The most recent and most honest assement of this was on BBC. According to BBC half of MLS would be in the (coca-cola) championship, the other half would be in league 1 near the top and one club this year, DC United would be about 17th in the premiership fighting to avoid relegation. That's as of 2006 not 2016.
One problem in the USA is that most professional sports are pretty much corporate puppets used as an advertising tool. Professional sporting events are just one long commercial break! With two 45 minute non-stop halves in soccer - no time for commercials. If corporate America wanted to open their wallets and promote the MLS they would want "TV" time outs which would slow the game down. One World Cup win would do wonders to promote soccer in the USA and to achieve that we need a Eurpean coach to teach us the style of play used in the English Premiership or German Bundesliga. The flowing, deliberate and attacking style of play which the USA and even the MLS does not seem to comprehend.
Yes! MLS can become one of the top leagues of the world in the next 10 to 15 years but it can not do it by itself. The European leagues are big because they compete against each other. Few, in my opinion, would be as big if you take the others away, and the competitions they all participate in. If, and this is a big IF, MLS grows to teams with 5 million to 10 million salary caps, and an average attendance of 15k the league will be close to that target. What MLS would need then are leagues to compete with. (Copa Libertadores: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico all have leagues capable of this) Brazil, Chile and Mexico can all deliver salary caps comparable and viewer-ship comparable to what MLS could deliver. Last but not least, if MLS grows to really represent the US/Canada geographically, in 10 to 15 years you could really see a league of anywhere from 18 to 24 teams. Just think of all the cities hoping for MLS teams and markets in the USL with their own stadiums. Once the US hits that critical mass it will pull those other leagues along and the premier club competition in the world might just be the Copa Libertadores and not the Champions league. The clubs in Mexico and South America have just as much history as those in Europe, and if all those Argentineans and Brazilians could stay home and make the money (Americans too)why would the leave? This is possible, I personally see it happen. If the MLS does not reach this point in the next 10 to 15 years it could really fold. The US audience demands more and will wait if they see improvement, but if it sees stagnation it will walk away.
Distances from Washington DC to London: 3674 miles Barcelona: 4040 Munich: 4246 Rio de Janeiro: 4769 Santiago: 4993 Buenos Aires: 5176 Cn MLS compete in the UEFA cup or Champions League instead of one of those faraway South American competitions?
Has anyone heard of the new chivas DVD coming out soon? I just found this clip on you tube, check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlgSEu_wfhw does anyone have any more info on this? it looks pretty good.
I think so, It has only taken us 10 fast years to start making some kind of profit. When compared to the FMF and the rest of the leagues in Canada and Central America that have been around close to a century and they are barely being recognized. What MLS has done in 10 years has been incredible, The fact of having Red Bull,Chivas and many more coming our way is what will help MLS be one of the top leagues in years to come. Imagine all it would take is for MLS to get rid of the Salary cap and believe me! you will see Red Bull, Jorge Vergara, AEG, Lamar Hunt, Kraft and the rest of owners opening their check book and signing the best players from all over the world. No other league has done so much in ten years, We should be proud of ourselves.
All for good reasons at present but a little eurocentric and even american focused predictions. An Everton football club director said recently he expects in five years to be competing with the Chinese league for transfer of top foreign players. china,japan and korea connected will be a serious league. they could buy all the £3-5million pound south americans who do not go to MLS. There AFC champions league will grow,they now have the australian market as part of asia as well. keep up with global shifts.The world is moving east.like economics one day. european population getting old.may shift from soccer to ten pin bowling. football is part of this cultural youth demographic shift.remember the car industry 20 years ago.the japanese make cars ? number one sport in China(200 million plus TV audience,100 plus sss),number four in US(current espn ratings ? 7 sss) so i would say potentially China league top four in 5-10 years.Top 2 league in 15 years Go figure !
well that only an assumption that could never happen! The same can happen to MLS aswell. Its hard to say No to America! Especially if in the future MLS does have the money to pay big players.
MLS will grow and do well for all the reasons cited. Europe is top but for how long ?10-15 years rapid changes are plausible. but some of those assumptions on asia are still valid. no one has mentioned them on the whole post. check the TV numbers and number of players in china,india,australia not to mention japan and korea.Throw in the beckham rule and who will have the top league. A small bet China national team gets to a World cup semi as quick or slow as USA. soccer has got a great future in the US,10 year growth is impressive but in a way as soccer interest increases it shows the USA have become more open to outside influence not so islolated in sport.i think they call it cultural soft power.
Leagues around the world struggle and soccer is the primary sport. In the US its football, basketball, baseball, hockey, Nascar, Golf, tennis and so much more but MLS is standing its ground and starting to become sucessful. Does Chinese soccer have to compete with all the sports listed above? I think the answer is no.
