Archive for August 2011
Manchester United Fan comes to America in ’88, Confusion and Disbelief follow
Let’s start here:
That’s a great article from a Manchester United fan stuck in America two decades ago. After traveling here he didn’t have any Fox soccer or any exhibition matches to follow, there were probably no articles in the paper he could catch up on and he had to sit down with a portable radio during match season just to follow the development of his team. And he did this at a time when 90% of Americans couldn’t tell the difference between Manchester United and an Australian Rugby team.
Now imagine his disbelief when his team went on a super tour of the U.S. and 60,000 people showed up at each stop.
It’s like an American football team scheduling a few games in England and outselling every major sporting fixture for months as a result, including the FA Cup final and the Ashes. I’ll assume it couldn’t possibly have trumped the Super Bowl, because that would be proper up the wall.
For more articles like the one above you can check out Sabotage Times and then bother them to get more insight from the author. In the meantime though, the author Ian was kind and generous enough to answer a few questions of mine about the obstacles he had to get over after crossing the pond. Enjoy:
SB: Why did you decide to leave the U.K. and travel stateside?
Ian: Back in the 80s there was a formative learning process that working-class lads
from Britain went through to one degree or another; as a youngster you would support a
local football team, which fortunately for me was Manchester United. By the time you
were in your mid-teens, you’d go and stand on the terraces of your local stadium and
enjoy a crazy day of casual violence and a good deal of posturing and preening in your
designer gear, which back in the 70s and 80s was a new thing. The next step was booze;
drunk at the match and the rest of the night. And then came drugs. Books. And music.
After that came travel. I travelled for a few years, to Israel, Europe, Canada, the US,
North Africa, etc, but I met my wife in the US. We got married in England in late-’94.
I’ve lived in the States on and off since ‘88, so I’ve made a short answer very long,
and I apologize for that. Must be something in the Connecticut water. Nothing made
me “decide” to come to the States other than the fact America was a very untouchable
proposition and I couldn’t resist going there. I’ve thought about moving back to Britain
quite frequently since about 2000, but never managed to convince myself it could be
better than this.
SB: What was a huge culture shock when you arrived as far as soccer coverage is concerned?
Ian: Back in the old days I had a couple of things against me. One, I lived on an
island, and two, the live football was strictly pay-per-view, as it was everywhere then.
To get to a pub that was showing the match meant a ferry, then a bus to Boston, which
I only ever did once or twice. It was too much messing about. I listened to the match on
a shortwave radio instead, and was grateful for it. Sometimes they showed PPV on our
local channels. Scheduled games would be vetoed at the last minute for recordings of
Monster Jam Truck rallies or Professional Bull Riders. It would drive me up the fucking
wall!
The ’94 World Cup stimulated interest, as did America’s progress in the ’02 WC
in Japan and Korea among other campaigns. Now the MLS are signing real players from
Europe and South America, it could trigger a tipping point. You never know.
SB: What’s one thing about MLS that keeps getting on your nerves? Do you even watch
MLS anyway?
Ian: To be honest, I don’t watch it really, but I know that I should. Years ago it used to
annoy me in the sense that, when taken on its own, the MLS actually resembled any other
top level league, but as soon as MLS players were pitched against players from Europe
and South America, they were outpowered and outplayed. It annoyed me that so many
American soccer players were being peer-pressured into playing the major American
sports when they could have been raising the level of the game in the States.
SB: Have you ever been a fan of any NBA, NHL or NFL teams? If so why?
Ian: When I came here in late-93 (unknowingly never to return to England) I remember
watching the NFL playoffs. Kansas City Chiefs caught my imagination, partly because
an Aussie mate kept insisting they were awesome cuz of ol’ Joe Montana. I imagined
Montana an American version of Roy Keane or Bryan Robson, and rooted for them right
through the playoffs. They lost 13-30 to Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game.
Buffalo had lost three consecutive Super Bowls and were to go on and lose yet another. I
continued to like the Chiefs for a couple of years, but these days I couldn’t say I properly
supported a team, especially since the Red Sox bought Liverpool FC! I like the Yankees
cos they remind me of United. I like the Steelers cos of the colour of their uniforms and
their logo. Obviously I like it when the Celtics, Bruins or Patriots do well, and it was
great to see that first Red Sox World Series in ’04. If the Dallas Cowboys won every
Super Bowl between now and doomsday, I’d be happy. Don’t ask me why. Maybe I just
like the stars and silver of their helmets.
SB: Do you see any headache with the Premiere League as far as money problems or strikes
are concerned?
Ian: You must be joking. Premier League footballers are paid ridiculous amounts
of money by any standard. If they went on strike they’d never recover, because the
supporters would disown them.
