The Perception of the MLS in England


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Just echoing what everyone else is saying really, the lack of promotion and relegation is a major barrier to it being taken seriously here. That being said I accept it's a bit hard to implement initially as you need quite a lot of teams in order to have two leagues and, if "soccer" isn't really ingrained in an area then you'll struggle to get fans to attend the lower league games. Maybe the idea is just to grow it for now and introduce a second tier several years (or even decades) down the line.

Equally they need to ensure they avoid moving "franchises". We can moan all we want about American fans not really being loyal to their club in the way a Sunderland fan is to ours, but it's hard to be a loyal fan if you know the team might move 1000 miles away before you can pass it onto your son.

To give a positive, it does seem like it's a bit fairer in terms of the draft idea. Mind, even then I've heard that some teams who know they aren't going to win the thing are actively happy to finish as low down as possible to get the best draft pick, another consequence of lacking relegation.

Get promotion/ relegation, have champions decided by league position and have a separate cup to have the playoff style competition and it'll improve. Ultimately though I don't think it'll ever take off here, other than amongst some hipster types, simply because we've already got a very good, very well established league at home, in much the same way as there's not massive interest in other European leagues
 
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About sums it up for me, too. Most people's perception is that 'It's a place where a lot of players from top leagues, globally, go to for a couple of years to top up their retirement funds, before riding off into the sunset! I can't say that I've ever watched a game, personally, but it does seem to be catching on far better than I, personally expected it to! Been quite a few good American lads, graced our shores, for a few year now, too.. We had the pleasure of watching Claudia Reyna, play for us, a few year back and he was the 'Real Deal' to me, and we've got young Lynden Gooch, who seems to be a very exciting prospect for us, but sadly, in between, we had Jozy Altidore, and to be brutally honest, turned out to be utter, turd! How would you compare the mentality of Fans in MLS to MLB and Football?
I honestly believe that as the internet makes the world smaller, people here in the US are finally seeing why it's called The Beautiful Game. For my part, I played football (soccer) as a little kid and fell in love with the sport. I am uncoordinated as a piece of paper so I was never any good, but I played anyway because I loved it (I was always put in as a "defender" which was the equivalent of "just stand back there and do nothing":D). It's not to the levels of the MLB or American Football, but it's made incredible strides. I think here in Los Angeles, the LAFC have really brought the sport forward. We even had an LAFC day in Los Angeles where several buildings were lit in Black and Gold (the teams colors) at night. That's saying a lot for a city that has the Dodgers, Angels, Rams, Chargers, Lakers, and Clippers.

Jozy. Wow, did that guy break my heart... I had such high expectations:(

Well, at least he did bring me to Sunderland... waiddaminute… that f***ing bastard...:D

@The Lonious Monk What's the feeling in the US about the attempts to move Colombus to Austin?

Shame, as the football over there seemed to have avoided such franchising so far?

It's this sort of thing, alongside the lack of promotion/relegation, that will really struggle to see the MLS be taken seriously in Europe.
For my part, I think that moving the Crew to Austin would be a bad move. It's an American thing - moving teams around for financial reasons. That sort of thing does get under my skin. Something like that would never happen in England.

As far as I'm concerned, the MLS (like China and the Middle East) is where players with a bit of skill go to retire on a massive paycheck once they're too old and too slow to play in a "proper" league.

This is an improvement on 20 years ago when it was a place hardly any footballer would go after playing in a proper league.

If attendances are improving over there then presumably it won't be too long before the MLS becomes a genuinely competitive league.

What's the draft thing all about though? How does that work?
That's a thread in of itself, my friend. It's basically taking college football players and selecting them into a professional team. The worst your team does during the season, the higher your chances of getting a top draft keep to "help" your team improve. It's consistent across all US sports.
 
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That's a thread in of itself, my friend. It's basically taking college football players and selecting them into a professional team. The worst your team does during the season, the higher your chances of getting a top draft keep to "help" your team improve. It's consistent across all US sports.

Thanks for the reply.

So does that mean you never have US players in MLS teams that haven't been through the college system? There's no "academy" route for teams to develop youngsters from an earlier age directly into their own squads without them having been to college?

