money - money - money the potential market for Liga MX in the US is huge - is the potential market for MLS in Mexico similar? - that sort of merger could also cut out a number of historic clubs in Mexico which will be tough for Mexican fans to swallow
Probably after I'm gone, but the amount of money floating around sports post-pandemic eventually will lead to regional "super leagues" in Europe and North America. The North American variant will have one or two Canadian teams, some former MLS teams and some former Liga MX teams. The rest of us, and that includes DC, will subsist on scraps in some sort of "premier" domestic league. Similar in Europe. You probably will see "lower" regional leagues in Europe, like the remnants in Belgium, Netherlands and western Germany thrown together after the top teams are plucked into a season long "Champions' League". Don't know about SA or Asia, but probably something similar in SA, but a bit later.
The basic problem is that Liga MX teams haven’t drawn well in CONCACAF Champions League games and in international friendliest. In DC, it would make more financial sense for MLS to merge with the best Central American teams.
Liga MX is already the most watched football league on US television. The main difference in a NA super league is that these fans would watch the Mexican teams in person when they are on the road in the US but most of that revenue would go to the US & Canadian teams. The Mexican teams wouldn't get the same advantage. I don't see why Mexican teams would submit to this.
So, you’re suggesting that MLS should attempt to balance its books by attracting away team fans instead of growing its base organically at the local level? And, let’s not forget that, in a merged Liga MX/MLS super league, D.C. United would start out by being relegated to the 2nd or 3rd division if this North American Super League setup involves pro/rel. and, if this new super league doesn’t involves pro/rel, there would be so many teams (and so much mediocrity) that the economic impact of a merger would be blunted.
This is a cool idea that I'd watch. DCU's current ownership group would never be a part of this super league though.
Again, I think that it would help some MLS teams in some MLS cities put butts in the seats with opposing team fans and would probably increase television numbers across the board. But, it wouldn't help D.C. United much because our immigrant population comes almost entirely from Central America. Good grief, for a lot of MLS cities every game would be like the Nationals and Orioles games against the Yankees and the Red Sox with the most obnoxious away team fans imaginable taking over stadiums. The only rational way to go about a Liga MX/MLS merger would be a three division league with 54 teams overall with pro/rel between the divisions. Each of the two top divisions would have 9 Liga MX teams and 9 MLS teams. The third division would have 12 MLS (the full expansion compliment up to 30 teams) and 6 Mexican taken from the worst of Liga MX's first division and the best of the Mexican second division teams. What kind of attendance could D.C. United imaginably have in as a probable candidate for the third New North American Soccer League division playing entirely against the dregs of MLS and lesser Mexican teams? With our current ownership, we'd be the Ipswich Town of North America. On the other hand, the New NASL's top division would be composed of crackerjack teams and would telecast compelling games every week. Arguably, the new league would be showcasing the best soccer in the Western Hemisphere every weekend. It probably be just as interesting as NBCSN's Premiership and Fox Sport's (or is it ESPN's) Bundesliga weekend selections. Choose your poison.
Figuring out a compelling league structure between MLS and LigaMX was never going to be the big challenge. Sorting out a revenue sharing model that makes sense for the top end Mexican teams & ambitious MLS teams that allows them to field competitive rosters while at the exact same time providing immediate term through mid term revenue stream security for those 2nd & 3rd division teams that is in line with what MLS has been providing and provide the long term growth and franchise valuation for the bottom tier clubs, because that might only be enough to bring the all the owners to the table, forget actually making this deal. I've never been against pro/rel, but the above conditions are probably only the minimum for getting a conversation started that the lawyers and bean counters could agree on to preserve their owner's current investment and future investment growth.
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020/12/21/real-salt-lake-legend-kyle-beckerman-announces-retirement This is a player I always liked, I would loved to have him at DCU
Former Georgetown coach Keith Tabatznik had him as a youth player in the Maryland ODP, so DC United had a chance to grab him early.
CONI (Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano), the maximum sport authority in Italy, swapped the verdict that originally gave Juve a 3-0 win against Napoli when the guests did not show up in Turin to play the game, as they were stopped by local Naples health authorities from leaving the region because of Covid cases. Napoli was also given back the penalty point the soccer federation assigned to them, while Juve obviously lost the 3 points of the 3-0 win. The game will actually have to be played in the next weeks or months.
Yankee Stadium Parking Lot Woes Block Soccer, Cost Taxpayers Millions https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/12/7/22159981/yankee-stadium-parking-lot-woes-block-soccer-field-goal
Joventus is one step away from closing on FC Dallas academy product Bryan Reynolds, for an €8 mln transfer fee. The player should then being temporarly "parked" at Cagiari until the end of the season, as the club does not have any non-EU players spots left for this season.
puzzling - they are bunched up with two other clubs only one point apart - does management expect them to be ten points above everybody else?
Nothing that will beguile the DCU FO anytime soon, fear not. (Perhaps the newly-dubbed DCU Prez of Biz Ops will sprinkle just the right pixie-dust that's long been needed)
Not to mention that he advanced also in UCL and that he reached the UCL final a couple of months ago. I think he lost part of the locker room and also the kind of football the team is playing right now is not very convincing (for their FO standards) but honestly I think in this moment where they play every 3 days or so, very few teams around are playing a somewhat appealing football to watch (maybe effective yes, but not over entertaining). But Tuchel said in an interview to a newspapaer that at PSG it's not only about football, there's a lot else involved (lot of politic from what I understood)
I read about PSG firing a successful manager and think about our owners sticking with Ben Olsen for ten largely undistinguished years. What an enormous cultural divide!