No one is watching MLS. Here's how to reform it. (UEFA, football)
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Just trying to be funny. Basically, I'm describing the people that feel that MLS needs to be exactly like EPL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartleby9
Some people do enjoy MLS playoffs. But not enough. They get horrendous TV ratings.
The difference between soccer and other American sports is that in soccer you have cup tournaments. These are playoff tournaments.
We have the US Open Cup in this country that is our version of the FA Cup. That's your playoff right there.
That's an interesting idea, making the Open Cup act as the playoffs. The open format makes that a bit difficult though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartleby9
So, what's the reason for a playoff to decide who wins the league? I'm not being facetious. I just can't wrap my head around it.
I'd actually follow MLS if it was a proper league with a league champion. It's just pointless to follow this league when they let over half the teams into playoffs to decide what should have been decided through a simple season long round-robin.
Well, what's the reason not to have a playoff decide the champion? I find playoffs interesting because it generally determines the best team at the pinnacle of the season. Some teams can struggle early, but really find themselves later in the season. That's just my preference though.
Plus, MLS does have the Supporters Shield, which is a the regular season champion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartleby9
And then MLS wonders why the WNBA beats them in TV ratings. Most soccer fans agree with me.
The US Open Cup is kind of pathetic, no one cares about it. Even the CONCACAF Champions League sucks, which in concept is a good idea. Maybe there is no money at stake in the CCL. Do CCL champs get extra cash to use in the following regular season? If they did that, maybe it would be a bigger deal.
Can you imagine that teams that make it into CCL get $500K extra for the next year and every stage you progress through CCL you get more money. That would make MLS teams care more for the tourney. It would make the CCL a huge advantage to MLS teams and make coming in the top 5 places in the league vital for success. they would need to change that bad scheduling to be playing each team twice instead of an uneven number of times.
The US Open Cup is kind of pathetic, no one cares about it. Even the CONCACAF Champions League sucks, which in concept is a good idea. Maybe there is no money at stake in the CCL. Do CCL champs get extra cash to use in the following regular season? If they did that, maybe it would be a bigger deal.
Can you imagine that teams that make it into CCL get $500K extra for the next year and every stage you progress through CCL you get more money. That would make MLS teams care more for the tourney. It would make the CCL a huge advantage to MLS teams and make coming in the top 5 places in the league vital for success. they would need to change that bad scheduling to be playing each team twice instead of an uneven number of times.
The winner of the CCL goes to the Club world cup and can earn figures like 500k just for participating.
sorry, but the quality of play just isn't that good, plus so many games played on turf and Euro players seeing the league as a retirement destination doesn't help.
On the retirement thing, we are seeing a better quality player coming from Europe. Yes theyre old and yes they're past their prime but its not youre getting a 36 year old washed up Stoichkov as much as you used to. Keane and Henry could easily still play in BPL if they wanted. I dont mind older guys coming here so long as they have some quality to offer, when the league first started we where lucky some of the players could tie their own shoe laces. Thats not so much the case anymore I dont think.
There are two cases that I can think of where you're not going to see a natural grass pitch; Seattle and New England. Both the Sounders and Revolution play in NFL stadiums and both of those stadiums will definitely give preference to the Seahawks and Patriots. The Sounders and Revolution are the clear secondary tenants of those stadiums.
I am not sure how much it would cost to change out the surface every year, but unless they do that, artifical turf will be staying put.
The winner of the CCL goes to the Club world cup and can earn figures like 500k just for participating.
But their salary cap doesn't increase, that is what I was proposing (I wasn't very clear). Make ways for teams to have higher salary caps if they reach some goals (CCL, win CCL, etc.). Right now the team makes money, but it can't use it on higher player salaries.
The harping on the playoffs is really strange. Americans WANT playoffs. I'm not saying that it's a better determination of what is the best team (as it often isn't), but the culture here absolutely demands playoffs. That's non-negotiable. It certainly isn't the reason why MLS isn't popular.
Instead, it's simply that Americans want to watch the best of the best. The best basketball, baseball and hockey players all come to the United States (and we're the only country that really plays football en masse), whereas the best soccer players go to Europe instead of here. That's why Americans enjoy the World Cup and watching the US Men's National Team, but aren't interested in what they consider to be the soccer equivalent of Double-A minor league baseball. If MLS could get Premier League-quality players, then it would be an entirely different ballgame.
Now, I agree that the single entity format and salary caps are directly impeding the MLS ever moving up the food chain internationally. Those are legitimate reasons why the MLS is being held back. It definitely has nothing to do with playoffs, though. Americans, for better or worse, demand winner-take-all games.
You're trying to compare soccer to other American sports. It's too different to do that. Like I mentioned in my other post, soccer has "Cups",something that other American sports don't have. A Cup tournament is essentially a playoff. It just happens throughout the season. In soccer lower division clubs compete with top division clubs for trophies. This doesn't happen in any other American sport either.
So, why do you need a playoff on top of that to decide a league winner? Americans want playoffs in soccer? Show me the survey data that says that. This is only anectdotal but everyone I talk to that is a soccer fan thinks playoffs are dumb in soccer. If MLS Playoffs were getting good TV ratings that would help your argument. But they aren't. It was just a couple years ago that a women's volleyball game beat the MLS Cup Final in TV ratings.
Americans want to watch the best of the best? Then why are amateur sports so popular? Most of those players will never sniff a pro career. They are not the best of the best.
I agree that the existence of MLS Playoffs doesn't hold the league back quality wise(like single entity and the salary cap does). But I think it does prevent the league from getting decent regular season TV ratings. There's just no compelling reason to follow the league when they just dump over half of the teams into playoffs at the end of the season to decide a league champion. The whole narrative during the season is who is going to qualify for playoffs. That's all they talk about during broadcasts and pre and post game shows.
When the WNBA is beating you in TV ratings you are doing it wrong.
Is there a relegation system for MLS? If not, then the worst teams will have no real incentive to play hard as the season winds down because they wont win it anyways, and if they play really good teams, they wont put up a fight. With a playoffs, at least the best teams will face each other and have something to fight over.
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Basically, I'm describing the people that feel that MLS needs to be exactly like EPL.
