MLS 2014 TV Thread (Ratings, contracts etc)

Oh, I have no delusions. The top five teams would boss MLS. But the bottom 10 would get killed. Portland and Toronto would probably make the top half of the table in Belgium.

 

That's factually true, but also spin. Another way to describe the situation is as follows:

• MLS sells to Anderlecht (Kljestan, Najar), a perennial contender that has the most financial clout in Belgium by some margin.
• Vancouver once signed a DP from the Belgian second division, although it was a total disaster and the player was completely unsuccessful in MLS

 

MLS sold to Belgium, but only to Anderlecht recently (as far as I can recall). Anderlecht is not representative of Belgian league top-to-bottom. They won the last 3 titles and 4 out of the last 5. I would say that they are slightly better overall, but not by far. There are Anderlecht and Gent, but there are also Osterloo and Kortrijk. I dont think that they are better than Montreal and Chicago.

 

U15 leagues teams in Samoa are better than the Fire.

 

MacDonald (Chicago) was also signed as a DP from the Belgian 2nd tier.

Mix Diskerud couldn't hack it at Gent but was set for a DP contract with Portland and then Columbus.

 

MacDonald came from the Belgium 1st tier (Beerschot) and was also a total bust. He is not an example that advances the argument that the Belgian league is better than MLS.

I think it is tough to judge Diskerud's stint at Gent because he had negotiated a release for Olympic qualifying. He got a few starts in February, but then skipped out on March. When got back, he had lost his place. It was the stretch run and Gent wasn't particularly invested on him since he was only on loan, so he spent most of the rest of the season on the bench.

It certainly wasn't a highlight of Diskerud's career, but it's hard to draw conclusions from a short, chaotic sample.

 

The average accross all networks is 371k.

 

*sigh*

TeamA wins over TeamB by 4-1.
Then TeamB wins TeamC by 3-0.
And finally, TeamC wins TeamA by 2-0.

So how would you rank these teams?

 

Seattle?

 

MLS couldn't ask for a much better lead-in with the college football playoff selection show featuring close contention among multiple schools for the last spot.

 

No kidding. Certainly will help with the casual soccer fan, though the "Soccer iz gay!11!" crowd that populates the college football demo is beyond help.

 

Though they made the announcement almost 2.5 hours before the MLS Cup coverage starts. I bet many (including me) are flipping over to the NFL now.

 

I Know on Unimas after the game they have a Liga MX Double Header.

 

Did anyone see ESPN promoting the MLS Cup final at all. I watch ESPN a lot and don't recall seeing a single ad or promotion for it.
Just curious.

 

not many actual commercials, spots or even mentions during sportscenter...
A couple of mentions during actual sporting events though...
we shall see if anything changes going into next season...(doubt it)
curious to see what if anything fox does on their end..

 

Saw plenty of commercials during ESPN shows of MLS Cup. Never once saw it mentioned during the week on SportsCenter, which I didn't watch all that much.

 

ESPN didn't even bother putting the result on their ftont page. Nor is it the #1 story on ESPNFC. IF ESPN wants to treat the product this way, why did they pay for it...

 

You mean other than the fact that its one of their 5 top rotating stories on the main window of their home page right now (and its been in the rotation since their pregame story yesterday morning)?

 

Well Univision/Unimas did have a lot of commercials about it, and a big pre-game show (where I assume they also talked about the upcoming Liga MX games).

 

The 2014 MLS Cup delivered a 0.6 overnight HH US rating on ESPN, which is an increase compared to the overnight numbers for the 2013 MLS Cup.

It’s important to note that the 2013 MLS Cup was the least-watched MLS Cup ever with a 0.5 overnight HH US rating and an average viewing audience of 505,000, so while the 2014 MLS Cup TV rating saw a boost, it was from a very poor 2013 number. To put things into perspective, the 2012 MLS Cup — between LA Galaxy and Houston — had a better HH US rating (0.7) and average viewing size than the 2014 final with an average viewing audience of 797,000.


Read more at http://worldsoccertalk.com/2014/12/...se-in-viewership-on-espn/#SlSQ3t5Rop2cpwDz.99

 

Well the positive angle, is that MLS has at least stopped the tailspin from the last few years, maybe 2013 was when we hit bottom in terms of over all TV ratings, and little by little it will go up (going from MSNBC to FS may put a little dent on it, we will see).

 

I am going to guess that this MLS Cup had high ratings on Unimas, so do not despair.

 

Well it did have higher ratings in Unimas last year.

2013 MLS Cup
(KC vs RSL) Sat 4:00pm 12/7/2013
505k on ESPN, 514k on Unimas

 

- MLS Cup 2013: Hooterville v Mayberry, I mean Kansas City v Real Salt Lake

- MLS Cup 2014: 2 of the largest metropolitan areas in the country.