MLS Thread: 2019 Edition

[bleedblue1223]

I think all the Euro branding is silly, but who cares at this point. It's not like they are going to loss fans over it or gain fans over it. You either successfully rebrand like SKC did by moving to a soccer specific stadium and engaging with the community or you fail by not doing those things. Chicago City or Chicago FC at least makes more sense than some of the others out there, although Chicago Fire was one of the best names with it's historical meaning.

 

[Pouchkine]

I think all the Euro branding is silly, but who cares at this point. It's not like they are going to loss fans over it or gain fans over it. You either successfully rebrand like SKC did by moving to a soccer specific stadium and engaging with the community or you fail by not doing those things. Chicago City or Chicago FC at least makes more sense than some of the others out there, although Chicago Fire was one of the best names with it's historical meaning.

SKC success has nothing to do with the name and logo rebranding, only with the soccer specific stadium and good team.

Chicago Fire can go play in downtown Chicago and have success if they can have a good team, absolutely no need to change the name, especially to the awful one they are talking about.

 

[Pouchkine]

The major problem in MLS is still the low tv ratings, saturday we played at Yankees Stadium again and I only watched a couple of minutes it's a complete joke. MLS really needs to stop this crap and also cut the synthetic fields and deliver on the Concacaf stage soon if they want to improve the ratings.

The league is doing well at the gate in enough markets, now it's really time to improve the tv experience and win casual fans.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

The team is already named Chicago. They're talking about moving into the city limits of Chicago. There is no need for a re-brand behind some idiot in management thinking that the re-brand is the reason why SKC won something and not having, you know, competent people running a team with damn good soccer-specific facilities.

It's also a bit weird to look at an MLS 2.0 success story and point to that as the way forward when we're a couple years deep into MLS 3.0.


Maybe it's the fact that I root for a teams with names like Penguins & Galaxy, but this need for uniformed super-cereal branding is not something I understand nor want. Shouldn't you want your branding to stand out, rather than just get lost in a sea of similarities?

 

[bleedblue1223]

The major problem in MLS is still the low tv ratings, saturday we played at Yankees Stadium again and I only watched a couple of minutes it's a complete joke. MLS really needs to stop this crap and also cut the synthetic fields and deliver on the Concacaf stage soon if they want to improve the ratings.

The league is doing well at the gate in enough markets, now it's really time to improve the tv experience and win casual fans.

That's just not going to happen though. MLS not only has to compete with the other major sports in the tv market, but the actual top Euro leagues. Most fans will just get their soccer fix on a weekend morning by watching any of the Euro league they prefer instead of watching the MLS product. You have to be realistic on what the league can accomplish.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I literally said SKC successfully rebranded because of the stadium move and community engagement. Name changes are silly and meaningless, but I don't understand the hate for them.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Re-brandings can be a good thing, I 100% supported SKC's re-branding, even if I find the Sporting part to be lame, because it's still infinitely better than the peak mid-90s awfulness that was the Wiz branding. There's just few scenarios in which I support tearing the whole thing down and starting over again.

The Fire had what was easily my favorite branding of the original MLS teams and it's still near the top of the league IMO. A DC United-style modernization makes infinitely more sense to me if they absolutely must change things around.

I'm just against fixing what isn't broken. If you think my stance on this is severe, just wait until you hear my takes on the 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins logo change. I'm still campaigning for Howard Baldwin to be tried at The Hague for that bullshit.

 

[Pouchkine]

That's just not going to happen though. MLS not only has to compete with the other major sports in the tv market, but the actual top Euro leagues. Most fans will just get their soccer fix on a weekend morning by watching any of the Euro league they prefer instead of watching the MLS product. You have to be realistic on what the league can accomplish.

I absolutely believe MLS can grow massively in the tv market. Baseball especially and football are not popular among people under 40 so Soccer has a lot of room and don't you think a big soccer fan and someone who plays for fun wouldn't like watching a good game on a friday or saturday night at times? Euro leagues are in the morning and afternoon only and are much much tougher to watch on free tv these days and a lot of those leagues have become beyong boring and predictable.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Baseball and football are absolutely popular for people under 40, but MLS and NFL don't really compete with each other, they don't play at same times. MLS competes with MLS during bulk of season, as well as playoffs of NHL and NBA and eventually the beginning of those seasons. MLS won't do well in tv market until the quality of the players significantly increases, which isn't going to happen.

The league is doing fine though, it'll just always be below the top NA leagues.

 

[Pouchkine]

Just do a little research on baseball tv ratings and the age of the average spectator.

