Quote:
Originally Posted by osmo
It's perception is in its product. Your wrong in it viewing Canadian teams poorly.TFC was the "model" franchise for the leagues approach to expansion. The team sucks but they make a shit ton of money for MLSE for the nickels they put in. MLS packaged this approach to sell to perspective owners and many bought in. Nobody was crying about Canada being "filler" as they were all counting their cash.
The MLS is delicate about "perception" in television only, this is why the presented product is polished and produced "in-house" jontly by the league and ESPN to give it a "look" like European soccer. This is to present a polished and professional looking product to hesitant legitimate soccer fans whom may view the league as a toy compared to the European powerhouses. Taking that into account though, any legitimate soccer fan knows that in Europe teams exist all over and the only club that matters is your own. You don't care whom your team is playing aside from a rival as long as the soccer is good and your team wins. A LA Galaxy fan could care less where Montreal is as long as his club wins. The league already has created Derbys for clubs to instill fake rivalries. The rest of the clubs don't matter to fans, soccer is always a provincial and local game.
The MLS just wants to make money and this is why in its older days is nuked charter franchises in premier markets like Miami. But only suspended San Jose... Why? Because San Jose is in probably one of the most affluent suburban areas in the USA, and the MLS whom largely has zoned in on suburban soccer demographics in the states didn't want to burn the market or that franchise so they offered it a lifeline that Miami did not get.
The MLS is open to Canada because it grows it's money pot regardless. Again, nobody is watching his stuff on TV in the states and the league does not have to justify dumping teams in crappy markets like the NHL does to justify a national TV deal. They already have one and IMO its more lucrative then what the NHL is getting if you consider the numbers they pull in are piss poor. The MLS goes where it thinks it can make money and get soccer specific faculties built.
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There are a couple of things wrong with this analysis.
First of all, Canadian clubs grow the money pot initially only because of the franchise fee. After that, in what is for the moment a gate-driven league the American clubs are stuck with more home dates that are harder to sell tickets for. "Soccer fans" are not a national culture. American is. MLS fans in the States are still Americans and for the most part... well, we know how interested they are in Canada.
In a gate-driven league, every home date is important. In any sports league on this continent, Canadian teams (except the Habs and the Leafs) are generally duds at the gate in the States. MLS fans are no different.
And as far as TV is concerned, it's still the next critical step in the growth of any sports league. Do you really honestly think that the MLS people don't care if their TV ratings are still this low 10 years down the line? TV is where much of the money is in pro sports.
Canada's MLS clubs will be the three we have now. Mark my words.