National is okay when all the teams are from one country ( NFL) but NBA also National? when you have an international team.
The American and National Leagues were competitors and were separate legal entities for a century, not merging until 2000. Their naming convention is no different than the ABA or the AFL before those leagues were absorbed by their larger competitors.
So the NBA should have changed its name because they added teams in Toronto and Vancouver? Should the EFL change its name because of Wrexham, Swansea, and Cardiff, but only if they're in those divisions? Actually no, you're right. The NBA should have changed its name. Maybe...the North American Men's Basketball League of Athletes, or NAMBLA.
The English Football League only added "English" in 2016. The National Hockey League was created at a meeting in Montreal, replacing the National Hockey Association, which was founded in Ottawa. The first USA based team joined in 1924.
I broke my own rule and used Claude for an analysis of lower division home attendance in the Open Cup vs average league attendance. I used research mode and spot checked as much as I can, but the specific numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt. The "MLS comes to town" attendance bump is strongly dependent on the host's division tier: USL League One and MLS Next Pro hosts (small baselines) see huge multipliers (139%–395% of their league average), while mature USL Championship hosts typically draw AT or BELOW a normal league match (mean ≈ 82%, median ≈ 93% of their own league average). The "sellout vs MLS" narrative is real but selectively reported: the same USL Championship clubs that sold out marquee ties (Sacramento Republic hit a sellout crowd of 11,569 vs Inter Miami and vs Sporting KC in 2022) drew just 33% of their league average for a midweek Round-of-32 visit by Philadelphia the same season. The effect is therefore inconsistent and partly overstated for Division II, but genuinely large for Division III/small clubs, where an MLS first team is a once-a-season spectacle rather than a routine opponent. (At this point the AI missed something else - a lot of these matchups are in the same market as the MLS team and thus the attendance bump is actually MLS fans) Small-club multipliers drive the "big occasion" narrative: Westchester SC (USL League One) drew 395% of its league average vs NYCFC, Chattanooga FC (MLS Next Pro) 177% vs Atlanta United, FC Naples (USL League One) 155% vs Orlando City, and Union Omaha (USL League One) 139% vs Sporting KC. See what I mean here? Westchester SC is in New York. Naples isn't too far from Orlando to exclude Orlando fans making up the bump. The strongest depressing factors are midweek scheduling, reserve/Next Pro MLS lineups, and the host already being a strong league draw. Minnesota United signed nine MNUFC2 (MLS Next Pro) players to short-term agreements for its Round-of-32 trip to Louisville, and the game drew under half of LouCity's league average. <--- Here it brings up a good point. These games are competing against league matches on the weekend and the fans know its not the MLS A Team coming over. USL Championship (Division II), n≈10: mean ratio ≈ 82%, median ≈ 93%. Range 33% (Sacramento vs Philadelphia, 2022) to 118% (Sacramento's two 2022 sellouts). Most Division II hosts drew fewer people for an MLS Cup tie than for a typical league match. Rhode Island (107%) is the only clear Division II "bump," and it was in a brand-new stadium's debut season. USL League One (Division III), n=3: mean ≈ 230%, median ≈ 155% (Union Omaha 139%, FC Naples 155%, Westchester 395%). Every Division III host beat its league average by a wide margin. MLS Next Pro (Division III), n=1: Chattanooga FC at 177%.
I think Westchester drew a big crowd against NYC because 3,000 New Yorkers showed up. It's a short hop from the city. One thing the FA Cup can rely on is a large away following. Lesser teams get a rare chance to play at a big stadium, while big teams have big followings wherever they play.
Yup, traveling New Yorkers and many Westchester fans might be NYCFC team since that's their closest MLS team (though this was more important in the RSN days)
I seem to remember Univision announcers back in the day saying it was the Liga Mejor de Futbol MLS, so "MLS" might not stand for anything.
Indeed, their two sellouts in 2022 were against San Jose and Sporting KC. Doesn't change the math so I didn't correct, but further proof that AI does make shit up. Even Claude.
This is a VERY nice gesture by Atlanta United's FO: This is dope tho#atlutd pic.twitter.com/3uKkO4U5VZ— mls reacts (@jwriddle_) August 4, 2026
Article on the different reactions to Lasso in The Independent today "impossibly sanitized version of English football" "soccer is not this wholesome; it’s decades of emotional trauma punctuated by occasional moments of joy" "dressing rooms aren’t held together by homemade biscuits and heartfelt speeches" "fans don’t unite behind a common cause — they spend half their lives arguing with each other"
Also, The Office didn't capture the true essence of the paper supply industry, and this really upsets me.