A while back I bought a US football(soccer) mag(90 minutes) from a news stand here in australia and one of the many articles in it was about MLS teams entering the Copa Libertadores. I was wondering what fans in the states thought about this personally i hink it would be great for the tournament to go Pan-American and wou;d help further develop the MLS.
Only if MLS can see tangible financial and sporting benefits from doing so, and I think both are at least 5-10 years away. Until then, I believe most MLS teams would probably face difficult draws, the distinct possibility of getting blown out a lot, and worse, playing home games in front of virtually no one except immigrants cheering on the visiting team. None of which helps MLS.
It will happen in the future. But we are many years away from that. Look foward to the Copa Rio Grande in the near future though.
I'm surprised no one bashed him yet for starting another one of these threads. Anyway, I think they should be able to go to the Copa Libertadores even though it will be very difficult for them. It would be awesome if they put up a good fight and got pretty far...
I think Copa Sudamericana makes more sense... Eliminate among MLS teams (if not viable, among SSS-owning teams, plus i guess NE and KC), and furhtermore, if there is no time for that, use regular season games -agreed previously- to eliminate one another..... At worst, it would make a larger percentage of MLS r.s. games more exciting.... After that, there will only be one team representing MLS with home and away matches being staged on Wednesdays...... very sparsely done for the most part, if taking into accoount last season's edition Or, if the Mexico clubs want to get in as seems to be the case, maybe we should try staging a sort of Pre-Sudamericana "interliga", this time with MFL and MLS clubs (those that have SSS and/or NE/KC) involved.... Would make for an interesting event.....at no prohibitive cost/risk.....
Yes, we should grab our sacks and play. Playing gives us some experience, exposure and is a good acid test to see where we are as a league. Also, it's something a team can play for and earn in a regular season that offers very little incentive. Stop finding excuses not to do stuff and compete already.
Why not? They could enter the Supporter's Shield Winner into the InterLiga and have them play with the Mexican clubs to try to get in.
This post says it all, it will happen eventually, once MLS has established itself( can't say feeder teams will help that cause), and ESPN & CO., give in to the powers that be's demands. That's why the Interliga is held in the US, now. It's baby steps.
No. Let's concentrate on concacaf cl first, or use Mexican matches to "gauge where we are as a league". The prospect of flying down to Buenos Aires on a Wed- in the middle of the season-- could be disruptive to any MLS team.
I really don't think MLS is ready yet. It needs to expand the rosters, have a higher salary cap and most or all of the teams are going to have to have their own stadiums. In a few years I can see it happening, but not yet.
No they should not take part.. first of all its the stadium issues fake gass is not allowed nor grid iron lines or any other markings of any other type of sport other than soccer are allowed... The level of MLS is not good enough to take part yet...If you are going to take part in this you want to be able to at least have positive results not blow outs.. MLS needs yes to expand the rosters but include QUALITY players not Quantity. each team needs their own stadium for them to take part YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE IMMIGRANTS ROOTING FO THEIR TEAM AND NOT THE LOCAL TEAM but the difference is having your own stadium where those same rival fan are Paying the local team for parking and food and snacks.. With each team in their own gounds you can reep the financial rewards not like in these NFL stadiums where it will be empty and the NFL stadiums are taking 50 - 80 % of parking or consecion. giving very little to MLS...US Soccer also has to take more part in Copa America Mexico have gone to every edition they have been invited to while US Soccer has said no after 1995 time and time again.. Down the road kids down the road but not today.....
Everytime this topic has come up I've always said YES!!!!!! but unfortunately none of us are in a position to make decisions for MLS! I still can't even find MLS merchandise in any store, although I can find ALL the Mexican teams,(in soccer stores) and all the nike teams in sports authority!!!!! Once this league starts to take ITSELF seriously, the world will follow!!!!!!
The Copa Libertadores is the Championship of the South American Confederation, CONMEBOL. It makes no sense for any clubs from outside this region to enter. MLS should enter Copa Libertadores, as long as you're happy for CONCACAF and CONMEBOL to merge into one Americas Confederation. Of course, this would mean USA having to actually work to qualify for the World Cup.
Tell that to Mexico...Their league has gained lots of exposure across Latin America, and are now able to showcase players whose value has increased, so that whenever a team from abroad wants to buy, their clubs can set higher price tags... Also, since they pay their players good money, it makes it easier for their league to convince the best SA players (who can't get into good clubs in Europe) to get over there and still get the chance to play in Copa Libertadores Anyway, to me the "baby step" would really be Copa Sudamericana: only one team (per year) from MLS would have to make those trips abroad, and if we were able to limit the possible participants from MLS to only those that have SSS (HDC, CCS, Frisco) or sweetheart deals from the owners (KC/NE) would it really be such a hassle? After all, there is no relegation to worry about if the team sucks too much in MLS.... and if there is a decision to be made between important games, it would not come until late October/November, when there would be a conflict only if said MLS team has made it all the way to the semis....... I thought part of the reasoning behind the steps taken for "reserve teams" was also to provide more flexibility....... If an MLS team was to make it to the semis of Copa Sudamericana and due to conflicts of schedule with MLS playoffs was blown up, would it really be an embarrassment? OTOH, if the team is eliminated early, would it affect the team's endurance/travel fatigue so much as to affect them when there are not a lot of meaningful games in the first 30 MLS encounters in the regular season? Doubt it....
