2 minutes on a shootout rule that lasted just 3 years and was scraped 25 years ago. Attendance has been good for awhile (near sellouts) in MLS. In 2018 average attendance was around 22,000. You conveniently took attendance from 2021 when COVID caused a decrease in attendance in every league. Attendance was back to around 22,000 in 2023 before Messi arrived. Since 2018 MLS has added Charlotte (with an average attendance near 40k) and Nashville (with an average attendance near 30k). The bump we've seen in attendance has more to do with that than Messi. Not to discredit Messi. Where he's made the biggest difference is in the MLS Season Pass numbers, but his arrival has barely affected attendance--except for a few games that were moved to NFL stadiums. A few games isn't going to affect attendance numbers much when balanced out by a 500+ game regular season.
There is a team coming to San Diego to make 15 teams in the West. The MLS hasn't hat the weird penalty system since 1999? Why are we still talking about this after 25 years? The MLS started in 1997 and they were getting their footing. Bad idea they scrapped early on. The football in the MLS is getting better. Teams in Premier league, for example, have been around since the 1880s. The Crew, my team, are an original MLS team and were founded in 1996. Previous football leagues in the States have all died. The MLS was set up this way to try and prevent the teams from failing. We are getting to the point where the League needs to change the rules somewhat and let the League grow. Overall I think you need to learn more about the MLS before you comment on the MLS.
Tell me you don’t actually watch MLS without telling me you dont actually watch MLS I can pick out a million highlights from the Prem or Bundesliga where a top talent makes a mockery of the defense. Thats not a Messi or Suarez thing, that’s a statistics thing
True. MLS isn’t perfect but there are some really good player in the league. Been watching for 16 years now and the quality now vs 16 years ago is a night and day difference.
People tend to forget America has alot of sports, MLS is just another league and still a niche here in the US plus Americans have alot more access to other soccer leagues more than people outside the US
The average attendance of USL and USL One is around 5-10 k. They are not huge. Also, why would we want to be appealing to a European audience? This is an American/Canadian soccer league for Americans and Canadians. If you don’t live here and you want to watch the league it’s on YOU to figure out how and when.
I would love to see promotion and relegation in the MLS and American sports in general. However, it has almost no precedent at a top level here, and I doubt that any non local fans would be interested in a second tier or lower league (made worse given the afformentioned large geographical distance between sports teams here), as lower division leagues in other sports are almost always just development leagues. There's also the issue of the draft system of the MLS and American sports leagues, which is designed to reward underperforming teams with top young prospects to ensure their competitiveness (albiet also having the effect of rewarding tanking). I heard a proposal for the NHL to implement relegation with a draft system by rewarding top draft picks to teams which get promoted and finish just outside of relegation while shutting out relegated teams to prevent tanking, but this system has never been put into practice to my knowledge. That's my analysis anyway. The best case scenario in my opinion would be to just have promotion/relegation between the MLS and USL Championship and get rid of the draft system all together, but realistically, and especially given the corporate culture of sports leagues here, I don't see it as a possibility for the short and medium term
I think it’s worth pointing out that when you brought up the map of the United Soccer League (USL), you instead showed a map of the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League). In that map you see the words “USL Super League” on it. The USL Super League is the name of USL’s women’s league and the map shows which cities have a USL Super League team or will have a team come next year.
Sounders fan here. Couple things. The biggest difference in quality over the last 20 years has been academy kids and non-star transfers. The MLS academies are obviously relatively new and have only just begun to produce very high quality players. The level and depth of domestic players is orders of magnitude higher than it was. The smart teams really stopped signing older big name players about 8-10 years ago, and instead focused on in-prime players from leagues like turkey, Argentina, and the lower ends of the big 5. The change was night and day. 8 years of players like Nico Lodiero in his 20’s did more to raise the level than getting a couple years from older stars. Messi is obviously the exception. MLS has become an extremely young league on average very quickly. Attendance. The average MLS attendance is a sellout. Especially the teams not in NFL stadiums. (All but 4) Like actually most teams sellout most matches. It’s been that way for several years. The issue is the stadiums were all built with 18-25k seats when the league was less popular. Now most teams have been too popular for stadiums that small for several years. The huge jump in attendance this year is largely due to teams renting NFL stadiums (70k+ capacity) when Messi comes to town because their normal stadium is too small.
