Eurosnobs. Every American soccer fan has met them- they belittle you for calling it "soccer", laugh about what a joke MLS is (and obviously you're a joke as well for caring about it), and proudly support one of the "Big 4" in the EPL and one of the top European national teams such as Spain, Italy, or Germany...even though they're American as well. They wouldn't dare lower themselves to watch an MLS game, yet they would get up before 8AM on a weekend to watch their beloved Premier League team play. Their love for the game is evident- but only for the European game. If their love for "football" can be harnessed and directed towards MLS, the league will have the support it needs to succeed.
TV ratings for Premier League games are consistently much higher than those for MLS games. February's game between Liverpool and Chelsea on FSC averaged a 0.5 rating (294,000 viewers) while last weekend's game between the Kansas City Wizards and the LA Galaxy on widely-available ESPN2 (which included supposed ratings-booster David Beckham) only averaged a 0.3 rating (231,000 viewers), just a bit less the season-high rating set by the season opener between Seattle and New York (254,000 viewers). MLS is watched even less on FSC, averaging a 0.1 rating (44,000 viewers) through May of this season. Ratings for Euro 2008 averaged a 0.5 on ESPN2 and a 0.9 on ESPN, with the final on ABC earning a 3.1 rating. MLS Cup 2008, also on ABC, only earned a 0.7 rating.
And it's not just TV where European games attract higher crowds- July's World Football Challenge had attendances ranging from over 31,000 to over 81,000 across 6 venues (I was one of 53,000 in attendance in Atlanta). This is combined with sellouts of 67,000 and 27,000 in Seattle and LA, respectively, where the Sounders and Galaxy faced European opposition. Future friendlies this summer for Real Madrid and Barcelona have pretty much sold out. But so far this season, the MLS has only averaged over 15,000 a game, with average team attendances ranging from almost 9,500 in Dallas to over 30,000 in Seattle. People are coming out to watch these European teams (Chelsea's three games drew the three biggest crowds) as opposed to their own local teams, which is understandable, especially in Atlanta, where men's top-level soccer has been virtually non-existant (I'm not really a fan of AC Milan or Club America, but the chance to actually go to a live soccer game was too good not to take), but there shouldn't be this big of a difference between the two.
I've recently defended the MLS against a barrage of insults from two sports-crazy friends who said, among other things, that "people want excitement and entertainment and that's the EPL not MLS" and that there isn't "a big consistent enough fan base in America" for the sport to succeed. I'm not sure if he's ever watched an MLS game, but I certainly find them exciting- I didn't really care as much until I picked a team to support, but I still watched games whenever I could catch them and always enjoyed it. The past three MLS Cup finals have been very exciting, in my opinion. As for the big, consistent fan base, it's there for soccer, just not for the MLS. The Eurosnobs are holding the league back- if even half of them decided that it was okay to like the MLS and actually showed up to a game or watched it on TV, the league's popularity would skyrocket. But they're most likely not going to convert. They'll watch one MLS game on TV, and if it's not up to their standards, they're going to write the league off and not watch again. And unfortunately, there's not a whole lot the league can do to attract them. Setting up the friendlies against big clubs is a great move for the league as well as the clubs, though I'd like to see a wider range of MLS teams' international friendlies on TV. Designated Players for the most part haven't really worked out the way the league hoped they would- they've brought in fans, but the degree to which they've improved their team varies, with the most impressive being Guille at Columbus, and he didn't even start out as a DP!
Hopefully, the day will come when MLS fans outnumber the Eurosnobs. And that will be a glorious day for soccer.
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While I don't have a local MLS team to support, I still watch games as much as I can, and enjoy it just as much as watching La Liga or the EPL. I've found that when talking to others about soccer, first, they are surprised that a girl actually follows soccer, and second, they don't know very much about MLS or the national team. Yet they sit around discussing Christiano Ronaldo and how great ManUtd are, but can't even name an American player besides Donovan. I think that some of the Eurosnobbery is about following something that's considered the "best in the world", but not necessarily a love of the game. For me, I will watch any and all soccer I can, and appreciate the skill and talent of any league.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to try and convert Eurosnobs, and it usually takes quite a while, but I think it can happen. I don't hardly watch the European leagues at all, which seems to shock most of the Eurosnobs that I talk to. They think that if you're as obsessed with the game as I am Europe is the only thing to watch. The first step is to probably get them invested in the players themselves, which is why I love American soccer. That part is easy. There are so many media outlets that American players can use that wouldn't be dreamed up in Europe. People like Jimmy Conrad, Bobby Boswell, Brian Ching among others are perfect examples. From that point on, Eurosnobs might understand that MLS is not just "watchable", it's exciting and passionate.
ReplyDeleteAs a recovering Eurosnob, I think that it is indeed possible for people to make the conversion to MLS. In a way, it's analogous to the debate about soccer in the US: in many cases, you've got the soccer-haters (aka the Jim Romes of the world) and the people who bash other US sports. So too do we have the Eurosnobs and the MLS-focused folks. Not that I want to say can't we all just get along, but....
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely agree with Shana and Rebecca, though; probably one of the reasons why it's tricky to get on board with MLS is that I don't have a local team to follow. My closest teams are DC or Columbus (I'm in NC), so it's hard to get passionate about the league as a whole. That being said, I think that having players in the national team who are MLS-based but on the up-and-up (Clark is the best example I can think of) does nothing but good for the league's PR, as well as increasing MLS's revenue over the long term.