Agreed - Until the U.S. (English or Spanish) is willing to pay a decent sum for the broadcast rights, I don't MLS teams in the Copa. At this point, most of the home games would be a disaster, and MLS/US TV wouldn't really *add* any value to the tournament.
How about Copa Sudamericana? the games would be obviously less numerous and only one team would have to worry about difficult trips to SA.... FSE shows all COpa Sudamericana games... Ceratinly, at least IMO, Copa Libertadores is a much bigger beast, due to the format of the tourney and the attention it gets....
Probably even worse. Look at the Copa Merconorte. It died precisely because there was no money in it. No sponsors, limited TV revenues, and the saavy South American crowds didn't flock to the stadiums. Heck Chivas forfeited their games to the MetroStars once they realized they weren't going to advance in the tournament. And the MetroStars hosting Chivas was the only real chance that either KC or Metros had of making any money in the tournament in 2001. Eventually, I think we'll get there. I really think that the first step to creating domestic interest in MLS teams in international club competitions is going to be the creation of an annual MLS-MFL competition. Whether it's a one-off like ESPN's Big 10-ACC basketball challenge, or something closer to the Interliga or Manga Cup type structure, I think that a Mexico/America tournament is the first step.
Screw the Libertadores. Why do we even want to be part of that copa? A home and away with an Argintine club and 14-15 hours of flight time each way? Get real. There is no real benefit to participating finacially or logisticaly. What the real goal should be is to work on a long term plan to create a north and central american champions league that has real value to the clubs. Let south america have its copa and let us have ours..in the long run it will be better that way. I heard rumblings not long ago about MFL and MLS reps having preliminary discussions about something along these lines.
I think the whole MLS- MFL "integration" (or some ways to work closer together) talks broke down after one the of MFL officials (can't recall names) was taken away from power... Now what you see, it's the integration from the MFL into nearly everything that's CONMEBOL related, except for qualifiers....
Absolutely. MLS and SUM are planning for the future. The Interliga will eventually be replaced by the Copa Rio Grande which will take the 4 top MLS and MFL teams and decide who's goin down south for Copa Libertadores.
I disagree with this.... If your own experience in KC, and a SSS/strong fan base for non MLS games is not there, then fine: Let's exclude KC from a "supposed" Sudamericana...For that matter, NE shouldn' go either, since their owner is probably the least involved of them all (still recall the whole Saprissa "play at home twice" event)... I'd also exclude the Metro (the team i love), but seriously, their home field is the worst and most expensive by -a mile - in the league.... Anyway, instead of rambling on, this would be my move, if i had any chance to do it: exclude all non-SSS teams from even having to participate in "Copa Sudamericana" .... Let's call it the "no SSS penalty": Maybe it won't help a great degree in pushing cities/teams to build SSSs like crazy, but the teams with SSS can always claim they at least get "access" to the second most important club soccer region after Europe, in terms of prestige.... and have the chance to hold competitive international club games, not just friendlies..... IOW, only if you have a SSS, THEN your club can even bid to participate in Copa Sudamericana... if not, tough luck regardless of whether other teams won something or not..... After all, that's what CONCACAF is for (and they are closer) So you'd have LA Galaxy, the Crew, and FC Dallas vying for the one MLS spot in Sudamericana (next year Chicago is added to this list and the next Metro-not holding my breath)... If we are able to stage events that get little attendance (such as US Open Cup games, and CC games), why shouldn't ONE team per year be able to host and travel to SA to play Sudamericana games? If we last few rounds, not a big expense.. If not, good for MLS..... If they have their own SSS, i do not see where exactly the problem would be .... I don't know how happy FSE is having to replay a EPL game 3-4 times (especailly if it's a boring one-which has happened quite a few times this season) or have repeat after repeat of some other shows...... Edit: hmm, forgot to mentiojn Chivas USA, they'd also have a right to try and participate..... those 15 million they paid also has to help them in some way other than the MLS season HDC rights.....
Reading my own frigging post, i guess i did ramble on... Gotta cut down on the caffeine and uphold at least one new year resolution
I'd like to see it (although my preference is a stronger CONCACAF competition), but from what I understand in talking with the few people in South America I know, CONMEBOL won't be inviting MLS to the Libertardores as long as the fed keeps rejecting invites to the Copa America. Which is a tricky situation of course. The reason given for turning down invites to the Copa America is because it would take players away from MLS teams for up to a month. So what takes priority then? Keeping the "star" players with their MLS teams, or giving MLS teams a shot at competing with the likes of River Plate?
MLS should be in the Copa Libertadores, and they should be in it now. If we're in and field our best teams and still get killed, at least people know where we are. Exactly why would anyone want to delay that? Do I think South America will openly invite MLS to join the tournament? Not by a longshot, at this point. The former has everything to lose while the latter has everything to gain. That is not a circumstance in which two sides come to an agreement.