What will make MLS more exciting?

[Merrill]

I heard a while back that the owners were having a meeting to discuss the state of the league, and on their agenda was discovering ways to pump up the excitement in the league. One idea they had was signing more stars with name recognition like Beckham or someone like that.

I love MLS, but admittedly, there seems to be a little lack of excitement at times. Theres Chivas, Crapids, Columbus, 400+ minutes of Real Salt Lake recently, even teams like DC United and KC Wizards, Last years champs and runners-up, are looking a little dull.

So what can be done to pump up the excitement?

Will big stars bring excitement? Is more goals the only answer? What should Uncle Phil and Uncle Lamar and Uncle Dave, etc. do?

[the Bardguy]

They did well to bring in Pele back in the 70s. Somewhere on here someone posted an article on when before Pele came to the US there were bad stadiums and no one came to the matches. Then Pele came and changed everything.

It would be tough to get an international star to come here in their prime becuase they can make so much more in those other leagues. You coudn't change the rules, so that rules out making the goal taller and wider. (Although that would be cool.)

It's tough, given that we are an "immediate satisfaction" society. Why watch soccer where a team only scores 1 or 2 goals a game (if they aren't RSL 😉 ) when you can watch basketball players score every few seconds.

I think that soccer will catch on because of three reasons. 1) Home grown talent like Adu. Whether he desereves all the acolades, he is a good player and he's very popular. 2) EVERYONE plays soccer growing up. 3) As the world becomes smaller, people in the US will come to know and appreciate the beautiful game. Oh yeah, and Jim Rome needs to give up soccer bashing. 😉

[DadOf8]

Nude female dancers on the sidelines. Oh, wait, I wouldn't be able to attend any longer. Personally, I think MLS is very exciting. I did notice a huge difference between the US Mens Team and RSL so I know that RSL would be considered mid-level when compared to teams like AC Milan, Aresenal, Real Madrid, etc. You can't really bring in big name players like Beckham without the money. Maybe Beckham would be a philatropist and come play for diddly just to help improve the reputation of the game in the U.S. but I don't think that will happen. The most likely scenario is that the U.S. will continue to develop players similar to Landon Donovan, Eddie Pope, Freddie Adu, etc and then MLS keep their fingers crossed that the good American players don't go abroad for more money.

I tried to get my brother involved in MLS and took him to the match vs. Chicago. Chicago, if you remember, kicked our butts that game. If RSL had won I think we might have had a convert. RSL needs to start winning some games to get more butts in the seats. The WCQ was a good opportunity to pick up more fans and RSL blew that opportunity, unfortunately. Had they won in front of 40,000 (or maybe 30,000) then I bet we'd have about 7,000 season ticket holders now.

Still, we have the 2nd best attendance in the league so we must be doing something right. I think it's the market. Our market is a combinantion of Hispanics, returned LDS missionaries that learned soccer on their mission, and youth league/high school/college players. I predict that RSL will always have respectable numbers compared to the rest of the league due to these factors. However, we need to get the more casual fan, like my brother, in the seat and the way to do this is to win.

Also, look at how the NFL and NBA market their products. The NFL markets their teams. The NBA markets their players. Which league is more successful? The NFL, in case you didn't know the answer. So, maybe MLS can start marketting their teams like the NFL does. Chivas could be like the team that you either love or hate (ala Dallas Cowboys) and MLS could really play on that. MLS could market that DC United has four championships.

The fact of the matter is that there are some people that will never come around to soccer. They view it as a European sport and not an American sport. It's too bad that some people are too ethnocentric to try something new and different.

I personally didn't grow up with soccer. I watched it on my mission during the 1990 World Cup and fell in love with it there. I did play for one year at age 11 but played on a team that never scored a single goal. What really helped me to fall in love with soccer was the passion that Brazilians (and the world) have for it. Outside the U.S.A. it's bigger than anything you can imagine, even bigger than The Beatles, bigger than the Super Bowl. In the USA it's viewed a sissy sport. This is very unfortunate.

[luvmyboys]

OK...this is TOTALLY my own opinion....and I know its only a small thing in the scheme of things....

Right now my hubby and I are watching a re-broadcast of Fulham and Blackburn...2 teams I don't necessarily "care" about, but the commentators are AMAZING. I mean, they are completely passionate about the game. I've noticed that when an MLS game is being broadcast, the commentators can be a bit boring. Sometimes its like they don't care about what they are doing. I think if people could see how excited you can get watching the game, maybe they would be more willing to PAY to actually GO to one. Watching on TV is NOTHING like being there.....if we could just get people to the stadiums, they would be hooked...

Like I said, its a very, very small part but it makes a BIG difference. Watching Manchester games on TV is what got me hooked.....I don't think it would of happened if the broadcasts would of been boring.

and it wouldn't hurt if we could score some goals!!!! 😉

[Jim Umber]

Originally Posted by Snarf

I heard a while back that the owners were having a meeting to discuss the state of the league, and on their agenda was discovering ways to pump up the excitement in the league. One idea they had was signing more stars with name recognition like Beckham or someone like that.

