Yes we did. Not till the end, but several times we were with the bottom clubs till about 10-12 matches to the end. Ehhh, We don't have a penny to spend. We had to sell Vilhena to get some room to manouvre.
This is a useless statement, as these are clubs that are or were in the top league, including PSG. You should try to tell the supporters of clubs without a big purse sugar daddy that they, just because they lack someone like that, willnot get the right to enter the top league. That's what it's about. And by the way, Newcastle United is in money terms a big club, but run awfully.
The same people who funded our last minute playoff trip to Miami, FL? Or the guy who would have been our majority owner in the NASL? Or maybe, just maybe, my club, in an open system, would look better than a relegated USL Roughnecks to the billionaire who's rumored to be in the midst of buying them (and their USL Tulsa territorial rights).
I'm pleased to report that Sheffield United's first game in the EPL at small market and 14th place finisher last season Bournemouth got far higher TV ratings on Saturday morning than either of the large market MLS games on Sunday... More people watched Bournemouth against Sheffield United on NBCSN than Sunday night's DC United-LA Galaxy and LAFC-RBNY #MLS games COMBINED.#AFCB-#SUFC - 398K viewers#DCU-#LAGalaxy - 158K (FS1)#LAFC-#RBNY - 153K (FS1) pic.twitter.com/BmSlX3raca— World Soccer Talk (@worldsoccertalk) August 13, 2019
Right, and if USL-C obtained D1 status and was given auto entry to the CONCACAF League, that's an immediate and (relatively) huge deal VS being in any other USL tier. It's also putting these clubs in a place where (as soccer grows) they'll be (at least among soccer fans) getting press/etc that the perennial bottom feeders in MLS aren't. Players take notice too. Just to pop a basic example out there. Say it happened this season. 10yrs from now San Antonio is on their 3rd CONCACAF League showing as USL-C D1 reps ... is a guy like Frank Lopez (who we have on loan from LAGALII) more likely to move over permanently rather than sit there at 24, banging in goals but not sniffing the main squad? Or maybe they're involved in the SuperDraft (or changed the system completely) and there's more outlets with "meaningful" competition for the Shinyashiki types to go to immediately. Or, perhaps those 29-32yr old still have plenty left in the tank types start looking elsewhere and don't just take a payday from whichever meddling MLS club is trying to pacify the fans. Absolutely ... and this plays directly into the "major/minor" viewpoint that exists in US sporting fandom. Plenty of apparel makers, tire makers, credit cards, beers, etc out there that absolutely love soccer and would jump at the chance to get bigger in the US consumer eye. If there was a league that had the same availability to to broader FIFA audiences (by way of being D1) and had clubs that were spending with/outspending MLS clubs to bring in/develop players/names ... I don't think that league would be lacking for sponsors. Hell, Toyota sponsors the stadium and jersey in SA. Sure, they've got a plant there but this is a perfect example of a large scale sponsor that is already in USL despite the "minor" league designation of the league. It is a perfect example though, of what is potentially available. It isn't a big limb to climb out on to say that they'd be chipping in more on the deals if SAFC where a team that had the status of an MLS club in the public/media/international eye. No it isn't. Which one artificially caps each tier again? SPORTING MERIT! RESULTS ON THE FIELD! I'm pleased to report that pro/rel darling Leicester City's hosting of small market and hoping to stay up in just their second season returned the EPL Wolves managed a whopping 52K viewers which placed it behind EVERY MLS match up and not even 1/2 of the lowest rated one. Also, that same LAG (vs ATL) outdrew matches involving Liverpool, Man City, and Arsenal.
I think this is a good point. I will say this makes it even harder to envision a D1 USL league, though: CONCACAF purses are tiny compared the necessary travel. It's hard to see how they would get enough on board to get to that point. The soccer business is crazy, though, so who knows. This is true here, too: Volkswagen is the main shirt sponsor for Chattanooga FC, whereas the Red Wolves are sponsored by a locally based (large) B2B payroll company. I'm sure there's probably not much functional difference between the financial support of the two sponsors, but VW certainly carries a higher perceived value. Our cultural ties to Britain are always going to massively outweigh interest in other countries: the fact that the other countries' leagues are broadcast on Fox and BeIN only exacerbates that divide.
