How would an MLS model work in say... India?

I know this should be in the Asia section but I want the opinion of experts.

I have been following MLS sense 2003 and Indian Soccer sense 2006. Now both MLS and the Indian League (I-League) started in 1996, its obvious which did better.

The Indian Football League has been doing a Euro model of Pro/Rel and such for the last 16 years and it has been shit. Point proven in 2010 when 2 of the best marketable clubs, Sporting Goa (drew the largest crowd in the Indian state of Goa), and Shillong Lajong FC (the Seattle Sounders of India who can draw 30,000 a game) got relegated and ONGC (a company which does 0 marketing and gets an average 100 people per game!) and HAL (gets 1,500 per game) got promoted.

Now they are thinking of doing an MLS model (but in the wrong way) by bringing the league to 16 teams and an East and West conference with a messed up way of Pro/Rel. Also there would be a salary cap.

How do you guys think this would do.

Also before I end this opening post I would just like to post how I would make an MLS league in say India.

Start with 10 teams (the 10 most financially stable teams from this season), make sure that no city has more than 2 teams. Force the teams to be part owned by the Federation, force market, salary cap. No promotion/relegation, just expansion. And have all games at 7:30 pm with the Friday night game being the Game of the week.

What do you MLS experts think?

PS: The Indian Crowd already hates the idea of an MLS model, of course I doubt any of them know how MLS works or even if we exist.

Is Shillong Lajong FC spelled right? Should it not be Lajong Shillong?


Lmao!!!!!!

I know its a bit weird how the name of the team translates to "Shillong Our Own" and not "Our own Shillong". I dont know why but at least they can draw 30,000 fans average.

Anyway please stick to the question. How can the MLS format work with developing football countries like India?

Japanese model is better for India.

Only promote em if they can handle it. J2 you must have a 10000 stadium, J1 must have 15000 stadium. Represent the communities.

Minimize foreigners to 4ish. Develop your own youth. Affiliate with foreign clubs.

I like that to but I dont like Promotion overall. I cant even name 9 stable clubs. And the Indian FA have already said that if they do the J.League model it will be 16 clubs from there. I do see what you are saying though.

The MLS model is a great one. Our sports teams' expectations are created, however, by our university experience. No expects little colleges to try and compete with the Nebraskas of the world. So it makes far more economic sense to accept a non pro-rel model: a team can be proud of being "king of the dips***s" (in the words of Sixteen Candles) and invest in facilities accordingly.

Another legacy of college sports is that it is easy for Americans to support a non-local team.

If Indians will accept those two behaviors, then the MLS model should work fine.

First and foremost, the teams need to have a connection to the community. Most clubs in India are company teams like Dempo SC or Air India FC. How do you build a fan base? Teach them, mighty Red Bull, how to build a fan base while still being soulless.

Doubt it will work if you apply the MLS model, main difference is unlike in the us, the general population in india enjoy the game and there will be a large portion willing to spend on it. Many of the asian leagues are filthy rich because of sponsors and tv money, most of the players are paid extremely well, owners are very well off.

If you apply the restrictive constraints that comes with MLS you will not likely draw a lot of fans, nor will you draw rich investors to own the teams and pump money into the various teams.

The MLS system is unique to the sporting atmosphere and soccer situation in the US, you cant model this system in many parts of the world, you may take bits and pieces of it like the salary cap or revenue sharing but if you try to take the mls system as a whole and apply it to India it will most likely fail really quickly.

I'm confused. Are you saying that there is a large number of people who watch soccer in India - but they are watching international games on TV? Because they obviously aren't spending money on the Indian league today.

Thats what I meant. I love the salary cap idea for India and the revenue system and the fact that MLS is like a co-owner in a way to all the MLS clubs, not literally but you know what I mean. I also like drafting because like in the USA we will probably stop at 20 teams in 20250 if we do expansion in India but we still want talent from all of India but instead of drafting youngsters from colleges because in India they dont have one they would draft from the National Under-19 tournament, BC Roy Trophy which is a tournament where only STATES play each other, no actually teams.

What I dont want is stuff like Conferences. If India were to do an East West format TODAY here is how it would look...
East: Shillong Lajong, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Prayag United, Pailan Arrows
West: Chirag United Kerala, Air India, HAL, Mumbai FC, Pune FC, Dempo SC, Salgaocar, Churchill, Sporting Goa. (That is 5 in the East and 9 in the West!!!)

Also no playoffs and stuff like that. Everything else about MLS I like. Problem is though is the Indian Public agreeing to this, there is an article on goal.com with the IMG Reliance CEO and he was talking about the future of Indian Football but instead of football he said Soccer and obviously that brought about the madness in the comments section. People saying that MLS is shit and that no one likes it. Pretty obvious most Indians never watched MLS.

True. Ratings for Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga are even higher than they are here in the United States.

Meanwhile for your local Indian game your crowd is like this...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PahsMF7fw5I"]Pune FC vs Indian Arrows Highlights - YouTube[/ame]

Skip to 0:45

Hahaha. At least the Red Bulls make the fans (that actually attend the games) feel excited with all the competitions and all. Plus the fact that over the summer the matches are at 7:30 or 8:30 at night.

In India Air India, Dempo, Salgaocar, Churchill, Chirag, HAL dont do shit for there fans. They dont even sell tickets in advance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%9312_I-League#Top_7_Reported_Attendances

So far their to 7 attended games, 90,000 #1; 1,500 #7


BTW http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shillong_Lajong_FC they are back to I1.

