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Was the FC Dallas match an indication of a long season? Brotherly Game You guys are not alone thou a bit early but looking at Fire Rapids & DCU this past weeken you have company. Children's Mercy Park signs are going up The Blue Testament
If MLS start beating Liga MX in CCL on regular basis the TV ratings for The combined UniMás/Univision will go through the roof still not bad thou , but this was a stroke of genius to put on MLS on UniMas/Univison combo . The Zoning Process For DC’s New Soccer Stadium Begins Next Week Urban Turf
THE HIGH FIVE: Didier Drogba, artificial turf, Mike Magee ... fcdallas Portland Timbers acquire Jack Barmby on loan from Leicester City Goal US prospect Delgado making mark in MLS ESPN FC Hearing offers hint at location of MLS stadium St. Louis Business Journal MLS Opener Viewership Down 33 Percent On ESPN The Big Lead MLS gets beaten like a pulp in CCL action against Liga MX just before the start of the season and you expect soccer fans to tune in.
I don't think that has anything to do with it. From the article: "There are relevant factors favoring the 2015 match. It was two new clubs, one in the New York market. The match featured MLS debuts for international stars David Villa and Kaka. Mix Diskerud and Brek Shea also played." and... "Ratings elsewhere were not as bad. FS1 viewership was nearly identical, 267,000 for Seattle vs. Sporting KC in 2016 to 268,000 for Sporting KC and Red Bull New York 2015... LA Galaxy vs. DC United, on Spanish television, got a nine percent bump to 468,000 viewers." And frankly, any article that would say: "For comparison, the biggest name for Portland vs. Columbus was Liam Ridgewell, a former journeyman defender in England." when Kei Kamara was on the same field, well......
Numbers are down because most of their viewers were either at the other stadiums or the were on their way home from them. They will balance out again as the one match on Friday, six or seven Saturday matches and the two national TV spots on Sunday. Anybody that cares about CCL is already a MLS fan. The people that don't care about CCL aren't going to skip opening day weekend because of failures in a competition they don't understand or most likely didn't even know existed.
Yes, that's why viewership was down. Because we did poorly in a tournament played in our preseason, that most non-hardcore fans still don't pay attention to, and which was broadcast on a secondary network a lot of people still don't get. Yeah, that's it. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the game being played at 4:30 in the afternoon between the same two smaller market teams that didn't exactly excite MLS Cup ratings. No, no, it's all because of massive depression and disgust over the CCL performance. I mean, wasn't that why attendance was so horrible? Wait, it wasn't? They averaged 26K a game? Gee, I'm so confused! ------RM
I'm beginning to get the feeling that Drogba "gets" this whole social media thing. The video of him dancing with the academy players is just plain cool. Every Sacramento fan that sees that pic is going have a smile on their face when they first view that.
Viewership was down because many of the viewers were at games and not in front of TVs. First time playing every opener on the same day will do that.
LOL....one thing BS posters have proven to me time and again is that they usually follow the mantra of: Ignorant, arrogant, emotional, extremely narrow minded and proud. CCL clowns are becoming as bad as pro/rel heads. Ignore MLS. Go away. The league will continue to grow and improve without you. You really don't matter....you don't.
Your Lordship I care less they have 29k averaged if the league doesn't do good on TV where it matters the most. I wasn't talking about the TV numbers were down because of CCL. If the MLS teams do poorly on a regular basis against CCL opponents the casual soccer fan already dismisses MLS as a retirement for Euro leagues, it doesn't help the matter. The attendance numbers have their own set of problems .
I'm bolding this, and responding not just to you, but to a very large number of people who think that ratings still matter. They quite simply don't. Or, at least they aren't nearly as important as they were even 5 years ago. To say otherwise is to simply ignore the facts. The league's ratings have been fairly stagnant for more than a decade. In that time, they've gone from having to pay TV channels to broadcast their games to signing a $720 million broadcasting deal with 3 national TV networks. A deal that was quintuple (that's 5x) their previous deal. That despite ratings pretty much being flat over the course of their previous deal. That doesn't even take into account international TV deals. RATINGS. DON'T. MATTER. They just don't. The reason why MLS TV deals have been growing exponentially is due to the increasing national footprint of the league and that fact that it is sports, which is just about the only thing that people watch live these days. You, and a lot of like minded people, are caring about the wrong thing. Its time you wake up and realize its not 2010 anymore.
No. They were poor for the same reason they were poor when those 2 teams played in mls cup. 2 small market teams with no stars with any mainstream appeal.
I cannot speak for anyone but me, but I didn't watch MLS Cup 2015 because I was at an NFL game at the same hour. I didn't watch the opening day 2016 rematch last weekend because I was at the Quakes game the same afternoon. If I had been home in my easy chair I would have tuned in to both games. The fact that Portland and Columbus are small-market teams with no "stars" is utterly irrelevant to my viewing decision.
It's astonishing how many people still look at Pete Rozelle and the nfl from 1965-1975 as the blueprint for growing a league. That's exactly why the league almost went under less than 15 years ago. Chasing the great God of TV ratings. Don Garber turned it around and said that you had to start with the soccer.
Jermaine Jones burning bridges on his way out of New ... thebentmusket Attracting MLS to St. Pete? Orlando has the rights to soccer on the bay Tampabay
Instead of focus on growing their own new soccer market in Orlando MLS will spend time, money and energy in a city who already has a pro soccer team for 8 years in NASL?
Not mutually exclusive. Orlando should absolutely put effort in that region and they would be stupid not to.
What do you mean? Everybody loves smart team-building with homegrown players and thrifty DP shopping in Latin America.