I think MLS should get some lawyers to look over its contract with ESPN and try to find a loophole in it and termanate it and either sign a new contract with ESPN or go to another station. AEG/MLS should say "u want to our rights to the world cup well then u show mls games AND promote the hell out of MLS. Ive seen many threads on the mls on tv topic and somebody will say "theyd rather show bowling then soccer" and somebody will fire back and say bowling gets much better ratings. Well i watch espn almost 80% of the time and i see a hell of a lot of bowling comercial and not one soccer one except during games. hell i hate bowling and dont even think its a sport but i can name PBAers like Walter Ray Williams and Norm Duke off the top of my head. So theres a reason bowling gets better rating then soccer. They should demand free or at least cheaper air time for their commercials and other ************ like that. The world cup has shown it can garner high ratings. Take the away from espn and i think they'll give in
i think we need to just ditch espn. abc doesnt think soccer is worth their time so whatever. fox would be our best choice to most peoples agreement since we have all these regional fox stations fox sports world/espanol and then the fox national network.
Break a perfectly valid contract, brilliant idea. Oh, that loophole part, should be easy, Disney is a pretty small corporation who have no experience with this, should be able to find one no problem.
Fow would be good with all the regional coverage and I assume their air time would be cheaper with commercials.Also we could still have soccer saturday games of the week they could just quit having double headers or move their games to sunday
World Cup soccer is a different animal from MLS soccer or Premiership soccer. Unless you have evidence pointing to over one billion people around the world willing to watch the MLS Cup. I don't suppose you have a clue as to where MLS would go after leaving ABC/ESPN? CBS? Sure, once they've had their fill of NCAA, NFL and golf. Which will be, like, never. NBC? You try to tell them how sports on television is a big money maker for them. Or how about Fox? Listen, if Fox proper ever got its hands on soccer then we should all kill ourselves. I'm getting sick of watching that jet take off from the carrier. Just show me the damn baseball game already.
ESPN doesn't have to promote MLS. MLS buys time on ESPN and keeps the advertising revenue. It's like an infomercial. ESPN isn't obligated to promote the games at all, and has no interest in doing so since it gets more advertising revenue from bowling than it does from Soccer Saturday, even if bowling has lower ratings. ESPN would love it if AEG/SUM walked away. Then ESPN would keep its World Cup rights (which it already has a license to now) and get rid of Soccer Saturdays, which ESPN hates having to air anyways.
Re: Re: AEG/MLS TV deal with ESPN I was refering to the fact that AEG/MLS has the english language rights to the world cup
No, they wouldn't. There's a reason why half the league's teams don't show their local telecasts on a Fox Sports Net affiliate.
Re: Re: AEG/MLS TV deal with ESPN I think Pething said it best above. You want a good contract for MLS? Easy, find a bunch of people with Neilsen boxes/diaries/whatever and convince them to watch every week, and convince everyone you know who doesn't have one to go to the game in person. Then, when the next contract comes up, networks will be a bit more interested. Until then, be happy with the situation we have, 2 games on live (most of the time) every week, plus virtually every USA men's/women's friendly and World Cup Qualifier on live. It could easily be worse.
Remember when the league's national broadcast rights were still up in the air, how Fox, NBC and CBS were all banging on the door for the opportunity to broadcast matches? You should go to MLS headquarters in New York and check it out - you can still see the dents on the door from all the banging. Leave ESPN/ABC? For whom? Idiots.
Off the top of my head, I'm guessing Fox, NBC, CBS, UPN, TNN/Spike, The Discovery Channels, etc. etc. Oh, and if we were on Fox, most of us would have real problems because, you know, the local fox sports affiliates might show something like the local Major League Baseball team rather than the San Jose / Columbus match of the week. Here's one reason some of us would like to see games on ESPN rather than even ABC: ABC affiliates in some regions will not show soccer. I missed good chunks of vital qualifiers because the local affiliate was contractually obligated to public service programs in the time slot. ESPN doesn't present that problem.
Having just emerged from my USMNT performance induced coma, I'd just like to add that this is a freaking stupid idea and that anyone with a hint of common sense would know better than to suggest it. God, did we suck last night, or what? Have a nice day.
Re: Re: Re: AEG/MLS TV deal with ESPN Yeah, come on, guy. What are you thinking? Nobody should ever want more than what they have. Do you hear the baseball players crying for more? Nooooo. Be a good little fan and watch both games (that's if you got FSW) and all those Nat's games on (well, except for when they're playing 3 of the top teams in the world) and stop complaining. Because hey, we should all be a little more complacent...
Re: Re: Re: Re: AEG/MLS TV deal with ESPN Actually, for about $50 extra, some of us get nearly every game. Dreaming's one thing. Hallucinating is another. And if you think there are networks begging to show MLS and National team matches AT THIS POINT IN HISTORY, you're hallucinating.
Re: Re: Re: Re: AEG/MLS TV deal with ESPN I would love a NFL-style TV deal with wall-to-wall soccer on Saturday, one or two matches on Wednesday nights, plus all major international tournaments, and while we're at it live coverage of England, Spain, Italy, Brazil, etc. Except that the TV ratings for all that except for the World Cup are virtually zero. So, like I said above, get Neilsen families to watch, and non-Neilsen familes to go to games, and the problem will be solved. Until then, it's just not going to happen, despite how much you and I and everyone else here want it to happen. As much as I would like it not to be, it's the truth.