Money problems for the smaller clubs seem worse than ever. It’s not uncommon
to read about clubs on the brink of going under. Let’s face it; even some steady Premier
League outfits are very unpredictable financially. The “big” clubs who are being
outdone by mega-rich foreigners buying their rivals and installing coaches who assemble
mercenaries are also under threat. United’s relationship with Man City has taken an acute
turn; we admire Alex Ferguson’s genius and hate City’s soulless spending to the point
where it’s uncomfortable. It’s all about money versus coaching talent. No prizes for
guessing who’s the good guys and the bad guys, but envy sees many outsiders enjoying
City’s tarnished day in the sun. We call them the “Anyone But United Brigade” (ABU).
SB: Finally, if I’m going to a bar to watch Man U play tell me which specific drink I should
order (with the reason why) and how many glasses/pitchers I should drink?.
Ian: Hmm, this is a difficult one. I assume you mean a bar in the US, cos you wouldn’t
go all the way to Manchester and not go into Old Trafford. So that rules out Joseph Holt’s
Bitter, which is a firm favourite of blokes living in the city, especially the Salford and
north Manchester areas. I might say 3 Monts Golden Ale, a bright, brain-scalding laser beam of a
farmhouse brew from French Flanders that makes your average lager look and taste like
ditchwater.
It’s tempting to say Boddington’s as Boddies also was originally a Manchester
bitter, or even John W. Lees, another Manchester brewery selling upscale (strong) ales
here in the US.
Instead, though, I’ll go for an American microbrew or three. I love American
beer, so there’s like 30 different brews I could mention. Lagunitas IPA is pretty
awesome, but so are Dogfish Head’s 60 and 90 Minute IPAs. Failing that, a few Hooker
Nor’easters goes down well on a winter’s evening while watching the Red Devils. Then
again, perhaps a shedload of Paper City Blonde Hop Monster, or some Opa Opa Warthog
Double IPA. It’s a tough one. I really like Farmington Hop River IPA. I adore all beer, if
it’s decent.
But you asked for one specific beer. So I will say drink Stella Artois until you are
completely pissed out of your brains. The game will slide into a black hole, and so will
the rest of the day, but fuck it, you only live once.
UPDATE FROM SUCKYBALL: If you want to learn more about Ian Hough’s travels he has a website and a book you can read into. His website is The Nameless Thing and you can Follow Ian on Twitter.
A Tale of Two Cities ….
If MLS continues to improve then Boston will have to have a team competitive and successful. That city boasts the Celtics, the Patriots, the Red Sox (who have an owner heavily invested in European soccer) and the now champion Bruins hockey team. All of these teams have fans that respect the team management and do not walk out in large numbers in an angst filled protest …
like these soccer fans did: http://www.thedrugisfootball.com/2011/07/fortgate-stunned-silence.html
If you check out that link make sure to watch the video to see fan after fan walking out in disgust. These fans aren’t upset about because the team stinks, if anything the team could win 10% of the time and the fans would still show up (they’re very loyal). They’re just upset that the front office tells them what they can and can’t say after they spend their hard earned money to get into the stadium. On top of that Boston is known for ridiculous evil chants in the same exact stadium for the NFL team (sometimes when the Patriots win their fans are known to chant ‘Yankees Suck!!‘ as if Jeter himself was a starting cornerback).
So I’m going to cut to the chase here and ask the question: Why is Robert Kraft, the owner, not really caring about this soccer team? Also, what’s an example of a team that everyone agrees is doing a great job of marketing soccer in the U.S.?
Let’s compare Seattle because they’re drawing in big crowds and they also don’t have their own stadium yet. Both of these teams play in NFL stadiums and have owners that also operate an NFL team. Both of these owners are directly connected to the stadium revenue streams.
The Seattle Sounders:
http://www.soundersfc.com/News/Articles/2011/06-June/Attendance-on-the-rise.aspx
That article there shows that the Sounders bring in more fans than the Galaxy (L.A. is considered the ‘best MLS team’) and since they play in an NFL stadium there’s no reason why they can’t open up more seating to accomadate 45,000 fans instead of 36,000. The owner/billionaire/rock musician Paul Allen helped with constructing the stadium and shared costs with the city. And since I visited the city before I know the stadium is right in the middle of Seattle and people won’t have a hard time getting to it, if anything it’s impossible to miss because of the architecture and location. Finally, the front office must be doing overtime because the team is winning and the players enjoy being on the team. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were one of the last contenders at the end of the season.
