I also don't see why Americans would get that intrested , i mean , NFL / NHL / NBA / MLB are the BEST leagues in their sports , hands down. MLS Would be , at best , 5th. They wouldn't have the best players , and the City by City pool isn't even that great , with other sports competing for people , i just don't see an MLS match with 50k + people attending it , then again i'm biased.
67,385 MLS is the second highest attended sport in America on average. The 7th highest attended football league on average in the world. When expansion is done and more clubs like DC United who can support 20k plus move into new stadiums and clubs like San Jose get up to date, the league will be on a path to surpassing Serie A in attendance. Roma getting a new stadium will help but the improvement to infrastructure needs to truly be across the board or it may happen. Again though, it's been discussed the league does not have to be Top 4 in America to be one of the best leagues in the world. Not to mention only one of those leagues conflicts with the bulk of the MLS season. America is that big, there is that much money, and being a solid niche sport can be very lucrative. Our current goal is to surpass NHL which is doable with time, right after that would be to gain parity with Baseball. Once the league gets attendances and TV ratings similar to baseball it will be knocking on Top 5's door.
I guess i'm just blissfully ignorant about the topic , i don't follow MLS at all , it was just my thoughts anyway. EDIT: What game was it anyway?
Yeah that was bad. Hopefully they get promoted again though. Derby is a solid first division club of years past.
I believe it was Seattle Sounders vs Portland Timbers http://www.soundersfc.com/post/2013...attracts-record-crowd-67385-centurylink-field
Frankly, after the NFL, no league really has a strangle hold on the public viewership, as far as pro leagues go. The NFL playoffs are "must watch," if there is such a thing, and some of the college football bowl games as well as the basketball tournament are things everyone talks about. NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS all have their big markets and their niche groups, but none of them are such big talking points in the general population or even as popular as the World Cup when it's on.
Do you know how many people watch the World Cup when it's on? i'm assuming you mean the football world cup ofc.
Yeah, I mean the World Cup that Destro is going to be watching instead of playing in. I have no idea of any numbers. SoCal might have some, but it's typically a popular conversation piece, as unscientific as that sounds. Stanley Cup finals, World Series, and NBA Finals don't even get that much love most of the time. People who I wouldn't even describe as casual sports fans will bring it up, and you'll overhear people talking about it in the bars or around the proverbial water cooler. Of course, its popularity increases exponentially when USMNT don't get humped in the group stage, or there is some dramatic game like US vs. Algeria in 2010.
He's been able to run and do weight work for a few weeks now. He's been seen a few times around town (N. London can be a rather small world). There's a video of him doing keepy ups taken by fan and he said after he did them you could clearly see he was laboring a bit he couldn't really go all out when he tried to sprint. The issue in his back though isn't completely gone. He was able to do all of that work before with an issue with his back which apparently he he's had since he was at Roma. Sherwood even said he's been looked at by Roma and Spurs physios for this problem. I don't know the exact issue but he had some issue with his back but he could play with it intially, he injured his leg and was starting to recover but while recovering from that injury he was over compensating and messed up his back more. If that back issue isn't recovered he could do exactly the same thing again, which is why I think the club have decided to shut him down for the rest of the season.
I was mad at the time we sold him for 35 million. But now since things are going well I couldn't care less. Don't even know if he would fit in Rudi's system all that well.
Actually Dembele has had a similar injury since he came to Spurs. Which is why he's injured all the time. We managed it pretty poorly and he should have had the surgery a long time ago. I think he'll finally get it this summer, after the world cup.
Dembele will make his World Cup squad but he'll probably have the surgery the day after the tournament. Lamela, who knows. I think it would be pretty pointless as he hasn't played much football. I don't doubt that Lamela wants to play right now, injury or not. Just like he did before he reinjured himself, which was done in a U21 match by the way, which we use to get players fit.
