People in the office who know I'm a soccer fan pumped me for information all spring leading up to the World Cup. They wanted to know the players' names, what teams they should root for (they only got one answer to that one), whether Beckham was really the best player in the world (and that one), how good the US was, etc etc etc. They were excited, they skipped meetings to head to ESPN Zone and catch some games, and when it was over many swore that they were soccer fans for life. Six weeks after Zidane's head-butt, only one of them could name the local team, and he was only half right. They've been Red Bull New York (the New York Red Bulls) for months, but he said "Sure, they're the Metrostars. Does Meola still play for them?" He remembered Meola from his try-out with the Jets. So, try as the league might, this thing of ours hasn't quite penetrated the public consciousness on a water-cooler level. Not yet anyway. *I'm afraid this is not another screed about how MLS has failed in that regard. Nor is it a deluded press release trumpeting the league's success. Continue at your own risk* Speaking from the point of view of a fan, let me just say that MLS's lack of market penetration has left me a bit relieved, and it's because I'm a little embarrassed by the league. There. I said it. Certain things that are charming and necessary to the decade-long sufferer, like single entity, illogical player allocations and CJ Brown, come off as half-assed and amateur when shone under even a dim flashlight of media scrutiny. And in spite of a very, very competitive array of talent, league games far too often fail to deliver anything approaching entertainment. The reasons for that are myriad: conservative coaches, meaningless regular seasons, better defenders than attackers, playing when it's 105 fahrenheit on the field, etc etc. I usually wake up Sunday mornings feeling embarrassed and paranoid, like I'd drunk too much whiskey the night before and made an ass of myself at the bar, only now it's because I have to defend a fledgling league of glorified corporate softball teams against the slings and arrows of, among others, my father, Eurosnobs, and my own conscience. And I'm sorry, but defending MLS is as thankless as it is difficult. I guess it's coming off as if I'm bashing the league, but I'm really not. It's just that what we have here is the beta version of a first-division soccer league, and the blemishes - empty football stadiums, non-aligned schedule, Brian Hall - are more visible than they will be in five or ten years. Beta tests are done for a reason, and as beta testers, we've fulfilled our job of pointing out those glaring faults. And the league is moving in the right direction. But "the right direction" isn't "the right place", and that's where I want MLS to be when the dim flicker of media awareness becomes the glare of full-fledged success. At best that's several years away, and until that time I'm content with this thing of ours, under the radar, crawling steadily towards the light.
Spot on great post. Totally true about the big water cooler soccer interest and 0 MLS interest. No one even discusses MLS anymore besides the core - or hardcore - fans. The 3 key words are "empty football stadiums". It just looks awful on TV. These new stadiums are better but really just OK because they are almost all built in outlying suburbs where land is cheap and the mayor want publicity (Bridgeview, Frisco, etc.) but these stadiums will never fill up for years. Compare this to baseball where they are wisely going the opposite direction to cool downtown stadiums where the experience is better and helps them draw more not less attendance (and thus looks great on TV too).
Everyone gets an opinion, and I respect yours. But I have to completely disagree with the assertion that MLS is embarassment, and the part about waking up ashamed of the games that don't approach entertainment. Will it get better? Yes. Can it be better? Of course. Is it an embarassment right now? Definitely not, to me at least. While not every game makes me dance int he street out of joy. But I'm watching four, five, and on a good weekend six MLS matches every week. I cannot, honestly, recall the last time I watched one and was ashamed of what I had seen.
Fair enough. I can't help but feel like I nailed the fat girl after watching a fair portion of MLS games, though. Sunday morning EPL and La Liga make me relive the college walk of shame. EDIT: And I should specify that that's a shame, because it's much more about presentation than overall quality.
The only thing I'm embarrassed about in MLS is the anemic-appearing "crowds" in those football stadia; and those blasted yard markers therein also cause me agita.
I will agree w/ Bruce Arena and say that league is not as good as it used to be because they are not replacing the great #10's in the league. I have the MLS TV package and the only team I can watch play is DC United. I used to love to watch Colombus, LA, and Chicago play but it is now unwatchable for me. Moreover, I'm not a Eurosnob. I have had the MLS PAckage for 9 years.
I agree that the MLS has some problems. I'm curious. How is Dallas, Chicago and Columbus doing financially? Soccer specific stadiums was supposed to help bring several of these clubs into the black. But I'm not sure the MLS is getting enough fans into these stadiums to turn a profit. I agree that the suburban locations of are not helping, though in the case of the Red Bulls, the new stadiums' proximity to both a PATH station and Newark's Penn Station and the fact that Harrison is right next to Newark will help it a lot. From what I hear, the new Bridgeview Stadium isn't near the "L" even though it's not far from the city line. If a lot of Chicago soccer fans rely on public transit, this isn't very good. Another problem I believe are all of these ties. I saw some other thread where several posters basically said that they're tired of seeing all these ties in the league. I think that the reason why this is happening is because teams are playing not to fall out of the playoff picture. You're not really punished for drawing. This isn't a single table, winner-take-all format where you can kiss that trophy goodbye for having too many draws. In the MLS, you can get as many ties as you want, make the playoffs and then win that trophy. I believe that's the reason why these games can get pretty boring. Just my opinion.