The New England Revolution:
Owned by a man who has multiple championship rings with the Patriots, this soccer team is desperate:
http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com/new-england-revolutions-long-slow-fade-continues/12271
This team is happy to play in front of 7,000 people!!! If the Patriots sent out a group of old, confused and retired 80-year old women in hair curlers then at least 40,000 people would show up to watch them play in the exact same stadium!! And as far as the picture above, it’s from an actual New England Revolution game and not a single Boston soccer fan would doubt the truth of that image.
What gives? Kraft owns the entire stadium, he’s interested enough in soccer that he tried to buy Liverpool (Red Sox management took over instead) and he keeps telling people that he’s just as motivated with soccer as he is with the NFL.
But let’s look further …
First off, Seattle’s stadium is in downtown and everybody can get to it pretty easy. The Revs play over 20 miles from Boston and a lot of fans get stuck on a single lonely crowded road (the Highway to Hell some call it) into the stadium. Whereas the Patriots have a shuttle from Boston for fans to jump on, the Revolution don’t. I keep putting off a Red Bulls game because it’ll take me an hour to get there. Boston soccer fans have to brave about two hours to show up to an empty stadium.
Second, since Seattle’s stadium is jointly owned by the government there’s an incentive to fill it up as much as possible. The government will gets chunks of future revenue from sold out NFL games so it would be even better for them to get the soccer thing going too. Paul Allen is only too willing to help and having Bill Gates as a good friend doesn’t hurt. And since the NBA left Seattle most sports fans there don’t mind learning about ‘corner kicks’ and ‘tifos*’ when they’re surrounded by 35,000 other people going nuts. Do you think the Celtics will ever leave Boston? Really?
So Kraft pretty much pockets yachts of money from the Patriots and doesn’t have to answer to any government officials like Paul Allen does. Kraft could invest all of his energy into the Revolution but it’s probably tough enough running the Patriots. So I figure he’d rather just have a bad soccer team and not worry about giving Revolution management pay raises. If the fans show up and pay $40 dollars for parking, $10 for a beer and don’t mind rooting for players making the same money as a subway employee it’s all good for Robert Kraft.
So there you have it. Seattle has a billionaire owner with rabid fans, and New England has a billionaire owner with rapidly leaving fans. Since starting this site I’ve been surprised the few times American soccer climbs out of perpetual suck. I’ll watch a game, be caught off guard by a great goal and then imagine a future where the U.S. could push back against major international teams. I wrote last week about how NBC might drag MLS out of the dark ages and I had to hold my tongue, because it’s a step forward for the sport in America and a positive step.
But with Kraft’s complete neglect of his team it takes me right back to square one. The Revolution’s front office sucks.
*For Americans that don’t know, a tifo is a huge work of art completed by a team’s fans and spread out across the stands.
Huge Surprise: Red Bulls were over-rated this year.
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6863826/mls-ny-red-bulls-brink-becoming-mls-biggest-flop
From the article:
‘But it’s even worse for the Red Bulls. This is a team not only in danger of missing the playoffs, but one that could become the biggest flop in American professional soccer history.’
Leave it to ESPN to over-publicize the Red Bulls playing poorly. In my own opinion they’re really not even playing poorly, just tying a lot of games. As far as ‘biggest flop in American professional soccer history’ I think there’s a recent team with Beckham and Donovan that failed in more extravagant fashion a few years ago. And they pretty much followed a similar team pattern – two or three hugely paid stars, annoying injuries, constant travel and side exhibitions and underpaid teammates trying to create miracles in hard spots.
Why not pay Lionel Messi 80 million a year to play for the Houston Dynamo and then field the rest of the team with 13 year old kids from a local middle school that get paid nothing but orange slices and Gatorade? The crazy thing is some MLS executives would jump at it.
Oh by the way, have fun with this ESPN article from the beginning of the year:
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6179490/mls-poised-bigger-things
From the old article: “This asymmetric injection of quality into a few clubs has led to the emergence of two budding juggernauts in the key New York and Los Angeles markets, where the Red Bulls and Galaxy have been stockpiling talent to the point they are now the two best and deepest squads ever assembled in the league’s history.”
It’s easy to paint L.A. and N.Y. as powerhouse teams but I think ESPN could’ve done a better job of predicting team strength. Don’t they actually go to the games? Don’t they even watch them?
MLS and Fox break up. NBC catches a rebound. Who upgraded?
Surprise, surprise, look who held a press confrence this week!!! MLS executives are pretty much saying that Fox Sports was given the bird by not giving them 20 million for a year of games (bird pun very much intended).
