It does sneak up on you. The NBA finals were tape delayed after the 11:30PM news as early as 1980 I believe. The NHL had a small footprint and limited national market in the mid 70's. The NFL didn't really start to cover the country nationally until the merger in the mid 60's. What they did have however was an infrastructure and local market support in place. They were set up to boom when the right circumstances came together. Have always tried to educate folks about this even before MLS started. You have to build a foundation, then walls, then a roof, put in the guts, attach a garage, etc.....it takes time, money and effort. When you finally do this you can start with the luxuries, and bam, look what we have now! It just happens, but all of the other variables have to be in place. The next TV\media contract can be that game changer. Hope I am around to see it.
yeah I mean....I watched a sunderland-Watford EPL match last week and it had nothing on MLS. I think people can watch MLS in Europe and see that the level isn't what you would think it would be from transfermarket or salary comparisons. in almost every other league, you can use salary as a way to tell how good the league is....but MLS gets more bang for buck than euro leagues do. that next deal will likely be the game changer, agreed. they are ready now, but just being extra-cautious.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...ebookdt&kwp_0=57992&kwp_4=340003&kwp_1=216087 ok, this isn't technically MLS news...but it kinda is in a way. from the article: the nation's productivity has improved 22 percent since 2000, median wages have risen only 1.8 percent, adjusted for inflation. Wages have actually fallen by 3 percent since the recession. Meanwhile, productivity gains are going to CEOs who earn, on average, about 300 times more than typical workers, compared with 71.2 times in 1990, according to the Economic Policy Institute. and: "I began wondering what my friend would have to make so she wouldn't have to worry about a $200 rent hike," says Price. He recalled a 2010 study by Princeton behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman finding that, while people did not feel happier on a daily basis as their income rose above $75,000, they were decidedly unhappier the less they earned below $75,000. At Gravity, new hires made $35,000 a year. MLS recently upped its minimum to 60k....maybe 75k makes more sense?? I think people too often equate a player's salary with how good they are. while they are often closely related, you cannot use a player's salary as an exact measurement of how good they are compared to other players. salaries often reflect what they are willing to accpet and how good a negotiator they are - skills independent of their soccer abilities. . Also, I think people underestimate how much of an impact making a decent amount of money can improve a players on-field performance. Basically, I don't think you will get the same performance out of the same player if you play them 50k, 250k, or 2m....you might not get the 200k more's worth of performance out of paying the same player who is willing to accept 50k....but the overall happiness factor will impact their play. youre gonna be more likely to be confident and express your personality on the field if you are making decent money as opposed to 50k, imo.
This is true up to a point. However, the problem with comparing MLS quality to, say, one of the top Euro leagues, is that once you get to the top, top leagues, the quantity of players at that level is comparatively few and so the cost escalates much faster for an increasingly smaller "return" in quality. Excluding the really magical difference makers, the cost often increases in inverse proportion to the difference in quality. The higher you go, the less "return" you get for more money. For example, the difference between an MLS benchwarmer at 60k and a starter is just a couple hundred thousand dollars, but the starter is 100% better by anyone's measure. However, a PL benchwarmer might make a couple million less than the starter at his position who is really only 10% better. But, that 10% is sometimes the difference in a match and is worth millions. MLS will start running into this more and more as the quality of its players goes up and it starts getting further toward the pointy end of the bell curve. It already can be seen in the relative difference in quality between average starters and many DPs. You start to wonder if the DPs are worth the massive paychecks relative to the modest improvement to the team.
well there are entire rosters in MLS that make less than the average Bayern Munich player. BM is clearly better than any MLS team....but the MLS all-stars (who had never practiced together, mind you) did just beat BM in a heated contest recently....so its not like BM is astronomically better than the best MLS has to offer, as the salary disparity might suggest.Some DP's are overpaid and do not return much bang for the buck....but league-wide...MLS is paying well-below market value for the quality of play its players produce. also, I disagree about the 100% better i.e. DP's vs bench players....NYCFC a prime example of this ....I actually think poku was better than lampard this season. ithere were other examples but the basic point is that MLS is finding players at 60k(!) who can outshine 6mil signings!----which is what I was getting at by "more bang for the buck"...in general, though, I've noticed the same thing - its often hard to tell who the DP's are if you didn't know already and just watched a game without any background knowledge.
