ESPN dumping MLS Thursday night

[Inky_Wretch]

If you put quality soccer on the tube, people will watch it. The trouble is, not enough people think MLS is quality soccer.

Even among soccer fans, thanks to a Euro snobbery when it comes to the sport. (Of which I'm often guilty as well.)

Also, the timing of the league is a problem. Who is going to stay home when the weather is nice to watch any sport? I'd wager most people who would be watching MLS are outside during the summer months. For example, if the game kicks at 7-ish, I've still got nearly two hours of sunlight here in the summer. As much as I love soccer, I'm going to be out on the deck rather than in front of the TV.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

If you put quality soccer on the tube, people will watch it. The trouble is, not enough people think MLS is quality soccer.

Also, the timing of the league is a problem. Who is going to stay home when the weather is nice to watch any sport? I'd wager most people who would be watching MLS are outside during the summer months. For example, if the game kicks at 7-ish, I've still got nearly two hours of sunlight here in the summer. As much as I love soccer, I'm going to be out on the deck rather than in front of the TV.

I have to raise my hand to be counted among the guilty there as well.

That goes back to my earlier post saying while TV ratings might not be what some folks want, people are actually going to the games. There is a story just out where the new Seattle franchise has already sold 18.6K season tickets. (Of course the guy writing it points out how much better that is than many teams along the lines of thinking that the league isn't selling.)

 

[hondo]

The taped World Series of Poker final table got over 6x the viewers of the average MLS Thursday night game.

Yikes.

http://news.777.com/2008-11/espn-world-series-of-poker-ratings

And that's all you need to know. The viewers have spoken, through ratings: soccer sucks. We don't want to watch it. We're mildly interested every four years for the World Cup, but that's about it.

 

[poindexter]

What surprises me is how many of the soccer fans on this board don't follow the MLS. I like the MLS. The game looks great on HDNet.

 

[GB-Hack]

The taped World Series of Poker final table got over 6x the viewers of the average MLS Thursday night game.

Yikes.

http://news.777.com/2008-11/espn-world-series-of-poker-ratings

And that's all you need to know. The viewers have spoken, through ratings: soccer sucks. We don't want to watch it. We're mildly interested every four years for the World Cup, but that's about it.

Dude, you're missing the point completely. You cannot compare a one-off broadcast to a complete season of coverage.

I think the other thing that's missing here is nowhere do you see the ratings for soccer on Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura or Galavision included in these figures. You always get the rating for MLS, the World Cup, Gold Cup mentioned in stories, but rarely do you find the four major spanish networks numbers included.

In 2007, when the U.S. played Mexico in the final of the Gold Cup, Univision had 5.34 million people watching. ABC got a 7.01 rating for the World Cup final in 2006, and that doesn't include the number that were watching on Univision.

It's nice of you to come on here and say soccer sucks, but the evidence still points to the fact that people will watch if they think it's a quality product, and again it comes back to MLS not being perceived as a quality product.

 

[Pastor]

What surprises me is how many of the soccer fans on this board don't follow the MLS. I like the MLS. The game looks great on HDNet.

I follow MLS as well. I was at the final and am a season ticket holder.

I don’t understand those that don’t follow MLS but will watch soccer. It makes little sense to me. I listen to the arguments and hear the explanations. Then, I think it is a bunch of crap.

 

[Boomer7]

What surprises me is how many of the soccer fans on this board don't follow the MLS. I like the MLS. The game looks great on HDNet.

I follow MLS as well. I was at the final and am a season ticket holder.

I don’t understand those that don’t follow MLS but will watch soccer. It makes little sense to me. I listen to the arguments and hear the explanations. Then, I think it is a bunch of crap.

It's a crappy world, then. When I went to Ireland a few years ago, you needed a microscope to find evidence of their "premier" league. But Malcolm Glazer's purchase of Man U was the lead story in the Irish papers and Premiership games were always on in the pubs.

Now I understand that the Dynamo or Crew are better than Bray Wanderers, but I imagine there are plenty of other countries in which the domestic league's popularity can't hold a candle to that of the Premiership, Serie A, etc. I suspect a lot of basketball fans in other countries feel the same way about their domestic leagues vis a vis the NBA.