I previously mentioned that Fox brushed off the high price tag and probably gave the league between 12-17 million for this year. So when that deal was announced earlier this year people were confused as to why it wasn’t a longer term contract. I’d think that a long term deal would be better for both, but like I said, Fox and MLS agreed to just a single year:
Now NBC is going to broadcast MLS games for three years and has the added bonus of a few U.S. national games (with Mexico, it’s probably in the contract, Mexico is very important). Let’s look at these numbers before you fall asleep:
‘The partnership will feature 45 MLS games in total, plus four U.S. men’s national team matches to be televised live across both NBC and NBC Sports Network (currently Versus) each season.
Each season, NBC will broadcast two regular-season MLS games, two playoff games and two U.S. national team matches. The rest will be shown on NBC Sports Network, which will be the new name of Versus starting in January 2012.’
49 games total. 6 semi-important games a year. That’s 18 semi-important games on national television over the course of the contract and maybe 50 jokes on SNL hyping up soccer in marketing tie-ins. But otherwise that’s 31 games on a channel people might not watch, out of 49 total.
After following American soccer for this long something seems off to me about this new NBC contract. I agree that soccer isn’t dying or trapped to suck forever, but my gut is that they’re still bending facts. Here are my three scenarios that can explain this deal:
Scenario Uno: Fox wasn’t getting ratings it wanted and bailed. The executives at Fox were constantly pushing European leagues and I’m pretty sure they still have the contracts for those specific games in England and Spain. But all the good games for MLS were bought by ESPN and taken off the table. So Fox had to promote games that America didn’t go crazy over. And if Americans weren’t tuning in, do you think European and Latin American immigrants were? Please. Fox Soccer never pushed for a three of four year deal and probably told MLS that they couldn’t go much higher.
Scenario Dos: NBC doesn’t give a peacock’s feather about MLS because they just want to learn and promote soccer for the Olympics and maybe the World Cup. Last year ESPN ran victory laps around the other networks when they broadcast from Africa. NBC pretty much has a good handle on the Olympics so it wouldn’t be difficult for them to get into the soccer world. Would it be a stretch seeing the World Cup final on NBC?
When the U.S. women’s team make a run at Olympic gold (and the men try for Bronze) can’t you imagine MLS players munching on a McDonald’s Olympic-size happy meal and advertising Visa? Goal!!!!! NBC is putting it’s weight in the global soccer world and all the weak insomnia curing games will be shoved on the NBC sports channel. The games that are easier to promote will be on standard NBC. And then the U.S. National team matches will be hyped to death with the overdone logic of you’re not a real American if you think American soccer is getting worse!! But people who follow soccer will understand that Americans aren’t great, sometimes we suck, and we’re all going to have to get used to McDonald’s bags with soccer balls all over it.
Scenario three: NBC has no idea what it’s walking into and got duped.
I couldn’t find any numbers on the contract but it’s at least twenty million for three years, easy. If MLS can’t draw enough good advertising for the 31 games they’re going to have to be really be successful with the 18 others. MLS playoffs in the middle of an NFL season? Ouch. Hyping up teams that can only hype up their own city? Tough work. Even though I’m sure NBC executives will make some money on this deal it might not be as much as they thought. The reason I say this is because if Fox Soccer was making a fortune then why did the regular Fox channel not broadcast any games? Fox Soccer told them that MLS was tough, and it was growing, and that European teams were easier to succeed with. NBC is now filling those shoes without the added benefit of Barcelona vs Real Madrid.
So I guess what it comes down to is that the only party that had a real upgrade was fans of the MLS. Everything else is up in the air but league fans can look forward to three more years that the league won’t fold or drop any teams (hopefully).
And I still probably won’t catch more than five of the games …
Q & A with the Viper’s Nest, a Red Bull’s Fan Site
You’d think that because ESPN and the three big networks are invested in soccer they’d give MLS a little pat on the back. That’s not exactly the case, but it’s actually worse if you look at their websites online. Even on espn.com and yahoo sports the articles are sparse and submitted about three times a week. On ESPN they don’t have a match recap like in baseball, basketball or the NFL. For a typical soccer game on espn.com they’ll just provide you with a box score of who scored the goal and who got red carded. Yahoo sports is the same but even encourages amateurs to write in content hoping that the free journalism of three or four opinionated fans can fill a void in the soccer department.
