Five Reasons to Watch MLS

Sitting here a month away from the first kickoff of the MLS season in '08 I have nothing better to do other than try to convert people to North America's domestic league. Without further ado.......


1) Its our domestic league.

Com'n, you live here in the states (most of you) and why not support it and have it raise the next McGod. After all McBride did play for the Crew before he went to our beloved Whites.

2)Its in the summer.

The EPL isn't going on for most of the season and unless you're watching the World Cup or Euro Championships there aren't any other meaningful match ups.

3)Its an attacking style.

Some games can be quite entertaining to watch (a la NYRB vs LA Galaxy with a 6-5 scoreline or something). Of course it is no match for the quality and unique pace of the EPL. Just give it a shot Thursday, April 3 on ESPN 2.

4)The best is yet to come.

At 14 or so years old (or however old it is) the quality is still growing every year. Give it time and the quality will get better.

5)It has something to prove

The european "know-it-alls" bash on the MLS because its in the US. Many of them have never seen an MLS match. The give it as much crap as the worlds busiest outhouse. To give you an idea of how well the MLS compares to the Coca-Cola Championship, the Sounders (USL division 1) beat middle of the road championship Preston North End a couple years back in a friendly. Yeah its only a friendly but the quality is there.

That is my two cents. I probably destroyed some of my own arguments but its my list and I'm sticking to it.

 

Good one Ianhux

 

Those are at least some reasons to watch ONE MLS match.

Now excuse me while I go sharpen my axe.

 

Good call young man, the league has inproved greatky from even 5 years ago and will only get better. If we could only have a team in Cleveland... (and I don't want to hear about FC Village People from down I-71).

 

It is getting better. The SuperLiga matches were pretty exciting. The final, LA Galaxy vs Pachuca, went down to PKs with LD missing the possible game winner after all those kisses. That game also had an extremely exciting, extra time, game tying bicycle goal by Chris Klein. I believe Pachuca won the Mexican league this year too.

Although, having the MLS champs demolished by a J-league squad 6-1 last week at the Pan Pacific Championships (4 team tourney in Hawaii) is pretty embarrassing . At least the Galaxy only lost to that same team 1-0.

 

Need to take the next step

I believe in the MLS.

No one is going to seriously argue the level of competition, fandom or style of play vs a serious international soccer league.

I do think that the US has the best athletes in the world.

So in order to grow the league there has to be ground swell at grass roots. I think that's begun. However, there also has to be a national cognizance of the sport which I think is not so evident yet. YET! Yes, we're sending quite a few players to other leagues around the world and enjoying at least some modicum of success. What we need is to garner more interest in OUR OWN leagues. I think the league is working on that with some fruit for their labor. The David Beckham experiment has been a success (unfortunately for the Galaxy, not in wins). And with new high profile involvement like Oscar de la Hoya's recent alliance with the Dynamo's ownership, I think things are headed in the right direction.

This is a slow process however and will need ample time for real penetration.

I have a theory on sports moving to mainstream and I'll be succinct as possible;
a. EXPOSURE (Why can you only use your feet?) - it always starts with exposure. Let me ask you this - 10 years ago how many motor sports would you see broadcast on big 4 TV (not cable)? Daytona and Indy pretty much, right? How about now? Now you may say the fandom grew so much there was a need for broadcast. I would say that's your chicken to my egg. Which leads to...

b. CASUAL INTEREST (What's all the brew-ha-ha?) - Once the sport has invaded your personal sports space you decide to take a cursory look to see what these idiots are so interested in. Before professional hockey came to Dallas (all apologies to the Dallas Blackhawks, Freeze and Ice of CHL fame) I really had no interest in hockey. We didn't play it in high school and there was no exposure (there's that word again) to it locally. But at my job where I was inundated with Boston expatriates (ex-patriots? hmmm) I was constantly hearing about hockey this and Ray Bourque that and "it's going to be a great weekend, I'm watching the Bruins/Whalers game with friends". What? Well, I decided to pick a random team and start following them so I could come in on Monday and say "yeh, but did you see what my Blackhawks did to the Canucks yesterday". It was fun. These were not the Dallas Blackhawks but Chicago. A city where I had never stepped foot. But I had a great time talking with the guys about it at the water cooler. By the end of the first season, I could even tell you the names of several starters and who was the best player on their checking line (whatever that was).

