From Soccer America *A source says U.S. Soccer has reached agreement with its broadcast partners ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 on a new contract that will run through 2006 but one of the three January and February matches might appear on one of those channels. College basketball dominates ESPN and ESPN2 on both Feb. 8 and Feb. 12, but air time has been cleared on ESPN2 for the Argentina game by moving up the kickoff time to noon from its original 7:30 p.m. start. *The Jamaica game will be televised on pay-per-view by Setanta Sport. *It's possible the Canada game could be aired on pay-per-view, as a source says an exclusivity clause will prohibit Fox Sports World from showing games the rights to which are owned by U.S. Soccer. This would not apply to CONCACAF events like the Gold Cup or the Confederations Cup, the U.S. English-language rights to which have not been acquired. *The Confederations Cup Spanish-language rights in the U.S. are held by Univision. Inter-Forever Sports, rights holder for the next two Gold Cup tournaments, has been purchased by the Brazilian agency Traffic and will continue to market and promote those events. *One wrinkle of the 2003 MLS schedule that is still being finalized is the possibility of shifting national TV dates to Sunday once college football takes over ESPN and ESPN2 on Saturdays. This could mean going head-to-head with the NFL, but part of the league's philosophy in extending its regular-season schedule into late October is to play more of its games when most youth and adult soccer leagues are in action. Andy
This would replace the last season Thursday night games, I presume. I don't know which day would get better ratings. Hopefully this means a few more playoff games on national TV as well.
A game with Japan is on the ESPN2 advance sked for March 29 at 4 p.m. EST. Schedule says game is in Seattle at Seahawk Stadium. Jamaica game was on the ESPN2 sked until they moived the Argentina time, then that showed up and Jamaica disappeared. The April schedule with the Soccer Saturday slots was up this morning. It isn't anymore - the whole month has disappeared for some reason. But that's happened before when I've checked.
So would I. If MLS can't compete with HS football, who can they compete with? Fridays are slow TV nights anyway.
Plus if they want the youth support it should make it easier for the families to get out to the game. Saturday games mean parents are going to watch little Johnny play, then run home, eat dinner and then go to a game. Friday, pick up kid after work, go to the game - eat at the game - and then on Saturday and Sunday kid can be motivated after watching the MLS on Friday.
With the places MLS is located, that's not going to work. If people get off at 5 and live an hour from the stadium - on a good day if traffic - how are they going to make it all happen. No one will be happy. Saturday nights, I think, is a happy medium for everyone. If kids play in the day, the teams just need to promote a family-friendly tailgate atmosphere before the game so people don't have to run home and eat. They can come to the game and either cook up their own or grab some burgers and dogs while the games go on outside the stadium. DC does a nice job with this.
All-time Friday attendance leaders, from kenn.com: Team............G.....Total..Average Los Angeles.....4....98,576...24,644 Colorado........9...170,833...18,981 DC United.......5....91,262...18,252 Columbus........1....16,743...16,743 New England.....7...107,389...15,341 MetroStars......5....74,348...14,870 Chicago.........5....69,379...13,876 San Jose........5....68,785...13,757 Tampa Bay.......8....97,502...12,188 Dallas..........5....55,047...11,009 Kansas City.....4....36,003....9,001 Miami...........0.........0........0 LEAGUE.........58...885,867...15,274 I don't think Friday night games would get appreciably lower ratings. They're already damn low anyway. But ABC will put MLS on Monday Nights when Thomas Flannigan joins NOW.
Oh, ye of little faith... Five, in 1997. They averaged 27,766. The league average on Fridays without them is 14,095.
I was thinking more along the lines of TV ratings. I think one of the reasons why Monday Night Football does so well is that showing sports on a weeknight is a bit of a novelty(at least at first). I used to love watching Wimbledon when I was young-not b/c I loved tennis so much, but b/c it was live sports on network TV at 11:00 in the morning. It broke the monotony of the long summers.
