With the talk of European matches being played in the USA and seeing how mls is trying to not let that happen would it be good or bad for the usl if LaLiga and EPL played in the US? Feel it’ll be a good thing as that can ignite a soccer boom in this country with people wanting more and support local clubs and seeing how usl especially league 2 are in smaller markets it could help those clubs or am I wrong and would it hurt the usl’s growth
MLS is already above NHL in multiple metrics. The only real issue is that it's not as profitable and thus not as presentable and thus not taken as seriously because it's not as talked about. There are now Big 5 North American sports leagues. Talking heads just don't like talking about it.
This I've explained it before from a business standpoint. There are 4 slices of pie and the NFL has about 50% NBA 25% MLB 10%NHL has some of the rest but not all.
The system has established and formed with that dynamic jobs careers etc. It's in the establishment advantage to not want to talk about it(soccer).
To those that might say we'll they do see EPL/Champions League... I'm happy you might mention it. EPL and European Soccer pose no threat. They are played in the morning/early afternoon and are mainly out of the way of our traditional US Sports time frame. Those in media can pretend and some really indulge to like soccer but just the European kind. It doesn't interrupt their ecosphere and they get to be appear cool young and hip tweeting about Champions League etc.
To appear to embrace, promote and talk up about European soccer EPL is easy it doesn't interfere with their work career or moneythe way domestic soccer MLS would if they properly talked about it like they should. MLS domestic soccer can only get so big because traditional sports media has a benefit to keeping the established hierarchy.
You're already see some further down the tier like MLB struggle to maintain its media deals and revenue. Now imagine MLS universally acknowledged in sports media as the 5th Major Pro League even though it meets metrics that were established historically as being a Major League Revenue $2b+, Geographic Foot Print, Attendance (relevency).
The real issue is that the support isn't going to the local team
this only happens due to some problems inherent to the USA, it does not depend on the fact that PL or Liga MX exist.
For example, if a city that has a USL franchise supported its team more, everyone would benefit and jobs for Americans would also emerge.
Won’t hurt it but doubt it’ll do much for growth either.
IMO, a few euro clubs helicoptering in a few times per year will not help the domestic leagues grow. I know plenty of people who follow EPL but have never been to a local MLS or USL club match. Those people just want to watch the top clubs with big names. To them MLS is considered so inferior it’s not worth paying attention to and USL isn’t even on their radar
I'm really not seeing the connection between people shelling out top dollar to see a La Liga match translating to domestic league growth
It won’t help our leagues, but it will hurt their leagues.
Love your take.
Concise, clinical and deadly.
You just successfully communicate in eleven words what I would have needed eleven paragraphs to clumsily try to communicate.
Thanks for the lesson. Mad props!
I don't agree, for a European team with horrible fans to play for example in "Spokane" would mean that for once in the season they wouldn't look like shit because in Spokane there would be a better crowd, a lot better!
Don’t see it adding much. But love seeing g more international friendlies amongst USL clubs. Really looking forward to hosting Rayados this summer.
Last year LouCity hosted 1FCK and I saw plates in the lots from Florida, Texas, Maryland, NY, NJ, even a couple California ones. They brought tifos and banners and sang like they were at a home match in K-town.
Also hosted Liga MX Atlante.
I can't wait for Eintracht Frankfurt to come to town.
These friendlies are a lot more than a warm up match. They put your clubs name in the minds of their fans that might live close enough to make the effort to come back again.
they also cost the team hosting a very pretty penny, so hopefully for louisville's sake the weather is clear that day
Most of all, these things are more promotional for the locals. Got a AAA ball team? What kind of crowd are they going to get if the patent club comes in town for spring training? Or a different MLB team? And the payoff is the buzz it creates.
Wow, that club thought it was worth their while to train against our team. They must be pretty good.
I can't wait for Eintracht Frankfurt to come to town
horrible supporters, horrible ownership, horrible people in that city
You've met them all?
there was the usual unpleasant thing that happens in Europe, what is not pleasant to remember or know
OP isn't talking about a friendly with a visiting team. They're talking about domestic league matches being held here by La Liga (or another big European league).
Good thing I wasn't replying to OP. Instead, the comment that directly mentioned friendlies.
Louisville City played a friendly against Kaiserslautern last year that was superbly attended. Now it is scheduled to play Eintracht Frankfurt in late July in Louisville.
Looks like MLS is just not making the right connections trying to monopolize everything like they normally do.
I think it’s probably a case of MLS being more bottom line oriented with the more lucrative connections it comes to scheduling friendlies.
Even with most of it’s clubs abandoning Open Cup, there is still the CONOCACAF club tournaments and League’s Cup that they are filling their dates with.
lol this is the first time ever I have seen someone frame mid-season friendlies like that
MLS fans have always seen them as a waste of time
so we send Europe the Jaguars and they give us LaLiga and EPL. these are acceptable terms
Competitive games would not be helpful to American or European soccer. But European friendly’s or preseason tournaments are all upside in my opinion. Gets hype around the game in our country and could bring new folks to the game on our side, and gives good exposure and play time to the clubs from Europe. Win-win there, if you ask me.
From my perspective, it really depends on how these games activate.
For an example, we're going to have a Premier League preseason game here in Tampa at Raymond James Stadium on August 3 between West Ham United and Crystal Palace. The Rowdies' games that weekend is away at Monterey Bay.
If the two clubs activate with the Rowdies in the days before the game, there's a potential benefit to the local club in raising awareness of their presence and that both the PL clubs want to be associated with them. Maybe the teams train at the Rowdies' new facility and have a clinic at the futsal court, or do something in the city with the Rowdies represented alongside them.
There are some other cool old tie-ins that could be used too - Clyde Best scored for the Rowdies when they won the Soccer Bowl in 1975 and was a West Ham player for a number of years, for example.
If that doesn't happen and the clubs helicopter in and out, it's not likely to be detrimental to the local club, but it's not going to have the impact it could in building the sport overall and getting people to think about somewhere they can go to watch a game every season as well as watching on TV on Saturday or Sunday mornings.
For example, if Verona - Napoli were played in a USL stadium, the cities would save money to strengthen the security service, the owners would not have problems with hatred among the fans and perhaps they would earn a few dollars, the owner of the stadium would earn some money, the city would have some fans who come for the match, etc., plus the teams could take advantage of it to play some friendly matches with local teams and maybe a new Mariano Torricelli* could be discovered, who knows!
*he was an amateur player for a fourth or fifth tier team who impressed the rival team in a friendly match against them, so much so that that team bought him for the equivalent of a few tens of millions of dollars today: what if a USL team suddenly grossed $10 million, would the USL owners cry :)?
As a Barca fan I would love to watch a competitive Barca game in the US. Getting to Barcelona isn't a reality for me now, but I remember the games I went to at Camp Nou a decade ago so fondly and would love to share that with people close to home.
I'm starting to wonder if the long term effect from Soccer Warz is just US clubs joining the Liga MX system or creating a larger North American Super League. Now if that happens there will be some crazy seismic shifts in the landscape.
Here's the thing; soccer's popularity in general is doing fine in the US. I'm willing to bet there are more soccer fans than hockey fans, and it's probably going to catch baseball within a decade or two.
The real issue is that the support isn't going to the local team, or even MLS; most of the eyeballs are on the Premier League and Liga MX (and La Liga etc to a lesser extent).
So, if anything, it's just going to re-enforce the European leagues' claim to the US market and not actually do anything for MLS/the USL.