If the Premier League was shown during Primetime on a Sunday I believe the ratings would look a lot different. A 21 year-old colleague of mine, who ironically has a second job with NYCFC on matchdays, says he's taking a lunch break today to watch Man City vs. Spurs. When I said I'll be watching FCC vs. NYC instead he said he doesn't have enough time.
OK, I intentionally stayed away from this forum for a couple of months, because I got tired of the pettiness and endless loop arguments. But I can't let this go. I know you and I have different philosophies on how to run a league, but why is this something you're "pleased to report"? Why does it make you happy that a random game from England's big-money, top-flight, worldwide elite league got more viewers than American soccer? You're supposed to be a fan of the game in this country. You should be rooting for its success. Are you so entrenched into your position that you'd rather root AGAINST it, or celebrate something that's lacking, just so you can be happy about something that you think reinforces your position?
I grew up in Nebraska, and so people tend to support whatever NFL team catches their fancy in their youth. If they move later, to a place that has a team or where another team has a really strong presence, I think many might switch. I can't imagine anybody from Nebraska ditching the Huskers for another Div. I football team, even if they moved to Alabama.
Yes I don't understand why American supporters can't just get behind their domestic league. Fans all over the world have problems with the way their leagues and federations are run, ask any Italian of Australian supporter. MLS has to do a better job of marketing. The quality of play has improved no end since the introduction of TAM but we've not seen a corresponding increase in interest outside of expansion cities.
And I left this forum for a couple of months (more months to come) because I got sick & tired of the outright hypocrisy contained in it and the ongoing lack of a reasonable cross section of fellow American soccer fans that reflect the last 8 years of my experiences as an American soccer fan, both at matches here in Tulsa and from what I see on other social media online. One of two things needs to happen here on BS: either you need to allow me to systematically troll any Pro/Rel threads I have interest in on threads you moderate the same way HTTK and Crazy Joe are allowed to systematically troll this thread as anti-Pro/Rel zealots OR the moderator of this thread needs to ban those two trolls from this thread the same way you banned me from two of yours. This isn't about "how to run a league," this is about your fellow BigSoccer anti-Pro/Rel cult members running their mouths. The only interest American fans have is for the Big 6 English teams with no chance at relegation, they said. The only interest American fans have in watching MLS on TV is when the largest markets are playing each other, they said. American soccer fans aren't interested at all in watching a couple of lesser lights playing, they said. If it was today's match between Man City and Spurs that started later in the morning, it wouldn't be a big deal. It'd be old hat. Something normal and everyday not to crow about. But this was my team, a team I only started rooting for after the passing, a few years back, of Blades legend Alan Woodward, who lived his life in Tulsa after his playing days were over. SUFC finished 2nd last season and were playing at another small club that could only get into the EPL via "sporting merit," aka more wins-ties-losses than the other poor chumps in D2 or D3. Oddly enough, I was only able to watch the second half on NBCSN from a Dave-and-Busters that just happened to open at 10am. I used to be a fan of MLS, dare I say a "loyalist." I also used to be a fan of #CF97 who seem destined to pull a bizarro MLS-style rebrand to what? FC Chicago City United? But over the past few years, MLS has gone from a fledgling league of 20 or so teams to a single entity Frankenstein's monster. It makes me happy when a majority fans here in "flyover country" thumb their nose at an MLS and its apologist/status quoist fanbase who want to sentence us to permanent farm club status, playing against MLS B teams while simultaneously accusing us of being "Eurosnobs" and "Europoseurs" who should be blindly supporting a league that wants to overexpand so large that any city not in MLS will be insignificant and unimportant. Lower division > minor league. Club > league. I'm a fan of American soccer. MLS is not developing American players properly. MLS and SUM have too many conflicts of interest with USSF to properly address the problem of the women not being compensated the way they should compared to US men. If you're a true American soccer fan, you should view #ProRelForUSA as a way for MLS to solve the problem they have connecting with fans in non-MLS markets, an entire generation of "children wearing Messi shirts" who have no interest in far flung out of town markets when they'd rather support their own local players/teams. We're not europoseurs or eurosnobs. Ironically enough, it's your side that has demonstrated over the past decade that it's actually the MLS snobs that are the problem, not us. I'll end with this.... I hated Frank DeFord for many many years due to his consistent bashing of the sport of soccer in America. I can't even agree with a great deal of