c. EXPERIENCED NOVICE? (I think that 4-4-2 means 2 forwards not defenders)- When I was in third grade my parents joined a bowling league so my options were to stay in the nursery with my 3 year old brother or join the junior bowling league. Hmmmm. "Do they have snacks in the nursery?" I didn't know anything about bowling except that the longer adults bowled the louder they got and it made them go to the bathroom about every other frame. But all things considered I decided to join the league. My first day of instruction a cute young girl with brown curly hair and a ball with her name INSIDE it says to me, "what's your high game".

"Huh".

"Have you never bowled before"?

"Oh sure, I thought you were talking about something else".

"My high game is 225, what's yours"?

"375".

I'm not sure if the look was "you're an idiot" or "he must bowl in the 'special league'".

At any rate, I ended up being a pretty good bowler after about a year and if you asked me what a 7-10 was I could tell you. I knew where to line up on the lane to have the best chance of picking up the spare. I knew the advantages of having a lighter ball over a heavier ball for my size and strength. In other words, I knew just enough to make me dangerous and I would give you the "idiot" eye if you told me you bowled a 375.

d. IMMERSION (I can't believe we lost Kreis, he was our best scorer) - You start to have some knowledge of the game as a whole. Maybe you become a member of the hoops nation as I have (FC DALLAS). I also have 3 daughters that all play soccer and one plays for FC DALLAS academy whose uniforms look exactly like the pro team. It's very cool. I watched my first MLS Superdraft the other day. Talk about exposure. I don't know many people who even knew it was televised. I bought a rebounder (no, not Shaq) for the kids to kick against in the yard. I bought a Fulham replica jersey. My first since graduating from CASUAL INTEREST guy. I can't seem to get enough of everything soccer.

e. FAN (So and so is good but he's no Johnny Haynes. Hey, you remember when...) - I am a huge football fan. NFL, College, High School, you name it. I begin studying the NFL draft in late November and it doesn't take place until the end of April. I will go and watch a game between two high schools that my kids don't go to, just because it's a big rivalry. I really love the sport and have a better than average understanding of it from a tactical standpoint. I love the history of the game. The old guys wearing leather helmets and the oddly oversized wool pants with the pads sewn inside them. The underlying theme here is history tied to the present and predicating the future. They're all connected to the fan.

This is why the MLS will never be a truly accepted fan favorite sport until these factors come to pass and there is a heritage of fans. That can only be accomplished with time and history in perspective of the present. The MLS will get there if they concentrate on A through C. Then D and E will happen.

 

RE: Need to take the next step

Bill, great post...

First of all, good choice following the Chicago Blackhawks. I'm sure your a Stars fan by now, but that is okay and understandable.

Secondly, you made a very important and great point when you said "I do think that the US has the best athletes in the world."

My buddy from work and I aaaaaaaaaalways argue the point that the U.S. has the greatest athletes in the world. However, until very very recently, those athletes have always been trained from a young age to play football, or baseball, or basektball, or hockey.

That is where the money is and that is where the money is spent by parents. They see these huge stars television receiving the 'exposure' and want to play those sports and be like those athletes who are playing anything but soccer.

Because of this, our best athletes, Michael Jordan, Walter Payton, Reggie Bush, Alex Rodriguez, etc. are not playing soccer. Imagine an athlete of Reggie Bush's ability being groomed to play soccer his whole life. What could he have been???

