I would assume the big 4 EPL Liga Serie A Bundesliga I would add Ligue 1 to make it top 5 Brazilerato for top 6? They do have state championships which are pretty cool I think. They do not have the same schedule as the big 5, but hey, I think MLS has the correct schedule for the weather in North America. Also LOL at Scottish league being a big league!
Of the 12 top Association Football Leagues by average attendence per game (MLS is #12, that's why I stopped there) 5 have straight double-round robins, 7 have some other format. It's clear to me (and was the point of my Scotland comment) that there's no dearth of Soccer fans all over the world who don't seem to mind having a League system that doesn't emulate England. I'm reminded of the Baron's Law, which states that the ratio of people discussing things through text to people discussing things through sound is inversely proportionate to how important that thing is. In layman's terms, if only the Internet cares about something, it's not something anyone should care about
Like Soccer in the USA. To be fair the most popular [soccer] league in the USA uses playoffs and a split season.
Bump. I always get a good laugh from the supposed MLS "supporters" who seem only to be able to complain about how irrelevant our league is because it doesn't prescribe to the precepts of the EPL, La Liga, blah blah. And as far as disenfranchising those fans who are put off by the structure of our league ... it's not like the teams are playing baseball once they take the field. The game is the same ... even if it has different wrapping paper. People get so spun up over the off-the-field aspects of MLS that they become incapable of enjoying the league for what it is ... which, having just spent the last week watching AFC Champions League matches, is pretty damn good if you ask me. It's like the geeky guy who has a cute girlfriend with a respectable rack, a decent can, who you always have a good time with, thinking that he can do better for himself when he sees a supermodel walking down the street. Wanna have some fun? Next time you're with your girlfriend, ask her, "Why can't you be more like her?" Then duck for cover.
I think it comes down to image for a lot of American soccer fans. Supporting Man United, Barca, Chelsea, Real Madrid et al. makes them feel part of something big, something global. To them MLS is an inferior league that doesn't operate the "real" way. I'm not a Euro basher. I've gone to matches in Holland and Germany (very different experiences) and I follow the Bundesliga as much as possible. But I also support the MLS and want it to progress on its own path.
i think he was exaggerating. But his point that MLS has alienated a lot of soccer fans is true. I don't know if it's 2/3 though. Who knows what % of soccer fans in the country have rejected MLS because it's too "Americanized"
i would do two things. I would scrap the conferences and go to single table and I would implement a 4 team group playoff. so going by last seasons standings these teams would make the playoff LA Galaxy NY Red Bull Real Salt Lake FC Dallas It wouldn't be a traditional playoff. It would be more like group play that they use in the champions league. All four teams play each other home and away and the two teams with the most points will play in a one game final at a neutral site.
I do not think the format of the table, playoffs, a double round robin, or anything else traditionally European would do a damn thing to improve MLS. Those are just cosmetic changes. MLS would be a dramatically better league if the average player was making $300-$400k. I think the buzz created by a DP has value, but it concentrates a lot of money in two or three players which squeezes the rest of the roster. It's not as sexy as bringing over Henry or Beckham, but across the board it's a higher level of quality.
First I would get rid of playoffs, most teams don't care about SS they just want to get a playoff spot.
The thread is about improving MLS, not "What would you do to make Major League Lacrosse the Fifth most popular sport in America?"
But that's what the MLS owners fear. You raise the cap and end up making the Joey Gjertsens of the world richer. If they could be convinced by raising the cap a certain amount that you could acquire a better quality of non-DP foreign player and American abroad, and this would greatly raise the level of play, then it might happen. Until then they fear teams overpaying the like of Andy Iro.
1. fully funded acadamies running from u8 to u18. Also subsidize other local teams(coaching/travel costs etc..) up to u15 pre-academy level to increase the competition for the mls academy slots. Import as many foreign youth coaches as needed, especially at first(make sure they have american apprentices though). Essentially I think youth soccer in america needs to professionalize. At times I still find the quality of MLS to be lacking. Too many simplistic technical errors or the general lack of attacking dynamism amongst the players. I equate this to their amateurish? youth training. Ive been a fan of MLS since 2005 and rarely do I see elongated build up play with quick exchanges and precise passing. I aint asking for barca level stuff just basic build up play. I understand this may take a while to bear fruit but i throughly believe in this approach. A consistent source of cheap talent will be great for the leagues stability in the long run. Who picks up the bill for all this? no idea Can anybody think of a reasonable way to finance this? 2. I got nothing... they already have me hooked with the Union
I understand that. I thunk the dynamic in MLS is strange at times in that you have million dollar players lined up with players on 40k there's a huge gap in quality. You could put a pretty good starting lineup on the field with Beckham's salary.
I've never bought into the argument that soccer fans in this country don't watch MLS because of the quality of play. if fans of sports rejected certain leagues because of quality of play then no one would watch college sports where the quality is so much inferior than the pros. i think the way the league is structured is a major factor in attracting soccer fans. I don't mind some kind of playoff (4 or 6 teams out of 18 sounds ok) but when the league goes the other way and adds 10 teams to the playoffs my instinct is to just stop caring about the league because in my opinion it so diminishes the regular season. I don't watch the NBA or the NHL for the same reason. If MLB adds another round of playoffs I'll probably care less about the MLB too. I may be in the minority but to me how a league is structured is very important.
I think that for a crowded sports entertainment market place the structure makes a big difference because if one league does something that particularly bugs someone he or she has so many other options to choose from that he or she can easily ignore that specific league or support without having much of a void. I think MLS is definitely making a mistake in having 10 teams in the playoffs for the reason you described that the regular season becomes more of a yawner if so many teams make it in, which I think bugs intelligent fans enough that it overall hurts MLS. An intelligent fan realizes that the devaluation of the regular season product means there is less value in paying attention to the regular season, which I think is where most of the money is earned. I think your assertion that quality of play doesn't matter, though, is wrong. Its not a hurdle that can't be overcome, but it makes a big difference for the many Americans who don't have a local MLS side to support. If following the league means television watching, in many cases its just as easy to watch an EPL game as it is to watch an MLS game. In many cases after watching an entire MLS game I'm pretty unsatisfied at the overall level quality of play on the field.
How is that different than any other top league in Europe? What does Messi and CR7 make compared to the guys playing for the 2 clubs that got relegated from La Liga? In fact it's the same in every professional NA sport.
I think the difference is that in la liga you have clubs filled with super stars playing clubs filled with players a notch or two down. In MLS you have a couple teams with a couple of players individually making more than the rosters of half the league. A player like Beckham or Henry depends on the 40k player for his performance. There's a huge gap in quality. I understand the value of a super star, but I also look at the number of players like David Ferrara or Javier Morales you can pay with Beckham's salary alone and it seems to me that you can make a more subtle, but larger impact on the level of play.