At what age are the players when they get drafted?
 
Thanks for the reply.

So does that mean you never have US players in MLS teams that haven't been through the college system? There's no "academy" route for teams to develop youngsters from an earlier age directly into their own squads without them having been to college?

At what age are the players when they get drafted?
It's an ongoing debate in the MLS and really in US sports altogether. There have been pro players that didn't come out of the college and get drafted straight out of high school, but the college system plays a big role in all pro sports so they have influenced a lot of the requirements for playing pro sports.
 
Thanks for the reply.

So does that mean you never have US players in MLS teams that haven't been through the college system? There's no "academy" route for teams to develop youngsters from an earlier age directly into their own squads without them having been to college?

At what age are the players when they get drafted?[/QUOTE

The College draft system is less a factor in soccer than in other American Sports. It was seen as a disadvantage for players to come out of college at 22 and never have played professional sport. In 2008 the MLS introduced The Homegrown Player Rule that allows MLS teams to sign local players from their own development academies directly to MLS first team rosters. Before the creation of the rule every player entering Major League Soccer would have to be assigned through one of the existing MLS player allocation processes, such as the MLS Super Draft .Now all MLS teams have an Academy. The team I have a season ticket for San Jose had a Development team in a Professional development league in Burlingame near San Francisco and an affiliate , USL team the Reno 1868 for developing younger players.

The College draft system is less a factor in soccer than in other American Sports. It was seen as a disadvantage for players to come out of college at 22 and never have played professional sport. In 2008 the MLS introduced The Homegrown Player Rule that allows MLS teams to sign local players from their own development academies directly to MLS first team rosters. Before the creation of the rule every player entering Major League Soccer would have to be assigned through one of the existing MLS player allocation processes, such as the MLS Super Draft .Now all MLS teams have an Academy. The team I have a season ticket for San Jose had a Development team in a Professional development league in Burlingame near San Francisco and an affiliate , USL team the Reno 1868 for developing younger players.
 
The College draft system is less a factor in soccer than in other American Sports. It was seen as a disadvantage for players to come out of college at 22 and never have played professional sport. In 2008 the MLS introduced The Homegrown Player Rule that allows MLS teams to sign local players from their own development academies directly to MLS first team rosters. Before the creation of the rule every player entering Major League Soccer would have to be assigned through one of the existing MLS player allocation processes, such as the MLS Super Draft .Now all MLS teams have an Academy. The team I have a season ticket for San Jose had a Development team in a Professional development league in Burlingame near San Francisco and an affiliate , USL team the Reno 1868 for developing younger players.
Thanks for that... sorry @fyl2u I didn't really answer your question. Thank you, @HMB Mackem for stepping in. Much appreciate it.
 
My MLS team are Portland Timbers. Seen two games a few years apart and the quality is improving all of the time. The atmosphere is toppa, really enjoyed the games.
 
My MLS team are Portland Timbers. Seen two games a few years apart and the quality is improving all of the time. The atmosphere is toppa, really enjoyed the games.
Those Portland fans are mental. Went there with the LAFC and it was a blast...
 
@The Lonious Monk What's the feeling in the US about the attempts to move Colombus to Austin?

Shame, as the football over there seemed to have avoided such franchising so far?

It's this sort of thing, alongside the lack of promotion/relegation, that will really struggle to see the MLS be taken seriously in Europe.

Eh?

The whole league is franchises.

San Jose moved to houston. The San Jose got a new franchise a couple of years later.

I’m a big believer that by and large the British and American attitude towards sport is so fundamentally different it can never be reconciled. As a result American football will always be a franchised Disney rip off.

There’s nothing as tribal as football in Britain and even Western Europe. Most English clubs have got 100 years plus of influence on their respective communities. I find the American attempt to replicate this culture incredibly cringeworthy.

What i find odd is that the US, when it comes to business are possibly the most 'free market' country there is. Yet when it comes to sport its almost a polar opposite.

Why not just allow a sport to develop naturally via a meritocracy with prom/rel.
 