"Leagues around the world struggle and soccer is the primary sport. In the US its football, basketball, baseball, hockey, Nascar, Golf, tennis and so much more but MLS is standing its ground and starting to become sucessful. Does Chinese soccer have to compete with all the sports listed above? I think the answer is no" We are making predictions.Er .remember no one actualy knows what will happen in 15 years !.Your crystal ball is just different to mine. The title of the post was not called would MLS be one of the top... and bigger than chinese soccer if MLS did not have six really big other sports to compete with.
I came across this site some time ago, and figured it might be relevant to this discussion. I don't know how valid it is, nor can I vouch for the validity of the source. I did find it interesting that whoever this is completely dimissed the MLS. I also find the order of the top three questionable. http://www.iffhs.de/?b6e28fa3002f71504e52d17f7370eff3702bb1c2bb16
No - Not one of the top Euro leagues and Argentina and Brazil - Not in richness of salaries and quality of players across most teams - It just won't have the depth and quantity of a system of youth academies to develop lots of great American talent or the really big money to buy foreign talent - Besides lack of big resources will be the same basic structure of all other US pro sports leagues - MLS will always have all their teams in the league year to year, with salary caps and with no Promo/Relegation - No one (or few) rich team(s) will be allowed spend tons of money to be the best - Nothing like Chelsea is in EPL or Bayern Munich is in BL But I think in 15 years MLS could be equivalent to Mexico and secondary leagues in Europe And YES - Competing of the very best athletes against the money in pro baseball, tennis and to some extent basketball will always be a hindrance - Football and most basketball athletes aren't and just never will be physically appropriate for soccer, but baseball and tennis athletes are
335,805,000 is the projected US population in America in 2020. http://www.npg.org/popfacts.htm A nueva generation poised to shape pop culture http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/15427062.htm The census of 2002 showed that there are at least 37.4 million legal latinos living in america right now, it will surely be higher by 2020. http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/p20-545.pdf#search="us mexican population" The recent FIBA basketball tournament held in Japan this year reminded me that the world is catching up, America took home a bronze I don't know if MLS will be the top league by then, but the US population will be bigger by then too. The current US population is about 300 million now, and 3 million MLS fans are projected to attend games for the whole season. If the current trend was to stay where it is then in 2020 will draw 3.35 MLS fans, but with the new stadiums being built, rising hispanic population, more MLS tv coverage, possible good world cup standings, david beckham/rolanado, canadians, HDTV, better quality mlslive.tv, and eurosnobs converting, etc. So by 2020 if you factor these other possibilities you might easily see 5 million MLS fans attended games for the season, that means most of stadiums will be close to full capacity. The future looks bright for MLS and I hope it does not implode but explode. I want MLS to overtake the NFL someday and guys from Europe will want to play for our leagues.
In terms of competing for transfer fees I thing think, right but in terms are quaintly of play no way Jose! The Chinese program is light years beside the US and most of the Americas, K & J league are doing well but they alone can't left the AFC. I would not rate AFC club wise better then concafac, they may pull down some pricey transfer fees pricey transfer but that in and of itself does not mean they are better or worse then anyone.
the arab leagues spend more money in brazilian players than east asia leagues, except japan. Saudi Arabia, katar, Emirates Arab United and others leagues have some good brazilian players too. I think the future is expansion and dissolution of good players in a dozen of leagues. may some national leagues could merge to bring some economical power. for example a central america unified league, other caribean unified league could create 4 good leagues in the concacaf, with 4 team qualifiyng to CCC
Let me preface my commentary by saying that MLS is here to stay because the football market in this country is big enough to make it viable. I don't think anyone can deny that support for the sport is growing steadily every year. I don't think we should ask ourselves whether it will improve. As a young, growing league it will improve whether we like it or not. The real question is,"What measures can be applied to spur its growth in a significant way?" Increasing the salary cap and signing expensive foreign players might improve the level of play in the short term, but it would come at the expense of sacrificing domestic talent. The development of young talent will be the key to improving the product on the field. MLS teams need their own farm systems where they can breed and nurture their own talent. Once the infrastructure is laid down, the teams need to reach deeply into the Hispanic, African-American and Suburban communities for prospective talent. A highly organized and sophisticated scouting system to identify the best players will be crucial. With quality coaching and a clear, structured pathway from the youth academy to the first team, I sincerely believe that MLS could produce the type of players that would allow it to compete with the best teams in the world. Can they meet this objective in 10-15 years? Yes, but only if the teams get seriously moving on youth development.
well it'll probably never get above EPL, la liga, serie a, bundesliga, or french league under that? who knows. its totally possible in the future we have a heck of a way to go but it could happen and here to hoping it will
It cannot be one of the top leagues in the world unless commercials cease to be the major source of revenue for cable and network television. An MLS broadcast simply does not have enough commercial time to warrant a multibillion dollar tv deal like the NFL. I don't think Americans will ever pay to watch soccer like they do in England, when they are so accustomed to watching "the big four" for free. The NFL is top dog, but only a small minority of fans pay for NFL ticket on direct tv. Maybe in the future when all channels are streamed over the internet, but it will be a long time before a true broadband infrastructue is in place, especially in rural areas.