The USL Championship is considered the US’s second division league. Then you have USL League One, which is considered the US’s third division league. Then there’s USL League Two which is a regional pre professional league. It’s worth mentioning that the USL is considering having promotion/relegation. It’s not a done deal yet but it’s something they’re considering. They want to make sure that it works if they do go ahead with that. There is a reason why the US has an eastern and western conference. And if they ever were to have promotion/relegation, it’s perhaps even more important to have two conferences, one eastern and the other western. Because if you have promotion/relegation and it’s just one table of 20 teams, you could see a scenario where 15 of those 20 teams are on the eastern half of the US and therefore it’d be unfair for the amount of traveling that the teams in the west would have to do.
Your segment regarding the second tier has a *massive* mistake. NWSL and USL Super League are the two first division women's leagues. NWSL being the established league, and USL Super League being the new D1 league starting this summer. USL Championship is the D2 men's league.
While I like the MLS, my issue with the league has to be that it’s about money. As long as a team can find a wealthy owner then they’re in. That’s why you see NYCFC in the league, even though one rule MLS has is that a team must have a stadium already planned out. But they allow NYCFC into the league even though they continue to play in a baseball stadium and it’s not certain when they will ever get a stadium of their own. I personally like the USL as they’ve put teams in communities that wouldn’t have a team otherwise if the USL was not there. And USL teams have created a pathway for those who play the game in their communities to actually play the sport professionally that wouldn’t have otherwise have the chance. They also help bring professional football closer to home and at a cheaper price than going to an MLS game. Full disclosure here, my community will be getting a USL team next year in 2025. They will be playing in USL League One. AV Alta FC. We’re a community in Southern California that has had a growing love for the game and the fact that we’re getting a team here is really exciting for the community.
The issue for me is that the MLS is a manufactured product. it has no connection to the other society, the lack of relegation makes it a dull product and it is all money-driven, even more so than PL. The MLS is the death of the beutiful game on the altar of late stage capitalism.
With revenue sharing, a salary cap, no pro/rel, and other "competitive balance" rules, MLS operates as, like most American sports leagues, a socialist enterprise.
@@kylermckim If you dont see late stage capitalism as an issue in sports, I hope you visit specsavers. From the investments in sports from the arab peninsula in football (PSG, Man City, Newcastle utd etc) or the multi club ownershop based in the US. Ask how the Troyes supporters feel about this. It is all a cause of money grabbing capitalists, who value money and power over the integrity of the sport. The football i love is based of the grassroots, roots that now are being bought. And i dont enjoy that, and neither does the majority of the supporters.
I mean every MLS team has an academy system and they are involved in doing g their own community outreach. You can say it feel manufactured, but all these European leagues are anti competitive. They have no salary cap and the same 2-6 clubs are competing for a championship. Pro/rel is just an illusion of being competitive.
Do Europeans/Europhiles have a different definition for "competitive" than in the USA? How can anyone objectively look at a list of teams that have won European soccer leagues and call the leagues "competitive?" Wanting pro-rel, which is inherently flawed and promotes perpetual mediocrity makes no sense on any level...unless the person just likes to be miserable.
Your coping is crazy, if you were to put these MLS teams in the Champions League they would be completely humiliated by the European teams. The fact that the best players in the MLS are not American says a lot about how lacking the quality of your Football is. (btw it is not called Soccer)
The geography point is true, and the unfortunate reality is that there will be many cities that will never be able to have an MLS team. Its a terrible system
Didn't expect to see so much anger in the comments, I personally don't know where it's coming from.. the video is fine, you didn't say anything disrespectful, maybe a mistake here and there but nothing crazy. Keep it up man
Here’s the thing. People in the US who follow a MLS team are a little prickly to outsiders and their opinions about the league. We have always kind of been this way because people who don’t really watch the league (even Americans who are soccer fans but only watch European soccer) come in tell every MLS soccer fan what is wrong with the league and why it’s bad. The MLS is not perfect, but it works and is successful.
@@HarveyWallbangers2 not saying we don’t but MLS fans in general are a little protective because people want to criticize the league and teams all the time. We don’t do pro/rel, we have a salary cap, there is a buy in to join the league, we have a playoff at the end to determine a champion, we have a allstar game. These are things that some people see as flaws, but this is what is resonating with the majority of the US fan base
I thought he did well. BUT I should address the issue that when he brought up the USL and the map of the US, he showed teams that are in the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League). I looked at the map and thought “That’s not a map of the USL.” Not only that but in it you see the words “USL Super League.” That’s the USL women’s league, not the men’s. I don’t know where he got the map, but it’s a map that shows the location of the NWSL teams and then showing the words “USL Supper League” to show which cities has a USL women’s team or will expand to having a USL women’s team come next year.
Why do you hate yanks being involved? Don’t you want us to like the beautiful game? Maybe don’t chastise us just because we’re Americans and give us a chance. Like you we follow our players where they go and support local teams.
