Yeh - point made. I'm not - of course - saying "get rid of the boards", I'm saying move them back a bit... For the MLS to succeed it will need both the commercial TV money AND the fans at the grounds - actually the two are quite intertwined.
Like the positioning of the boards is going to bring in the masses and build up the "atmosphere" -- give me a break.
Definetly not. But look at the time we do get, it's few and far between. Which is a real slap in the face considering some of the absolute garbage that airs on Saturday afternoons when they could be showing a MLS game.
They just have to move those boards or the terrorists (and RSL) will win and we might even get stuck in a terrible civil war overseas, have the over-riding concern at our Justice Department be politics, see gasoline go over $3.00 a gallon, have a former male cheerleader running for reelection beat a bona fide former college soccer player for President and our Men's National Soccer Team might even be forced to play two tournaments this summer with an interim coach! Move the boards for AMERICA!
Well, yeah. The only reason professional spectator sports even exist today on a large scale is because of advertising dollars.
The EPL is awash in massive cash mostly due to television revenue and I have never seen a match with even picture in picture adverstising during the run of play. And no the networks here just don't 'get' that.
When the audience is there - those creative people in TV will figure out how to make money off an American Match.
I agree. In the UK the TV company that shows the premier league (SKY) - basically owns the league. Sky is fully commercial (like in the US) but they always show the football in full with no interuptions. Commercials at half time - sure - but the soccer is shown in full. Sky is owned by Rupert Mudoch who also owns Fox. When the US scene gets big enough I'm sure Fox can sort out a way of making a soccer channel pay. It might not pay as much as Superbowl Sunday - but it will still be able to have a good healthy turnover.