Why are we more drawn to European soccer than our own?

There are currently only 17 U.S.-based MLS teams in 16 markets. MLS gets strong local support in a lot of these markets, but there are still plenty of non-MLS markets, where the league's presence is lacking. My guess is soccer fans in markets without MLS tend to gravitate toward the sport's most glamorous teams (Barcelona, Man Utd, etc.), the same way non-NBA/MLB markets tend to gravitate toward the Lakers and Yankees.

Another theory is globalization. Thanks to the growth of the internet and cable TV, fans have non-local options to follow. Basketball-crazy China and the Philippines follow the NBA more than their own leagues. As for soccer, I'm not aware of too many countries outside the Big 5 where the local league isn't overshadowed by the Premier League or Barcelona & Real Madrid to some degree.

I think you'll see the gap between foreign soccer interest and MLS interest erode somewhat as MLS penetrates more local markets. Filling those huge geographic gaps on the map (the Deep South with Atlanta; the Upper Midwest with Minnesota; maybe markets like Charlotte, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Phoenix somewhere down the line) will bring plenty of new eyes to MLS since fans in those markets will finally have some local rooting interest in the league.

 

My favorite club is Manchester United and I like that most Premier League games play at times when there are little or no games in the USA in any sport. I like watching a league in an English-speaking country. I also like the Red Bulls in MLS and Genoa in Italy. If you have an MLS club near you I think you should root for them. You can root for multiple clubs and the Premier League and MLS rarely play at the same time. It's also possible to root for one (or more) dominant clubs in Europe and an MLS club where the top clubs don't get as many points per game. Manchester United finished fourth in 2014-2015 with more points per game than 2015 MLS Supporters' Shield winners Red Bulls. My guess is most soccer fans in England would be shocked to find out that the two clubs with the most regular season points in MLS in 2015 had the two lowest payrolls.

The Premier League has about 6 out of 10 weekend games on TV even if you exclude Extra Time and Live Extra which let you watch any game. In MLS the most games per weekend I can get on TV is 5 from NYCFC, the Red Bulls, and the the two games on Sunday, and the UniMas game on Friday. That number will be fewer than 5 if NYCFC and the Red Bulls play each other and/or one of them is on national TV. You can pay to watch any MLS game, which is something you don't have to do for the Premier League.

 

There are two main kinds of fans. Those who will only root for a local team, and those who will only root for the best. As Tom stated MLS's has not filled out its foot print in the USA to get the local team fans. Then the MLS simply isn't of as high of quality as the European leagues. As MLS expands it will get more of the local team fans on board. As it gets more of the local team fans on board they will make more money, and will be able to afford higher quality players. Once it has the right mix of national foot print and quality players people in the US and Canada will gravitate towards MLS over Europe.

 

Red blooded American here that really only watches American soccer: USMNT, USWNT, MLS and college soccer.

The Euro leagues are cool but I gravitate to our leagues/ teams.

 

I've never really been more drawn to Euro soccer. For while during the McBride/Dempsey Fulham era the Premier League was my number one priority for watching the sport at club level, but it was the American connections that primarily pushed this interest.

 

And then there are folks like me, who do both. I'm a Rapids fan and have been since MLS started in 1996. I follow EPL more closely as a league than MLS because of the higher quality of play and the long history of the league.

 

Yes, but relative to the others you are a small minority of people when it comes to the mass market.

 

And then you have the massive Liga MX audience that hasn't completely crossed over to European or MLS soccer, but regularly outdraws both in TV ratings. Makes me curious how much overlap exists between the three TV audiences--or if they're like three fragmented high school cliques that stay on separate sides of the playground except for the big summer international tournaments and USA-Mexico Gold Cup/WCQ/friendly matches. MLS draws somewhat from both those audiences, but is still the clear #3 on the pecking order.

 

Mass market? Do you mean the actual mass market? If that's the case, anyone watching soccer is in a small minority.
But if you're talking about the broader (but far less mass than the actual mass market) soccer audience, I wonder if this is true.
Are MLS fans who also watch other leagues in a minority? On here, maybe. But I've always had the impression that MLS fans were soccer fans first, trying to follow the game in the days when it wasn't nearly so easy to follow the game abroad, and adopted their local teams. At first out of gratitude, because it was pretty crap play but it was live and accessible. for the last half dozen years at least, it's been a joy to follow MLS.
But is there evidence outside of BS that there isn't much crossover? Does the data back up your assertion, or is it gut feeling, best guess kind of thing.

