Comments on: NHL, NBA seasons starting too soon is taking more notice

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:34:02 +0000

Obvious NHL/NBA hater. Why are you worried about story lines? Its about the game not what some writers(who probably never played in either league) think.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:04:52 +0000

Why does football’s rise need to depend on the failure or regression of other “American” sports? IMO that kind of reasoning will only create antagonism from other American sports fans.

By: jk

jk — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:42:20 +0000

I don’t care that much about hockey but you are seriously complaining about the offseason in hockey and basketball being too short. Soccer in Europe goes from July (Uefa qualifiers) until the end of May. The offseason is like 6 weeks!

By: CoconutMonkey

CoconutMonkey — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:48:48 +0000

Well said Dave. Because of that, trying to compare MLS to the big 4 is pretty pointless. Football(American Footy), Baseball, Hockey, Basketball fans have much different priorities than the average soccer fan.

For the Big4, it’s pretty clear cut. You win the championship, you’re awesome. If you make it to the championship game and lose, you still had a great, albeit heartbreaking, season. Plus you’re already won the conference or pennant. If you make the playoffs, you had a successful season. This is especially true for baseball and football. If you finish over .500 you can take pride in the fact that you didn’t suck balls.

But for soccer, there’s a lot more ways to measure your success. Not only are you trying to win your league, you’re also fighting to qualify for international competitions, and in most places, fighting for promotion or against relegation. Not to mention, there’s all the domestic cup competitions to get excited about. For example, if Fulham finish 16th in the EPL but win the FA cup, I doubt fans would declare the season a failure. That would be sweet btw.

Anyway, I think that’s the biggest problem MLS has. We have all the competitions, but I don’t think they’ve figured out what competitions are going to be high profile and which aren’t. And of course, us fans all have different ideas of what should be caring about. Not only that, the absence of a true football pyramid, and the fact that MLS, USL, and US Soccer, Concacaf and everyone don’t seem to play nice together make it all the more confusing for leagues and fans alike.

Sorry for the long post.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:30:05 +0000

NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB are all the best leagues of their respective sports. MLS?

By: Lars

Lars — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:30:58 +0000

How NHL ever thought they could make hockey work in a warm weather climate?

Hmm, well, if you look at Carolina, it’s possible.

Carolina has one of the best support bases for hockey in the NHL.

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Seasons are starting and ending too soon and late respectively, the NHL was playing the Stanley Cup game in June for christ sakes…

By: Vnice

Vnice — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:47:41 +0000

Rob…well said, man. I’m from Buffalo, and I know a LOT of Sabres fans that love them some soccer.

Plus, I totally agree that MLS should succeed based in its own merits, not the failure of other leagues.

At the end of the day, MLS is a small league. Let’s accept it, and grow it organically.

By: sylc

sylc — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:38:57 +0000

I agree with a lot of Rob’s points, being a fan of both soccer and hockey. While I do agree that the NUMBER of games in the NHL season is a bit excessive, the LENGTH of the season is not the problem (playoffs aside). I feel the same for the NBA, being a fan of the European variety.

MLS should not depend on the shortcomings of other leagues to succeed. It’s shown it doesn’t have to.

On your side note about Phoenix, I don’t think it will ever work there (and hopefully my Islanders will get a Lighthouse).

By: Jayoh

Jayoh — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:34:36 +0000

Spot on Rob….also, I couldn’t agree more with djmk…good luck getting the people out in Denver to get more excited about the Rapids then the Avs…and last time I checked, the Leafs and Canucks have ridonculously long sell out records…obviously I am a huge hockey fan, but I love soccer too, I have heard this argument before, but i was just wondering why no one seemed to mention the epl schedule. Um, I’m pretty sure a schedule that goes from the end of May to the middle of August is what most would call…very very long, or we can put it this way, soccer is pretty much going on year round, so the argument of over-saturation is crap. Now, obviously once again it seems to just come down to preference. Personally, I think basketball is super boring, personally I don’t get all fired up about the new NFL season, and personally I love 162 games of baseball, I love soccer, I love hockey…and that’s my preference…other people like what they like, why do we have to defend the sports we love…Mitch obviously you are huge soccer supporter, that’s ok, I can respect that, I hope soccer takes off in this country, I say the more the merrier, but picking fights with other sports is not going to help the already soccer hating majority.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:01:10 +0000

i like ice cream