Friday, September 7, 2007
MLS and its Popularity
The Major League Soccer (MLS) was founded in 1994 and brought to the US to try and spark the popularity that soccer drew in Europe and other countries. Soccer is always a popular sport to play in the US but watching, not so much. This is something I never got. I personally love watching the MLS and the World Cup and it makes me angry that soccer doesn’t get the same respect it does in Europe. Although I do think it is getting more popular due to stars coming from overseas such as David Beckham’s arrival to LA, I do not think that it will ever be as popular as football or baseball in terms of people who watch the sports on TV. The MLS have signed TV deals with ESPN/ABC family, but hardly anyone watches it unless they are die hard fans or basically, there is nothing else on TV. In fact, MLS ratings as of June 11th, 2007, was a .2 average housing cable rating (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=551559). That is equal to the WNBA according to bigsoccer.com and we all know how popular the WNBA is. To add an even more staggering stat, the MLB is sporting a 1.53 household cable rating. But I think the reason that the MLS is not that popular is that they lack stars. They made a huge advancement we Beckham came from England to play for the LA Galaxy. If they continue to get popular stars like that such as Thierry Henry and Ronaldo de AssÃs Moreiraa (Ronaldinho) then I think it could become vastly more popular, but I do not foresee that occurring.
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3 comments:
Phash, in this post you are right about everything. You hit it on the nose when you said that MLS lacks star power. Even though Beckham is a great addition to the MLS he cannot bring the MLS to stardom all by himself, and also hurts the fact that he is out for 6 weeks, which can cripple MLS sales. But the addition of David Beckham has helped immensely. Then again the MLS was just a speck of dirt before Beckham came, now the MLS is a mound of dirt. For my standards that is a huge improvement. But on the whole I completely agree with you the more stars MLS adds the bigger it will become. I think this will take wealthy owners like Marc Cuban and George Steinbrenner to buy into the MLS, which is a long ways away.
Well being a huge sports fan i am sorry but I just cant watch the MLS. The only time i have a little interest in it is when the USA is playing world cup or friendlies agaisnt other countries. I understand that the MLS has no stars but who would want to come here. The competietion over seas is 100 times better. And lets be honest beckham came here for the money not to play soccer ad know he is crying like a baby and is out 6 weeks. Persoanllay i dont think the MLS will ever get big. Now that Lebron and Wade and Kobe and Melo are here alot of people are getting back into the NBA and dont care about Soccer. And when the MLS comes on every year its time for the Playoff push for baseball and everyone loves that and could care less about soccer. And i didnt even know MLS signed a new contract. Now Mark i see where u are coming from with the big owners but it will never happen. Soccer or Futbol just isnt big here. Stars will see that beckham didnt make it here and no one will come. I am sorry boys but soccer is falling off the American Map
David Beckham. Rock star wife, household soccer name, a movie named in his honor. I would say that this was the best initial move for major league soccer to become intriguing to the American public. His salary of $250 million is starting to push up on that of A-Rod's. He was the sole cause of the biggest night in MLS history just a few weeks ago in his initial debut, when he gave the media a field day like none other (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=447198&cc=5901). Now as I say that, I realize baseball will always be America's past time. And we as Americans love football, most likely due to the fact we are the best in the world at it. With the NBA reemerging after a slump that could be dubbed as the “Post-Jordan Era,” it will be difficult for MLS to pass them. I do, however, firmly believe that with some quality player additions and promotional schemes, MLS could compete with the NHL in terms of notoriety and coverage. It all depends on the ability of MLS to produce an effective marketing plan, which in turn will create much more interest and awareness as to what is going on. That movement has been started, in fact, by groups outside the MLS. One notable group would be The Next American Revolution (http://www.thenextamericanrevolution.org/). With interest groups like this, I do believe that MLS not only can survive here, but they can make a big impact. That, however, will not happen overnight. But when players like David Beckham sign league contracts, it definitely helps to speed up the process.
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