 

The explosion in US soccer popularity means a lot of folks who are new to watching the professional game are making up the new numbers. there's been a core of devoted footie fans in the states since before MLS opened in 1996, many of whom were saddened by the demise of the NASL.
I'm more drawn to MLS, despite the fact that I live overseas, actually in Berlin. With me it might be a connection to home, not unlike it is for the euro ex-pats in the US. My son is a season ticket holder for SKC and following MLS is a part of our patter.
I would say that, for many of those stateside who follow a "euro league" while dismissing MLS, it's a basic lack of understanding of how the game is set up. I debate the relative merits of the leagues with folks on BS who, it becomes apparent, watch the top couple clubs in the top couple leagues here (the types who make the knockout rounds of the Champions league), and base their judgments of the superior quality of European football based upon what is not at all representative of typical European football.
My opinion is that most European football is no better than MLS. Most isn't as good. The numbers back this up, salaries and revenue and attendance. The eyeball test also backs this up.
This isn't a shock. How many new NFL fans were fans of the 49ers when Montana was at his best. How many became Broncos fans when Elway's team found a defense and running game. How many had any idea who Tom Brady replaced in 2001 with the Pats but by January saw themselves as diehard supporters?
This isn't criticism, it's simple reality for all but true diehards. We spend our real lives unsure of whether we're winning or losing, or if that's even possible. Why turn to sports for escape only to back a losing effort? Sports are supposed to be fun, and losing isn't a lot of fun, so we back the best of the best.
MLS support suffers because of this, especially in a new world with instant access to the very best clubs in England, Germany, Italy and Spain.
But MLS support has had slow, steady growth, and as casual fans become more discerning, I believe they will want the live experience and come to appreciate what is now quite a good league.

 

People always want to see the best. Whether it's food eating, gymnastics, singing, dancing, cooking etc. People will gravitate towards watching the best people do any activity at its limit... I guess it's more bang for your buck. Theres soccer leagues in Algeria, but their youth would rather watch Barcelona and Real Madrid. There's basketball teams in the Philippines, but they would rather watch the NBA. Would you rather go to the County Fair or watch Cirque du Soleil? Drink Popov's or Grey Goose?

 

Algerians, with extensive ties to France, prefer Barca and Real M to Lyon or Marseille? Do they really? Is this verifiable, or a guy feeling.
Beyond that, your reasoning would indicate that the best leagues are by definition the most popular. But the reality doesn't seem to support the EPrem being far and away the best, while the numbers show rather conclusively that it is the most popular. Beyond that, the season long viewership for the UEFA CL should therefore be higher than any individual league viewership, but it is not. the CL attracts a lot of viewers for the finals, but fewer viewers for the rest of the year than the Prem.
And I still don't accept French vodka as a thing.

 

The Prem is the most popular and not the best, but I think tudobem62014's point is that several European leagues are more popular and better than the Algerian league. I don't think tudobem62014 was trying to compare European leagues to each other.

 

I think the difference in quality has a lot to do with it. Soccer is unique to American sports in that, unlike other major sports, we clearly do not have the best league. The NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB are all comfortably the highest quality leagues in their respective sports in the world. They are the best in addition to being our "local" teams so we don't think twice about it.

As someone mentioned, a lot of Asian basketball fans follow the NBA more than their own leagues. I also know a lot of European hockey fans follow the NHL more than their own leagues.

 

I think that overgeneralizing in either direction is a dangerous premise on which to base your paper. I hope that you would want to qualify it a bit.

 

As far as quality of play is concerned, I've been pretty sure for a while that MLS isn't being compared to any individual European league, but suffers because it's being compared to the Champions League. Even when an individual league is being mentioned, it's always that league's representatives in the Champions League being compared to average MLS teams.

Unfortunately, it's also predictable that it would be the case, because that's what's on TV. We see the top teams from other leagues on TV, while with MLS the national TV deal puts all the teams on more-or-less evenly.

 

Well said.

 

There are multiple reasons but the primary one, and the one at the center of the wheel is that European Club soccer is currently the pinnacle of the sport and that's what people want to watch.

Now to be clear when I am talking about European Soccer being the pinnacle I really mean the 4 big European Leagues and specifically the top ends of those leagues.

 

Not only that, but they cover it as a league more than FOX covers the CL as a league.
In general, I think the popularity of the teams are grown through their domestic leagues matches. For instance, I don't believe Arsenal is popular in America because they lose on a Tuesday afternoon in the Round of 16 of the CL every year. Obviously being in 2 competitions helps, but its the week-in/week-out matches on weekends within England that does most of the selling IMO.

 

The practice I really find baffling is the folks who are in MLS markets and still choose to ignore their MLS team in favor of an EPL side located in a city/country they've never even visited.

I live in the DC area, and have several friends who like the sport, will wake up early on a Saturday to watch a Liverpool or Arsenal match, but have no interest in attending MLS matches in person or watching them on television. Bizarre.

Even in the days when DC United was winning titles and progressing far into the CONCACAF Cup, nothing. Not a bite.

 

Personally, I dislike the MLS schedule…if DC United is a prime example, they appear to going for a traditional play day and time of Saturday or Sunday around 7 pm EDT…that just don’t work very well for me…Saturday prime time, especially, has far too much competition for my time…local team or not, that schedule makes it very hard to consistently follow and watch games…for me anyway, MLS picked a terrible time slot play/broadcast their games…

 

I dig it.

I will say, DC (for example) played 45 matches in all competitions this year, and kickoff was 5pm or earlier for 10 of them, so there IS some chance for daytime soccer....