This is absurd. There is no credible coverage of the final, and even if you do get telefutura it starts at 11pm EST. Here you have the final of what is being sold as a major tournament and it isn't even available to 98% of the country. What a joke. Why even bother? I hope they at least make an attempt to include East-Coast Americans next year. I was excited - really excited for the match, even if it is the Galaxy. Went to program an auto-change / DVR on the Satellite box and low and behold, I can't even watch it. I do get MLS Live, but lets be real..the quality is terrible and I'm one of those unusual people with one of those job things that can't stay up until 2am to watch a damned domestic "championship match". /rant
Oh come on! It's the first year. Look forward to next year. Anyway, why on earth would you want to watch that final? With LA in it, I'd rather watch a columbus vs. salt lake match. At least those teams can score.
i dont care how poor the coverage is, since i will sure to be up at 11pm to watch the game. I also have been very impressed by the games that have been played in this tournament. some of the most exciting games i have seen this year have come because of this tournament. So it may be handled poorly by the executives but on the field it is one hell of a success.
You're right. I should count my blessings. This makes perfect sense, and is good for Soccer in America. Bury the final of a tournament designed to add credibility so late at night and so deep in Spanish television that no average American household will even accidentally stumble upon the match and perhaps promote the tournament concept and/or prestige. Call me out if you will, but this is a highly reasonable rant. You can try to make yourself look above it all you want, as though you don't complain on these boards or something. Why would I want to watch it? I guess that is the kind of question that answers why it is such a struggle for Soccer in the US.
It could have been a miserable failure (look at the LA Coliseum game). The fact that the games have been some of the most entertaining matches in the western hemisphere has propelled the tournament to a certain level of respectability. For that we should be thankful.
1. Telefutura is widely available in the US -- and generally available ovre the air to many people without even cable/satellite. It's a complete falsehood to suggest that the channel is poorly distributed. 2. There is also live, FREE, English language broadcasts of the games online. 3. As far as we know, either no English language channels were interested or Univision paid extra to gain exclusivity in the US. Either way, it's hardly SUM/MLS's fault -- you do what you have to do. Telefutura is better than nothing (or, quite frankly, FSC or Gol which are both in much fewer households). 4. The 11pm ET startime is unfortunate, but the game is in LA on a weeknight. Perhaps they could have stretched it to 10:30pm (7:30 locally) but that's about as early as they could go and be reasonable for the attendanding fans. What should they do -- put the game on at 8pm ET and have an empty stadium at kickoff?
Your points are highly valid. Regardless, the final of this tournament should have been handled in an effort to bring, if not "force" it on the American public rather than ensure that it is largely ignored. Its like Pirates of the Caribbean or something - it can only be found by those who know where it is. I can't believe there is opposition to the idea that this should have been made high profile and scheduled to accommodate a larger portion of the country. I guess they didn't expect an American team to make it to the final. I may be a noob to this board, but I'm far from it to soccer, as a player, a fan, a coach and an overall enthusiast. I'm highly familiar with its uphill battle for respect in this country. I don't care if I'd made 5000 posts or 1, this should have been handled differently. Hopefully next year the idea of making a big deal out of the final of something I'd consider at least as major as the opening round of a Tennis tournament will make sense as I guess its too far fetched in 2007.
let's be honest, this is the first year. this was an experiment. i'm sure the organizers new there were things that were not going to work. overall, i think it's been a successful tournament. obviously the 12,500 seat cap at the HDC for the final is incredibly mickey mouse. that's pretty embarassing for a "major" Cup. other than that ... what can i say? i live in a college town that doesn't get Telefutura. so obviously i'm not happy with that (but of course everyone else that gets it tells me to shut up ... but that's a lot easier to say when you're one of the select few who get it). bottom line is, you can't have a Cup like this where you put the impetus on a large amount of fans to watch it on the internet if they want to see it. that does no help for ratings, internet broadcasts aren't rated.
You can consider it as major as the World Series if you'd like; it wouldn't make a bit of difference. MLS SOLD the TV rights to this tournament- a huge step for the league. Either no English language station wanted to pay to broadcast this tournament or Telefutura paid to ensure that they couldn't (I don't remember which but would think it's the former). Either way, this tournament is a good step towards gaining exposure and maybe even some credibility within the Mexican-American sports community. I can't believe so many people (not just you) are b!tching about what amounts to first year tournament. Besides, the intensity level of the matches has been fantastic and pretty much everyone that wants to see the matches has a way of doing so. In it's first year, this tournament has gotten ten times the amount of exposure as the US Open Cup, which has been around forever. As to bringing, or 'forcing' it on the American public, good luck with that. Baby steps, my friend, baby steps.
i agree with you completely. This tournament is gaining creditability with those mexican-american fans who watch their univision once a week to watch soccer to finally see that the soccer in the country they live in has some decent soccer too.
There are a lot of points worth conceding in this thread. I appreciate the replies. "force" on the American public was a poor choice of words..I certainly feel that to be the wrong approach, but immediate availability is what I think should have been there. One of the big networks, a reasonable time-slot, etc. There is a bright side. All I have to do is ignore MLSnet and BigSoccer on Thursday and there is probably a 99.99999% certainty that nobody at work is going to say "How about that match last night - what a game" and spill the result. THat has pretty much been ensured by the obscure presentation. I'm creating a reminder right now to NOT check those sites. I'm sure I can still browse all of the major sports sights without stumbling upon the result without digging.
Bastard, you stole my avatar! I've had this for years! It's what I'm known for. I was scrolling down reading the thread, saw the avatar and couldn't remember posting for the life of me. Then I realized it wasn't me! ha ha ha It's a great avatar, I must say so myself!!!!!
Well, that's the idea. It's a hell of lot easier to convert people that are already soccer fans into MLS fans than it is to try to convert sports fans into soccer and then MLS fans. The Mexican-American market is a potential goldmine for MLS and I'm glad to see them seriously trying to tap into it. That's one of the best things about being a soccer fan, don't ruin it Truth be told MLS could buy the airtime on all 4 major networks and that would probably still be the case. FFS, the league has gotten as much or more exposure this year than it has in all prior years combined- Rome wasn't built in a day people.
I love Superliga! I just wish Dallas or United were in the final instead of LA. Right now this is looking like an crazt mismatch.
I hear ya. I love it too which is why I more or less flipped when I went to set the DVR to record and the auto switch to get me to the right channel on time and discovered the time and availabilty!
The time isn't a problem for us college kids; it will coincide nicely with my dinner! It's a bummer they are capping in-stadium attendance at 12 500. I'm sure many a college student would be more than happy to scream and yell for 2 hours (since they already are on campus, it doesn't affect parking--guess it would be too logical to have a base $5 student ticket).