So if you can’t find news on your team on Sports Center or cbssports.com (good luck with that scavenger hunt) you might as well find a local team blog to get reliable information. One of those fan sites is the Viper’s Nest, a good mix of news and commentary about the state of the Red Bulls. And since I interviewed someone who barely watches soccer a couple of weeks ago I think it makes sense to question Matt Conroy, a person who helps keep the Viper’s Nest going and has been following the Red Bulls for a few years. Let’s find out what he thinks:
1. How long have you been a fan of not just the Red Bulls but soccer in general?
I’ve been a soccer fan since I was a kid. I grew up in LA and used to watch Soccer Made in Germany and the condensed English Premier League games on PBS. I recall going to one Los Angeles Aztecs game as well – it must have been about 1978. But by the time I was in my teens there was not really much soccer available. I went to a few of the games at the Rose Bowl during the 1984 Olympics, but I was probably more of a baseball fan at the time. It wasn’t until the ’94 World Cup that my interest in soccer was reborn. I was out of college and used to watch the games from England on TV. MLS had started in ’96, but I didn’t really follow it avidly. The countdown clock and wacky shootouts they used at the time turned me off. I became a pretty passionate fan of the English club Chelsea FC in the mid-’90s. Eventually MLS began dropping the stupid rules, building soccer-specific stadiums, making the right moves and adding better players. One day I just asked myself why I was pouring time and energy into a club thousands of miles away when I had one a lot closer – the Red Bulls – who I could support in person. My friend Tom and I began attending games at Giants Stadium in 2007 and bought full season tickets for the first time in 2008. I’m still a Chelsea fan, but am a Red Bulls supporter first and foremost.
2. Tell me if there was any difference coverage-wise between the team pre-Henry and now? Do you feel like more people are interested after he came to New York?
The addition of Henry has made a big difference in terms of the profile of the club. They’ve gone from a team with one mid-level star (Juan Pablo Angel) and not much else to one of the league’s biggest road draws. Mexican defender Rafa Marquez has helped in that respect too. I must admit, however, that there is not a ton more mainstream press coverage of the team than there was when I started going to games in 2007. The New York Post’s Brian Lewis, Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer and Kristian Dyer of mlssoccer.com all do a good job of covering the team, but the New York Times is behind the curve a bit. They don’t have a dedicated beat reporter covering the team on a daily basis, like they do with the Jets, Giants, Yankees and Knicks. Jack Bell does what he can. The Wall Street Journal’s coverage has improved in recent months, which is heartening. The biggest improvement is the number of independent bloggers and podcasters following the Red Bulls. In addition to The Viper’s Nest, you have the SBNation blog Once a Metro (which I also write for), Dave Martinez’s Empire of Soccer and a host of other outlets. Dave also does a great podcast called Seeing Red! with Mark Fishkin that is a must for RBNY fans, and that just launched last season, right about the time Henry arrived. I have my own “fancast” on the North American Soccer Network that I do with Ben Schneider (editor’s note: find that here: http://nasn.tv/category/talking-bull/). So even if the mainstream media has not given the team the same kind of space and attention that the other local enjoy, fans have picked up the slack.
3. A lot of Americans are ignorant of the fact that soccer hooligans in England can become violently drunk and uncontrollable. Do you think American fans will have this problem anytime soon?
I don’t think so. There have been isolated incidents here in the States, but I don’t that kind of thing arriving in MLS anytime soon. MLS supporters clubs are focused on the getting behind their team first and foremost, not picking fights with the opposition. There are a couple of factors at play. First, a lot of the same fans who go at it for 90 minutes during a league game will meet up and have a drink together at a US Men’s National Team game. If you’re a soccer fan you’re still a bit of an outsider in American sports culture, and I think that tends to draw fans together. Secondly, there’s only one true “derby” game in MLS – Galaxy vs. Chivas USA. The distance between cities just doesn’t lend itself to massive groups of traveling fans. Even the most manageable trip for New York fans – playing away in Philadelphia – would be a long haul for your average English supporter. You have good rivalries on the I-95 corridor and now in the Pacific Northwest, but the conditions are simply not there for significant fan-on-fan violence. The league and clubs have also done a good job of ensuring traveling fans’ safety.
4. What ideas would you give Red Bull management to drum up more support in Manhattan?
First, have some kind of visual presence. I’m not talking about one-off events, viral marketing or gimmicks. When the new stadium opened last season, there was a lot of money spent to blanket Penn Station and other locations in New York and New Jersey with ads, but it was not followed up this season and your average Manhattanite could be excused for being totally unaware that there is an MLS team in the market. To be sure, the Red Bulls face a challenge that no other MLS team faces, in that they have nine of so other professional sports teams competing for attention and dollars, as well as other entertainment options. Teams such as the Sounders in Seattle and the Timbers in Portland aren’t the only game in town, but they have it much easier because the markets are not saturated in the same way New York is. The Red Bulls will do occasional events in the city (they have an open practice in Manhattan next week), but not nearly enough. One problem is the league’s stated desire to have a second club in the market, with the relaunched Cosmos often mentioned as the likely candidate. By openly admitting that they want to establish a second, NYC-based team, MLS has given fans on the fence about the Red Bulls an additional excuse to stay away. I am of the opinion that the league should shelve the “NY2” idea for now, and allow RBNY to establish itself and grow stronger roots following the move to the new stadium in Harrison.
