OT: MLS closing in on NFL, NBA, MLB in U.S. - Landon Donovan

[Coinneach]

"Young people don't watch much baseball. American football [NFL] also has issues with security and health. Basketball [NBA] is in a good phase, but MLS is really growing. In five, 10, 15 years, I believe we will be the third, second or first sport in the country.”

MLS closing in on NFL, NBA, MLB - Donovan

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[CTHabsfan]

 

[BM14]

So there's CTE in soccer now, apparently.

 

[LeHab]

Former MLS soccer player promotes MLS, shocker. League did great work in the last decade to grow but still has a long way before reaching Top 4 level. Top 3, 2 or 1 within the next 5, 10 or 15 years is a pipe dream.

His is not even targeting Top 4 as if MLS was already bigger than NHL. In many years perhaps.

 

[Wolf357]

Soccer is growing for sure but it may be another generation before it gets to be on the level as a true major league in English North America.
My kid plays soccer, and Hockey and Baseball... out of all the sports he is into soccer is by far where more kids play...2nd is Hockey, 3rd and way down the list is baseball... really hard to attract kids to play baseball.
But that being said we never watch MLS...always watch hockey and watch maybe one game every two weeks of Bluejays baseball...
Even Hardcore soccer fans that I know watch English Premier/International games(Euro Cup/World Cup) but are not interested in MLS at all...but that’s maybe just a Canadian Prarries thing..

 

[Bookie21]

"Young people don't watch much baseball. American football [NFL] also has issues with security and health. Basketball [NBA] is in a good phase, but MLS is really growing. In five, 10, 15 years, I believe we will be the third, second or first sport in the country.”

MLS closing in on NFL, NBA, MLB - Donovan

Not likely. We've been hearing this garbage for over 40 years, when Pele came to play with the Cosmos. It's the same dog and pony show the MLS would like you to believe

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Might have done a few too many headers there, Landon.

 

[Barclay Donaldson]

MLS has always had the potential for growth, I doubt they'll ever get to break up the Top 4 of NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL.

Growth of soccer in the USA isn't tied to the growth of the MLS. People generally have a favorite club and national team they support abroad over their local MLS team. Kids who play soccer are watching the EPL on NBC and the Champions League on Fox Sports on TV. The USA not qualifying for the World Cup and generally being very bad doesn't help. I can't see the MLS drawing interest from people who know better while they can turn on their TV pretty much every weekend and a ton of weekdays to see a significantly higher level of play.

Could MLS teams eventually grab their loyalties and become relevant? The potential has been there for decades. That's more of a negative than a positive.

 

[Howie Hodge]

First of all, soccer has it's place in the sporting landscape, and while it's good, but it's not The NFL, and won't be. And I don't hear many people saying it ever will be. Obviosly Landon Donovan saying what he did is self serving. I think Baseball is more likely to lose some of their audience to soccer, and they likely already have.

Secondly, anyone who compares soccer in the USA or Canada from 40 years ago to today is uninformed.

40 years ago, The Cosmos/NASL were a novelty act, and trendy. Trends fade. The league was poorly financed, and poorly run. The only real fans were immigrants from Europe who embraced the game, or trend followers like in Tampa, Minnesota, Seattle, where success was short lived.

The MLS is a well funded, and well run. They have TV deals and sponsorship's, which NASL never really did. Most importantly, they have fans who have played the game, appreciate, and understand the game. They almost all have their own stadiums.

The internet and Fox Sports have made the game available for any fans to follow.

The EPL has turned many people on to the game. I have friends and associates who used to hate soccer, but now follow The EPL faithfully. Liverpool seems to be the choice here in WNY..

AND: the games do not run so long that people's attention starts to wain.

I am personally not an MLS fan, but to dismiss it as the same old - same old is naive.

Amazing how people who dismiss Don Cherry as having "outdated" and "uninformed" views are often the same people who act the same, and dismiss soccer without being informed themselves.

I have zero problem with people disliking soccer. But it's not going away loves.....

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

I am personally not an MLS fan, but to dismiss it as the same old - same old is naive.

Nobody is dismissing it as the same old, same old. They're dismissing it as ever catching up to MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL. Those are the best leagues in their sport in the world. The MLS is like 10th in their sport and that makes it almost impossible to pass the best leagues in another sport in terms of popularity.

 

[cutchemist42]

I feel MLS is a bit limited even when it comes to being compared to the structure of European soccer. European soccer to me is just a more interesting setup compared to same old North American 30 team closed league.

Champions League is just a more compelling tournament that even if MLS was a top 5/10 league, I wouldnt care as they arent playing the best of Europe.

 

[Howie Hodge]

Nobody is dismissing it as the same old, same old. They're dismissing it as ever catching up to MLB, NBA, NFL or NHL. Those are the best leagues in their sport in the world. The MLS is like 10th in their sport and that makes it almost impossible to pass the best leagues in another sport in terms of popularity.

There is a direct quote in an earlier post that it's the same old - same old. (Actually "old dog and pony show")

And I agree that it's not passing the other leagues btw...

I personally follow the NHL and EPL pretty exclusively, so I have little interest in MLS.

 

[LeHab]

Might have done a few too many headers there, Landon.

Keep in mind Donovan is in partnership to bring an MLS franchise to San Diego. Promoting his potential investment is not surprising but he is a little too optimistic for sure.

 

[JelloPuddyPops]

Donovan might want to take a look at MLS’ TV ratings... woah, doggie are they bad. MLS Cup gets pitiful ratings and regular season games, even the most popular, equal Seinfeld reruns on TBS (if they are lucky).

