News: David Beckham And LeBron James Ownership Could Fuel MLS's Next TV Deal

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by Fiosfan, Dec 24, 2013.

  1. Fiosfan

    Fiosfan Red Card

    Mar 21, 2010
    Nevada
    Club:
    New York City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #1 Fiosfan, Dec 24, 2013
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2013
  2. Sal Paradise

    Sal Paradise BigSoccer Supporter

    Jan 14, 2009
    Club:
    Jaguares de Chiapas FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Now I know Florida is a pretty strange state (http://www.fark.com/topic/florida/), but are there really people there who are going to buy soccer tickets because two guys named Beckham and James own part of the team? I'd feel a whole lot better about this Miami thing if there was more grass roots demand and a lot less emphasis on the superstar owners.
     
  3. SoccerPrime

    SoccerPrime Moderator
    Staff Member

    All of them
    Apr 14, 2003
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  4. Fiosfan

    Fiosfan Red Card

    Mar 21, 2010
    Nevada
    Club:
    New York City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The bold headed guy is pretty tough on MLS...
     
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  5. Leondecollao

    Leondecollao Member

    Oct 26, 2010
    Orlando, FL
    Club:
    Orlando City SC
    Tough but fair.
     
  6. Stan Collins

    Stan Collins Member+

    Feb 26, 1999
    Silver Spring, MD
    I think the story is a little more complicated than what that view paints, although I agree that a lot of people look at it that way. I don't think a real "minor league" is going around paying players $5 million a year. That figure also represents a tenfold increase over what was being paid for guys ten years ago, so it's a moving target you're aiming at.

    I think Ozanian's number ($45 million) is pretty close to what we'll actually see, though it's less a product of MLS's viewership, which is certainly not large, than it is that there are suddenly more outlets to buy broadcast packages than there are packages to sell.
     
  7. Fiosfan

    Fiosfan Red Card

    Mar 21, 2010
    Nevada
    Club:
    New York City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I bet you he has no clue about football , let MLS guys put on EPL jerseys and let him watch it on TV he wouldn't know the difference.
     
  8. Sal Paradise

    Sal Paradise BigSoccer Supporter

    Jan 14, 2009
    Club:
    Jaguares de Chiapas FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, but you got to consider that our sport is pretty terrible for TV revenue, especially when you compare it to the other US sports where the action is constantly stopping for commercials. There's just not enough opportunities for the networks to get their money back. Has anybody seen some of the Central and South American broadcasts where they run commercials right across the action? Let's hope it never comes to that.

    With media comprising so little of the MLS income, I'm surprised that the league doesn't take a chance and go internet only for national broadcasts. Why not make a deal with Netflix or Amazon and sell all the games for a yearly subscription or a couple bucks each? With each subscription, throw in a free Chromecast. It's not like they would be losing a lot of money if the plan failed. Cable and Satellite are losing viewers these days because there's so much content available online. Sports (along with live news) are the only two holdouts and it's only a matter of time before somebody makes the switch.
     
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  9. Pack87Man

    Pack87Man BigSoccer Supporter

    Sep 1, 2001
    Quad Cities
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The other thing helping prop up MLS's deals is the demographics, as we keep hearing. MLS viewers are young, mostly male, and very concentrated, which makes life very easy for advertisers.
     
  10. Flex Buffchest

    Jan 25, 2010
    Orange County, California
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree with this somewhat. I think it's great Beckham and Lebron are investing in the league, but I don't see how it will help fuel the team for the long run just because of its owners. Otherwise, teams like Charlotte (Jordan) and Sacramento (Shaq) would be bigger entities.
     
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  11. Fiosfan

    Fiosfan Red Card

    Mar 21, 2010
    Nevada
    Club:
    New York City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That's the magic word "demographics" that advertisers are looking at when it comes to MLS.
     
  12. USvsIRELAND

    USvsIRELAND Member+

    Jul 19, 2004
    ATL
    Most people wouldn't. Including most soccer fans.

    They think they would know, but they wouldn't.
     
  13. Mateofelipe

    Mateofelipe Member+

    Mar 10, 2001
    Spokane, WA
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think you have a point there. At some point the content providers and customers are going to give cable and satellite the finger and call the late 20th century and ask it to take its content platform and business model back. I don't know about going cold turkey, but Google may move the needle in that direction.
     
  14. Grumpy in LA

    Grumpy in LA Bringing It Since 1807™

    Sep 10, 2007
    Chicago
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Fans only care about owners when they start making effigies of the owners. Beckham is sui generis in his media appeal and James is no slouch in that department, so it's possible that they could become the first owners that anybody cared about enough to help a team succeed. But I'm skeptical.
     