I agree with you @SoCalYid and I think you always bring us excellent insight to the MLS. Hopefully as you said we merge Concacaf and Conmebol to create a larger, more talented, and probably lucrative organization. As you've said we need better TV deals and to try to raise the level of play internally(which we've talked about regarding academies and their benefits/flaws.) I think that we can definitely pass the NHL in popularity and definitely be the fourth most popular league for a number of reasons. First of all MLS has shown capability of surpassing the NHL and even MLB in attendance. in 2013 Seattle has the highest attendance in the MLS around 44000 which is only below the Dodgers who averaged 46000 per game in the 2013 season and the highest average attendance in the NHL during the 2013-14 season was Chicago Blackhawks only at about 23000. The good is this shows that the MLS can clearly attract high attendances but the bad part is that in 2013 Chivas only averaged 8000 per game and San Jose only averaged about 12000 per game which I believe Socalyid allured to. Also I don't think that the NHL really has the capability of growing much more evident that the league's average attendance has only gone up about a few thousand since 2000- whereas the MLS has added 8 I think since 2002. I am not entirely sure about the NHL but I think it has to do with the fact that hockey in general is only played in the northeast, Canada, and states like Montana and the Dakotas(where its cold and you can actually play) but the populations and markets in most of those places is not very large and hockey in general is not very popular in the south whereas soccer is growing quite a bit in the south. But yes I think agree that since the US has such a large population and money it could support the MLS even if it's not the number 1 or 2 league in the United States but it will take time to develop internally.
Random thought, I watched the LA hockey team ( didn't realise they would have one down their!) v Edmonton or Calgary and LA were so dirty. They just beat the shit out of them, I never seen so many brutal hits. It must have been a grudge match because it was insane! Lol
By in large stadiums are the issue. MLS has gone through "phases" right now everyone accepts we're in MLS 3.0, in 2.0 is when most of the new SSS stadiums started to come in. Still there's a few clubs that are hindered by their infrastructure, even new clubs. The average will take a bump once NYCFC, Orlando, Miami and Atlanta all enter the league. Then you have current clubs like DC United and Columbus Crew who need new stadiums. Both face unique challenges to getting them build. Portland could expand beyond 20k, I think they could handle 35k. If you see how their stadium is designed though they have vey similar issues to Stanford Bridge in England. They will have to do something creative to expand. Then you have clubs like the Galaxy, nobody would assume we had stadium issues unless you lived in LA. The StubHub center is poorly located to draw fans from LA and surrounding counties for so many reasons. Despite how new the stadium is most Galaxy fans would want us to move more downtown. The Galaxy could legitimately build a 35k-40k stadium downtown and fill it 90% of the time. Having the stadium in Carson is a real hindrance. MLS 4.0 or 5.0 will be interesting because you get the feeling many clubs might be looking into their second phases of infrastructure. For example, maybe Seattle will want to build a soccer specific stadium. You mentioned San Jose they have one of the more passionate fan bases in MLS but they play in a dump. There's building a new stadium but I have some issues with it. I think it's poorly designed and too conservative imo. It only holds 18,000, I think they could have gone for at least 20-21k. When SJ play at the Farm they get over 40k. I don't really follow the Smurfs that closely because they bug the heck out of me being a Galaxy fan, but there has to be a good reason why they couldn't go over 18k, like a city ordinance or something because if they intentionally chose for a 18k stadium that would be dumb. They could have easily enclosed the stadium, made another stand and got 20k. They do have standing areas behind one of the goals (not sure if you can stand in the other section. Maybe officially (as in all seated) they have 18 and with standing room the capacity is 20k? http://www.seats3d.com/mls/san_jose_earthquakes/#/level_1/ You can see on the link above which gives you a 3d layout of the season. The horseshoe design just seems odd, unnecessary even.
OK got you..Yes I can't see lamela going, he will be miles out of the frame which is such a shame. I can imagine he must be tortured not playing but with an injury like that it could derail a career if not treated correctly. Hopefully he destroys the league next year
San jose gave that team so many problems its not even funny the neighbors complained about noise and a bunch of other things. they left a wall missing for concerts or something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Soccer_stadiums Why are the numbers so low , if the MLS can attract 67k for a good match? that puzzles me.
What do you mean by numbers? The league ranking or TV viewership? If it's that then the salary cap is the issue. How the league is constructed the salary cap is dependent on the value of TV contracts, sponsorships and match day revenue, which is divided through the clubs. Some argue like myself that MLS can increase the cap but the owners by in large are conservative and make excuses all the time. If clubs like the Galaxy were allowed to spend what they wanted we would have one of the best clubs in the Americas. Good defenders in say South America don't earn much more than $500k. The gap isn't that large.
No , i mean the numbers of seats in the stadiums , the highest capacity one has 30k. that's... kinda low?