I personally do not watch or care about MLS since it's not exciting watching a league with players that you have never heard of. I don't see why all the excitement with bringing Beckham since he is over rated and is only good at shooing free kicks. They also brought Schelotto from Boca Juniors and Cuahtemoc Blanco to the Fire who is 34 and got a 4 year contract. They are over paying them since their better years are behind them. They will earn more then they did at their prime. Why not bring young exciting players.
I totally agree, but the young exciting players wont want to go over there they would rather head to europe
True, but I think he is there mainly to promote football (soccer) in the USA, because he is clearly a player in his twilight years who is nearing the end of his career and his move to MLS has effectively ended his England career for good. I strongly believe he cannot get in any of the top four in the EPL or in any of the big clubs around Europe.
Name recognition. Why not? Their basically bringing mediocre (stars in their prime) chubby soccer players that were once world stars. Beckham of course has lost a step at the most unlike some others that have joined. Here they can actually step outside once in awhile and not be recognized unlike in their own countries!
You are part of the problem. If you do not suppourt your nation's league, how do you expect soccer to ever prosper here? It will not happen if you do not help it, spread the world, take friends to see a game. The sport will blossom here, but real soccer guys gotta get behind it. Its stupid for you to hold that little minded attitude about not caring.
You just contradicted yourself... Young exciting players are just starting to get name recognition... The US is built on STARS.. people needs to know the stars of each team.. the supporting cast can change around the star.. but the star needs to be know... Imagine European leagues trying to get credibility.. should they bring in Michael Jordan as a college draft choice? He was pretty good at that point but had no recognition... During his peak, he was too expensive.. but even to this day.. If you brought Jordan to some European NBA.. i guarentee people would be paying more attention to that league.. and so ad rev. goes up.. Endorsements go up.. New stars fly in... eventually.. you don't got to import all the talent.. talent is grown domestically... Hence, a confident self-sufficient league is born
Which is of course why you started a thread about MLS. Crawl back under your bridge and do humanity a favor.
You don't see the reason why they are bringing Beckham or any toher stars are over here?!?!? Do you even follow soccer? Let me help you out! Reason for Beckham: He will bring appeal to the MLS and he is still great soccer player. I don't believe he is prime has left him entirely. In fact, I think he will do very well with the Galaxy. Reason for you saying what you did: You do not have faith in MLS to be exciting when it already is! The leagues in Europe have the best players, but it is quiet obvious that the MLS is the fastest non-European league on the globe. Once Beckham and Blanco are here, this league will be even more popular. Also, I don't like your attitude, Mr. "I don't care about MLS."
You know other players because of TV and the internet. I know MLS players because of TV and the internet. Shocking how that works, no?
I don't see why MLS fanatics are angry over my thread if it's the truth. Well the MLS can not be the fastest growing league if only the US cares about the league. Below are the reasons why MLS doesn't succeed. The MLS does not have enough hispanic or european players. I can assure anyone that these are the fans that care about soccer since everyone else here cares about baseball, football and basketball. Funny how Beckham will earn more then his entire team that won't make him a popular player in any team. Everyone thinks he will save MLS but 1 aging player can not save a league. Look at other leagues their is at least 1 great player in every team. I'm honestly surprised the league has lasted this long. MLS takes 2 steps forward and then 2 backwards. What happen to those Florida teams? No offense but MLS is boring and it's the truth. One more thing the refs are horrible that is why wheir are not MLS refs in any important tournaments.