Dead on for the most part, though I'm not convinced MLS is heading towards the light. It seems to me that MLS is not only not attracting the international soccer fan and the mainstream sports fan, but also may be losing some of the die-hard MLS fans as a few of the posts in this thread have indicated. Maybe wasting all their marketing efforts trying to attract little kids to the league and selling ticket packages to youth soccer teams wasn't the brightest thing to do. I hope they start making some changes before it's too late.
BRAVO!!!!!. Perfect way to express the frustration and hope about where the league is, and where it's going. let's hope MLS can make it to the promise land sooner than later.
No, it's definitely the quality, too. It's not only the cognicenti or 'Eurosnobs' who can differentiate. The uninitiated see the gap in quality right away. When the Sports Guy rolleyes can sit and watch WC games during breakfast and reading the morning news, which prompts him to pick an EPL team and tune in to the EPL this season and write a column about it, ... The dude moved to LA from Boston and decided to buy Clips tickets and follow that local team, but when picking a soccer team to follow, he didn't decide between Chivas USA and LA Galaxy, he chose between Tottenham and Liverpool. MLS has to see that it's missing the target. Let me make an another old point... The kiddie monotone trumpets do not come across well in the empty stadiums, but they play even worse on television. I've also heard them in the context of South African soccer matches. The league there believes the racket produces a desireable, somewhat festive atmosphere. So, their ubiquitous--all stadia, every match, all the time. The sound drowns out all else. Let me tell you that listening to the incessant drone on tv is HORRIBLE. I have great appreciation for the sport. I've been known to watch anything soccer, and will go to extreme lengths to watch matches, on my own, because of my sometimes insatiable craving for the game. But I couldn't watch more than 2 minutes of those televised matches. Now, the teams ain't great--they're comparable to MLS, probably a bit worse actually. But it's not the quality of the match that makes me tune out, it's the fargin' noise. I've heard these abominations on TV and seen little tykes carrying them in Foxboro. MLS needs to get a clue and ban these things.
From what has been reported and posted here, Dallas and Chicago are in the black this year, so is LA, New England and Columbus are pretty close.
I disagree with this. The Sports Guy actually said that he chose English soccer because he love a great crowd, and let's face it, the gap between the onfield product of MLS and the Premiership isn't anywhere near as wide as the gap between an MLS crowd and a Premiership crowd. What MLS has to do is keep building SSS, keep building rivalries like Chivas/Gals, Houston/Dallas, etc, and start building the type of passionate crowds you find everywhere else around the world. Easier said than done, of course, but with SSS for every club, it's achievable. At that point, the games will look like happenings, even if they're not, and the casual fan will become much more interested.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Matrim55 again. There is one thing that makes me feel worse about MLS than the EPL or any of the traditional established leagues.... its one of the VERY FEW well done programs on FSC. Gambare J-League. Watching the highlites of those games its obvious that a goodly number of teams lack even MLS quality... but between the relegation battle and the split regular season where games actually mean something somehow it seems much more exciting. MLS' regular season seems almost like a pre-season.. and the way some of the MLS teams' fans have been treated is as good an argument for supporting your local USL team as any I can think of.
I think the best point is about the SSS not being downtown. It's like MLS wants to become big time without spending the money to make it happen. Now before everyone jumps on in and says "it's easy to spend someone else's money" well they are willing to lose millions of dollars on soccer so why not take the chance on losing some more to make it work. I think MLS is a good league that isn't too far away from reaching that tipping point where the casual soccer fan will follow the league. What it will take is a doubling to tripling of the salary cap, SSS in downtown or city locations, David Beckham exception etc... Now this will cost the league a ton of money to do but if you're already OK knowing that what you're doing is losing you millions of dollars why not spend a little bit more and hope that that's what it will take to turn the tide and have MLS truly make it?
The production values point is huge. Hopefully starting next year, ESPN will front the production costs for MLS games. The difference between the TV experience for the World Cup games (HD, different camera angles, cameramen that know when to zoom in and zoom out) and that of MLS games (jerky motion, replays over action, wrong initial viewing angle) is enough to make me change the channel.
ex-San Jose fans hate the league because it "arbitrarily" moves teams around. New York fans hate the league because of its poor quality New England fans hate the league because it doesn't pay its players enough. Who says MLS is a monolithic entity?
MLS frustrates me an awful lot. Mostly because they do a lot of stupid things. The "Super"Draft, the stupid player allocation rules, allowing Dave O'Brien to commentate games, the mega hype machine for every little thing, forgetting the Open Cup exists until it's right on top of you, the 18 different player classifications, and of course the near-meaningless regular season and dumb playoff system. The frustrating part is a lot of the problems MLS has are self-inflicted and could be easily corrected. Even if MLS believes playoffs are super-important (even if fans don't seem to), they could easily have a better playoff system, but choose not to. And so on and so on.
Just discussing a couple of points... 1. How good the league is, and, 2. The water-cooler crowds impression of the game. Let's be honest, would they even KNOW if the game was played at a higher level? I seriously question it.
100% spot-on. Gambare might be the best weekly round-up show for any sport this side of Inside the NFL. My girlfriend always asks "Why can't MLS do something like that?" I wish I had a ********ing answer. EDIT: Just want to add that I don't agree that suburban SSS is holding MLS back now, though I think it has to potential to hold the league back later. But later is decades down the road, in this instance.
No, but they can tell the difference between a great crowd (Premiership, World Cup, etc) and what we produce for MLS games. Like I said if it looks like an event, they will watch, and they will be interested. Like most of them do for Yankees games. It's the culture of celebrity.