I already picked out the sentence in the Seattle Times article identifying the main reasons that English-speaking fans preferred the EPL (namely, atmosphere and quality of play). You have yet to address that point, or provide a convincing argument that any significant slice of the English-speaking US soccer community prefers the EPL for its format.
Only two countries in the Western Hemisphere outside the Caribbean use just a single table as league champ. All the others have some sort of final playoff, even if its the Apertura winner vs. the Clausura winner. Australia and Korea use playoffs, Scotland uses a split table in the final rounds, and of course England uses playoffs for promotion spots. So while single-table is probably the prevalent format world-wide, the fact that they're the minority in the Western Hemisphere makes your claim of "90%" and "world-wide" an exaggeration at best.
You know what isn't intense? The last month of the EPL where 90% of the teams have ZERO chance of winning anything, and more than half of the teams are just jockeying for mid-table mediocrity. Talk about anti-climatic. You know what is intense? Having 4 or 5 teams vying for the last playoff spot all the way up until the final game of the season, making every single game count. You know what is intense? Knowing that the difference between finishing first and second could mean the difference between hosting the championship game or not. Whether you like the playoffs or not, the simple fact is, having playoffs means that all but maybe 4-5 teams have something to play for all the way up until the very last week of the season. The way the EPL is structured, there is only 4-5 teams that DO have something to play for. Two teams vying for the championship and 3 teams trying not to get relegated. The other 15 teams pretty much have nothing at all to play for for about 3 months each season.
...and after seeing many high end corporate marketing/consumer psych tests personally I would say between 50 60 to percent of the people who say these things about the EPL say it without the reasons given being the main cause. They say it because that's what everyone else says, relentless advertising, hype, because it's the richest league, etc. Yes, much of this means that the EPL is of higher quality, has a better overall atmosphere than MLS, but subconciously many don't even know that, are able to make distinctions, have the courage to make those distinctions because of ignorance or laziness, and generally just go along with the herd. The average human being is incredibly easy to manipulate, manuever, influence, etc.
Because the "rest of the world" means England and I am fairly sure that over 90% of the first division leagues in England use first past the post.
England, Scotland, Germany, Holland, Italy, France,Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Spain. I could go on and on. You get the point. Or maybe you don't.
Ask anyone American soccer fan that doesn't watch MLS why they don't like the league. The answer usually is the league is too Americanized.
Clearly you don't. Or did you just ignore my earlier post where I listed the multiple leagues that don't use solely a single table, including just about every league in the Western Hemisphere? And by the way, your example of Argentina is wrong. At the end of the season the Torneo Inicial winner plays the Torneo Final winner in a one game playoff to determine the champion of the season. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_Primera_División#Format And for the umpteenth time I'll ask you to tell me what about the play on the field in MLS is Americanized.
... so then you either missed Jasonma's listing of those that don't, or you're blatantly ignoring it. How can they assert that it is too Americanized if they don't even watch it to know better or not ?
Watch out everyone, the NASL and its no-playoff* single table** (with no Champions League incentives available for finishing second, third, fourth...or first, for that matter) is about to wipe MLS off the map, what with all the format-obsessed US soccer fans who wouldn't give MLS the time of day. * The end-of-year Soccer Bowl notwithstanding. ** Split into Apertura and Clausura seasons.
Leagues with single table/league title format: England, Scotland, Germany, Holland, Italy, France,Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Spain,Bangladesh,Bahrain,China,Hong Kong,India,Indonesia, South Korea,Lebanon,Malaysia,Nepal, Pakistan, Phillipines,Thailand, Vietnam, Algeria, Angola, Egypt,South Africa,Jamaica,Costa Rica, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay,Venezuela, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan,Belarus, Bosnia,Bulgaria,Cuba,Croatia,Cyprus,Czech Republic,Denmark,Estonia,Faroe Islands,Finland, Georgia,Greece,Hungary,Iceland, Ireland,Israel,Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Malta,Moldova, Montenegro,Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland,Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,Ukraine, Wales,Macedonia, Luxembourg,Latvia, Antigua and Barbuda, Kazakhstan,Kenya,Uganda,Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Morocco,Cameroon,Nigeria, Ghana,Qatar, Leagues that use playoffs to determine regular season champion: USA, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Canada, Bolivia, New Zealand, Andorra,Honduras,El Salvador, Aruba,Belgium that's 90% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_association_football_competitions
Costa Rica has playoffs, along with Guatemala, Panama, Belize and Nicaragua, none of whom were included in this less-than-exhaustive list (please feel fee to inform yourself). Peru also has a Final between the best teams from each liguilla table, and Jasonma already covered the cases of Argentina and Colombia.
Just the league structures I know, you're wrong about all of these. They all use some sort of split-table or playoff to decide their champion. Based on this track record I'm sure if I went back and researched every league you tried to put into this category I'd find more. So no, not even close to 90%.
i just included all the leagues from the wikipedia link. So that leaves out a lot of African leagues that are single table. So the 90% range is still about right give or take a few percentage points. Btw...every one of your posts is angry. Maybe you shouldn't debate these issues if it gets you so upset.
Have you researched them all? Because assuming the link was right last time made you badly wrong. I count 290 leagues listed on FIFA's site, so your estimate is that only 29 leagues world-wide use something other than standard single table league structures. Considering your first post listed 23 leagues out of 100 that I know of that aren't single table that only leaves 6 more in the other 190 that you didn't list, assuming you were correct about the other 77 in your first post (which I doubt). Odds are not in your favor of you being anywhere close to correct. And of course that ignores the fact that even if you are correct that 90% of the rest of the Eastern Hemisphere does it, the vast majority of the Western Hemisphere, where MLS is, doesn't. So do us all a favor, admit you were badly wrong, and learn something. And are you ever going to answer my question about Americanization?
Last season, there were nine teams with a legitimate danger of relegation until about a month from the end. In the last month there were five, with the last relegation spot being settled on the final day. Additionally, you're overlooking qualification for CL spots and Europa League spots. If what you are claiming were true, attendances would likely drop off in the last third of the season. They don't.
That might have been their answer in 2001. It's not anymore. My friends who watch EPL over MLS say that they do so because of the quality of play, which is a perfectly cromulent reason. Americanization isn't. My guess is that anyone who still thinks the league is too Americanized wouldn't be happy until all MLS games were actually played in England.