Why the biggest battle in Major League Baseball is happening off the field
The sports with the oldest — and youngest — TV audiences

25 years ago no one thought Soccer would be as popular as it is now in North America.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Just do a little research on baseball tv ratings and the age of the average spectator.

Why the biggest battle in Major League Baseball is happening off the field
The sports with the oldest — and youngest — TV audiences

25 years ago no one thought Soccer would be as popular as it is now in North America.

Compare the sheer volume of viewers, not just %, there are still more young viewers of MLB and NFL than MLS. I also question their ability to gather accurate data on viewership of minors.

 

[Pouchkine]

Well for sure right now there is more but in 10-15 years maybe not for MLB. Young people don't care for baseball and 3 hours+ games. And it will only get worst.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Well for sure right now there is more but in 10-15 years maybe not for MLB. Young people don't care for baseball and 3 hours+ games. And it will only get worst.

A smaller % of a large audience still dwarfs a larger % of a small audience.

 

[Pouchkine]

Baseball is on a MAJOR decline. Soccer is by far the most popular sport to play in America and will soon climb the rank in viewership as well not only with foreign leagues and major competitions.

 

[SSF]

ah yes, baseball's major decline that is talked about every 10-20 years.
the problem with the MLS is that unlike MLB/NHL/NFL/NBA, MLS is not the best league in the world and Americans now have easier access to those better leagues.

 

[Pouchkine]

ah yes, baseball's major decline that is talked about every 10-20 years.
the problem with the MLS is that unlike MLB/NHL/NFL/NBA, MLS is not the best league in the world and Americans now have easier access to those better leagues.

And still MLS is growing, just imagine if the quality improves.

Just to show how soccer is popular in North America, where would you think the NHL and hockey would be if they didn't have the best players? Nowhere at all, they wouldn't even be on any major tv network.

MLB attendance are down, ratings are way down and every study says the average fan age is getting older and older.

 

[SSF]

Funny, 2018 saw an improvement in local TV ratings by 2%

2018 MLB Regional TV Ratings In Prime Time Shows Continued Strong Popularity

 

[Pouchkine]

Boston- Los Angeles final had the worst rating. Overall everywhere MLB is on the decline. Even such a conservative sport now have to act to stop people getting away from the game first and foremost because it's way to slow and to long. Games lasted 2h20 in the 80's when it was the most popular now it's over 3h00 and 3h30 hours in the playoffs. You think young people will watch this?

Soccer will be in front of baseball overall in America in 20-25 years for sure.

 

[Pouchkine]

MLB Attendance Drops to Lowest Average In 15 Years
World Series television ratings - Wikipedia
Those Disastrous World Series TV Ratings

 

[Pouchkine]

Monterrey complete the destruction of SKC no less than 10-2 on aggregate...

 

[bluesfan94]

Baseball's demise is always talked about and never happens. Soccer has always been a really popular sport to play in America because, well, it's cheap for young kids to play so it's accessible.

 

[Pouchkine]

Baseball's demise is always talked about and never happens. Soccer has always been a really popular sport to play in America because, well, it's cheap for young kids to play so it's accessible.

This as always been the classic stupid comment. Organized Soccer isn't that cheap to play these days, and you think it costs a lot to play baseball as a kid or garage leagues? No

All the numbers show it Baseball is on a major decline and soccer on a major rise.

 

[Pouchkine]

This as always been the classic stupid comment. Organized Soccer isn't that cheap to play these days, and you think it costs a lot to play baseball as a kid or garage leagues? No

All the numbers show it Baseball is on a major decline and soccer on a major rise.

Since the start of the season there's been probably 50 games with under 10K ANNOUNCED attendance even a 5k in Miami. Ratings are down...

 

[bluesfan94]

This as always been the classic stupid comment. Organized Soccer isn't that cheap to play these days, and you think it costs a lot to play baseball as a kid or garage leagues? No

All the numbers show it Baseball is on a major decline and soccer on a major rise.

Organized soccer is cheaper to play that organized baseball. I played both. Competitive organized soccer is expensive, sure, but same with travel baseball. Cleats and shinguards are cheaper than cleats, a glove, and a bat.

The numbers like MLB viewership increasing last year? Yawn

 

[Pouchkine]

MLB Attendance Drops to Lowest Average In 15 Years
Those Disastrous World Series TV Ratings

If kids and adults also wouldn't like playing soccer they wouldn't play. They would play other sport, or play computer games etc.

They play because they like it.