Really, I never understood why MLS and the networks ever thought this was a good time slot. Who goes head-to-head with the NFL? Not even the established big sports ever do that. You know why no one breaks into NFL coverage to give the latest NBA score? Well, duh! Just bone-headed by ABC/ESPN.
We seem to always have some kind of excuse for why our league isn't popular. At some point we just have to slow down and say... the league just isn't that popular.
1.560,000 on the first Saturday one week after the CFB conference championships were over. That was one of the highest English language MLS Cups ever. It’s absolutely ridiculous to do what no other sports league in the US is willing to do and that’s to put on an event opposite of the NFL. No one does that. They don’t even schedule World Series games opposite the NFL. So, maybe take a hint from the second and third most popular sports in the US and don’t schedule the MLS Cup against NFL games. On Twitter I suggested a Friday prime time MLS Cup. While it’s true that Friday nights are usually bad for TV, Fridays haven’t. relatively speaking, been bad for MLS. In fact, the record breaking audience for the El Trafico playoff match was on a Friday. Friday audiences tend to equal or beat other MLS games. In fact, I think all English language MLS broadcasts should be moved to Friday once the NFL preseason starts. There is very little competition on Friday. The major CFB conferences never have games scheduled on Fridays. It’s the one open day on the calendar in the fall with the exception of the occasional NBA or MLB. I can’t begin to understand the thinking behind putting MLS Cup against the NFL when, literally, nobody else does it.
You really have to learn the difference between reasons and excuses. Name one major sports league that puts its games against the NFL. Name one. When you realize the answer is zero, try figuring out why.
So go back to extending the season a month and dealing with the international breaks in the middle of the playoff run. Pass. Game 5 this season was on a NFL Sunday. Also on this past Sunday were 8 NBA and 7 NHL games. So literally every other major pro league schedules against the NFL. But you are asking ABC/FOX to give up prime-time ratings during sweeps month. Or going back to ESPN/FS1. And as a Pac-12 fan I can tell you everyone hates the fact that the Pac-12 Championship is on a Friday night because its a dead night and nobody watches or goes to the game (though it is a neutral site game). Except the Pac-12 plays a Friday night game most weeks, last Friday I watched my Dawgs beat Oregon State. Except everyone does, and the reason is ratings. Listen, Friday isn't a horrible idea, but its hard to take the suggestion seriously when you're throwing out ideas without even accounting for the reasons the game is on Sunday now (namely, available time slots the networks are willing to give up at a decent time).
"National TV" wasn't in your previous goalposts about leagues not playing at the same time as the NFL. But every Thursday TNT has a national TV NBA doubleheader opposite the NFL Thursday night game.
Because normal human being can read things in context of a discussion and know by that context what the heck is being discussed without qualifications. Are you that special that when clearly we are talking about nationally televised events that you need a qualification to understand what’s going on here? It’s not goal posts that’s moved. I didn’t realize you were so special that you needed to a qualification that we were talking nationally televised events to know we were talking nationally televised events. So, let me hold your hand through this: the NFL broadcasts were nationally televised broadcasts. The MLS Cup was a nationally televised broadcast. So, when I mentioned in this context that no other sports league puts significant events on TV head-to-head with NFL, the significant event was a reference to what... (a) the hot weather outside (b) a local broadcast (c) a national broadcast. Hint: As every first grader knows the answer isn’t A or B. Because local broadcasts are not considered by anyone as competitition to nationally broadcast games. That’s why when you look up the ratings at Showbuzz, you don’t see ratings for events that were only broadcasted locally.
Yeah, you COULD just go on talking bullshit, or you can just admit you were wrong and move on with your life.
I streamed the game so I guess I wasn't counted. I didn't go to a bar because the Jets and Giants were playing in the Toilet Bowl.
A big difference between soccer and other major sports is that a soccer game only lasts 105 minutes (including half-time). An entire match can fit in two quarters of a NFL game. If a NFL and NBA game overlap you can watch one in full then flick over and watch the climax of the other. Also it's continuous and low scoring. So if you only flick over during commercial breaks you can miss all the important action. That's not very satisfying. Alternatively, how many points can a NBA team score in 3 minutes?
You were wrong. Both in your initial claim of "no league schedules against the NFL" and in your goalpost moving "nobody schedules national tv against the NFL". As shown with the NBA contract on Thursday nights and the World Series game 5. So until you admit that there's no point in further discussion.
According to Showbuzz Daily, the average viewership between Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC on over-the-air ABC generated 823,000. http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/skedball-weekly-sports-tv-ratings-11-4-11-10-2019.html
OOH MLS Cup on ABC had 418k. The total for ABC of 1241. Add in Univision and the total audience was 1,688,000. The total peak on ABC was at 1,677. The #MLSCup between the @SoundersFC and @TorontoFC on #ABC averaged 418,330 #OOH viewers and peaked at 4:31 PM with 585,000 #OOH viewers. #MLSCupPlayoffs #MLSCup2019 @MLS @MLS_PR @worldsoccertalk @TaylorTwellman @AlexiLalas @SportsTVRatings @SoccerInsider @paulsen_smw @ABCNewsPR— Tunity Analytics | an iSpot company (@TunityAnalytics) November 12, 2019
Univision said the total reach for MLS Cup on their networks was 2.8 million. Saturday, 12/10/16. Here's their PR bullet on it from that week: pic.twitter.com/TLJYVfDIwe— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) November 11, 2019
I would be interested to see what the Canadian numbers were. The last 2 times Toronto and Sounders met, the Canadian numbers were on par, or better than the US English numbers.
According to their numbers, more people watch in English than Spanish, but they get there by combining Fox and ESPN, we know FS does the worse of the 3. The do link to another article for the answer. https://worldsoccertalk.com/2019/10/03/mls-tv-ratings-problem-named-fox-soccer/
Their conclusion is Bullshit IMO. Is not like Bundesliga is growing its TV ratings, it is the opposite, Spanish Liga is in BeIngoodluckfindingaprovidorsports Liga MX is on cable TV so ratings are lower than when they were in over the air TV. Even the EPL is not growing laps and bounds.
1.27 total, out of that 823 was ABC, So Univision and Canada split the other 447 or so. If the math is correct, if Canada did well, it would mean Spanish TV did bad (and viseversa).
Where are you getting 1.27 total for both US and Canada? From what I've seen, the 1.27m total is a combination of ABC and Spanish language. I also don't believe it includes OOH.