Red Bulls capture first Development Academy title Soccer America Olympic men's soccer television schedule Olympic women's soccer television schedule Soccer America TV Listings: Where to watch the AT&T MLS All-Star Game MLSsoccer Aussie Aussie Aussie Everton say Australian attacker has moved to Red Bulls MLSsoccer Red Bulls acquire Cahill from Everton NY Post Star Power The latest episode of North America's top soccer podcast
Don Garber Stirs the Hornet's Nest Again With His YSA Comments Dynamo Theory Highlights from the Major League Soccer All-Star game pregame press conference Philadelphia Inquirer Fire add Dutch striker MacDonald as DP Soccer By Ives The One Man Aston Villa Should Sign From the MLS My Old Man Said Tears flow as Tiny finally goes walkabout Dixie's Sixty In the P.D.L., Looking Up From the Bottom of the Food Chain NY Times Aston Villa: Paul Lambert fears artifical turf will give Portland Timbers advantage Brimingham Mail Kick Off: Olsen gives All-Star armband to De Rosario MLSsoccer
MLS takes in the big picture ESPN MLS has done a tremendous job of building up strong, local fan bases, but can it find a way to make those same fans care about the league on a national level? MLS's future may depend on it.
The Aussies are already bitching ... Bulls gain is Wanderers loss as Cahill blazes US trail Maribyrnong Weekly
MLS ESPN article: [In Handler's mind, MLS is at an inflection point where it has the potential to take off exponentially if it can conjure a way to make the patchwork of localized fan frenzy spill over and follow the game league-wide. "We have an impressive set of core believers which is growing every week, but we still lack numbers engaging with us on television and within the digital landscape," he explains. "If we can build out the ways fans can connect to the league, we can ensure a local conversation becomes a national one."] MLS has had other fish to fry, and I think we will be fine until the new TV contracts are let. But at that time the following things are critical: 1. Most weekend games on national cable TV and hopefully several important games of free over the air tv. MLSLive and Directkick for weekday games and those not covered nationally on the weekend (and no more blackout if x % of tickets sold) How do you get most weekend games on TV? Partner with FOX, ESPN, Telefutura, AND NBCSN . The NFL does it. No reason for MLS not to try plus we Spanish language. No more galavision and hard to find channels. 2. Get some set fixture times. Good ideas galore on the DON page. 3. If they can't get enough national TV partners, start up the MLS channel. Yes, it costs a lot, but making real money takes money. The time would be then to make this very reasonable gamble. 4. TV commercials in prime spots of other sporting events for MLS! Not highlighting one team or one player. Lord knows we will have the visials to make great commercials. 5. MLS people in New York need to be calling every single newspaper in every single MLS town and other non-MLS big towns that fail to include the local team ( semi-local team) icon at the top of the sports page. For example the LA Times will not listen to a dozen people emailing them to demand why they can't click the local soccer team icon at the top of the sports page but they can click the button for the freakin LA Sparks But if Garber's top leiutenant called, maybe something would get done. This is a little tweak, but vital to the overall mission.
Bulls gain is Wanderers loss as Cahill blazes US trail Coffs Harbour Independent Will the Sounders make a move in the transfer window? Do they need to? The Seattle Times David Beckham says he will have a role in opening ceremony of London Olympics Brandon Sun
I have to sort of disagree with this. The NFL does not get most games on nationally. Only a few games are on nationally: the Sunday night game, the Monday night game, and sometimes one of the late Sunday afternoon game. Here in Houston I get the Texans every week, a bunch of Cowboys games, and the "national" afternoon game only if that doesn't conflict with the other two. Many Sundays here in Houston we get one early Sunday afternoon game and one late Sunday afternoon game. How is that different than what we have now? I'd say it's pretty comparable. I get every Dynamo game plus the ESPN/ESPN2, NBCSN, and TeleFutura/Galavision games. That's often 4 games a weekend same as the NFL. Also not sure about this line: "(and no more blackout if x % of tickets sold)". That doesn't exist now. Why would it be "no more"?
I'm sort of critical of the league's focus on national ratings at this juncture. I still think it's a bit too soon. There are other hurdles to clear first. One is to get the local deals right, so that a local deal that pays the club and garners a significant following inside of MLS markets is the rule and not the exception. The other is to get people watching the championship game. You clear those hurdles first, and the wall of national TV ratings for regular season games might become scalable. Right now, we're putting the third hurdle in front of the first. Heck, the National Hockey League (as pointed out in the article) never managed to cross the threshhold of getting neutral fans to watch regular season games (though I disagree with the guy who thought it was because they were a 'johnny come lately'; I'm pretty sure that in fact the NHL is actually older than the NBA. In fact, now that I've wiki'd it, it turns out the NHL is slightly older than the NFL too).
All-Star Game's endearing appeal ESPN MLS All-Stars turn to Henry for scouting report of Chelsea Washington Examiner Britain's David Beckham remains at heart of game's evolution Washington Times Seattle Sounders forward Eddie Johnson basks in MLS All-Star game spotlight Philadelphia Inquirer Henry not ruling out return to Arsenal Yahoo! Sports
Their commercials for 'Lights' include MLS snippets (Columbus vs. NYRB to be specific) so I'm kinda expecting them. FSN tried to launch something similar a few years ago (Final Score) but that was incredibly cluttered & didn't work out. Hopefully the MLS & NHL fanbases are large enough to support this SportsCenter sanctuary.