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Most of the big payoff American sports have prototypical athlete dimensions that are uncommon in the populace, so there is a definite niche for good athletes that don't fit the other molds. At present the top paid players in MLS get seven figure salaries. Carlos Vela gets $6.3 million, which would put him around 80th in the PL. We're not there yet, but it's steadily improving.
Sure, but the rest of their payroll looks like a middle of the table English Championship League team. A few $1 million players and dropping off quickly from there. In the LA market, a $6 million Mexican player makes sense.
The projection is that 68% of the planet will live urban by 2050. Advantage basketball. 120 yards by 80 yards is hard to come by.
In the US, this is strictly a media profit issue. 45 minutes with no commercials is never going to make it to prime time television and that’s where all the money is. I haven’t weaned myself of NFL football yet but I’ve completely abandoned US pro sports otherwise because of the endless commercial breaks. Soccer is a way better television spectator experience now that large HD panels exist.
Football is shown on commercial television worldwide. They seem to manage elsewhere. I take the view that the attendance share in the USA is younger than in other sports markets. People grow up playing and watching soccer in the US now, and that demographic is steadily increasing. That will only help the market. Meanwhile the NFL has been hurt by revelations such as CTE, so families are more reluctant to see their kids participate in that sport.
We've covered this ground but the lack of commercial breaks is a non-starter for soccer to make it to United States prime time television. There isn't enough TV revenue for a US professional league to pay players competitively. Any good US player will go to Europe. With no domestic money to pay athletes, the best US athletes will continue to migrate towards the high paying US professional sports.
Be that as it may, there is a growing appetite for the game among Americans, specifically young Americans. I think the World Cup in 2026 is going to be a huge moment for 'soccer' in the US.
MLS might struggle to be as big as the European leagues, but that's ok. It doesn't need to compete with them, it needs to compete with Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. It needs to grow it's pool of youth players, do away with the useless collegiate system for soccer (it doesn't work for soccer) and if the US ever gets to a semi-final or final of world cup the country will go crazy for it.
Last edited by Winterbeard; 04-28-2022 at 02:14 PM..
MLS might struggle to be as big as the European leagues, but that's ok. It doesn't need to compete with them, it needs to compete with Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. It needs to grow it's pool of youth players, do away with the useless collegiate system for soccer (it doesn't work for soccer) and if the US ever gets to a semi-final or final of world cup the country will go crazy for it.
Brazil? Their starting XI is one of the best teams in the world. Club or national teams.
And you have a rich fantasy life thinking the US will be in a World Cup semi-final.
Brazil? Their starting XI is one of the best teams in the world. Club or national teams.
And you have a rich fantasy life thinking the US will be in a World Cup semi-final.
He's saying MLS' goal should be to compete with the Brazilian Serie A, Liga MX, and the Argentinian league. If it can get to a level where it is a league of choice for young players in the Americas and be an exporter to the power 4 / 5 leagues in Europe, that would be great (and also realistic). We have been seeing this happen already over the last half decade or so, since Atlanta had success with the Miguel Almiron transfer. It has raised the quality of play quite a bit (for reference, I rank MLS in that 15-20 range in terms of quality at the moment vs. being somewhere in the 20's a decade ago).
Run a quick Google on "Racism in French football". Then plug in "German". "Italian". "Portuguese".
And for the World Cup, try "Qatar racism" as a search. Oh, and they're not slaves, they're "migrant labor".
Like I said, if the USMNT didn't suck, they'd bump into a lot of anti-American. They'd be doing well to make it out of group play in Qatar.
There may be racism but I doubt any of it is Anti-Americanism.
The truth is the US doesn't play a lot of major international sport and in terms of Anti-Americanism is probably more wide spread during the Ryder Cup Golf when it's held in Europe rather than football (soccer), rugby, cricket etc.
There may be some Anti-Americanism in ice hockey, such as between US and Canadian team in the Stanley Cup, whilst the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc was hardly pro-America or pro-Western. Then again I can't see Russia plying much international sport for a long time.
England has a lot of rivalry in terms of the home nations football and rugby games, as well as with the Australians (Ozzies) in relation to Cricket and Rugby, although it's usually good natured banter.
Whilst the India and Pakistan cricket games resemble a war rather than a cricket match.
It is just that soccer is a fairly new sport in America and has to compete with things like football and baseball and hockey, that don't exist in most other countries. We have too many good choices. In many nations "football" is the only major sport that peolpe can participate in, let alone watch in any great numbers.
Their is a reason soccer and volleyball are so common in poor nations. Football and baseball take a lot of equipment. You can't just play basketball anywhere. All soccer takes is a dirt field and anything you can turn into a sphere to kick around.
So the UK and Germany are 'too poor' to play anything other than football!???
The UK can’t even afford cold beer. They have to serve it warm. Though the joke is they drink warm beer because Lucas makes their refrigerators.
I still think that if the USMNT was a dominant team, they’d encounter hostile anti-American stadiums.
Aha, I see, not much awful 'stereotyping' going on here then! Don't forget it always rains in London, oh and Geoff if you're an American you are obviously 400lbs+ in weight?
I would like to point out that ANY football stadium outside of the US is full of hostile anti-(whoever the opposition is) stadiums. In fact in the 1980's away fans at Stamford Bridge would often be lucky to get out without injury! :-D
america need to take soccer difrently then american sports. american sports are pop culture while soccer is life style. nobody cares about nba nfl mlb or college sports untill final four. baseball matches are in single millions then ws comes and it is in 10s of millions, basketball few millions watch regular season then final 4 come and it is 10s of millions nfl few millions watch regula season then 10s of millions watch final four and original final four of march madness same thing. so stop turning soccer into pop culture 1st game of champions league has same amount of viewers as final of champions league because soccer is life style it was never about half time show or other pop culture or commercials that american sports bring in to get viewes for 1 game
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