Well we are now starting to see that. With the likes of Jozy Altidore, Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, etc. The 'exposure' that athletes are now receiving for playing soccer is catching the attention of kids who would otherwise leave soccer for other sports as they grow older. David Beckham coming to America and receiving the attention and money that he receives shows them that soccer is something that can make them famous and an American sports icon.

As this mentality continues to mature over the next few years and generations of athletes and fans begin to follow soccer and the MLS, the strength and quality of the league will grow. And one day players will stop leaving the MLS for other top leagues and strive to play in the MLS. Foreign born players will begin to come here and eventually anough teams will be developed to have a similar competitive structure that implements relegation and promotion. Slowly but surely it will happen.

And with the amount of money that Americans throw at their sports teams, myself included, the MLS will be able to survive by sustaining this slow but important transformation from a sporting novelty, to sporting nobility.

 

Conversely the Houston Dynamo just got beat by Gamba Osaka 6-1. Trying to compare MLS to an English League just doesn't fly. There are some MLS guys who would do well in England, many others would be in the Non-League English football though.

It's not a very good league no matter what anyone says about it and it isn't going to get much better than it currently is... until the US starts producing more solid players.

 

The MLS is beginning to play overseas with more regularity. It was fun to watch Galaxy play Seoul FC on the tube. They threw twenty players at a Galaxy team that was missing Donavan and still rounding into shape. 1-1. This overseas competition has got to help the MLS clubs get better, allowing them to see different styles of play and quality of talent. The MLS continues to get better every year. That is why the European leagues are taking more players. SuperLiga, Pan Pacific and hopefully other will be good for the level of competition and give more US players a chance to play professionally.

 

How can MLS improve its product? I want to start by saying it has very much, to the point where I will buy the Direct Kick package this year for the first time.

I would love to see the number of teams that make the playoffs reduced to 4. Six at the must, but 8 is too many. All that is saying is that a cash grab is more inportant than the games, because since there is no relegation, the June game between Colorado and Real Salt Lake has no meaning at all. Who cares who wins? Why should they? There is no urgency, and the players will play like that because they do not have to fight for their position like how players have to do in European leagues. It was truly ridiculous when 8 out of 10 teams made the playoffs, at least they have improved in that arena a little. Also, if you actually play to win your division, and all you get is the second game of a two-legged tie at home against a team that has sandbagged the last few games and is content to come in 2nd or 3rd in the division, that is not good for the league. I read where Chivas and DCU personnel last year were disappointed that was their only advantage for winning the regular season crown, and they are right. (In the case of DC United, it couldn't happen to a more deserving team. Hope you enjoyed watching the MLS Cup on the couch, you jerks).

It will probably never happen, but I would love for someone in MLS to be forward thinking enough to put promotion and relegation into the league from the USL. That would put an urgency into the players and fans that exists in no other American sports league. If one team got relegated, and last years' Galaxy would have been in the hunt for 75% of the season, wouldn't that have been a talking point for the media. As well as a source of embarrassment with all the Beckham hysteria and a loss of face for the league. And a loss of revenue, which is why it won't happen. Once the league is stabilized at 16-18 teams, I would love to see one or two positions open for relegation. That would be innovative thinking and a means to differentiate our sport from the big four leagues. Ask one of the three Tampa Bay Devil Ray fans how much their last few games matter, than ask a Fulham fan the same thing.

I'm glad for the April-October schedule as opposed to a wintertime one, MLS would get killed looking for attention if they were to switch to a more traditional schedule, and watching the Chicago Fire or Toronto FC on a cold day in January is not a good way to bring in fans. Also, I think they will need to lift the salary cap provision in the short-term to mid-term future, the league is well run enough to be able to relax the reigns in that time, and money will bring in the best players in the world. If that were the case today, we would definitely have more interest from players in their prime.

Sadly my last wish doesn't look like it will happen. Put a team in Cleveland! We are probably too far behind everyone else to make it so.

 

Promotion/Relegation is NOT forward thinking. It's cool, but it isn't smart or progressive.

