Sepp Blatter's anti-MLS comments

The whole international calendar thing is such a canard. There's a bunch of leagues that don't adhere to the international calendar, including Brazil.

It ignores the reality that American soccer fans are not going to attend matches in the dead of winter, nor against the NFL and college football. MLS would probably have to play mid-week throughout the first half of its season if it switched and take a December-January break. Wouldn't work.

And what makes Sepp Blatter think that a switch would suddenly open up opportunities for MLS to grab worldwide stars? When has MLS even stated that as a goal?

Dummkopf.

As for this ...

Not really. Not in a soccer context. By that definition, nearly every league in the world is "minor league". Soccer doesn't really work like that.

MLS is a conduit for North American players to have access to a professional league in their own backyard. That's how pretty much every league on Earth operates, including the vast majority of clubs in the big leagues in Europe. For every Manchester City, there's three clubs like Norwich, Southampton or West Brom where there a few foreign players, but mostly mixed in with a domestic core.

And aspiring to making a jump and actually doing it are two different things. The list of MLS players who have gone straight from MLS to the top leagues in Europe isn't very long.

By now, nearly every MLS team has an established veteran player that has become familiar to their fanbase over time. And their rivals.

I think MLS is poised for a jump. Where its really grown is in its fan culture, especially in some of its western markets. Matches have become an event in many of its markets.

It's kind of like the NHL has usually been. In its own markets, the teams have increased respect, are viewed as major league, and in some cases, have a fervent fanbase. The next step is making fans in non-MLS markets feel the same way.

 

MLS is seventh in attendance. Not too shabby.

 

My definition of minor league is more of a practical one: If I as a journalist am (or was) interviewing a person who makes less than me, it's a minor league.

 

Guess that makes you a big shot on the junior girls basketball beat.

 

That sounds like a "I don't like what you say so I am going to act like you aren't big enough to matter!" comment. Always a solid and well-reasoned play.

 

The MLS is doing a hell of a lot better than any American football leagues are doing outside of the US.
The big test for the MLS is when Anschutz and Hunt aren't around. It isn't just the money they have put in, but the leadership they provide.
I think I'd invest in the MLS before the NHL.

 

If the top six are England, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and France, that's pretty damn good. If it beats any of those, then Sepp can STFU.

OK, Sepp can STFU anyway.

There is no further jump. It's as popular as it's going to get.

Which is fine with me. Never thought it would last this long, never thought there would be this many soccer-specific stadiums.

As for the international calendar: the sport is my passion. I supported MLS before there were team names. But I will not attend games in the dead of winter. No thanks.

The promotion/relegation thing that comes up every so often is equally stupid at this point.

I hate seeing "the" MLS on a board for journalists.

Get it straight, please. Or we can talk about "the" MLB.

 

Sorry about that. Calling it MLS makes it sound like a disease.

 

To a lot of sports editors, it is a disease.

 

I think promotion-relegation could work, but it would have to have a basement. You couldn't have it as it is in England, where a club can theoretically drop six steps down the ladder.

Two steps on the ladder. The lowest a club could ever drop is to the second division. Thirty-two teams. Sixteen in each, no conferences, true round-robin schedule. Two teams drop (and get promoted) and one or two others play a playoff against second division teams for survival.

Both leagues would have to be branded in some way as MLS so casual fans would recognize the brand.

MLS isn't ready for that yet, but I think it could be at some point.

 

If the attendance growth next season is even close to what it has been the past few seasons it will pass France and possibly the Netherlands next year.

One thing I didn't realize before I looked it up: The Bundesliga has the best attendance of any soccer league in the world, and it's not close. 45k per game, compared to 34k in the Premier League.

 

Perhaps, but that would be generations away.

I don't think MLS attendance will grow any more. I'd like it to stay solidly between 14,000-17,000. That's stable. A decade ago, Kansas City was getting 5,000 a game (and claiming more, of course). Now the main problem they need to solve is Chivas USA.

And tarping off large swaths of the stadium doesn't cut it.