By Andrew Dixon - MIAMI, FL (Jan 30, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- Can I be real for a second?
The very notion of establishing and maintaining a professional outdoor soccer league in these United States of America requires vision, patience and (at the very least) ambition. To get Major League Soccer on par with not only the top soccer leagues in the world, but also the top professional sports leagues in the US, requires a certain belief and a will to see it come to fruition.
It's gotta be worth asking after ESPN's recent decision to drop MLS Primetime Thursday. However the League tries to spin it, it's disappointing but not necessarily unexpected. The paltry ratings over the past two seasons led ESPN executives to pull the plug.
ESPN could have said much worse things, only stating that they "will try something new". MLS spokesman Dan Courtemancche said a change will make for "better match ups for ESPN and provides flexibility for our clubs to put these games on nights that have more people in attendance."
Maybe, but the Sports Business Journal went for the more blunt instrument approach in saying: "MLS is not strong enough to anchor a regular prime-time slot on its own."
MLS is 13 years into the game and still can't get it done on their own. I'm sorry but that's gotta hurt, especially with the growing speculation about AC Milan attempting to buy out David Beckham's contract, thereby robbing the league of its marquee performer.
The original purpose of having these Thursday night matches was a regular weekly presence on the nation's biggest sports network, especially after Soccer Saturday kept being pre-empted by college football. After two years of "Cop Rock" type ratings and crowd shots that showed swaths of empty seats ("Plenty of good seats available if you're just driving around the stadium") NOW we hear how Thursday night matches are hard to sell.
MLS has always dreamed big. But to quote Gangstarr, is MLS "... playing itself to have Mass Appeal?"
I understand wanting to have MLS hold a spot amongst the non-stop NFL talk, the trials and tribulations of the And1 Mix Tape, BCS bellyaching, and World's Strongest Man re-runs from the Reagan administration. But did all those who signed off on this decision forget that midweek MLS matches are never heavily attended?
For example, DC United, often cited as the best supported club in the league, averaged about 19,200 in 2006 for weekend home games but only about 12,000 for midweek matches and even less for US Open Cups. Chivas USA was second in attendance that year and averaged about 16,300 in weekend matches but only drew 9,600 in their lone weekday regular season match. Houston (3rd) averaged about 17,100 for weekend home matches. But not counting the a double header match that featured Barcelona and Club America as the main event they averaged 7,600 in its weekday matches (US Open Cup matches included). LA actually led the league in attendance that year but their weekday matches were against Chivas and a July 4th match.
The writing was already on the wall for midweek matches...yet the league pushed forward anyway. End result? MLS gets told that its product is strong enough. Again, not exactly major league.
It may be just One Grown Man's Opinion but I don't think this is the first time MLS's ambition got the best of them. MLS was adamant about establishing a team in Tampa where the Rowdies played in the old NASL days.
Forget the fact that Tampa, despite its youth soccer scene, really wasn't a soccer town. Or the fact that they didn't have an investor-operator in place. The league felt Tampa could rely on its NASL roots. That ambition came back to haunt them when by the end of the 2001 season that saw flat attendance and TV ratings across the board. The Mutiny still hadn't located an owner investor while MLS was losing even more money having to operate it. By pushing forward without an investor, the League was ultimately unable to save it and came off looking decidedly un major league.
Hopefully, lessons have been learned. The Don has made it clear that he wants to expand the league to 18 teams by 2011 but its apparent that he's not being reckless in getting there.
For as long as the league wanted a team in Philadelphia, that didn't come about until all the pieces (stadium, funding, investor group) were in place. The same can be said here in S. Florida. It wasn't until FIU's stadium became available and businessman Marcelo Claure and FC Barcelona appeared on the scene did Miami even get serious consideration for a second chance.
Investor groups are needed in places like St. Louis which has more of a history in the US game than Tampa, and Atlanta where Falcons owner Arthur Blank needs another partner to buy in. So clearly, it's not "full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes" anymore.
Moreover, glancing at the MLS schedule, the League is doing what it said and making more interesting matches available to the ESPN audience. The LA derby will be on the Duece in April while LA and Chicago will be a weeknight match in August, for example. MLS might not have a permanent spot on ESPN but will make good matches available for the times that they do.
We all want MLS to succeed and want it to be a big time league. Let's hope that going forward the big dreams and aspirations are tempered with realistic visions of where the league is and what it can realistically provide to its big name sponsors and media partners.
I don't want them "losing the race, trying to chase Mass Appeal."
Then again, all this is just the Opinion of One Grown Man, praying for the health of Marcia Williams.
Andrew Dixon is a soccer writer based in Miami and a weekly columnist for USSoccerPlayers. Contact him at: golnoir@golnoir.net
