It's up to MLS/SUM to make CCL and US Open Cup relevant

I guess that is another reason it was more interesting for me early on...and for selfish reasons.

I knew more MLS teams needed to play in CA and Mexico for the Yanks on these teams to become more seaoned amd less naive. The experience was invaluable for these guys. The early rounds can now be used to let younger prospects experience it amd learn. I was also interested in seeing how MLS teams matched up versus their CA counterparts and how long it would take before MLS overtook them.

Now we are at the point of eh....waiting until MLS youth squads/USL teams have had several years to get up to speed, and a couple of more CBA's to bolster pay, and add youth signings, which should allow us to go toe to toe with Liga MX for the most part.

Guess I'm just waiting for that next step, but there is still no guarantee this will ever resonate all that match.
Time will tell, but I'm not optimistic.

 

I don't think you understand the issue. The "cost" of your plan would not be the value of the rights. The rights have, for all practical purposes, zero value. The cost would be in creating the content, and in paying a TV channel to show the games.

If these games could draw higher ratings than a SportsCenter rerun, networks would already be running them instead of SportsCenter reruns.

What you're essentially asking SUM to do is to broadcast an infomercial for American soccer, consisting of a professional-quality soccer broadcast--an expensive proposition. The games you've selected for this broadcast are generally unbalanced games against low-quality opposition in unattractive venues, and usually at inconvenient times. The game atmosphere is usually preseason quality at best, with tiny crowds and most of the stars not playing.

So, to sum up, you want to dilute the existing product, which already has lower ratings, with more, but less attractive games.

I'm a big fan of both the Open Cup and the CCL. But I don't see how this plan helps anyone achieve anything.

 

But..but...The Shield {sad face}

 

I think the US Open Cup can become something. Especially since it appears like the Cosmos, Indy Eleven, San Antonio Scorpions, and maybe even Minnesota United will be staying in NASL for quite a while.

That said CCL will only be interesting so long as Mexican clubs have the edge. I think once its apparent that MLS has the clear advantage, any and all interest in America will likely disappear.

At that point, we'll have to hope our TV money will interest UEFA or CONMEBOL.

 

MLS will probably expand in Minnesota which will kill Minnesota United. Minnesota will probably be similar to Atlanta. NFL stadium shared with MLS team. San Antonio has been rumored as well.

As for CCL goes. Until MLS gets better we're always going to struggle in Mexico. They cannot compete salary wise. I also thought Traffic owns rights to CCL right now?

 

That's unfair to the rest of CONCACAF. If a Champions League is for the best clubs (as opposed to the richest clubs), every first division club in a CONCACAF country should have a hypothetical chance. If the UEFA Champions League Group Stage was restricted to the richest clubs, you could have more than four clubs from the top countries and APOEL Nicosia from Cyprus wouldn't have reached the Quarterfinals two seasons ago because they wouldn't been allowed to participate.

 

Pretty sure you missed the sarcasm.

Plus I'm not sure if you're aware or not, that not every first division champ per CONCACAF country gets a shot at the CCL. Quite a few countries in the Caribbean portion of the confederation don't send a representative to the CFU Club Championship, which gives the Caribbean CCL entries. Not to mention the Belize champion not being allowed in the CCL because of stadium issues in the past.

btw, the Copa Libertadores has more than four entries from a couple of countries.

 

The Caribbean countries who don't participate in the CFU Club Championship don't participate because they're poor and don't want to, not because they're prohibited from trying by CONCACAF.
As for how many clubs a country can get in the Copa Libertadores, CONMEBOL has only 10 countries. UEFA now has 54 countries.

 

That might be true now, but the CFU Club Championship was previously restricted to professional clubs.

 

If this is just to save money and send the best Concacaf team, just have the 2 Liga MX champions play each other in LA, send the winner to the FIFA CWC.

 

The Vikings will play in a dome, but the Twins may be interested in MLS.

 

It's going to be interesting if the Vikings or United/Twins win the bid for a MLS franchise.

 

CCL will never be relevant. MLS needs to beg to get into the Copa Libertadores and ditch the tournament. And yes the Open Cup need some sort of revamping to make it desirable for MLS teams and fans.

 

Even if the CCL isn't popular, I don't want MLS clubs making long midweek trips south to play in the Copa Libertadores. I also don't think MLS clubs would do well in the Copa Libertadores.

 

I am pretty sure some sort of regional format can be created to make a combined CCL and CL work... almost like the AFC.

 

If the goal is to create a competition to maximize commercial value, that's exactly what MLS and Liga MX should do. And while the suggestion may have been tongue and cheek, it underscores the problem with the CCL.

The CCL primarily serves a sporting function. Each Confederation has a club championship to pick a representative in the Club World Cup, and Concacaf is no different. The tournament expanded not to make it more commercially successful IMO, but rather to give more clubs from more countries a shot and the opportunity to be included (even if subsidized by Concacaf). It's a fairness issue for many of Concacaf's smaller members.

But the expansion of the tournament doomed it from every being commercially viable IMO. As I've said in other threads, to be charitable there are perhaps a dozen clubs in all of Central American and the Caribbean with sufficient popular support, stadiums and budgets to really push the CCL forward commercially. I don't wish to denigrate these clubs at all -- many are rich in tradition and well deserving of support and respect -- there simply aren't enough of them. And in a region that is desperately poor, there aren't likely to be many more.

There simply isn't enough there there.

Of course, none of that matters for the tournament to fulfill its mission -- choosing a Confederation champion. Just don't expect fans or clubs to place much importance on it, at least in the early rounds, and generate a following necessary for greater commercial success. I acknowledge and appreciate every club has earned the right to be there, but it doesn't follow that I have a moral obligation to watch a crappy match from some poorly lit stadium on a stream or horrible broadcast to put more money into Concacaf's pocket.

Commercial success has to be earned based on some popular appeal, not dictated on what's "good for us."

And so if an MLS team progresses far enough to play a Mexican club in one of the later rounds, fine, I'll watch. Short of that, there are many, many better and more enjoyable games to watch only a DVR away.

 

I don't like that idea because CONCACAF and CONMEBOL are different confederations and because the CONMEBOL clubs are better. If you made a 16 club league of the 8 CCL quarterfinalists and the 8 CL quarterfinalists, how would the clubs do?

 

tMLS comes out in top.

 

Kind of like a scaled down CCL?

 

...and they will for a while:

Tuesday Apr 29, 2014

CONCACAF Announces Deal Renewal with Traffic Sports for Sponsorship Rights

http://www.concacaf.com/article/con...al-with-traffic-sports-for-sponsorship-rights

"The multi-year renewal agreement includes rights to the next four editions of the biennial Gold Cup (2015, 2017, 2019, 2021), as well as seven additional seasons of the annual CONCACAF Champions League, from the 2015/16 edition through the 2021/22 tournament. The deal also incorporates rights to all other events organized by the Confederation, such as youth tournaments, Olympic qualifiers and Futsal."

 

So yeah, makes perfect sense for MLS/SUM to throw money down that corrupt rabbit hole...

 

Hmmm. This is more interesting than the CCL.
Where will traffic broadcast these matches?
How about the Gold Cup?

We saw how Traffic handled a few young Yanks they signed and how disastrous that was. What will they do with the Good Cup? Are we going to see Pay Per View? Hmmm.

 

How do you watch it now?

You will have to watch it the same way.