After the recent MLS cup ratings news. I think it's officially over for soccer in this country. We have to stop trying to make it happen. Just have to accept the truth.
What exactly is "linear" tv? Supposedly its viewership was down by half. Are they excluding streaming?
It's a silly premise to start with, but if we're talking about MLS Cup viewership specifically, I can add my anecdotal experience. I watched MLS Cup after maybe only watching a handful of MLS games earlier in the season/playoffs. I just wasn't motivated enough to get the season pass or keep track of when other games might be on a channel I get on Fubo. It was kind of random that I watched MLS Cup. I saw somewhere that it was on regular Fox, and I'm recovering from ACL surgery, so I'm couch-bound and in need of things to watch. I don't know many people there are like me who watch a lot of soccer in general but have kinda lost track of MLS games after the switch to Apple. And I've watched MLS since the beginning in '96. I guess they got a lot of money from Apple for the rights, but I wonder if having games harder to find will come back to bite them in the long run.
MLS games were always difficult to find. The kickoff times on ESPN and Fox were not consistent week to week, and often were preempted by coverage for a prior event over running their time slot. The one thing that slightly hurts MLS is the lack of games on TV in the local markets. Though how much viewership those games actually got has been a mystery. Judging by how most local TV "deals" were break even propositions (Galaxy, Seattle, and LAFC being a few exceptions), I'm guessing the games didn't pull huge ratings or advertising numbers. Currently there are usually up to SIX games a week that are NOT behind the Season pass Subscription paywall. The Apple TV App is available on nearly all streaming devices..... MLS does have a marketing and storytelling problem. The marketing is largely ineffective, and the storytelling either sucks or is non-existent. The league needs to seriously consider poaching some of the TV producers from NBC Sports and WWE. NBC Sports makes the average viewer CARE about obscure Olympic sports every two years (Winter and Summer Games). They've gotten people to care about the Premier League. This is the missing piece of the puzzle for MLS. MLS has great stadiums, with a unique (to US Sports) in game atmosphere, great facilities, academies, competitive games, their own TV channel (that significantly lacks non-gameday content), and MLS is around for 11 months out of the year, etc. Why aren't more people tuning in? That's the multi-million dollar question that has yet to be answered/solved.
Judging anything on linear ratings when most of the viewership is actually on streaming is interesting.
I like soccer and I'm glad we can watch it live and on TV these days. I liked it for a long time before this was even possible, zero ratings, then World Cup finals interrupted with commercials. I don't care if it's "popular" enough for big ratings. It's a lot more accessible than it's even been in this country and keeps growing. That's enough for me. If you only want to watch what is most popular, go ahead and do that. No one will really care.
In general I find the debates about soccer's popularity in America and MLS's popularity to be so 2004. Who cares!
Literally nobody younger than Gen X watches linear TV. Unless they're children watching wheel of fortune with grampa.
MLS = Bad coaching, bad play, bad skills, bad refereeing bad commentary and VERY poor promoting. I believe MLS could be an OK league to watch but it would only reach that level if the refereeing and the coaching and the presentation actually improved. I watched the MLS final match and after it was over I was kind of hoping that there would be no TV contract next year so I would not be tempted to watch any more matches for a while. For me the only purpose for MLS is to give the poorer USA players a chance to improve and move to a real league and to give other countries a place for their lesser wanted players to play regularly. MLS used to be a good retirement league for top international players to get a paycheck for a few extra years but it has evolved to a place where previously good players go to die. The best of MLS is about level with the English championship or the Brazilian second division.
I assume that was intended to be some kind of insult but it did not work because I have no idea who you are talking about. Please, if you are going to try and insult people at least do it with some semblance of intelligence.
On the local sports radio station they've been talking and moaning about the Mavericks, Rangers and Stars having trouble finding places to show their games. A local cable sports outlet went under (I think this happened all over) and they scrambled or are scrambling to find a replacement. I think one of them started their own streaming service but supposedly there were lot of kinks. One of them (sorry I didn't take notes to share here) couldn't show things if it was on a national game of the day thing so they were mad they had to then subscribe to two (or more) streaming services. Every sport is having trouble with TV / streaming now and get splintered and spread too thin. I bring this up because this was FC Dallas Burn every year of their existence before the Apple TV deal. Every year they scrambled for a local outlet. Every year the national partners changed or were preempted for ax throwing type stuff. So I'm pretty happy to have a single spot that shows every game in it's entirety, starting on time with no preemptions, gives the league a lot of money and where there are replays so I don't have to tape or DVR games.
What we need most of all in America is to lose the inferiority complex. The good news is idiotic threads like this are now met with derision on BigSoccer. Cuz soccer is already popular in the United States.
MLS teams are doing well. Attendance is good. As league quality continues to improve, so will ratings. But these extended playoffs seem anticlimactic.