I'm going to give the MLS a A for getting me and my family out to more than 5 matches before the all star break. Last season I watched a few games on t.v. but this season we are watching and attending matches.Good thing for cable and direc tv I'm watching everything from La Liga,EPL,La Copa Libertadores to MLS and I'm enjoying it. ALL OF IT. kevin Los Angeles,CA
I'm going to give it an A. Of course, I'm still excited from the game last night. It feels good. We did well. Now I can sit back and honestly say "Drogba was big and was crap and Ruiz has a much better dive. Their payroll may be 100 times ours? Good thing that guy is rich, because he certainly did not get his money's worth.
I'd give it a B... from a distance. Obviously I only know what I can read about on here and watch on British Channel5 TV which I record because it starts at about 4:30AM. I think the matches between European top flight teams, (albeit in their pre-season), and MLS sides has demostrated that MLS, (whilst not maybe 'Major League' in the strict sense), is nevertheless competitive as much as anything because of the Americans competitive nature. It would be interesting to see some American sides come over in the middle of our season in Europe. Not sure how they'd do but it would be interesting to find out. The most important thing is that it gives young kids interested in soccer in the States a possibility of making a living from it. As to how GOOD a living, well, that's another matter. I suppsoe it can be said that young Adu proves that, if you're good enough, you'll get the bucks... AND there's always a chance of catching the eye of a foreign team and making REAL money. In the long run that's got to be a good thing for the sport in the UK.
The number of posts that refer to "the San Jose problem" or list San Jose under Negatives, is disturbing to me. I think people need to take a step back and actually look at the situation with the Earthquakes, and realize that moving the team out of Northern California would be a big mistake. Earthquakes attendance this year is at 10,777 - higher than Kansas City and Dallas, and less than 1000/game off of teams with SSS; Chivas (in HDC) and Columbus. This is in Spartan Stadium, and in the year after losing Donovan, Mulrooney, Ekelund, Agoos... Also, that number isn't inflated by a 42,000 4th of July game like Colorado (who is also well below SJ in average attendance without that one game). Things would also be much improved with ownership that actually backed the team, rather than convincing everyone that the club/players would be better elsewhere - more $ if we move to San Antonio and sell to Mexican ownership, the league "needs" Donovan in the HDC, New York "deserves" a GM like Lalas, etc. I'm tired of the AEG whining, but with local ownership that actually looked to build instead of dismantle, the Quakes become even stronger. That's pretty tough to do for a team that has won 2 of the last 4 MLS Cups, and is tied for first in the West at the midway point of a season where everyone picked them to collapse. The Quakes consistently play some of the most attractive, attacking soccer in the league, and ask any of the players how they like playing in San Jose (especially new ones like Chung, Davis, etc). Finally, SJ has hosted some of the best and most memorable games the league has seen (how was the atmosphere vs. the Galaxy in the '03 playoffs, or earlier this regular season?), and has a strong base of passionate, knowledgeable fans. I really believe that if new ownership/SSS comes through, San Jose is a very strong and stable location for the Earthquakes for years to come.
Hopefully as more stadiums open up, the league will have more flexibility and be able to have the Bears and Fire (for example) play at home on the same day. I agree, it is a problem that needs to (and should) be remedied over the next few years. There is a full slate of games, not only on the same day as USA-Mexico, but most of those games interfere, which means a lot of DVRs will be set to record USA-Mexico, or MLS attendance will be down, as people will be watching the WCQ instead. It was suggested somewhere else, but those games should start at 2 PM ET, and end at 7 PM ET. Maybe have the games out west start at 10 PM ET, 7 PM PT, so that overlap is minimal.
SSS only means so much. In Columbus, the novelty has worn off. Crew fans demand a quality product and won't settle for less. In the early part of the season, the team was tanking, playing uninspiring soccer, and the fans stayed away. The most recent games have seen a boost in attendance brought on by a different coach, a different style of play, and a few wins.
Top Ten reasons it's a "C" 10. Greg Andrulis lasted as long as he did. 9. The hack job DC United put on Chelsea. 8. Ray Hudson still has some association. 7. The league is paying "high" (by MLS standards) salaries to non-players. 6. Rochester is not in the league yet. 5. The Metros are not the Cosmos. 4. 20k is too big for a stadium. 3. San Jose still has a franchise. 2. KC still has a franchise. And the number one reason...in the 10th year, this banner year of celebration...attendance is down...dramatically...we should be contracting two clubs (San Jose and KC) and adding Rochester...
I've been watching MLS for a few years now on the Aussie ESPN channel and it is getting better and better all the time. I'll give it a B Some f the younger playing talent coming through is of the highest quality and the MLS will get better and better In another 10 years MLS will easily be in the worlds top 10 league s without doubt and will be worth an A
I've been among the most critical about the level of play in MLS but you hit it on the head. MLS will be THE league in this part of the world soon. I envision a day not too far off when every premier player in North, central and South America make MLS the primary destination in this part of the world.
Average Attendance Out of curiousity, and in reference to the SJ/KC bashing, I've done a little looking into "average" attendance at MLS games this year. What I am interested in is the number of fans at the average MLS game - those that are not doubleheaders with England, Real Madrid, etc - that vastly inflate and the numbers for the team lucky enough to host the event. Below are my findings for "average" MLS games, with any excluded numbers in parenthesis: Galaxy 23,570 Salt Lake 18,256 (40,589 - doubleheader with USA) DC 16,350 Chivas 11,743 (nothing excluded, although "Home" games vs. Galaxy in shared home field are iffy...) Columbus 11,691 New York 11,039 (50,807 - England vs. Colombia) San Jose 10,777 Kansas City 10,129 New England 10,112 (22,108 - Gold Cup doubleheader) Chicago 10,109 (54,427 and 54,432 - England / Real Madrid games) Colorado 9,759 (41,987 - people in Colorado love fireworks...) Dallas 9,030 For whatever it's worth, I thought it was interesting... Kudos to the Galaxy, RSL, and DC for setting the curve. I may have missed other, non-MLS attractions, if so my apologies.
C For many of the reasons already cited. Uninteresting games, teams which don't go all out, not scheduling around the international calendar so many matches featured severely weakened teams, mediocre attendance outside of LA, Salt Lake and DC, even worse attendance if don't factor in doubleheaders where most fans don't even both to watch the MLS match, 8 out of 12 teams make the playoffs (67%) so most league matches are meaningless and it shows in the way teams play, TV broadcasts featuring those inane "side by side commercials" during play. With more games available via TV from Europe and South America I find myself less and less interested in MLS. Wake me when the playoffs start and the games actually mean something.
They do very well at the gate - well enough that they're building their own 17,500 seat stadium. Expectation is they'll have no problem filling it. They've won the Open Cup, and their standard of play is high. They deserve a spot in the league - Garber just has something against them - most of which is probably the fact that they will not build a stadium to suit his desires.
The MLS is getting there. Much better then it was 5 years ago or even 2 years ago. As younger players forgoe the college experience and go pro early the league will continue to grow and develop. A few things still need to happen and some of them are getting close 1. every team needs a soccer specific stadium 2. reserve league 3. youth academies The league is moving in the right direction with all of these and just about every team has some sort of youth policy and reserve team in place. I think that the league needs to go to a more traditional soccer league format, ie; premeir league, seria A etc. With promotions and relegation with the A league. It would add more excitement to the fixture list and really mean something in the win/loss column.
I said A because I think MLS has done A work in those 10yrs. Could it have done better of course but it could have done a lot lot worse. May it long continue!!