I love MLS, but admittedly, there seems to be a little lack of excitement at times. Theres Chivas, Crapids, Columbus, 400+ minutes of Real Salt Lake recently, even teams like DC United and KC Wizards, Last years champs and runners-up, are looking a little dull.

So what can be done to pump up the excitement?

Will big stars bring excitement? Is more goals the only answer? What should Uncle Phil and Uncle Lamar and Uncle Dave, etc. do?

They'd have to raise the salary cap quite a bit to do any good with foreign stars.

The thing is, all the goals in basketball are one of the reasons I hate it. The just go rushing in like maniacs and no one can stop them. But the other team gets the ball next and they do the same thing. The team that wins is the team that manages to stop the most shots (very few, at that).

In soccer, it takes a lot of skill to put the ball in the back of the net. When a goal is scored, it MEANS something.

I think the answer is in marketing as well as just time. They need to market the teams as if they mean it. But it will simply take longer for the die hards to catch on.

Yes they think that soccer is a sissy sport, but that is simply a ridiculous idea. How many (American) football players could run essentially 45 minutes straight. And basketball players simply don't have the brains for soccer. They think that, "Let the truth be told" is a profound thing to say. Talk about stupid!

Eventually, they'll see that it takes skill, stamina and brains to play soccer.

Oh yeah, and it wouldn't help if we started scorring goals! :D
(thanks, Luvmyboys)

[Jose Luis Luviano]

RSL matches feature players (both ours & our visitors) who were on a quarterfinalist World Cup squad.

That's pretty exciting.

[Aerick]

I think you've got to take out the competition. MLS IS exciting, as long as you take the time to really watch the games, understand the strategy and the match-ups. The problem is that we, as Americans, have too many distractions currently to feel we have to pay attention to another sport and it's "nuances". We already know football, we already know basketball and baseball, hockey and bowling for goodness sake! If only we could have some problems with the other sports crop up for a little while so that soccer could gain more of a foothold. I don't know, something like lock-outs, and ridiculous athletes always asking for more money, and steriod scandals. Oh wait, these things are already happening... Well then, maybe the stage is set, eh? 😎

[Neil]

There are a few things that could be done to try to make MLS more exciting, but I'll focus on one.

The Fans!

The reason everyone that comes to Rice-Eccles says that Salt Lake City is great, is because the fans are great. We got lucky enough to get a team who's front office supports the fans as much as they support the team. But we know that not all teams are like that. Ask the Rapids. If MLS wants to turn the excitement up a notch, it needs to let its fans know how much they are appreciated. One thousand happy spectators on Saturday make one thousand ticket salesmen at work on Monday.

That's not to say we have everything set and should put things on cruise control. We need more supporters clubs in different parts of the stadium. No offense to the Loyalists, but we need the entire stadium to get involved, not just one corner. It would be awesome if all the chants were shared between supporters groups so when a group starts singing, so do the others. And not just chants that are reworded childrens or primary songs, but good old fashioned soccer chants. Maybe even get a walkie-talkie into the hands of each Club President, and coordinate a chant or two instead of chanting two different ones at the same time. Just an idea.

Anyway, The reason I fell in love with soccer was because of the passion the fans had for the game, it's what drew me to it at first. I was like "These people love this, I wonder why?" And I watched, and I was hooked. I watched a Madrid game where they played in an empty stadium as a punishment to the fans do to someone hitting the ref with something hard enough to knock him down, and it seemed like they were at practice. Fans make the game exciting. If MLS focused on creating a solid team and supporting their fans, the fans would take care of the rest.

[BroncsBomber]

I think the best thing they could do is just keep building. I love the fact that they now have a reserve league. This means the depth on all of the teams will start building. I like the fact that we are keeping some of our National team players. Landon and Eddie Pope, bringing back Cleetus...
If they keep improving and then start putting on an attractive brand of socer then eventually they will land a TV contract on regular National TV (i.e. ABC or NBC.) Once they land the big contract then they will start pulling in the money to start attracting a couple of higher profile European based players, which will also improve the league. This thing keeps growing and pretty soon it could be a destination league for quality internationals. I mean who wouldn't want to live in America, at least for a couple of years.

[Stucki]

Originally Posted by luvmyboys

OK...this is TOTALLY my own opinion....and I know its only a small thing in the scheme of things....

Right now my hubby and I are watching a re-broadcast of Fulham and Blackburn...2 teams I don't necessarily "care" about, but the commentators are AMAZING. I mean, they are completely passionate about the game. I've noticed that when an MLS game is being broadcast, the commentators can be a bit boring. Sometimes its like they don't care about what they are doing. I think if people could see how excited you can get watching the game, maybe they would be more willing to PAY to actually GO to one. Watching on TV is NOTHING like being there.....if we could just get people to the stadiums, they would be hooked...

Like I said, its a very, very small part but it makes a BIG difference. Watching Manchester games on TV is what got me hooked.....I don't think it would of happened if the broadcasts would of been boring.

and it wouldn't hurt if we could score some goals!!!! 😉

I love that show. I often watch the fan frenzy or whatever they call it on Thursdays as a lead in to the FSW Report. It is a bit different listening to fans rather than professionals call the game. I especially like it when they start talking trash about their teams to each other.