Do you do your research before you post? Point 1: MLS needs more Hispanic or European players, and those are the fans that care about soccer: Where have you been for 12 years??? Per 2004 statistics, MLS is 17% Latino. This number has gone up. Please go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_MLS_players. The little "flag" next to their name, that represents what country they are from. You will see quite a few European and Latino players. Then visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign_MLS_players which lists all the foreign players who have played in or are currently playing in MLS. Marco Etcheverry, Jaime Moreno, and Carlos Valderrama, all South American, make up 3 of the 11 best MLS players of all time. Something like 1/3 to 1/2 of the league is foreign players. One of MLS biggest fan bases is the Latino population, and the league have multimillion dollar deals with Spanish-language networks. They have a SuperLiga tournament which pits the top 4 Mexican teams with the top 4 MLS teams. Thanks for the advice but they figured out that they should tap into the Hispanic population about 12 years ago chief. Point 2: No one cares about MLS but the U.S. If only the US cared, why would they be pulling players from other leagues, either early in their careers or later in their careers. Point 3: You need one great player on every team: Have you heard of the DESIGNATED player rule??? If you haven't you live under a rock. Every team can now sign one of these players...Beckham, Cuatehmoc Blanco (a Latino, are you happy? Two time MVP of the Mexican league), Juan Pablo Angel, Claudio Reyna are all on MLS rosters. Not to mention the great (sorry they don't fit your standards) players that are already on the teams. I think that about covers it. If you don't like it, if you don't choose to watch, don't. The league will continue with or without your support. But please, for the love of Bob, if you are going to criticize, please have your facts straight.
^^ mls may be 17% latino... but thats a lot lower than the proportion of latino soccer fans in this country. my guess is only about 10% of the country's soccer fans (people who watch professional soccer at least once a week) are mls fans. mls teams, especially in markets like los angeles and houston, have to do a better job of recruiting and signing latino, especially mexican, players to their teams. i go to mls games about once a month at HDC, and the attendance is mediocre. i went to the interliga games, on weekday nights in very cold weather for los angeles and the stadium was a lot more packed than any mls game ive been to, including the chivas usa - galaxy games. the chivas - america games get higher ratings than pretty much any mls or nhl games.. theres no reason to not try and tap into that market.
I'm not from North America and I care about MLS. In fact I watch the highlights of every single game on the net! I think its an excellent league and very unique in its format which is a good thing. I also think the standard of play is more than worthy for football fans to get their asses off their armchairs and into the stadiums! Just look at the winning goal during the Dallas game yesterday! I think that anyone who doesn't support their nations league is pathetic but people who refuse to watch a good league like MLS is even worse! There is no greater satisfaction than following your local team, no matter how bad they are!
Hmm...No young exciting players?? Try watching Jozy Altidore, maybe Eddie Johnson, and there are many others. Beckham is a bit overrated yes, but is good at much more than free kicks. The league is growing at a near-exponential rate, look at the attendance for the new Toronto team as an example.
Remind me to that if you ever are in any bet, to bet against you. You mean to tell me if TEN americans watch pro soccer once a week, 9 of them do not follow MLS???? So 9 American Eurosnobs for 1 MLS fan? Please be realistic. Thats an exaggeration if I ever heard one. Maybe 60-40 at best, or 65-35. Scroll down, and there is an entire forum on MLS, which is one of, if not the heaviest traffic on this site, and I'm sure they are not part of just 10% of the soccer loving American population.
you obviously don't live in the southwest, "eurosnobs" make up a fraction of soccer fans in the u.s... do you realize how many mexicans and mexican americans live in the united states? and how huge soccer is in that country alone? there is literally millions of hardcore soccer fans that could care less about mls within our borders.. the mexican league semi's got higher ratings in the united states than any club soccer match ever televised and youre basing your opinion on the proportion of mls fans among soccer fans in the country by the traffic on bigsoccer.com which is a site promoted by and linked to the official mls website?? i found this forum by following a link on the mls website... good thinking lol, youre obviously a smart guy, if you ever wanna bet on soccer hit me on a pm
and there are millions of Mexican Americans who also love MLS. All I'm debating is your 90% number which is ridiculously exagerrated, even if thats how it is in your area. 60-40, 65-35 seems more realistic.
there are definitely not millions of mexican americans that love mls... not even close. but maybe i did overstate the 90%, just from the fact that i grew up and continue to live around so many huge soccer fans and really none of them will take to mls no matter how hard i try to push it on them. but it really is around there... 75-80 minimum