5. The Viper’s Nest is one of the better sites to get Red Bull and MLS related news. Are there any large scale plans for the site in the future to push it forward?
We’ve added several new writers recently, including Dan Dickinson, David Kilpatrick and Geoff Martin. When we first launched the site, it was just me and Miguel Nunez (aka Viper). We never really thought the site would take off the way it has, but we have people coming up to us at the stadium now and telling us how much they love the site, which is very encouraging. It was originally just launched as a place to house the videos that we’d do at each of the home games, but it’s become much more than that now. The one thing we do not want to get away from is the sense that this is a blog by fans and for fans. We don’t want to sit in the press box or be considered “legitimate media.” That’s kind of antithetical to our whole approach. We will probably be adding some new features over the winter. One thing we started recently is an MLS Attendance Tracker, put together by Chris Lalli. Attendance is a hot topic among MLS fans, and Chris does a great job of keeping it up to date and providing analysis. We have thought about adding advertising to The Viper’s Nest, but we only want to do it if it can be integrated in a non-obtrusive way. At the moment, we’re not making a penny off of it. It’s a labor of love.
6. Last question, when I bring up soccer in conversation with friends they’ll give me stock answers like ‘America won’t support something it’s not good at’ or ‘it’s too foreign’. What’s a good way to break through that initial wall and get them more aware of soccer?
Come out to a game! Red Bull Arena is hands down the best soccer stadium in North America. It was built very much on the European model, with covered seats all around and great sight lines. Fans are also exceptionally close to the pitch and the noise created by the supporters clubs during a match makes the place buzz. It’s a totally different – and better – experience live than it is on TV. In my opinion, the Red Bulls are the best sports bargain in the area. I pay around $350 a year for each of my season tickets. Try getting similar value at an MLB or NBA game. The “value for money” message is something I think the club could/should do a much better job of communicating. The fact of the matter is that soccer is already well-supported in the States, and that support is growing each year. The league is improving each season and the quality of play today is vastly superior to what it was in 1996. Is MLS one of the world’s top leagues yet? No, but the progress is undeniable.
The Cosmos: Over hyped already and they haven’t even joined the MLS yet.
The commissioner of MLS is in an interesting position. The league is hitting their numbers and people are starting to buy more tickets at higher prices. Although the television networks laugh at him behind his back, it’s not as bad as it used to be and more viewers are tuning in. When the World Cup starts in 2014 his league will be back in the American spotlight and everything should go according to plan. But this Cosmos thing …..
Let’s rewind to Pele, pretty much the greatest soccer player of all time. A lot of Americans don’t know that he used to play in New York and because of that he helped an American Soccer league bring in hundreds and thousands of new fans. Pele’s team was the Cosmos. And in addition to Pele the Cosmos actually attracted top stars from Europe with promises of top quality competition and millions of dollars in salary. But what was the secret to the Cosmos’ funding?
It turns out they had an owner that had heavily invested into Warner Bros. (the music and film division) and also Atari. He had so much cash that a money-losing soccer team with multiple expensive players wasn’t that big of a deal. After Pele retired and Atari was hearing rumors of something called ‘Nintendo’ the Cosmos free cash ride was pretty much done. No more traveling to Italy, no more sold out Giants stadium, no more fans shutting down freeways trying to get into the game.
But now things have changed.
MLS teams are now constantly hearing about a group that’s trying to bring the Cosmos back and aren’t afraid of the heavy price tag. Don Garber had previously gotten people in Canada upset by asking 40 million from people in Montreal. They didn’t like 40 million to join an American league that nobody really paid any attention to. So why is Garber asking for over 100 million now for the Cosmos?
http://www.thisiscosmoscountry.com/2011/04/letter-to-garber.html
At first it sounds extraordinary that MLS would demand that much money for a new team to enter the league when it was happy to get a fraction of that in the past. But if we look deeper I think we’ll be interested in what we find.
1. The people that will run the Cosmos aren’t really American businessmen: Terry Byrne, Paul Kemsley and Eric Cantona.
Terry Byrne (aka David Beckham’s best friend and advisor) is very willing to throw a lot of cash to get this whole team running again. Byrne was a factor in getting a makeshift Cosmos team sacrificed to the lions when they played Manchester United. That night hundreds of thousands of Englishmen were delighted to see Pele’s old team bullied around the field (even if they weren’t even a professional team!!).
