NBC Sports president: superclubs generate ratings

no there's not. There's no reason why MLS cannot operate like baseball with each club controlling its own revenues. Single entity is a choice by MLS, not the only option.

oh and btw American Needle argued that the NFL was made up of 32 individual independent entities. Not a single entity. And they won.

 

American Needle won 9-0 over the NFL. What do you mean no they didn't?

Look this is pointless. There is no law forcing MLS to be a single entity league. None. No other American sport is single entity.

 

But all of the other leagues want to be single entity. NFL tried to stuff the genie back in the bottle to try and win American Needle...

 

No they don't. If they wanted to be then they would. But the fans would never ever be for it anyway.

MLS is single entity because they chose to be. And that's fine. But that's not make bogus arguments that MLS is single entity because they have no choice to be. There are no other single entity leagues in other American sports. And no other American sport would ever consider it. American sports leagues are made up of independent teams (companies) that play under an Association.

 

2.0 hours vs 2.5 hours makes up some of the difference, still down I would assume. But 93K down is an over statement.

 

The Premier League can have Superclubs because the teams that make up the numbers have 100+ years of history and fanbases that have existed for generations. Even the worst teams in the league have a target - survival - that makes every game significant.

MLS doesn't have either of those things. Chivas USA attendance is down over 1/3 this year because they suck ass, they have nothing to play for since like May, and 9 years isn't enough time to build up a fanbase that will stick with you through bad times. I don't think MLS can support a Chicago Cubs-type team: loveable perennial losers with tons of fans who say "This could be the year!"

So at this stage in our development, Superclubs would be devastating to the league. The teams that aren't Seattle, NYC2, or LAG will simply die a slow painful death. And even a club as Super as Real or Barca still needs someone else to play against.

 

I don't know... of course nobody does, the future is hard to forecast, but an infinite amount of future parallel universes can be imagined with a different outcome for each. Many on here are very sure exactly what will happen based on often repeated stores about the past.

Lets say we keep things the way they are with three DPs that cut deeply into a small cap that is designed for financial stability for a club with an average of fifteen thousand fans. We call this universe (A).
In Universe A MLS might just putter on with some success and as it ages things settle down and some clubs over time just seem to be more dominate due to more ambitious ownership and more money spent on academies, better scouting and higher paid coaching staff. In our universe it is understandable that given very stringent and small perimeters from which to work ; some find success over and over. Look at auto racing for example. Some of the competitors are out front more then not even though the cars components and engines are much the same for every entry. This and America's Cup racing are endeavors that a minuscule deference here and there will make or break a competitor.
In Universe A your club gets beaten most the time by the same clubs that seem to always reside near the top of the standings every year. Then in turn these clubs loose every year in the CCL to Mexican clubs after winning their own league.

Or in Universe B your club gets beat by the same clubs more often then not as well, but these clubs were in the news not too long ago for being in world club cup competition which makes loosing more tolerable. And in universe B because of the success there is more media attention, more TV viewers and more money for your mid level club because the single entity league is making more money.
The question is if A can exist then would it be wrong to want B instead.
Maybe neither of these would be a probable future but MLS needs to keep running possible scenarios as they think about how to grow in the future as a league.

 

Universe B is unlikely because the CCL isn't regarded very highly in this country so beating Mexican teams isn't going to bring much more media attention. And getting pasted by Barcelona in the CWC might bring some media attention, for all the wrong reasons.

We're not even 20 years in. It took Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, etc. more than 100 years to get where they are today. And for every "superclub" there is a Portsmouth or a Rangers that reached for the stars and went bust. Slow and steady is working for MLS.

 

Well I suppose you might be right. but it would be fun to see an MLS club play Barcelona in a real game even if they did get pasted.

 

Marketing generates ratings. "Superclubs" have huge marketing budgets.

 

I enjoy MLS b/c it seems to be a very open championship where many teams have a chance to win it all. Making it predictable by promoting super clubs, would only increase the bore factor. I'd rather they talk about creating a super league.