Kids and growing up MLS....

I'm 16 and I watch MLS all the time now but when the league started I wasn't really into soccer at all. I really didn't even watch soccer that much at all until 2 years ago when I stumbled across the world cup on ESPN2, I remember seeing that the US would be playing somebody at 2 in the morning and it was summer and I didn't have to get up the next day so I took a little nap and watched it and I immediately fell in love with the team not knowing about how they pretty much sucked in 1998. I knew about the women winning the world cup and 99 and figured the men were just as good because the sport I had been attatched to previously, gymnastics, was like that, the women and the men were pretty much the best in the world with 2 or 3 other teams.

I didn't watch MLS until 2003 because the day the world cup ended I was at camp for 3 weeks but while I was there I was pretty much talking about the WC constantly. I'd heard about MLS during the WC but didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it and I went into some chatroom on AOL and the minute I got in there people were just saying MLS sucks and it's a bunch of old guys trying to play so I thought it was a league for some 40 something year old guys. Of course I looked it up later on during the off season and saw what it really was and I watched a few games late in the season but still mainly looked for the international games because I thought those were more exciting and it annoyed me that ESPN2 didn't show all the games and every week it was like trying to adjust to watching a whole new team with players I didn't know except for the few national team players on them.

This year has really been my first year really intently following the league, probably because I started watching when the season started which was a lot easier than starting to watch in august and being all confused about stuff. Now my friends are making comparissions to me being obsessed with MLS now to my gymnastics obsession when I was 8,9, and 10. When I watch the games now I wish that I had grown up with soccer, not that my gymnastics background doesn't help every now and then and if I had grown up with it I would have been one of those annoying kids with the horns.

 

And to top it all off you're from the same town as the crotch grabbing watch pointer. What a life!

 

My 9 year old son has been playing soccer for 3 years and it's his dream to play in MLS. I took him to his first game this season and he loved it. We tivo MLS wrap so he can see the highlights. My point is though, that from his perspective, MLS is as relevant as any other professional sports league. In fact, he has no interest in baseball.

 

Greatest game in MLS history, period.

 

I grew up playing and loving soccer because of my dad. My family is Nigerian so naturally football runs in our blood


Anyways, I was 13 when the world cup came here to the U.S., and my dad and I flew down to Dallas to watch Nigeria spank Bulgaria 2-0 in front of a sold out crowd in the Cotton Bowl


When I was 15 the first year of MLS started and for a birthday present, my dad bought me season tickets to the Columbus Crew (That's when I was living in Ohio and was an extremely hardcore crew fan). And from that moment on my affixation with MLS began.

 

Well, I'm 22. I watched the first MLS Cup, and the second. Enjoyed both. That was back before I really got into the internet (no home connection until 1997), so I didn't keep track of the league. But it is a little odd to me to think of the US without a major professional soccer league, even if it is still at the level it is now.

Sykotyk

 

I was 11 when the first MLS cup was played, and though the internet wasnt around then, having a pro-league piqued my interest.

Now Im a total MLS junkie..

 

The internet most certainly was around then! Just because you hadn't found it doesn't mean it wasn't there.

 

I meant to say it wasnt like it is now, anyway. Not by a longshot

 

Im 20 and have been watching MLS since day 1. I can still remember watching the first MLS game and Wynalda's goal ( i think i was in 5th grade at the time). Either way, I follow MLS more than any other professional sport and have been since i can remember.

Although I supppose i was one of the youth soccer types that MLS targets, I still am concerned about the amount of marketing dollars MLS uses to attract soccer-moms and fams. As a revs fan this really strikes close to home...i.e. the "give your kids soccer smiles" campaign. The league needs to attract young fans...no doubt...but not little kids. Soccer is more popular among those in their teens and 20's than ever before IMHO, and MLS could cash in if it learned how to create an exciting, dramatic atmosphere...rather than that of a kiddie carnival.

 

Kids? You want kids?

Just wait 'til April 16, 2005.

The average age of the crowd at Wiggles concerts is older than the average age of the crowd at Blitzz games. Higher prices at RSL games will push the average crowd age a little closer to puberty. But not by much.







Please.

Last year's Galaxy Tank Job was the Shemp of Galaxy Tank Jobs. (MLS Cup '96 = The Curly of Galaxy Tank Jobs, CONCACAF Club Champions Cup '97 = the Moe of Galaxy Tank Jobs.)

Now being down 2-0 and having an defender who was called up from the A League a week before score a natural hat trick on national (Univision) TV in 10 minutes that eliminates your opponents from a playoff spot; now THAT'S a memorable game.

 

The only game I can actually compare to that game was the 2001 UEFA Cup Final. Liverpool 5 Alaves 4. Althought the goal that won it was quite cruel. Own goal...defensive header flick to the back post...brutal...

There was also a game in the Champs League that was similar to the Quakes v Galaxy game. Barca v Chelsea in the '99/'00 year. Chelsea was up 3-1 after the first leg. Barca came back, sent it to extra time and ended up winning 5-1. Similar. It put Barca in the semis which they lost to Valencia. Valencia then lost to Real Madrid in the final...for the 8th!!! That was when we had a balanced squad...

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/AllTimeStatistics/Season=1999/round=1288/index.html

 

While there could be/ prolly already have been several threads regarding this subject there are a few points worth noting. The overabundance of young kids in the stadium on gameday is not too big a deal, if you really care about the team. I notice it, but once kickoff begins my focus is on the field, not the kids around me. Having said that, where it does become a turn off is when it gets awkward because you have parents looking at you funny just for being a lil loud and rowdy (like fans are supposed to be). Its frustrating just because you know that generally they couldn't care less about the team's season and neither could their kids. Its a night out with the fam...nothing more.

Now im not saying taking your family to a soccer game isn't a great thing to do...hell, my parents did it for me and ill do it for mine (not to mention any tickets sold help the cause) but the main focus of ticket sales shouldn't be this apathetic crowd. In fact, the best way to adertise this league is through ads like MLS' "its right here" ads with clips of the supporters groups in action. Thats the type of publicity that would convert non-MLS soccer fans to MLS fans. Those who ignore MLS do so because they think it seems bush league...having ads that are obviously directed towards little kids and families perpetuates this image American soccer fans want excitement and passion in the stadium...just like we see all over the globe Little kids usually don't provide too much of either. Again, this all goes back to MLS being relatively out of touch with its hardcore fans...a subject that has been beaten worse than a dead hooker in Ben Affleck's trailer on these boards.

 

Ditto.

 

You gotta have kids at the games, because then MLS will be one of their fond childhood memories. Today's baseball fans got into it because their dads took them out to the ball-game when they were kids. That's how we are going to get the next batch of MLS fans.

 

I completely understand the thought process behind targeting young kids and building a fanbase, but what happens when they go from being 10 or so to 17 or 18. They end up going to games and noticing that the majority of other "fans" are merely children. When you are the young kid, this certainly doesn't occur to you, but a few years later, you notice. Its a good idea to build a fanbase starting from when they are little but you have to be able to keep them, especially when they are older and are in control of the money they spend. This very thing has happened to me. I've been going to games since I was 12, but I didnt' start to notice the amount of young kids until only a couple years ago when i started being older than most of 'em. Targeting young kids to build a future fanbase is one thing, but making kids your target audience for years upon years is another. Not to mention, when parents brought their kids to baseball games it wasn't cause the whole marketing scheme of the franchise was concerned with getting parents to bring their children, instead it was the parents own idea to bring their kids to see the game they loved. Convincing parents to bring their kids to a game is a lot different than parents really just wanting to expose their children to a sport.