I know that in the past dc united has played against some european teams and i think this was a great move by dc united. In light of the man united tour, i think MLS should counter with hosting more exhibition games with world clubs. ONe more thing MlS needs to televise these games. Anyways what do u guys think.
I'm all for it... And I think that the current bunch of exhibition tours will wear thin with a lot of people after a while. I mean, there's really no motivation other than to show up, kick the ball around a bit, and take the money back home. The MLS has discussed setting up some sort of World Club Tournament, especially after FIFA's effort went down the tube. Where that stands, I have no idea but most of the European clubs seem adamant against any kind of international club play.
Basically, European teams have nothing to gain by playing MLS sides. They can play soft games against each other in America and make just as much if not more money than they would against MLS teams. The other problem - an MLS team is much less likely to play a "soft" match against a ManU if the Red Devils bring their first team. The MLS guys are going to want to prove their stuff against the European team and are liable to stick-in on their tackles, etc. Playing against another European side, the two teams will "cooperate" for an exhibition of skill, but very little physical play and/or risk. Plus, by playing one another, they don't have to deal with the messy reality that our league *might* be improving relative to theirs. If they play an MLS team and win big, we can just chalk it up to their history. But if they field a first-team and tie or lose in a big exhibition (which would likely be broadcast over MANUTV etc), they lose face and have to listen to a bunch of obnoxious yanks telling them that we are taking over their game. I am afraid that any friendly matches between MLS clubs and European clubs will continue to be "vanity matches" (such as the recent DC United vs Tottenham friendly) in which the European clubs play reserve team players, youngsters and "living legends" (retired guys with big guts) and only a few true first-team players.
One possibility might be to set up an American version of the World Peace King Cup. This summer in Korea, the LA Galaxy will face 7 other teams from around the world, including Roma, Eindhoven, and Leverkusen, and the quality of play should be pretty high since the winning team takes home $2 million while the runners up get $0.5 million each. http://www.mlsnet.com/content/03/la0205peace.html
Bingo. They'll take it seriously if (and only if) the prize money is there. I'd love to see it happen, but I won't be holding my breathe. Any Biz types want to speculate on how many seats you'd need to sell to cover a couple million in prize money?
Of course liberals would insist that it be called the "Imperialist War President Bush Cup"*, but otherwise it is a good idea. These types of tournaments can attract a fairly high level of play. As far as exhibitions go, that might be the best way to get good competition. I would make the payouts a sliding-scale starting with a lower value ($250,000-lowest placed team in each group) and ending-up somewhere near the high payout ($1.5 million winner). That would give them incentive to finish higher up. Another way to ensure that you get pretty good competition - pick the team that missed out on European Competition by one place - for instance the seventh placed EPL team (say Charlton), fifth placed Eredivision team (Vitesse), etc. Those teams would have a vested interest in making money that they would otherwise not have access to and would be more likely to pay all out. Plus, they wouldn't have to worry about fixture congestion (as their continental-competition-counterparts would). *Go USA. Beat Saddam.
Since many MLS clubs do pre-season training in Florida, it would be great to match those clubs with European clubs still on winter break for some kind of tournament. A lot of these clubs go to Israel or Cyprus or other warmer climes for winter training, and would probably enjoy coming to the States as much if not more. It would be good exposure for them as well. Unfortunately, some of the big leagues like England, Spain and Italy don't have much of a winter break, but the Germans have six weeks, and other leagues even longer.
Here is my idea for a tournament in the USA: Eight Teams, two groups (seeded) in a round-robin format (each team plays 3 games for a total of 12 in group play): The two groups would be based in New York and Los Angeles (first year of tournament). The groups would be composed of the MLS champion and the other finalist (2nd seed), a top-notch Mexican side (LA), a top-notch European side (NY) that missed out on Champions' League (Barcelona, Roma, Glasgow Celtic would be examples this year). The other four teams would be drawn from mid-table teams in Europe that did not qualify for European competition. These teams would be hungry for money, therefore they would be more likely to commit to the tournament and play competitive - (Tottenham Hotspurs, Bayer Leverkusen would be examples this year) and/or South American teams. The final would be played at the home of the MLS champion. The third place game would be played at the home of the other MLS finalist. Prize Money: 1st-----------------$1.5m 2nd----------------$1.25m 3rd-----------------$1m 4th-----------------$750k 3rd Place Grp----$500k 3rd Place Grp----$500k 4th Place Grp----$250k 4th Place Grp----$250k Total Prize Money: $6m Average Cost for Venue: $300,000/game Total Cost for Venues: $4.2m Total Cost for Promotion: $? Average Crowd: 30,000* Average ticket price: $30 Total Games: 14 Ticket Revenue: $12.6m Merchandise: $? TV Rights (domestic): $? TV Rights (markets of participating teams): $? * - games featuring MFL team in the Rose Bowl and top-notch Euro-team in NY would likely draw substantially larger crowds. Matches featuring "lesser lights" might take place at Victoria Street or Harrison to keep costs down. In future years, the site of the Round Robin group matches would be alternated between big market cities. Cities would bid for the opportunity to host the tournament and would need to guarantee the 30,000 tickets per match figure. The highlight team for each city would be adjusted to reflect the particular market. For instance, Houston-MFL team, Seattle-J-League team, Chicago-Polish or Russian team, Miami-Argentinian team, Washington DC-whatever, etc. If MLS operated the tournament, they could easily accommodate it in their schedule (block of time for the various matches or use it for a mini-break in the season). It would probably need to be scheduled just after the European regular season or just before they resume their season (roughly concurrent with Champions League qualifying matches). I would hope for MLS to operate it so that they could float the profits back into the league (provide dividends to operator/investors) and/or spend it on new stadia, better TV time-share and/or big time advertising. What do ya'll think?
One thing you'd have to consider is the impact on ticket sales if rather than Man Utd, Barcelona etc, i.e. the teams who qualified for the champions league, champions league qualifiers, UEFA Cup or inter-toto cup you'd be drawing middle order teams. That could see Southampton or Charlton from England, Chievo from Italy, Hansa Rostock from Germany, Celta Vigo of Spain etc - and that's assuming those teams want to take part.
Looks great. You might want to email your idea to MLS HQ. Usually their email address is like a black hole, but I've heard that occasionally people get responses. It might be worthwhile as well to bring your idea to Marc Connelly or Jeff Bradley's attention to see what they think of it. Who knows. They might mention it in a column and get things rolling that way.
I know D.C. United has a partnership deal with Bayer Leverkusen in Germany. Do any other teams out there have deals like this?
Brilliant! If they just miss "Getting a spot in Europe," they could "Get a spot in America." Add some prize money, and you'd have full-on competition. I think you would have to do it in the winter break, and in domed or warm-weather sites. Winter would be good, because you could promo it for months, and you're not cramping the MLS summer schedule, not to mention Euro qualifiers of their own, and the summer is when players in europe generally take an actual vacation if they have the time. You would get better competition in the winter as well, as teams are mid-season.
1) As someone already mentioned, nearly every team does this every season. 2) That will be great, starting the day someone pays MLS teams to televise MLS matches. And as to Tournements with prize money... who's going to pony up the dough, and why would they do it?