Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There was an article around talking about the huge amounts of debt that UEFA royalty are carrying, with the exception of Bayern I think.
I am still at a loss at how they can continue to function having such large debt and frankly how domestic fanbase is at all time high levels of participation despite the nigh impossibilty of some teams to even SNIFF getting a piece of hardware. (especially in Scotland)
Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real, Barca, Inter, AC, Juve, Bayern Ajax, etc.
I don't think Ligue 1 is quite as bad aside from that tear Lyon went on in the last decade.
Don't get me wrong, in order for a league to grow you need a big powerful team or two galvanize nationwide attention and give everyone else something to aim for.
NBA's Bulls of the 90s, NFL's Steelers of the 70s, etc.
But when it's the same people on and on for DECADES, I just don't see how casual fans put up with it.
MLS can't keep single entity for ever but it's good that there is variety of who comes out on top to keep all fanbases relatively interested while the league is in it's infancy.
The Mexican League seems to have a variety of winners (although this might have something to do with their format) despite having clear rich and modest clubs. If MLS can be like that someday, I think it'll be good for the league.
we don't care attendances are still high, and we still love it! winning trophies isn't the be all and end all! maybe it is for americans, i don't know
It pretty much is all about just winning the trophies here Pau805.
Thats why there is no relegation and you dont have to finish top to win anything.
Its still pretty exciting but not as much as having relegation/promotion battles in a league too.
You have to keep in mind that its all Franchise here, not Clubs like we would have back home.
The big clubs can spend and although they are in debt they have billionaire owners so they can afford it. Take the Glazers, they bought United expecting it to be easy money, until they realised to own a team you have to willing to lose money - take Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and the owners at City. There should be a cap on wages etc but i doubt it will be introduced. The top teams would not be happy with it as their domination would be stopped and they would lose more money etc...
This is why we are unlikely to have pro reg. Soccer is only going to be so popular nationwide, probably the same as hockey or Nascar on average and that is being optimistic in the medium term.
It's still a risk relatively speaking unless you know exactly how to do it right and even the NHL which focuses heavily on profit from the gate is looking to up it's TV Money.
In my opinion, MLS is modeling itself as a league that really wants TV money with the playoff structure (which is largely why playoffs exists along form the best man left standing and tradition aspect). Corporate owners and sponsers aren't going to risk going down to a level of AAA baseball.
Our franchise thing can work. I like it because as opposed to the strong ceilings of advancement that occur in Euro leagues, there is decent chance for many teams to win even in the MLB, provided you have a prudent front office and staff and there is revenue sharing. That way we can avoid Rangers/Celtic vs. all else type problem and have a much richer mix of clubs like they have in France Japan and Brazil. (All this is assuming we get rid of single entity and teams are independent, don't know when that'll happen though).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've been doing a lot of reading on it.
Frankly, I think MLS will be ok but needs some changes.
They need to continue with Soccer stadiums and good PR locally to at least gain strong attendance and viewership locally.
Frankly, they should stop at 20 teams. Improve infrastructure and play and get rid of single entity structure because not enough competition is there to really lead to excellence. There can be (and likely has to) restrictions on pay, but it has to be higher than it is now.
The playoff system is a mess. We need playoffs but not like what they came up with, must be fixed SOON.
We need to figure out US Soccer development problems and up the pool of talent so teams have more depth and therefore improve play.
I think that EPL and UEFA royal leagues can HELP not hinder the sport provided there is proper promotional synergy. I look at it like this MLS is likely going to feed it's best players to the EPL, this could lead to it being like NCAA basketball to the EPL's NFL. People will tune in to see who the next big export will be and follow him in Europe in addition to following the local squad. Same thing with US National team. Hopefully those new international veterans come back home and help out with development.
It all has to do with improving talent pool and proper promotion and especially CROSS promotion (MLS + USNT is elementary, MLS + EPL is a bit tricker because you assume you have an ESPN who will effectively cross promote both domestic and foreign league).
Last edited by waltlantz; 03-18-2011 at 10:15 AM..
in the 80's the old firm weren't top dogs but have become unmoveable objects in the past 20 years, but i still love watching the highs and lows of the spl, i do think teams like hearts and dundee united are catching up, i think in maybe 5-ish years years another team will win the league in scotland, it's about consistency in the last 5 years 4 teams have won the scottish cup, so teams can beat the old firm, it's about doing it on a regular basis
in the 80's the old firm weren't top dogs but have become unmoveable objects in the past 20 years, but i still love watching the highs and lows of the spl, i do think teams like hearts and dundee united are catching up, i think in maybe 5-ish years years another team will win the league in scotland, it's about consistency in the last 5 years 4 teams have won the scottish cup, so teams can beat the old firm, it's about doing it on a regular basis
I also agree. It is hard for teams like Celtic and Rangers to improve and i thought Hibs were going to do some damage but they seem to have dropped away a bit in the last few years. If only Gretna were still around to do some damage
You can't really peg it to another league or tier in Europe because those are so unbalanced. If you say MLS is worse than the Premiership, does that mean RSL (current favorites) would struggle against Wigan (bottom table) but compete well with QPR (leading the championship)? No, it's not that simple and it never will be because these clubs don't play head to head.
Yeah up the RSL!! I wasn't aware that they were favorites. I thought it would be RSL, NY and LA all on level par.
It will be interesting this year to see how DC united do after they finished bottom by quite a distance last year. If they finish with 40 or so points it will show how equal the league is.
Also when we compare MLS to different leagues we don't just say 'Championship'. We try to be more specific and say lower end or higher end. But yeah i get where you're coming from.
To see how much the MLS has changed the ESPN website shows you previous years. Go to 2008 season and see how much it has changed in the last few years. LA finished bottom that year and they finished 2010 top.
I am just worried that out and out Yankee dominance could really hamper interest in some teams. MLS is likely to be like baseball with strong local support and revenues overshadowing full fledged national interest on a grand scale ala the NFL.
Dynasties are good, we just don't need a psudeo cast system that seems to have occured in some Euro leagues otherwise people will bail (too much competition).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
maybe it is for americans, i don't know
