you forgot to put that extra zero after 50…

Go N.Y. Redbull arena 2010 and Philly Unions new stadium……..

They want the EPL ratings high so FSC cannot afford to renew and they swoop in and get it.
They want the MLS ratings low so they don’t have to pay a rights fee next time
They had the numbers high when MLS used to pay them so they could demand more money .

It’s really pretty simply. K’s problem is that he believes everything he reads. If these numbers were legit, I too would be worried about MLS, but trust me that are not.

Honestly, the NASL got 10 X the viewers and a lot more ink in the papers. But where is the NASL today? Arena Football got decent TV ratings and we used to see the threads on big soccer “AFL beats MLS again in ratings.” But where is Arena Football today?

The vast majority of American fans don’t care about the Premiership. Their is far more casual interest in MLS than in the EPL and La Liga combined. Because ESPN has not been committed to advertising the games properly, or building the brand, and insist on putting down the product and shifting when the games are on, the ratings have dropped. But right now, MLS is more successful at the gate than all but a handful of worldwide leagues and can be fairly described as the top developmental league in the world.

Few, if any other leagues have developed as many players who have spread out across Europe and had as much success as MLS. When you add in the number of world superstars we’ve brought in. Beckham, Blanco, Angel, Ljunberg, even Gallardo, we’ve had when you include Donovan 5-6 of the top 50 players in the world play in MLS over the last couple years. Only England, Spain and maybe Italy can match that number.

Alot of American soccer fans are self hating. They feel they need to put down MLS or US Soccer to sound legit. They also feel they have to apologize for liking the game. They want to seem sophisticated by saying they support some Euro team. The truth is MLS is better than the majority of Euro leagues ans the TV numbers don’t matter one iota. The NASL and Arena Football back up that point.

Let’s set the record straight:

MLS with three fewer markets had twice as many viewers in 1999
MLS had 15 games on ABC in 1999 that averaged close to a 1,000,000 viewers per telecast. ABC is showing zero games this year.
The 2008 MLS Cup had the fewest viewers in MLS Cup history, even though it was the first MLS Cup that featured the team from the nation’s largest TV market.
NASL on ABC had 10 times as many viewers in 1980 as MLS on ESPN2 did in 2008. That is a fact.
ESPN2 is in as many homes as ESPN was in 1999 and the 1999 numbers is a combined ESPN/ESPN 2 number

If anything, I’d criticize Kartik for being incomplete in this article, not pointing out what I did above probably because he’s so stung everytime he posts anything that is true about MLS, it’s like an organized legion of apologists come out to attack him. I’d also criticize him for constantly groveling to you guys. He makes points and then backs off in the comments
and writes stupid things like ESPN needs to promote MLS more in EPL telecasts. Guess what? MLS has been oversold by ESPN for years. Now that they have La Liga and EPL they will build their brand around those respectable products, not around something that has constantly failed for years. MLS promised ESPN’s John Skipper a 1,000,000 viewers a game by 2010 when they got ESPN to pay a rights fee. Does anyone think that is still realistic? MLS has a problem. They constantly over value their players, over sell their product and over promise what they can deliver. Garber may be a good spin-meister, but eventually someone has to say the emperor has no clothes.

All i have to say about your 2nd point is NASL.

No offense but your worst point is your fifth because this has been tried and failed. Superliga’s attendences and overall hype in the US is nonexistent. And most foreign sides have realized that there is more money playing each other, and even when they play the MLS side, people are there and are totally centered towards the foreign side. MLS sides aren’t good enough to make a good impression consistently against world class sides.