MLS' main challenge is to convince U.S. soccer fans of the advantages of having a club you can support in person (even if it's not a glamorous SuperClub) rather than from across the ocean.

 

[poindexter]

The MLS attendance boom isn't hitting the US Men's team. These were taken last night, at Home Depot Center, for the game against Sweden.

 

[Boomer7]

The MLS attendance boom isn't hitting the US Men's team. These were taken last night, at Home Depot Center, for the game against Sweden.

I'd disagree with the notion of an "MLS attendance boom" in the first place. I saw that mentioned in earlier posts and scratched my head.

As for last night, the fact that the national team plays so many games a) in Carson and b) against Sweden doesn't help matters.

 

[Boomer7]

As a postscript, CNN International is showing a special now on the 2010 World Cup and talking about how, in Nigeria, the Premiership is swamping the domestic league in terms of popularity. There's nothing uniquely American about MLS' predicament.

 

[didntdoit19]

As a postscript, CNN International is showing a special now on the 2010 World Cup and talking about how, in Nigeria, the Premiership is swamping the domestic league in terms of popularity. There's nothing uniquely American about MLS' predicament.

Why wouldn't people want to watch the best? Only when MLS is the best league in the world (or in the conversation) will it be popular. That's why the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL (to a lesser extent) are hugely popular here.

We Americans like knowing we are watching The Best. And MLS is nowhere near the best, so we find other alternatives. As do the Nigerians.

 

[Boomer7]

As a postscript, CNN International is showing a special now on the 2010 World Cup and talking about how, in Nigeria, the Premiership is swamping the domestic league in terms of popularity. There's nothing uniquely American about MLS' predicament.

Why wouldn't people want to watch the best? Only when MLS is the best league in the world (or in the conversation) will it be popular. That's why the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL (to a lesser extent) are hugely popular here.

We Americans like knowing we are watching The Best. And MLS is nowhere near the best, so we find other alternatives. As do the Nigerians.

Glad you threw in that last line, but one can argue that, given the vast number of Americans who prefer college basketball over the pro game, we don't always prefer The Best.

 

[didntdoit19]

As a postscript, CNN International is showing a special now on the 2010 World Cup and talking about how, in Nigeria, the Premiership is swamping the domestic league in terms of popularity. There's nothing uniquely American about MLS' predicament.

Why wouldn't people want to watch the best? Only when MLS is the best league in the world (or in the conversation) will it be popular. That's why the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL (to a lesser extent) are hugely popular here.

We Americans like knowing we are watching The Best. And MLS is nowhere near the best, so we find other alternatives. As do the Nigerians.

Glad you threw in that last line, but one can argue that, given the vast number of Americans who prefer college basketball over the pro game, we don't always prefer The Best.

But the NBA is still more popular than college basketball.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

As a postscript, CNN International is showing a special now on the 2010 World Cup and talking about how, in Nigeria, the Premiership is swamping the domestic league in terms of popularity. There's nothing uniquely American about MLS' predicament.

Why wouldn't people want to watch the best? Only when MLS is the best league in the world (or in the conversation) will it be popular. That's why the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL (to a lesser extent) are hugely popular here.

We Americans like knowing we are watching The Best. And MLS is nowhere near the best, so we find other alternatives. As do the Nigerians.

Glad you threw in that last line, but one can argue that, given the vast number of Americans who prefer college basketball over the pro game, we don't always prefer The Best.

But the NBA is still more popular than college basketball.

I don't have any numbers to back it up, but I'd disagree. Outside of NBA cities, I'd say pretty much for everyone else college is far more popular. How many people fill out NBA playoff brackets?

 

[cougargirl]

I don't have any numbers to back it up, but I'd disagree. Outside of NBA cities, I'd say pretty much for everyone else college is far more popular. How many people fill out NBA playoff brackets?

I use a similar logic when readers call in and complain why there "isn't enough high school/college/pro soccer coverage" in our paper. Well, I say, when I see millions of people tuning into Monday Night Soccer and throwing tailgate parties in rural Wisconsin for Real Salt Lake versus Red Bull, then we might reconsider.

When it comes to the end of MLS on ESPN, if a tree falls in the forest ...

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

MLS' main challenge is to convince U.S. soccer fans of the advantages of having a club you can support in person (even if it's not a glamorous SuperClub) rather than from across the ocean.

