season games. Note: Alternate each season of the home site for games outside of conference.
    • Add the New York Cosmos. (there's been so much hype about it that it would be seen as a failure if they didn't deliver).
    • Add 2-4 teams in the Southeast.
    • Add 1-2 team to the Midwest.
    • Add 1-2 team to the Southwest.
    • Form a healthy relationship with the NASL where they are producing more and more stable clubs with a passionate fan base and also MLS clubs are able to loan players to NASL more effectively.
    • Provide more minutes for reserve/youth players by either stabilizing the reserve division or partnering with the lower leagues. And/or mandate clubs to play youth players for a set amount of minutes.
    • Produce homegrown players with greater frequency that are competitive and compose at least 20% of the club's roster.
    • Increase number of fans and sellouts for games.
    • Increase media exposure and accessibility for fans to watch games.
    • Compete for signings of all of the best North American talent with only Mexico.
    • Increase media attention and TV accessibility for North American SuperLiga.
    • Start MLS season in February and add 2 week summer break for the first two weeks in June (for international tournaments) and the last two weeks in July (european preseason games).
    • Increase media attention and add MLS clubs into a more competitive and more organized World Soccer/Football Challenge that provides some sort of award for the top performer.
    MLS 4.0 Goals
    • Bring the league to 30-32 teams and form a more Americanized version of the league.
    • Drop the DP designation as teams no longer need it.
    • Every team has a solid SSS, youth academy, and players that could compete in any of the big four leagues.
    • The NASL is a competitive 2nd division.
    • 75% of MLS teams have stable fan bases and are competitive with the other big American leagues.
    • North American SuperLiga and World Football Challenge rival Champions League tv viewership.
    • Top MLS teams are competitive with the top teams in Europe.
     
  5. RichardL

    RichardL BigSoccer Supporter

    May 2, 2001
    Berkshire
    Club:
    Reading FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    So would you agree this "easily achievable target" would probably involve MLS' tv deal going from $27 million to well over $2 billion?
     
  6. deejay

    deejay Member+

    Feb 14, 2000
    Tarpon Springs, FL
    Club:
    Jorge Wilstermann
    Nat'l Team:
    Bolivia
    Easily achievable? :confused: No one ever said it's easily achievable.
    No, they need to go from 27 million a year to 200 million a year. NHL has a 10 year/2 billion deal equivalent to 200 million a year. I think this will be hard but not impossible. There are a lot of new networks out there competing for programming.
     
  7. deejay

    deejay Member+

    Feb 14, 2000
    Tarpon Springs, FL
    Club:
    Jorge Wilstermann
    Nat'l Team:
    Bolivia
    Oh! Also, NHL gets about 100 million a year from the CBC. So that's even more to make up.
     
  8. The Green Mushroom

    Oct 19, 2011
    You want an exhibition series against the best teams in the world to rival an actual competition between the team the best teams in the world?

    That's a lofty goal.
     
  9. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    To clarify, I mean American tv viewership. I believe that's an obtainable goal.
     
  10. SoCalYid

    SoCalYid Member+

    Jun 11, 2011
    BigSoccer :)
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Increasing the cap 20% in ten years is ambitious enough to be considered success?

    Put a 1 in-front of that 20% and maybe. If in 10 years the cap is only $3.3m then I doubt much will have changed.
     
    StyleAndRhythm repped this.
  11. footballfantatic

    Mar 27, 2008
    Ontario, California
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    • I like these two points. A 24 team league structure seems perfect. To the 2nd point, I think MLS needs to ensure of a healthy 2nd division. If the NASL teams increase their significance in their markets(tv deals/+10k per game/profitable), soccer can grow significantly faster than just MLS.
     
  12. StyleAndRhythm

    Nov 27, 2012
    Boston, MA
    Club:
    Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte
    Though there's been many ideas thrown around this thread, someone had said to almost separate the regular season from the playoffs. I hadn't though of this before but it seems like a cool idea, award a trophy for the best record in the MLS (similar to presidents trophy in NHL) and THEN have the playoffs.

    Once the league is healthy and stable enough, a nice cash payout would add a motive to compete for the best record in the league.
     
  13. The Green Mushroom

    Oct 19, 2011
    Maybe it is just too early for me, but are you being serious or sarcastic?
     