what he says in the relatively mellow last days of his life, but I do agree with this: "...what soccer fans really care about is European soccer, and that's quite available on TV. Even our most prominent soccer journalist, Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, can't think of anything to call ratings for Major League Soccer but "minuscule." English-language ratings remain stagnant." https://www.npr.org/2015/04/08/398059884/deford-americans-dont-care-about-major-league-soccer "Our fans for football, basketball and hockey have fantasy leagues. The fantasy for our soccer fans is that Major League Soccer will somehow become major league, because that's all that exceptional Americans are bred to expect." This last statement I believe is indeed correct in several of the largest markets MLS tries to exist in... but is untrue in certain markets that have embraced NCAA college football, despite it not being at the level of the NFL. For me, seeing those markets that have traditionally been snubbed as too small will be the future of the sport in this country compared with oversaturated larger markets with unreasonable longings for global excellence. At this time, Madison, WI is a better soccer market than many larger cities in USL-Championship, including my own. And my market draws a far smaller number of "butts-in-seats" than my NPSL club did in its first two seasons in 2013 & 2014. I'd rather see teams from New Mexico and Louisville in MLS over complacent teams in Foxboro and Commerce City and Bridgeview. So, no.... there is nothing at all un-American or unpatriotic about citing superior TV ratings from a Sheffield United v Bournemouth match at 9am CST on a Saturday morning as compared with the TV viewership number for DCU-LAG and LAFC-RBNY matches on Sunday evening combined. In fact, I'd always thought the capitalistic idea of open markets and sporting merit were quintessentially American... at least that's how I was born and raised, anyway. #ProRelForUSA
So you're basically telling the nuthead naysayer that his idiotic Trvmpanian thruthfull statement that the FA cartels restricting artificially their leagues to 18/20 is untrue. Actually they're letting more clubs play in the league than the FIFA recommends. Wow. What a bombshell. The Naysayer idiot is a liar. Who did see that coming......
A story never to be written in the land of unlimited possibilities. But, but , but investors money .... Butts are asses and from asses only shit comes out
Leaving aside the "pleased to report" bit, he has a good point. We keep hearing from the "normal culprits" how ratings for teams at the bottom end of the league are crap. Well, this puts it into perspective.
Who's the troll now? Be wonderful is the Pro Pro/Rel posters would actually contribute something to have a meaningful discussion. But alas........it's a snarknado......and name calling
This will likely the first year in many that I won't watch a single MLS game. There are many reasons for that, some not soccer-related, but it's certainly not high on my priority list. Why would there be? I mean, absent acceptance of one's cartel membership fee, it's not as though a team from those other places is ever going to play in MLS, however well their team performs on the field of play.
Actually this goes to the heart of the matter of getting foothold in non mls areas. As the nasayers have been telling, and on this matter I believe them, soccer is a niche sport in the USA. It doesnot help if the local soccerclub never will be able to reach the mls by simply winning everything. It doesnot promote enthusiasm locally for the club because success doesnot lead to meeting new challenges. It also doesnot help to get interest growing from those communities for the mls, as it's a far away thing out of reach. Would there be a chance to break in, it automatically would stirr interest from those communities for it.
That'd be any Italian supporter that has a club to support. Plenty of us would get behind a club, regardless of what league they were in, if they had a chance to get to the top league without joining the pyramid scheme marketing company that is firmly attached to US Soccer. Just the other day my buddies and I were talking, 5 billions years of existince and we get to be alive at the same time as Messi C.Ronaldo and TAM....my stars... I do agree the level of play could be better. It seems we're seeing that if a team gets a quality coach - Martino, ALmeyda - even burdened with donkeys they can at least get them all pulling in the same direction I think that's what scares a lot of the pro MLS/anti open pyramid people. Losing their team to a 1st division with 15 teams from southern california, 4 from new york, and a handful from other places that just happen to have coaches that can coach undrafted college guys vs the dinosaurs that the MLS keeps recycling....
I could get behind a 2nd D1. It's unclear if FIFA will, but I think the potential for graft and that we're one of the few countries with the infrastructure to bail them out should somekind of natural/political/ecological disaster befall a WC host country they'd probably be ok. Especially if MLS wants to just continue doing their thing and they give up the CCL slots to teams that would be willing to make it a priority.
I'm pleased to report I wouldn't watch Bournemouth vs. Sheffield even if the matchup regularly got better ratings than the Super Bowl.