I think we're getting there. The numbers might not support it, but I think a lot of people dedicated to the game really cherish having the opportunity to go and support their regional club.

Take a look at the advancement of supporter sections across this country - I'm not talking solely MLS here either as the USL has many fine examples of dedicated support too. People are starting to "get" it. Where these groups take the sport is anyone's guess, but ignore it at your own peril.

 

[forever_town]

We Americans like knowing we are watching The Best. And MLS is nowhere near the best, so we find other alternatives. As do the Nigerians.

I understand the thinking, but I think it's short-sighted.

In its formative years, the quality of MLS play wasn't up to snuff with even mediocre second division clubs in the best leagues. Only the very best teams could conceive of holding their own against the best club teams from other countries.

D.C. United winning the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 1998? Big upset. D.C. United winning the InterAmerican Cup over Vasco da Gama that year, after losing to the Chicago Fire in the MLS Final? On the order of Appalachian State beating Michigan in the Big House.

The league has shown steady improvement since its 1996 debut. It's become much more legitimate since the league fired Doug Logan as commissioner and named Don Garber to the post, which I didn't expect. It's definitely not the best league in the world and it doesn't belong in the conversation, but its better teams aren't an embarrassment now.

We have to remember MLS is entering its 14th season. The best leagues in the rest of the world have been in business for over 100 years. They have youth programs, reserve sides and all those sorts of things that have been well established. MLS only recently established a league of reserve teams. It's only recently started getting into the youth program market (and I think D.C. United got pushed into doing it first when the French league invited its then-non-existent youth team to a tournament back in 1999 or so).

Other things the league's done that should give it increased credibility around the rest of the world: 1) Dumped the shootout, then eventually dropping overtime from regular season play; 2) Changed the names of some of its teams to more closely resemble names of teams around the world (such as Real Salt Lake) and 3) Changed its first round playoff format to a home-and-away series with aggregate goals deciding the winner. Soccer purists thought the league was a joke back when it started because of some of its "Americanized" gimmicks.

MLS doesn't have to be more popular than the NFL or the NBA. It just has to have a seat at the table. It's starting to get there, and may get there in a few years.

 

[Boomer7]

MLS' main challenge is to convince U.S. soccer fans of the advantages of having a club you can support in person (even if it's not a glamorous SuperClub) rather than from across the ocean.

I think we're getting there. The numbers might not support it, but I think a lot of people dedicated to the game really cherish having the opportunity to go and support their regional club.

Take a look at the advancement of supporter sections across this country - I'm not talking solely MLS here either as the USL has many fine examples of dedicated support too. People are starting to "get" it. Where these groups take the sport is anyone's guess, but ignore it at your own peril.

I'd agree that they're starting to get it--it's just a matter of how patient investors, sponsors, TV networks, etc., will be ... especially in a bad economy. I mean, the Revolution's hard-core supporters group is much bigger than it was several years ago, but the club struggles to pull respectable crowds for matches on short notice (such as last year's playoff game, which drew about 5,000 people). The club has to overcome more than a decade of its own questionable marketing, in which it targeted the kiddie crowd first and foremost. Contrast that approach with Toronto FC.

As for ignoring things at one's peril, read the last graf of this story. And for all the Lou Dobbs types out there who'll yap about illegal immigrants padding the ratings, tell me this: If you were trying to avoid deportation, would you let someone put a tracking device on your TV?

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/2009/02/usamexico-sets-record-on-espn2.html

 

[Jeremy Goodwin]

For those who don't want to go to the link:

Overall, USA/Mexico averaged just over 7 million viewers on ESPN2 and Univision, more than any game of last year's Stanley Cup Finals, higher than the 6.1 million viewers for last Sunday's Lakers/Cavaliers game on ABC, and slightly below the 7.5 million for last year's NLCS on FOX.

 

[Boomer7]

For those who don't want to go to the link:

Overall, USA/Mexico averaged just over 7 million viewers on ESPN2 and Univision, more than any game of last year's Stanley Cup Finals, higher than the 6.1 million viewers for last Sunday's Lakers/Cavaliers game on ABC, and slightly below the 7.5 million for last year's NLCS on FOX.

I like to make people work for it.