For Soccer to adjust to American sports Culture or for American soccer leagues like MLS and USL to adjust to euro or so called international Customs and standards??
What are the international customs and standards? The most important is for American sports culture to accept soccer as a spectator sport, both in terms of its survival and profitability and in terms of creating smarter, better players and coaches.
The most important thing, and the one which MLS is pursuing with the whole "Football.Fútbol.Soccer." campaign is for MLS to be accepted by this nation's soccer fans who watch other leagues so I'd say international standards. Most of the new initiatives from the Designated Player to the Game First Initiative, to Garber coming out strongly against the likes of Wilbon on the streamer issue indicated that MLS wants to differentiate itself from other sports leagues in America and be an alternative game experience. There are more than enough soccer fans in the country already who can make MLS wildly successful if they accept MLS and follow it. Appealling to Joe Sixpack Sports Fan is out. It was tried, it failed and the fact of the matter is, most of these guys will never like soccer, so why try to convert them by trying to be like the other american sports? Just as MLS does not need to attack other american sports in order to be successful, neither does it need to assimilate into becoming like them in order to be successful. People in this country like soccer for what it is NOT. MLS seems to be on message that the ultimate goal is that you SHOULD feel as though you are in the San Siro or Bombnera as opposed to a Red Sox game. If only half of the soccer viewing public in America began watching MLS every SSS would be filled like Toronto (a case study in what would happen if the eurosnobs, mexisnobs, and other soccer involved people in America started to watch MLS) and ratings would be 4-5 times what they are now, which would basically mean, even better players, more money, etc. So that is why I believe eventually under Garber or his successor, Gazidis, we will see a 20 club league, single-table with playoffs and a 10 Million dollar salary cap within the next decade.
And a pony for every fan. Because I won't be buying any season tickets in 2018 until and unless Commissioner Gazidis gives me a freaking pony!!!
This is not a black and white answer. A mixture of both is important. For example, having playoffs and a salary cap (which are standard in American sports), but also doing away with the shootout after every tie game (as MLS did years ago), and having less Arena football, WNBA-like team names (Clash, Mutiny, Burn) to names that are more identifiable with soccer fans around the world. The league's on the right track if they keep trying to balance the two schools.
And trying to appeal to "traditional" soccer fans by naming teams "Real This" and "FC That" and perpetuating more tie games has translated to an EXPLOSION in attendance and TV ratings...
ESPN showing one EPL game a week could help so much IMO. I'm sure its contractually impossible right now, but taking the best game from the weekend and showing it on ESPN2 on a weeknight could help a lot.
Not sure what your point is. Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC led attendance and a local media that seems very interested in them. Don't hate cause you live in KC.
Well, first off, I don't live in Kansas City, that's the just the team I've ended up throwing my support behind until my actual hometown gets a team of its own. And here's my point: MLS attendance has seen no significant jump with the elimination of overtime (or the shootout for that matter) in 2004 nor since Real Salt Lake, CD Chivas USA and FC Dallas made their debut in 2005. League Attendance Final Numbers: Year Average 1996 17,406 1997 14,619 1998 14,312 1999 14,282 2000 13,756 2001 14,962 2002 15,821 2003 14,898 2004 15,559 2005 15,108 2006 15,504 2007 16,770 Furthermore, the only noticeable boost the league's TV ratings has enjoyed (last season) is because of David Beckham, not Toronto FC. So while trying to appeal to Joe Six Pack hasn't yielded immediate prosperity for MLS, it seems that making cosmetic "traditional" changes to the League's nicknames and tiebreakers isn't packing the stadiums with rabid futbol fans, either. The only thing that appears to have had any impact is the addition of starpower on the field itself.
It's kind of a catch 22. People don't want to go because they want to see a league with sold out stadiums, a good atmosphere and some of the best talent in the world, but that can't happen unless ticket prices rise and every game starts to sell out. The best thing that can happen to MLS is to continue to bring in the young undiscovered talent and draw in some of the most famous poster boys in the world when they get near retirement after the big teams in Europe and South America don't want them anymore. One thing that people need to realize is that MLS will always be a feeder league for the top leagues in Europe. Even teams like Boca Juniors have had players leave for Europe. It's something most of the talented players dream of doing before they retire.
I think this is more of an evolution. I think MLS probably has converted many sports fans who had only minimal exposure to soccer prior to embracing an MLS team. After a dozen years though, MLS has probably done all they can do with that market, and if they want to boost crowds they have to look to other audiences. Fans who follow other leagues -- people who may have dismissed the league in its infancy -- thus become a logical target to try and win over. To be honest, I'm not sure either market is all that robust, but teams that draw well do tend to have active supporters groups, which suggests the strategy of focusing on serious fans may have some potential.
Not all foreign-influenced names are cut from the same cloth: "Real Salt Lake" is not a fitting name, agreed. There is nothing about the area around Salt Lake City that conjures up such a name, unless maybe if one really tried, he could make a connection with the early days of the Mormon settlement when they could have possibly become the "kingdom" of Deseret at one time--but that's a stretch. In truth everyone knows they wanted to hitch themselves to the coattails of a famous European club, which supposedly would give them instant credibility in the eyes of people, which conversely ends up insulting people's intelligence for thinking that would work. But on the other hand, "FC Dallas" is a very fitting name, because it's in a part of the country with lots of Hispanic influence, hence the FC preceding the city name, and where it is often called "Futbol". It is a totally natural name, therefore. And also, they purposely left the mascot question open. Anything generic is always fitting, because it leaves it up to fans to more narrowly define their club over time as it develops its own unique character. By not giving your club a mascot name to start off with, it allows the club's identity to come about organically. I think that's a good foreign idea that we should adopt more often here. And lest you think "we can't do that, it's not the American way", then uh...what is the American way, exactly? We're largely made up of foreigners to begin with, so much of our culture is foreign-influenced by definition. People who reject all things foreign, therefore, have no clue as to the origins of their own culture. What has distinguished us as a country, really, was knowing a good foreign idea from a bad one, and not tossing out the baby with the bathwater.
FSN/ CSN already shows an EPL game a week. They're usually around noon so the only way to see one would be to tape it.
The idea of letting the nickname/mascot for a sports team develop "organically" isn't so much a foreign method as much as it is an archaic method (see below). Luckily for us, this socio-cultural experiment has already been done. Major league baseball teams that were first formed in the mid/late 1800's (around the same time many European soccer clubs were founded) let their nicknames develop organically as well. Almost all of baseball's 16 oldest franchises found a mascot in that way. The formula was still being used by a few of the teams that were active during the formative years of the NFL in the early 1920's. But the American public reacted exactly as you would have liked and rejected that tradition, ultimately deciding that they preferred a different formula to naming their teams. According to your own definition, it seems as though American sports fans thought the old way of naming pro clubs was a "bad idea."
Question ?? do you think Seattle Sounders is a legitimate??? you Know they had to nearly Fight MLS for the team to be Named sounders..... it had history, and it was important to them... ... Also i think FC Dallas is basically Kissing up to euro savy and ofcourse Latino fans( what team isnt). Yes there is a american way in sports so you sound pretty lost to me.