"but MLS gets more bang for buck than euro leagues do" I agree, but sometimes you get Jermaine Jones , two years, 4.7 million, 28 games played. Edit: 6.5 million
David Beckham's MLS plans for Miami meet opposition The same petty gripes and complaints opponents of the Quakes stadium face. I don't live there , don't know the area nor can I really judge but I doubt this stadium will be that big of an obstacle for residents. After hearing some of the same gripes (people had in San Jose) , I only hope whomever is in charge of hearing them out dismisses them completely.
I think you missed my point and I probably missed yours as well, but I don't feel like rehashing it all again, so I'll just leave it.
I frequently make the same point about the NBA playoffs. it's a great example of how quickly things change once a tipping point is reached
Ohhh. I was listening for the words "Pescadito" and "puta" but I don't know what those words are in Turkish.
When they were trying to get a stadium built south of Cleveland for MLS, they identified a hunk of land but a neighborhood group put up a fierce fight about the usual stuff - traffic, noise, congestion, etc. Thing was, the parcel of land was on the other side of an eight lane interstate from them. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so stupid.
Same thing in San Jose. They have the San Jose Airport runway across the street on one side, Amtrak train lines as well as Santa Clara University's Buck Shaw Stadium (where the Quakes played previously) on the other and a highway just south of the park. Now, after its been built, the noise level isn't any better or worse than it was before. If anything, you care barely hear the stadium. One guy even complained that his 8 or 9 year old (at the time and who is now approaching teenage years) needed to go to bed at 8:30PM otherwise he would get up real early in the morning and wake up the parents.We are all still laughing about that one. The thing is we are talking about maybe 25-30 (if that) total events a year with maybe even less than half are staged or played at night with no concerts or fireworks. I knew then people wouldn't be inconvenienced and everyone who spoke up to oppose it that night looked like a fool and even giving one another high fives while fans were there with banners , screaming from the top of their lungs. After hearing everyone voice their complaint, the San Jose City Council unanimously voted 6-0 to uphold the stadium.
Wow. You must have been rich. We just drank water out of the garden hose. Trivia time: (You probably know this), Why was it named 7-11?
Actually don't know this. Because it was open 7 hours a day, uh, 11 days a week? No, that's probably not it. Ok, I give up.
Answer below: You know, in case some of you are still trying to figure it out. They opened at 7:00 am and closed at 11:00 pm. That was actually a pretty big deal at the time.
The NBA is a great example IMO. The NBA was a mess in the 70's. Teams moving amd drawing flies. Free tix to be had fairly easily in many markets. Regional hot pockets, but nationally......yawn. National TV contract....ha. Through all of these times the league found themselves, developed amd matured....then bam! It just happened. It is a lot harder today with all the access folks have to games everywhere, but the foundation has to be there to have a chance. MLS is at least doing that.
How can I sleep Wondering what you're going to say next? I tend to go into work early rather than stay late. I wind up chiming in here during my BART ride in.
i agree. and i'll go even a step further. kids today can be spoiled by all the attention. that's why spending more on developing soccer players is a tricky proposition. you don't want to overdo the positive reinforcement because you might produce swollen heads more than budding talents.
I totally agree with you on the first two paragraphs. I don't 'disagree' with the third so much as I'd emphasize the entertainment aspect. MLS is making money with clear differences between the best and worst players on the pitch, even if those differences are expensive to buy. So if the effect on the rest of the roster of a DP causes a team to score 5 more goals in a year at the expense of also allowing 5 more goals in that year, it might not be an advantage on the standings table, but it could well be an advantage on the balance sheet.