Europe is actually moving towards ending relegation.

 

Improve:
1. Get rid of the single-entity structure.
2. Lift what has become a laughable salary cap structure.
3. Incorporate contract provisions that allow players out of the shackles of the MSL when any other club comes forward with a reasonable offer.

In effect, quit being such a dictatorial entity, and figure out ways to incorprate a free-market, capitalist structure that will be accepted by and engender good will from the rest of the footy world.

 

Lyle. Where are you hearing that Europe is looking at ending relegation!?!? I can't think of a single top European league that could agree on the members that "should" be in the top league, let alone would move in that direction.

Besides, the TV companies would squelch any such thoughts, let alone moves. Relegation is good for ratings; it makes those games in the last part of the season among bottom feeders worth watching. It also allows for playoffs in the lower divisions to mean something (which again, leads to ratings).

 

That is a great idea FFC if you want to turn the MLS into the NASL. This topic had been discussed very frequently in class here at NIU in the Masters in Sport Managment program. My good friend who works for the Fire is actually doing his thesis on the topic.

THE reason that the MLS is so successful, relatively speaking, today is because it is structed as a single entity. The complete control that they exercise over the league not only controls its growth, but controls its finances and allows the league to survive within its means.

Regardless teams are still losing money, however they are held to strict fiscal responsibility that keeps them from bidding eachother into bankruptcy over free agents. Over time, and with the growth in the league's fan base and revenue, they may move to a free market system like the MLB and NHL. But right now they litearlly cannot afford it even if everything went perfectly, can you imagine if there was a player strike? No more MLS.

Still, in some ways, the league is a free market, though they may only act as if they were one team. The league regularly buys players from and sells players to Europe, which allows them and the players to make the money they deserve. We need to look no further than our beloved Fulham for examples of this.

In the end, the players win, the MLS wins, and the fans win, which is why the MLS has grown every year since its inception and will continue to grow responsibly.

And yes the fans do win because without the system we have in place we may have a league full of superstars, but not for long.

And yes the players do win because if they are good enough they will play in Europe and get the money they deserve.

And yes the MLS does win because they are becoming a very good league with a very good product that America, and more importantly American investors, companies, and fans, are starting to embrace.

 

Arsene Wenger actually. He mentioned in one of his BBC interviews, last week or the week before, that he believes there will be a European wide Super League in the future.

It is not coming in the near future, but in the long-term there is a really, really good chance of a real European league coming to fruition. For it to work relegation/promotion would probably have to be done away with.
National leagues would become the minor leagues (including Fulham).

 

Truthfully, I think all the naysayers should shut their mouths and enjoy what you have. It's your only real live option, aside from the USL (if that's your cup of tea).

If you don't have a local team, fair enough. However, soccer is soccer . . MLS is the best we have here, and it's not nearly half bad, so why not enjoy it for what it's worth?

Support your local club, regardless of whether it lives up to the standards of your adopted club abroad, regardless of whether you agree with their business model (are you a spectator, or are you looking for a job in the front office. chill out).

I don't bother making comparisons, because it doesn't matter. We all want MLS to live up to a high standard, but we're 12 years old . . not 100 like the Premiership/First Division or La Liga.

Fulham v. Red Bulls friendly? . . . I'm NY through and through.

 

Lyle. Having the Euro Super League in no way removes promotion/relegation. In fact, UEFA would develop an entire cup competition that awards the winner(s) with promotion to the Super League... were it to happen, and it is still a long way off.

 

This should really be on another thread as I feel the MLS deserves a lot more credit than it is given, but...

The current EPL sides would NEVER go for a Euro Super League, unless they were all guaranteed the same profits they are realizing now.

Why would the Prem and its clubs give up the insane money they are making off of TV, Merchandise, and Sponsorship revenue to join a tougher league that costs more to operate, compete in, and they would have less control over??? Makes no sense.

That being said, it's still a cool idea.