  14. Hachiko

    Hachiko The Akita on Big Soccer

    Jun 8, 2005
    Long Beach, CA
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Neither. More like idiotic.
     
  15. Jewelz510

    Jewelz510 Member+

    Feb 19, 2011
    Bay Area
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You're a f*ckin' genius. You should go back to 1994 and tell them your ideas.
     
  16. It's called FOOTBALL

    LMX Clubs
    Mexico
    May 4, 2009
    Chitown
    The SL was canceled 2 years ago, and has no sign of returning.

    lol@ rivaling CL viewership.

    Your last bulletpoint could only be on a 1 team per year basis at the CWC. Friendlies will never be an accurate barometer.
     
  17. StyleAndRhythm

    Nov 27, 2012
    Boston, MA
    Club:
    Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte
    A "I don't think that would work" would have sufficed.
     
  18. It's called FOOTBALL

    LMX Clubs
    Mexico
    May 4, 2009
    Chitown
    How do you think that teams from this league qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League? They have to win 1 of 4 trophies. Go look up which ones those are.
     
  19. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    Actually is 1 of 6 trophies.

    Now the winners of two of them play against each other for a 3rd, so at most there can only be 5 winners of the 6 trophies with one team always winning 2 of them.

    Canada Championship
    [​IMG]

    US Open Cup
    [​IMG]


    Supporters Shield
    [​IMG]
     
  20. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Then

    Western Conference Champion
    [​IMG]

    Eastern Conference Champion
    [​IMG]

    MLS Cup
    [​IMG]
     
  21. comoesa

    comoesa Member+

    Aug 13, 2010
    Christen Press's armpit
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Better tv ratings. Looser cap. More SSS stadiums=MLS 3.0

    Revenue's won't change all that much in 10 years. The same teams will still keep their relative position. That never was the problem. Schedule will continue to be tweaked but it won't change either.
     
  22. Eleven Bravo

    Eleven Bravo Member+

    Atlanta United
    United States
    Jul 3, 2004
    SC
    Club:
    Atlanta Silverbacks
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There's no reason to assume that it's impossible that an American held tournament where the best teams in America faced off against the best teams in Europe couldn't rival CL viewership in America.... with the key word being... in America.

    So long as MLS continues its upward trend, more and more American fans are going to start believing that they are competitive with the best in Europe. Once that happens, Americans fans are going to care more about the American teams than two European teams facing each other in a far away land.
     
  23. It's called FOOTBALL

    LMX Clubs
    Mexico
    May 4, 2009
    Chitown
    Well, as was said by another poster here, there's a big difference between a friendly tournament and an official continental championship. Fans know the difference. Why would they get hyped over a friendly tournament? Those are practice games, nothing more.

    Friendly tournaments have never been popular, no matter who's been involved. There's no reason that that would change.
     
  24. soccerusa517

    soccerusa517 Member+

    Jun 23, 2009
    Ohio
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Pretty much. And some might say, "well they could do that right now if they wanted to!" Sure but the league would suffer financially, that and Garber himself implied better TV ratings = looser cap.
     
  25. PhillyMLS

    PhillyMLS Member+

    Oct 24, 2000
    SE PA
    The problem is that CONCACAF doesn't have a continental tournament that fans get hyped over anyway (bar the last few rounds of the CCL). There were 10 games in the group stage with 10k+ in attendance (both games by UNAL, Monterrey, RSL, and Houston. And one each for LA and TFC) and 12 with fewer than 1k. As of right now you would get better attendance and viewership for a preseason friendly tournament with teams from Europe than you will for CCL games.

    I seriously think the only way forward for continental competitions is to have CONCACAF and CONMEBOL to combine forces for continental club championships. CONCACAF teams will get better TV monies from the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana than they would from the CCL. CONMEBOL should see an increase in TV revenue from new deals in the North American market. Some federations will be upset though by the loss of spots in the competition itself since you'd need to accommodate the increased numbers of participating countries.

    For MLS, this would be an additional revenue stream that they are otherwise handicapped by since you don't see much money from the CCL. I honestly don't expect this to happen since greed is the way for pretty much all the federations, but it makes more sense than the crap we have now.
     

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