That's not what a monopoly is, genius. MLS literally went to court for this... In Fraser v. Major League Soccer, the court ruled that MLS didn't monopolize the sport here, as MLS competes with domestic and international soccer leagues. Yes, Garber has done a good job, probably the best commissioner in American sports (which says a lot coming from how people perceive other sports commissioners here) Not acknowledging Garber's efforts in American soccer is incredibly naive.
He's the best commissioner in sports? Good Lord. Try directing an actual mature US professional sport. The NBA, NFL, and NHL had major issues which have been navigated admiringly. Garber and the MLS investors rode the huge wave of popularity from the 2010 World Cup onward. The guy is an opportunist that has basically admitted in quotes he doesn't care about success in the country's small metros and larger rural cities. Let's just ignore the Garber/SUM relationship, because it's just so embarrassing and suggestive for the federation that its demoralizing.
"Is he an experienced firefighter" is one qualification you left out. As someone else noted, perhaps there was a dwindling pool of candidates willing to take up this position in a flailing organization. The benefits of "turning the ship around" might be great, but the chances of going down with the ship even greater.
You posted, and repeated, in another thread that basketball has WAY more participants globally than soccer. Based entirely on FIBA's and FIFA's self-reporting (with likely very different methodologies, because everyone in the world knows damn well there are more people who kick a soccer ball than bounce a basketball). Where do you get that the WNBA has better tv ratings than MLS? I looked at Wikipedia. The most recent year that the numbers were published there where the WNBA might have gotten close to numbers of viewers of MLS games was 2018 (231k average). I can't tell how many games were shown, but in 2015 there were a total of 10 regular season games shown on tv. TEN. By comparison, in the same year, there were 95 MLS games shown on various cable networks that averaged about 300k viewers. In terms of ad revenue that those networks get, it's not even close surely. And it doesn't take any further venturing into media rights economics to understand that. None of this is to say that MLS and SUM are awesome for the USSF, nor is this statement an agreement that Will Whatshisface is a good or bad hire. I know f*ck all about him other than a few blurbs to talk him up. I just wish Don Garber would get the hell out of the USSF board.
Heres the report that WNBA numbers are well above MLS. I believe it’s also referenced in Wikipedia btw https://sportsarefromvenus.com/2019/07/12/tv-ratings-wnba-fan-attendance-still-lacking/
as to basketball vs soccer, I simply reported what I found. I looked for additional data points (and asked you and others to find any) that refuted the numbers posted but didn’t find any. If you find anything, I’ll happily revise. i was surprised myself by the numbers but it’s hard to argue that the numbers provided by fifa and fiba are unreliable without any evidence just because “everyone knows”.
What is that website? There are no citations for where the info came from. A brief further search turned up a more detailed article (from a similarly "don't know if this is legit" website) here. This article also states the 413k average viewers number that you're basing your argument on. However, it goes further to add way more context than the article you linked--"To begin the 2019 season, the first three WNBA games averaged 413,000 viewers across ESPN2 and ABC – a 64% increase year-over-year from 2018’s first four games on ESPN2." First 3 games of the season had a massive increase over the same in the prior season. That's great for WNBA, but does not mean that WNBA ratings are better than MLS ratings.
The FIFA number only includes those who've played in an organized match. Most of the soccer played in the world is not via "organized match", which surely you'll agree with. From FIBA's website: Over 450 million people play basketball on competition and grassroots level in 2007, but the number of licensed players has also risen drastically since 1992 Clear distinction between FIFA and FIBA's numbers. FIFA only counts "organized matches" and FIBA counts pick-up games and maybe even driveway shooting practice.
Golf, fishing, NASCAR, poker and many other often have higher ratings than MLS. We’re not there yet but really shouldn’t judge growth of the sport on ratings alone.
another good and fair point. I just looked but couldn’t find full 2019 numbers. If we use 2018, the WNBA number is effectively equal to MLS’ numbers (between 250-300k). The WNBA contract is worth $25m/year. What do you think MLS alone is worth?
Hah, wasn't even talking about MLS. The monopoly is SUM. They have been given exclusive, no-bid, marketing rights for decades. Other companies trying to enter the space have been denied access, had approvals slow walked, had to go to court to just show games; and just unable to even offer a bid. The details of the rights deal were never even written down until 2018; just an understanding between Garber and Sunil. Performing regulatory capture of USSF as MLS commissioner is doing a great job for MLS. But, that is not necessarily good for anyone else.
If sports are cancelled for a significant portion of the year, I wonder if SUM would still pay the $30m to the USSF or if they would find a way not to pay it. Even if they did, I’m not sure one year of payment is worth the loss of economics in other years. Seems like very very expensive insurance. that’s assuming the $30m gets paid out, of course.
In China, 300m people play basketball. 300m!!!! That’s more than the total number of fifa’s soccer players. perhaps some of those are unorganized but a lot of them are. here’s an article: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...ake-basketball-worlds-most-popular-sport/amp/
Do you have a source for that? Because SUM was created to find a solution to a problem. Problem: No one wanted 2002 and 2006 World Cup broadcasting rights. Solution: Create a domestic marketing company funded by MLS owners to buy World Cup rights that no one else wanted. That was in 2001, the cycle continued... IMG (SUM's predecessor of U.S. Soccer's partnership) wanted out of U.S. Soccer, as they were losing money and wanted to end the agreement. SUM came in 2004 and bought IMG's agreement with U.S. Soccer. Were there competitive bids for these contracts? Garber: "There certainly was not a competitive bid when we bought the contract from IMG because no one else was interested." "In all subsequent agreements, we have had a traditional Right of First Negotiation clause in our agreements that allows us collectively to renew the agreement before they go to market. This is similar to just about every other commercial representation agreement in our industry, and not just for commercial representation agreements, but also for many commercial and broadcast agencies as well. In short, it is standard practice. If we are going to take the financial risk and hire professional staff, etc., it is typical in the sports business to have the first right to try to agree on continuing the relationship. If we were not able to agree, U.S. Soccer was free to go to market. That’s an incentive for us to pay more, provide more value, etc."