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  15. Stan Collins

    Stan Collins Member+

    Feb 26, 1999
    Silver Spring, MD
    I dunno, I think Beckham's cachet could help a Miami team get off to a good start, because he's such a celeb's celeb at this point. I can tell you this, the fact that he's involved in it has generated 10x more publicity for the team so far than if he weren't involved. You can't sustain it a team in the long term based on the owner. . . but in MLS a lot of how you finish is in how you start.
     
  16. MLS1FAN

    MLS1FAN Member+

    May 11, 2004
    Miami Beach,FL
    Club:
    Manchester City FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You hit that one out of the park, you are spot on!
     
  17. Grumpy in LA

    Grumpy in LA Bringing It Since 1807™

    Sep 10, 2007
    Chicago
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Could be. It's definitely more likely with Beckham than almost anybody else.


    On the other hand, he and his team do occasionally screw up in ways that alienate local fans pretty seriously (see Milan Loan, Pt. 1).
     
  18. Totoro

    Totoro Member+

    Dec 3, 2009
    Colorado
    MLS's new advertising slogan: "Watch MLS: Because you can't see quality anyway"
     
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  19. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I assume you meant NBCU (NBC, NBCSN and Telemundo) because there is no way in hell MLS is getting anywhere close to $43 million for the English rights alone.
     
  20. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No he wasn't.

    The segment was pre set up where one guy was the bull and one was the bear. They each had their talking facts to support the position. Nothing the the bear said was false or even bending the truth.
     
  21. Grumpy in LA

    Grumpy in LA Bringing It Since 1807™

    Sep 10, 2007
    Chicago
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, it's an effective counter to "The EPL. Because we say so, bitches."
     
  22. Totoro

    Totoro Member+

    Dec 3, 2009
    Colorado
    I guess. It's MLS fans on this forum who seem to doubt people who say they prefer other leagues or clubs because of quality of play. "No, you can't tell, you're only seeing the uniforms."

    So I guess the NY Cosmos should slap an MLS label on their stuff and we'll watch them.
     
  23. Boloni86

    Boloni86 Member+

    Jun 7, 2000
    Baltimore
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Gibraltar
    I work for one of those companies and it's not true that they've been losing customers. I work in satellite and Dish/Direct TV combined are holding steady at around 15 million subscribers each for years. Traditional cable I believe lost .3% of subscribers in last couple of years which is basically insignificant. Anyways it's irrelevant because more than 90% of HS internet subscribers in the US get service from the same gatekeepers that are monopolizing our TV services to begin with.

    Right now the laws at the federal level ensure that cable providers remain the gateway. Someone in Japan or South Korea can get 100 MB of internet for under $20. In the US a company like COMCAST may sell you 40MB for $70 unless you bundle with TV. Not only that but they can put their finger on the bandwith during primetime to drive you back to TV. I've heard countless cases of customers watching Netflix successfully when bundled but as soon as they cut the chord with TV they're suddenly buffering more.

    As for wireless service it's just not considered a real competitor today. Watching full movies and long shows on mobile is not as big of a phenomenon as people assume. I believe I've heard that Netflix's total viewership at any particular time on mobile is less than 5% of the total. We'll see what happens when DISH Network buys Sprint or T Mobile as rumored. I think the future trend is of TV providers harnessing that mobile infrastructure for their benefit instead of letting themselves be beaten by it.

    There's a lot of talk of millenials dropping traditional TV too. What those people don't tell you is that young people in previous generations also never subscribed to cable. Traditionally as those people marry and buy a house they will overwhelmingly get a package. So far internal studies show that the same trend is prevalent today. The assumption is that people will increasingly pay for both traditional TV and internet content at the same time. As long as cable companies are so perfectly positioned between content and customer this is not likely to change anytime soon ... especially regarding live sports and news.

    We can talk about this once new laws are passed to break up the monopolies and the gatekeeping. Until then MLS is shooting itself in the foot by abandoning TV.
     
  24. pichichi2010

    pichichi2010 Member+

    Oct 24, 2010
    In your nets
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I agree on most points but I don't believe for one second that MLS is abandoning TV. It's all just talk and "leaks" meant to keep MLS in the public's consciousness.
     
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  25. Boloni86

    Boloni86 Member+

    Jun 7, 2000
    Baltimore
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Gibraltar
    Agreed. The reason US sports have had such a rise in revenue is precisely due to the fact that they can demand more from cable providers who in turn fund it primarily through subscription fees ... not ad revenue as some would assume. The market supports the system with the collusion of enabling federal regulators. Consumers constantly rate cable providers poorly on customer service, but the fact that they're leaving is mostly a myth. What is true on the other hand is that most assume that the current system is bound to collapse one day. But really with our current congress what are the odds that anything proactive gets done on a short timeline? I wouldn't bet on it
     
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