The Future Looks Bright For The MLS
October 8, 2008
Major League Soccer also know for short as the "MLS" was founded in 1993, as part of a bid for the US to host the 1994 world cup. The league began in 1996 with a total of 10 teams, and many critics did not give the league a chance of survival from the start. Twelve years have passed, and Major League Soccer is still alive and kicking.
The league has expanded to 14 teams, 13 in the US and 1 in Canada since '96. Major League Soccer will continue to expand to 15 teams next year (Seattle), then to 16 teams in 2010 (Philadelphia). The league also plans to bring another team to Ottawa, Montreal or Vancouver in the near future, and with more expansion expected, the league plans to search for more foreign players to fill out its rosters.
In 2007 the league made international soccer news, as the LA Galaxy signed England international star and former captain David Beckham. The league has showed its dedication to grow and attract the world’s top international talent with the introduction of the “Beckham Rule”. The rule allows any team to sign any player to any amount of money it so chooses and that player's salary will only count as $400,000 against the league salary cap. So soccer fans across North America can be excited for the potential of proven world class players playing for their home cities.
MLS attendance in 2008 on average was 16,219. LA and Toronto had the highest average season attendance with 25,904 and 20,237 fans attending games respectively. When comparing these figures to the NHL, whose average attendance in the 2007/08 season was 17,265 and the NBA, whose average attendance in the 2007/08 season was 17,141, it is evident that soccer is not far behind in popularity. Even more impressive is when you compare the MLS attendance to those of leagues across the world.
Soccer Leagues Attendance
• Germany Bundesliga............37,771
• England Premiership............33,893
• Italy - Serie A.......................25,805
• France - Ligue 1...................21,392
• Netherlands – Eredivisise.....16,257
• Scotland – SPL......................15,659
• US – MLS..............................15,108 (16,128 in 2006)
• Brazil – Campeonato.............13,630
• Potugal - Super Liga..............10,624
Of course we must keep in mind the amount of teams, games and ticket prices when comparing these figures, but considering how long many of these leagues have been in existence, the MLS is not doing so bad.
I am a Toronto native, and I have seen firsthand the potential soccer in North America when introduced in the right marketplace. The Toronto stadium simply does not have the capacity to meet the demand of the fans that want to catch a weekly game of “footy”. This may be due to the fact that Toronto has a large population of people with European, South American and Eastern Europe backgrounds, where soccer is the most popular sport. Therefore the MLS should focus on bringing their product to areas with the same ethnic backgrounds, where fans already understand that passion and beauty of the game.
Although it would be unrealistic to expect the MLS to be as successful or popular as the NFL or MLB, the future looks bright for Soccer in North America, and it looks like investors are seeing the potential for future growth and revenues.
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5 Responses to “The Future Looks Bright For The MLS”
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I like your idea about putting MLS teams in places that are culturally diverse. It would explain why Kansas City, Colorado, and Columbus are at the bottom of the attendance list. One team confuses me, though: New York Red Bulls. Why, with such a diverse city and so many people, can they only attract an average of 15,741? It seems like that stadium should be overflowing.
That’s a great point, considering that New York was once the home of soccer legend Pele, when he signed for the New York Cosmos in 1975. This team used to bring massive crowds to Yankee Stadium, and when Giant stadium was built in ‘77, The Cosmos also signed German star Frank Beckenbauer that same year. A record 32,000 turned out on June 12th against Minnesota, a record that was shattered when 62,319 show up on Sunday of the following week against archrival Tampa Bay, and during the playoffs they were drawing more then 70,000 fans.
In a city that hosts two succesful and mult-million dollar MLB franshises (Mets & Yankees), my only solution to the problem would be to look back to the Cosmos era, and do wha the LA Galaxy have done; Sign a international superstar.
I grew up in New York and although it is very diverse, MLS is just not as big in New York compared to MLB especially since they share the same season. Coming from Brooklyn, soccer was never a big sport, it’s always been baseball especially with the two tremendous teams.
I think you both have good points. New York is definitely a baseball city: This season, their two teams averaged over 100,000 fans per game between them. The Red Bulls couldn’t even get 16,000. However, there have got to be more people in a city of 8,000,000 who would be willing to go to a game.
That always puzzled me to. How can a city with 8 million plus can not come up with 16000 fans at a soccer game. Maybe the Red Bulls are doing something wrong in promoting the team?
I’m not sure, I’m not from New York, but I mean common give the tickets away for free then. Remember you might loose on the tickets but you will sell at the beer and food stands.