Paul Kemsely used to be involved with management of the Tottenham Hotspur (an English soccer team) but made most of his cash in property development. He’s probably just helping Byrne in negotiating important business deals and paying Pele to hype up the team again.
Eric Cantona was a star French soccer player who landed at Manchester United right before they started winning championships again. I’m not sure how much of a financial impact he brings to the table but I do know he probably knows how to manage a team after so many years around the sport.
2. The Cosmos aren’t just an American brand, they’re global.
Not only were they the first ‘American’ soccer team to play in Manchester United’s stadium, they’re probably the only American team other countries even recognize. News on them playing just Manchester United could’ve been big news in Brazil, France, wherever. So even though this new Cosmos team might get little press coverage in the U.S. it’s already going to be over hyped in the rest of the world.
3. The MLS team New York has right now is in New Jersey.
As much as I think the Red Bulls are a decent team you can’t really say they’re like the Mets, Nicks or Yankees (or Jets or Giants) when it comes to news coverage. To get to Red Bull Arena you have to hop on the subway and transfer a few times before you get even close to Red Bull Arena and once the game is over you have to head back the same way. Since most New Yorkers in Manhattan are too busy with a million other things going on the Red Bulls really haven’t caught on yet. But if the Cosmos somehow have a team either inside Manhattan or less than ten minutes away they’ll be printing cash left and right. This city has millions of immigrants that can’t speak three words of English but will instantly recognize the Cosmos as Pele’s old team.
That’s why the British Three Amigos are willing to pay Garber over seventy million just to get this franchise. They want NEW YORK NEW YORK and not somewhere forty five minutes away. The Red Bulls management can use the comparison of the Jets and Giants playing in New Jersey too and all of them are successful franchises with millions of fans. But every one of the NFL games in New Jersey will be a guaranteed sell-out with TV revenues coming in. The Red Bulls are just in a tough spot now (but like I said, they are a decent team backed by a major corporation).
Here’s where we are right now. The Cosmos are basically a group of players that are willing to travel around Europe to play in friendlies and other meaningless international games. And because of the cash backing them and their desire to play in MLS, most American soccer fans are going to hear about them over and over. I already think the Red Bulls and the Galaxy are over hyped. But what’s going to happen to MLS when the Cosmos and someone like a newly signed Cristiano Ronaldo march into Times Square?
Get ready MLS. First it was Beckham and now the Cosmos (with Beckham’s best friend tagging along) …
Another Football season starts up …. for the NFL
As the National Football League muscles its way into American homes next month it’s important to look at the vast, immense difference in wealth that separates U.S. soccer and the NFL. I’ve been surrounded by the chaos of Manhattan so I know what it’s like to stare at wealthy, polished Wall Street business types standing two feet away from welfare recipients on a crowded subway. Where do you start to compare?
Let’s just look at the ridiculous numbers, per Sports Business Daily:
ESPN (Owned by Disney) is paying the NFL 8.8 billion dollars for an 8 year deal. Mickey & Company wouldn’t make this deal unless advertisers are paying them well over 2 billion a year for the huge audience. The contract runs from 2006-2013.
CBS, NBC and ABC are paying the NFL a combined 11.6 billion for a 6 year deal. All of these contracts were drawn up at the same time. We can conclude that this was done so that when the deals expire in 2012 the networks will decide to basically throw as much cash as possible to the NFL in order to compete with the others. It’s like you’re a drug dealer and have three customers that work in the same exact office and all get their paychecks the exact same two days out of the month. Touchdown!!!
Sprint paid the NFL 600 million over 5 years just to be the league’s favorite cell phone carrier and work with them on a mobile platform. After that contract expired Verizon went ahead and ponied up 750 million over 4 years starting from 2010 (and Sprint was out the door).
This isn’t taking into consideration jersey sales or ticket revenue sharing, I’m not opening up that door. The NFL also brought in an average attendance around 66,957 in 2009 per ESPN. So when they’re not drawing in record viewers from television they’re also packing people in seats for 8 regular season games per team (535,656 fans per team buying overpriced nachos and beer for the 2009 season).
…..
The MLS admits they’re working hard to become a bigger, better and more relevant league. But let’s look at their numbers anyway:
http://mls.theoffside.com/attendance/and-the-results-of-mlss-2010-attendance-stats-are.html
An average of 16, 675 fans showed up for MLS games in 2010. Since there are 15 home games for each team you’d figure that about 250, 125 fans show up for each team’s season. But this doesn’t take into account friendlies or side tournaments. When Manchester United or Real Madrid show up it’s, well, pretty much like an NFL game that’ll pack in 60-70,000 people. So one thing the MLS has going for it is the European teams visiting and the freedom to play a bunch of side games to supplement income. Even though ticket prices aren’t as sky high as NFL games, the teams do put their players on the field a lot.