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I moved to Canada 6 month ago and have watched a fair bit of MLS and the standard isnt great but the games are usually entertaining. Great crowds and atmosphere at the games too

We have Steven Caldwell and Danny Dichio as experts which brought back some SAFC memories :)

Overall I enjoy watching it which is all you can ask really - I need to pick a team to follow I guess Vancouver is nearest to me but still a 4hr drive if I fancied a game live
 
Most important thing the MLS can do is build it's character, and it's doing that. It's lightyears from the leagues I used to watch in the early 2000s. Just getting two teams in major cities is a start.

It needs careful maintenance and more development but in ten years I genuinely think they'll have an outstanding legacy on par with some European countries.
 
Eh?

The whole league is franchises.

San Jose moved to houston. The San Jose got a new franchise a couple of years later.



What i find odd is that the US, when it comes to business are possibly the most 'free market' country there is. Yet when it comes to sport its almost a polar opposite.

Why not just allow a sport to develop naturally via a meritocracy with prom/rel.
This thread has brought forth a lot of interesting points and has made me aware that the MLS is still, even after all these years, trying to find its identity. It wants to be understood by the American public so in order to do that, it needs to behave like the other American sports so no promotion/relegation and yet, it wants to be accepted by the Football World so it tries to recreate the atmosphere and feelings of the matches and bring in "names". I don't know that the prom/rel concept would work here in the US right now, but only because it doesn't exists in any other US sports.
 
Not a lot tbh. I think it could get bigger than it is, but its a generation or 2 away from been the top sport. I doubt it ever will.
I bet american football, and baseball fans get stories told to them by their dads and grandads. Thats how you get hooked as a kid. Thats how football over here works, though obviously you get the glory hunters added on top, at the trophy grabbing clubs so to speak.
America is so big mind, it could become popular in some places and not others, where as in England, most people follow their team, be it in the prem or down below (gulp) like us
 
This thread has brought forth a lot of interesting points and has made me aware that the MLS is still, even after all these years, trying to find its identity. It wants to be understood by the American public so in order to do that, it needs to behave like the other American sports so no promotion/relegation and yet, it wants to be accepted by the Football World so it tries to recreate the atmosphere and feelings of the matches and bring in "names". I don't know that the prom/rel concept would work here in the US right now, but only because it doesn't exists in any other US sports.

The thing with American sports is that with gridiron / baseball / basketball it pretty much has a monopoly. With association football it has to compete with the rest of the world. Bizarrely with its own sports they run a sort of socialist system, but given the monopoly they can get away with it. This wont work with football when you have to compete with the top euro leagues. Unless the US adopts our model it'll never be anything more than a retirement home for decent players and where washed up players can forge a half decent career.
 
Not a lot tbh. I think it could get bigger than it is, but its a generation or 2 away from been the top sport. I doubt it ever will.
I bet american football, and baseball fans get stories told to them by their dads and grandads. Thats how you get hooked as a kid. Thats how football over here works, though obviously you get the glory hunters added on top, at the trophy grabbing clubs so to speak.
America is so big mind, it could become popular in some places and not others, where as in England, most people follow their team, be it in the prem or down below (gulp) like us
It all depends on where you live, some areas are more rooted in certain teams than others. I don't really see it in Los Angeles... the team loyalty to any team.

The thing with American sports is that with gridiron / baseball / basketball it pretty much has a monopoly. With association football it has to compete with the rest of the world. Bizarrely with its own sports they run a sort of socialist system, but given the monopoly they can get away with it. This wont work with football when you have to compete with the top euro leagues. Unless the US adopts our model it'll never be anything more than a retirement home for decent players and where washed up players can forge a half decent career.
There's a lot of young talent in the US, but unless the MLS makes a better effort in developing it, then, your statement about it being a retirement home is, sadly, very true. The fact that the domestic talent is not the current focus is a problem that needs to be addressed by the MLS.
 
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It all depends on where you live, some areas are more rooted in certain teams than others. I don't really see it in Los Angeles... the team loyalty to any team.


There's a lot of young talent in the US, but unless the MLS makes a better effort in developing it, then, your statement about it being a retirement home is, sadly, very true. The fact that the domestic talent is not the current focus is a problem that needs to be addressed by the MLS.

But even then with the youth development, isnt it just the college draft system the other sports use rather than the actual football club developing its own?
 
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