And yet Monday Night Baseball was not a success. It could be partially that Monday Night Football is popular because football is popular, and that the converse would be true for soccer. More specifically, Monday Night Football was a success initially because it took a popular sport and presented it in a unique way, and put the resources of a large company behind it in a big way. They lived off that initial popularity for a long time after the presentation was no longer unique, and the resources were no longer put behind it quite as much. Now it's a popular sport and a habit, one that (I would assume) does okay for the network, else it would not have been on for 33 seasons. None of those things are possible with MLS.
Re: Oh, ye of little faith... The league would be up a bit higher without the Tampa numbers. So Friday night's numbers aren't great - but it may be worth a shot. Depending on the lease deals concession sales could also go up as the fans would not have time to stop and grab a bite before the game. I think it would be worth a shot to see how the night would work. Plus Friday Night Soccer might be a bigger hit than Saturday afternoons in the blazing heat. Who is Thomas Flanigan?
Actually, Eddie, those Friday numbers aren't that bad at all by MLS standards. They're certainly not gloom and doom, though it is admittedly a small sample. Maybe Friday night telecasts wouldn't be any worse ratings-wise than Saturday at 4pm ET. I don't know. But they might look a lot better on television.
Plus friday nights are notorious for crap tv anyway. Maybe the Friday night games could be something for them to hang their hat on. Plus those mid-afternoon games are so unbearably hot and slow - Friday nights! Reminds me of the Easybeats tune "Friday on my mind". But lest we forget, MLS is run by pinheads.
And USL is like the frigging Algonquin Round Table, for crying out loud. Perhaps there's crap TV on Friday nights because no one watches TV on Friday nights, I don't know. Why put a good show on a night when no one watches? I remember when I was a kid and Saturday night was the night for TV (The Partidge Family, All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, The Carol Burnett Show, The Love Boat, I watched them all on Saturday nights), but now it's a wasteland. The only Top 20 show on Friday nights is Law and Order: Criminal Intent.
I have never complimented the USL. Downside to Friday Night, A-League broadcasts on Fox. How about Sunday Night Soccer? Anything but Saturday Afternoons.
FSW had some Saturday A-League matches as well. More Fridays, yes. But FSW isn't available in nearly as many homes as ESPN2.
A few issues: 1. ESPN2 already has Friday Night Fights, so that's not really an option. Not sure what is on the Deuce opposite Sunday Night Baseball. 2. There may be some upside to the telecasts, but if you go Friday nights, you basically draw a radius around your home stadium and shut out people because of where they live. At least with Saturdays, it's a choice thing. Some people may have kids who play Saturday and not all of them will be playing so late they can't make the games. I live two hours from DC without traffic. I could not make a Friday night game without taking time off work. And in these metro areas with horrible traffic problems, this is a tremendous issue. People have had trouble getting to the Meadowlands on Saturdays because of traffic. Imagine a Friday rush hour jame. Fridays are a bad day for logistics, plain and simple. Sundays, I could take or leave. I personally like to sit at home on Sundays in the summer or do family things, but a game would be OK.
I'm just thinking about the Saturday afternoon TV broadcasts. How many games to you make currently? Friday night fights come from the days when Gillette promoted fights (we should dump this sport anyway). Maybe, just maybe instead of calf roping they could show soccer on Friday nights at 8pm.
I have a half-season plan, which is 9 tickets. I got to a dozen games last year, walking up once, adding the All-Star Game and the El Sal friendly. Friday Night Fights is an ESPN2 staple now. The only time in April it isn't on is when two NHL playoff games bump it. I just don't think Fridays will work. Too many reasons why people shouldn't go (end of a long week, issues with people working too far from the stadium, dealing with getting two-income parents and busy kids all together, to dinner and too the game) while Saturdays have one consistent conflict - youth soccer. That's an obstacle, but one that people have managed to work around, IMHO.