But since the NFL is pretty much partying it up with television producers what about MLS? Do they get a party? Do they get an invite? Do they even get to see the party from outside the house?
Here’s an article from December 2010:
The Fox Sports Channel denied MLS for 20 million a year. They had decided to give MLS a cool 7 million in the previous contract but told league executives to back off on the 20 million dollar price tag. I also couldn’t find any price on the new deal so I’m guessing 14 million (in the middle of 7 and 20) for 2011?
ESPN also is giving MLS money for games to the tune of 8.5 million but that’s only if the national team is thrown in as part of the package. A lot of national team players play abroad anyway so they’re not really true MLS games that will draw audiences into the league. And doesn’t ESPN have a world cup deal anyway? You would imagine they’d help out MLS a little in the upcoming years but the focus for them as far as soccer goes is world cup, world cup and more world cup. When 2014 comes around ESPN will have thousands of cameras focused on Brazil and not for the Colorado Rapids vs Toronto FC.
Still reading? You must love soccer.
The NFL’s cash reserve is so deep and so joined at the hip with television networks that MLS can’t compete now in America. And MLS might be making headway as far as actual people going to games and celebrating in smaller stadiums, but it’s almost irrelevant. Americans will make huge deals out of meaningless NFL match-ups like the Vikings vs the Texans. They won’t really care about soccer match-ups with teams they know next to nothing about.
You might say that the NFL is the hare and the MLS is the tortoise. Only the hare in this example is spoiled rich beyond belief, had a huge head start and he’s invested a lot of his own money into winning the race. Did I mention all the television cameras are contractually obligated, to the tune of billions, to follow his every move?
But the tortoise has his own charm and is pretty fun to watch too, most of the time. We’ll see what happens in about three or four years.
Suckyball 
Play-offs? You kidding me? Play-offs?!
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Before we get to the play-off information let’s get one thing out of the way:
The international friendlies with European super teams this summer have zero correlation with MLS attendance numbers. In fact they might be turning fans off. Don’t believe me? Read this:
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2011/08/08/2611341/business-off-the-pitch-world-football-challenge-matches
It looks like although the top six or seven popular clubs in MLS are doing fine (L.A., Seattle, NYC, Portland) the teams that are struggling are dropping fans left and right (half of them?). That sounds pretty sucky, but wait a minute, aren’t the play-offs coming?
The MLS released its schedule for the games starting in October but by then a bunch of factors will probably come into play.
1. Most teams will be running on empty by then due to the league’s expanding appetite for meaningless (yet profitable) side friendlies and other tournaments. Let’s say you’re a coach looking into November and have to deal with cup qualifiers, match-ups with super teams and the rare flight to a completely different country. The MLS, NBA and NFL teams would never agree to these side gigs for regular season (and play-off stretches). It looks like the MLS can’t let a dollar get away. I don’t know if it’s because of poor finances or just a voracious greed, but these buses are moving.
2. This is my first year watching MLS. This is my 30th year watching the NFL. When they overlap how much will MLS be ignored on the major networks (or will I even care to watch soccer?)
3. The team that wins it all will probably be a team in the middle of the standings!!!! There are 18 teams, 10 will make the play-offs and since the games are knock-out games there’s a good chance that the ‘MLS super teams‘ won’t advance. The Red Bulls (who have the most expensive team) are in danger of not even qualifying. Seattle, Real Salt Lake and literally almost a dozen others have a good shot at making it (they’re all decent teams but they’re all interchangeable for the most part). So good luck if you’re an analyst trying to be taken seriously with your ‘MLS play-off lock’ because it’s a giant grab bag picking two teams for the final.
For a comparison the NFL has twelve teams going into the play-offs (out of 32). Can you imagine 18 of them (the same ratio for MLS teams) going into the play-offs? It’s ridiculous.
4. The best players for MLS in the play-off games might not even show up. Europe will be starting up their own domestic leagues and it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a few MLS players to head over there for a stretch. Also the U.S. national games have a recurring habit of picking off two or three players from MLS play, who’s saying it won’t happen for the play-offs?
Play-offs? You kidding me?
Written by mrmattmatt
August 9, 2011 at 11:32 pm
Posted in MLS, No Huge Musical Acts, Too Much Hype, Uncategorized
Tagged with beckham champion of mls, hire diego maradona for color commentary, hire flock of seagulls for halftime show, hire the black eyed peas, MLS, mls cup, november rain