This is from The Athletic's primary women's soccer reporter, who's on her way back from Paris. Its pretty clearly a response to the report above: Busy getting a little toasted on my flight home but hopping on to post this. pic.twitter.com/qYHVYLwaCK— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) August 12, 2024
MLS is popular. It's hated by a small core of weirdos whose love of soccer is actually a subcultural lifestyle affectation. They hate MLS for the same reason that the stupider members of certain music scenes hate bands that break into the mainstream.
Also: I spoke to MLS Commish Don Garber last year about MLS’ potential intention to start a women’s league. Back then, he didn’t know what that would look like & according to my sources, the league still has no solid plans to involve itself in the women’s game. It’s bad info, folks. pic.twitter.com/aGY15t0J9x— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) August 12, 2024
I'm not sure MLS is popular moreso than one's local team. I think most people have a connection to their local team. There is a small core group (mostly here and here only) that follow the league as a whole. Sure there are some crossover with certain players (Messi). Most people who like soccer probably don't watch a bunch of MLS games every weekend - just their team.
My friends who follow the league aren't on big soccer. Plenty of folks who follow hard core are on X and plenty of other social media sites.
And now the MLS Women’s story has been retracted Scarves and Spikes prides itself on being a reliable source of coverage for news about Atlanta United and MLS as a whole.That said, we don’t want to be afraid to admit when we’ve missed the mark, and this is one of those times.— ⚽️Scarves and Spikes | SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE! (@ScarvesNSpikes) August 12, 2024
Yeah, and these people probably spend the rest of the weekend watching some of the biggest clubs in Europe. And even then it’s not as simple as “Euro soccer is popular.”
Exactly my same thoughts. MLS is still territorial. I guess hard core fans like most of us here will watch anything MLS but I suspect most just watch/follow their team, that's in their city, and that's it.
I mean why not? If you want to watch neutral soccer there are better games than MLS. The connection is through your home club. And of course that does give you some connection to the league as a whole, but not enough to watch all the time.
I am that person. I watch all NYRB’s games, a few in person, but I very rarely watch any other MLS games. On the flip side, I watch all Arsenal games, plus several other EPL games each week, via my DVR. The fact that so much EPL is on traditional TV increases the ease and thus likelihood of doing this. In contrast to MLS which is almost entirely streaming, and so a little clunkier and harder to do what I do with EPL.
Subjectivity comes into play. I’ve tried so hard to get into the Serie A but I’d even rather watch a neutral USL game.
Sadly DVR’s are still technically superior to streaming, in quite a few ways. I keep dreaming that the streamers will fully emulate the strengths and features a Tivo has had for like 10-20 years. But sadly I’m still left to dream.
Is the 'Catch Up' button new for these Leagues Cup games? I hadn't seen it before, but then again that could just be my TV being late to the party (LG WebOS app store); they also did some cleanup on the user interface so it's not as many options in your face when starting a game through the app.
That's still anecdotal. I seriously doubt there are many people that care about more than one or two teams (their own included).
Venu sports (the ESPN/FOX/WBDISCOVER) joint venture has been blocked, at least for now, by the courts. Unsurprisingly to me. I can't believe they actually thought it would be allowed.
I bet @crookeddy will watch a game here at some point: 👀 This is a bar in LA!The social club needs to up their game. pic.twitter.com/XmT8W59K6y— The Kitsman (@The_Kitsman) August 17, 2024