Mate I am the one who runs that page. That is not completely right. Yes the highest attendance was 90,000 for Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal but that is only for that one match. Mohun Bagan and East Bengal usually only draw 20,000-40,000 in a 120,000 seater stadium.

As for that 1,500 that is so not right. When I made that table I based it on attendance's that can be proven through a newspaper which reports the attendance.

Here is the average attendance for I-League...
Air India: 100 per game (they play in a 20,000 seater)
Chirag United: 5000 per game (they play in a 60,000 seater)
Churchill Brothers: 3000 per game (they play in a 27,300 seater)
Dempo: 3000 per game (they play in a 27,300 seater)
East Bengal: 30,000 per game (they play in a 120,000 seater)
HAL: 50-150 per game (they play in a 15,000 seater)
Mohun Bagan: 30,000 per game (they play in a 120,000 seater)
Mumbai FC: 500 per game (they play in a 20,000 seater)
Pune FC: 5000 per game (they play in a 20,000 seater)
Prayag United: 5000 per game (they play in a 120,000 seater)
Pailan Arrows: 100 per game (they play in a 120,000 seater)
Sporting Clube de Goa: 5000 per game (they play in a 27,300 seater)
Salgaocar: 4000 per game (they play in a 27,300 seater)
Shillong Lajong: 26,000 per game (they play in a 30,000 seater)

The only team that is actually getting sell outs or even close to them is Shillong Lajong FC.

That is another reason why I want an MLS sorta style with EXPANSION not pro/rel. Like I said Shillong Lajong, who get sellouts every game, got relegated in 2010 and ONGC FC (50 a game in a 12,000 seater) and HAL (50-100 per game in a 15,000 seater) got relegated.

If we do relegation and such I am confident that the AIFF would be more aware of who they are allowing into the league. For example the North-East of India is what the North-West of the United States is. Both areas draw the big crowds. Even for local amateur games in NE India you can get 20,000 per game. And that is where Lajong come from there. So instead of waiting though for an NE club to get "promoted" why not just expand them up and force relegate teams like HAL and Air India who refuse to change.

The All India Football Federation had a meeting on Monday to discuss next season and HAL was not even there. Is that a committed club!

Well once you have pro/rel you must base the system on results on the field, not on how many people show up at the games.

Not sure if the AFC would allow the I-league to get rid of pro/rel once they have it, I guess the I-league could fold and restart as a different entity with out the pro/rel.

Just curious. Does anybody know attendance data for cricket games?

Nothing on wiki about but from what I hear the average attendance for last years IPL was around 44,000 with the lowest attendance being in Kerala... 25,000.

The fans do show up in India, when India played Afghanistan in the South Asian Cup Final last December only 30,000 people showed but when India played Bayern Munich in the same venue all 65,000 seats were taken.

The fans will go to marketed events only. That is why the current league has barely any crowd. No marketing, and that is all the clubs fault. The federation running the league is actually doing there best and it is the clubs fault. That is why the league is not a single entity yet because the teams want all this revenue sharing, membership on the board and all that but there is no evidence that the league would get anything in return. Again why I want an MLS system so we can be careful about who we bring in and control there finances at the same time.

Again why I want pro/rel abolished. The big teams that are actually trying to do well are spending a lot of money but they are not getting a profit because of these other teams coming up.

Say MLS had pro/rel and say Seattle got relegated and the former Miami FC (now Fort Lauderdale) got promoted. You would go from a team that gets 35,000 a game to a team that gets at best 8,000 a game. That is a lot of money involved to.

Also the AFC would not mind. The A-League do the same. I think the best thing to do is fold this league, go on hiatus for one year to sort everything out and come back for the 2013 season with a bang, maybe a league called the Indian Super League. 10 teams, no pro/rel, salary cap, single table etc.

I see Mandjou Keita is still kicking it in India after being the Timbers' top scorer in 2009.

Ya he is loved at Pune FC. I would love to see more NASL players make the move to India. Keita is sure loving it.

http://punefc.com/?player=mandjou-keita

Point of technicality. He never played in NASL, only USL and USSFD2-DAFDAS1231.

Really... -_- do we have to be specific... anyway I meant 2nd Division anyway. GOD!

Yes that is the only way they could do it or have the top 10 teams split and form their own league and still get the Indian Federation to licence them (like the EPL did).

Then do away with the pro/rel.

BTW the I-league has no salary cap, so why are the top attended teams getting relegated? are they not making money or giving away tickets for free?

If the MLS had the same system as the I-league Seattle would not be relegated, they would probably be the best team in MLS since they would outspend most other teams. (Now MLS may nor survive a free spending model but that is another story).

The A-league and the K-league have the permicion to not have pro/rel, but pro/rel is preferred by the AFC, it may be one of the "requirements" for the AFC CL, but if India asked I am sure they would also give India a pass.

When I said Seattle would get relegated I was just giving an example. Anyway I am sure the AFC would not mind as if the Federation gives the reason of stability at both divisions then I am sure they would allow India to do expansion. BTW just read about how the A-League is planning on pro/rel by creating a B-League, all I can say is good luck with that.

Also the reason the big attended team, Shillong Lajong, got relegated is because there team consisted of North-East Indians who were still undeveloped because of the horrid coaching they got. The reason they did well in the 2nd Division is because the 2nd Division is crap. Of course this year they have a few good foreigners so they are doing well.

As for the money they made, tickets are so cheap and yes most of the fans are there for free.