It's really the cart before the horse isn't it? NHL gets huge local media coverage. I'm sure a lot of Daily News, New York Post and New York Times readers don't know what NYCFC is.
I misread that first time. I think British fans are intrigued by the MLS format. Plus it's shown late at night when there's no domestic sport.
MLS does have some timing advantages by being on later in Europe and during the months when there isn't club play going on.
UEFA CL TV ratings on CBS: FWIW, "The Young & the Restless" averages around 3.5M viewers on TV. https://t.co/G5L9ndSg2L— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) February 17, 2022
But they have other people to market the game for them. Local media plus NBC's Winter Classic. MLS gets the odd mention on Sports Center and ESPN FC.
The problem with soccer popularity in the United States is that as a sport, it shines nowadays, but as a league (MLS), not so much (although a lot of progress has been made). The other major sports are very focused on one national league: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL. Sure, college football, college basketball, AAA also contribute to their sport's popularity but the major leagues are the bulk of it. Soccer popularity however goes waaaaaaaay beyond the MLS. People watch the English Premier League, the Mexican League, the Italian Serie A (I do), the Euro, the Champions League, the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers, the Gold Cup, the World Cup finals, etc., etc. Although I do technically support NYCFC of MLS, I actually watch the Italian Serie A way more often than I watch NYCFC games. So, my viewership of soccer counts very little for the MLS, but regarding the sport as a whole, I do watch it very frequently on various services like Paramount+ and FuboTV. If one adds to MLS figures all the multiple soccer streaming and foreign leagues that are offered to fans in the American market, I'm quite sure that the popularity of the sport itself by now is catching up to baseball, soon to become America's third most popular sport, if it hasn't done it already (I've seen articles sustaining that it has happened, already). It's very hard to quantify all those multiple viewing platforms while it's very easy to quantify MLB's attendance and broadcasting. But add up all the fragmented viewership of soccer, and I'm quite sure it rivals baseball viewership. I don't think soccer currently has what it takes to be more popular in the United States than American football and basketball. But it has clearly leapfrogged ice hockey already, and is about to leapfrog baseball, the sport that has an aging demographic that is shrinking and is no longer the game that kids play; baseball diamonds everywhere in suburbia are being taken down to provide space for more soccer fields. The more kids play soccer, the more the sport gets popular in the years to come when they reach adulthood. So soccer popularity is expanding while baseball popularity is shrinking as the generation that loves baseball starts dying out and not getting replaced.
Plus the summer when there's no domestic soccer. I don't know if this is still true, but a few years back you could watch MLS on a Bulgarian sports channel.
and that is a difference between american sport and soccer. nfl nba mlb hockey same people watch but soccer epl la liga serie a bliga are on same time or overlap so in reality at same time in usa maybe 3-4 different people wattch soccer and different league
I’m trending the other way. Increasingly MLS is the only club soccer that keeps me engaged all season long. The Champions League knockouts are fun too but generally even the top Euro domestic leagues don’t hold my attention like they once did.
i am oposite can nott get to watch american interpretation of football. it is boring. canadians are more humble and you can see it in their team tthe do not try push their unique culture into sport. like americans do. canadian nt and clubs play euro style football. american teams play some american version of football
So you're saying that Toronto FC, CF Montreal and Vancouver Whitecaps play a different style of football to the rest of MLS?
yess. i mean you can see it. it is more sophisticated here in usa is more of just run run run. canadian teams play more sophistiated but with less quality players then europe
Seems like this is becoming more common among those who follow MLS. Even ten years ago it seemed like MLS was often a secondary interest but now it’s more common to come across fans who consider MLS the center of their soccer fandom. I don’t even follow national teamers in Europe like I used to except for a few exceptions (Pulisic and Pepi currently). I used to be one of those fans who would get excited about transfers to Turkey and Scotland. Times change.
New MLS attendance record: ✨ @CharlotteFC is making history already ✨Tonight’s 74,479 fans breaks the @MLS attendance record 👏 pic.twitter.com/dnkHpIbGIN— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 6, 2022
I do not know buddy. I saw Toronto FC play last season... *sophisticated* would be the last thing I would have called that dumpster fire of a team.
Maybe that doesn’t count. I’ve noticed for some that the Canadian MLS clubs represent Canada when they do well and MLS when they do poorly.
904K viewers for Real Madrid-Chelsea on big CBS, I hear, a record audience for a #UCL quarterfinal game on U.S. English linear TV.— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) April 14, 2022
Ratings for the Leagues Cup Showcase at SoFi: Audiencia en TV, #LeaguesCup:1,532M LA Galaxy vs. Chivas (0,61)└1,014M en Univisión└299K en TUDN└219K en ESPN543K LAFC vs. América (0,24)└395K en TUDN└148K en ESPN└TBA en UnivisiónESPN estuvo flojo; en total buenos # y ratings en demos P18-49. #tvratings #tv— Jaime Ojeda (@jaimeor96) August 4, 2022
My local park has always had a small baseball triangle and a lacrosse field. It's just replaced the lacrosse field and goals with a full-size soccer pitch with brand new goals.