MLS could make the leap one day... but they need to pull in better than 1.0 ratings for their prime telecasts before they are even close.

People talk about how baseball has faded and yet baseball still quadruple ups MLS, at a minimum, on the bad days. 13-14 million people watch the World Series. Maybe a million watch MLS Cup.

Good luck, Landon.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Donovan might want to take a look at MLS’ TV ratings... woah, doggie are they bad. MLS Cup gets pitiful ratings and regular season games, even the most popular, equal Seinfeld reruns on TBS (if they are lucky).

MLS could make the leap one day... but they need to pull in better than 1.0 ratings for their prime telecasts before they are even close.

People talk about how baseball has faded and yet baseball still quadruple ups MLS, at a minimum, on the bad days. 13-14 million people watch the World Series. Maybe a million watch MLS Cup.

Good luck, Landon.

The problem I think, is MLS is even more regional than NHL. Outside fans of two teams playing, people are not tuning in.

 

[Hoek]

Not sure this should be a thread. Donovan is biased, not some kind of source, lol. He is trying to get an MLS team in San Diego so he has a vested interest in this. That said folks comparing this to the NASL days are way off. It's not some fad being powered by tons of money thrown at a handful of global stars. It's far more grassroots than that and it could grow to that point, but over a longer period than what he's talking about.

 

[End on a Hinote]

The MLS has already made huge leaps in its 26 year existence, already ranked #9 in the world for soccer leagues and still growing strong. So there is no doubt the league has potential to turn the Big-4 into the Big-5. But he's crazy to think it will ever be #1. Could it over take the NHL? Possibly. But, IMO, the one thing that is holding it back is that it is not, nor ever will be, the #1 soccer league in the world. Americans, and a large number of Canadians, only tend to care about the biggest league in their respective sport. Something that the NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL all are.

 

[Bookie21]

The MLS has already made huge leaps in its 26 year existence, already ranked #9 in the world for soccer leagues and still growing strong. So there is no doubt the league has potential to turn the Big-4 into the Big-5. But he's crazy to think it will ever be #1. Could it over take the NHL? Possibly. But, IMO, the one thing that is holding it back is that it is not, nor ever will be, the #1 soccer league in the world. Americans, and a large number of Canadians, only tend to care about the biggest league in their respective sport. Something that the NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL all are.

Ranked #9 in the world is highly debatable.....This is from a year ago: MLS: ’28th Strongest’ Soccer League in World

Like I said, very debatable, but I have them around 20ish with Scotland and Belarus

 

[Burke the Legend]

Ranked #9 in the world is highly debatable.....This is from a year ago: MLS: ’28th Strongest’ Soccer League in World

Like I said, very debatable, but I have them around 20ish with Scotland and Belarus

But that's a rank on quality of play relative to other leagues, which is a lot less relevant to Donovan's point than say ranking on revenue totals.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

its 5th in the US in revenue...but its a distant 5th.

NFL - 12.9 billion
MLB - 10.1 billion
NBA - 7.1 billion
NHL - 4.7 billion
MLS - 0.96 billion

It's revenues are 1/5 of the NHL.

For reference, the top 5 colleges in sports revenue combined had the same revenue as the MLS.

Texas - 214 million
Texas A&M - 211 million
Ohio State - 185 million
Michigan - 185 million
Alabama - 174 million
Total - 0.96 billion

 

[Bookie21]

But that's a rank on quality of play relative to other leagues, which is a lot less relevant to Donovan's point than say ranking on revenue totals.

Yes, I'm just talking about the quality of the league talent wise compared to other leagues around the world . It will be tough for the MLS to gain traction revenue wise at is seen as a minor league

 

[YEM]

It will be tough for the MLS to gain traction revenue wise at is seen as a minor league

it will always be a minor league
have they carved out a nice little regional niche for themselves in North America? Yes. Good for them.
the overwhelming majority of soccer fans here will always prefer the big leagues in Europe, it's a massive mountain to climb for them to think that they'll displace one of the big 4 in North America...

 

[No Fun Shogun]

They're approaching, in the sense that in about a decade they've gone from from 1/10th of the revenue of the NHL to about 1/5th of the revenue.

They're doing very well, and in our lifetimes we will very well be talkin about a "big five" rather than a "big four," but there's still a substantial amount of ground to make up to even the relative minnow of the big four that is the NHL.

And in terms of comparative quality, the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB are the highest-tier leagues in their respective sports globally. As others have repeatedly mentioned, MLS isn't even remotely close lose to that as well. So I doubt that the ceiling in revenue generation is the same with that in mind.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Yes, I'm just talking about the quality of the league talent wise compared to other leagues around the world . It will be tough for the MLS to gain traction revenue wise at is seen as a minor league

Well that's the chicken & egg question isn't it?

IMO the revenue has to come first before they could upgrade themselves up the league quality ranking, because revenue is needed to sustaineably sign better players & coaches. It's not all bad news for MLS fans though, they have been doing that, at a decent pace. Probably not what they want in order to fulfill their grand ambitions and then they'll face diminishing returns as they get bigger too. There's also a question of if they are plateauing or not (soft TV ratings, some struggling clubs). Certainly it's not just going to be some fantastic, linear vertical climb up.

 

[13 others]

MLS is not growing in attendance or viewership overall the past few years. Soccer has declined by number of players in the US (roughly 15% in a few years).

Ya, sure Landon. Just like women marathon runners are closing in on the men if we project their improvement infinitely.