Is there a market for Major League Soccer in the United Kingdom? Chris Nee asks that question and more as the league’s 2011 season kicks into gear with a handful of fans in the UK seemingly more intrigued and more excited about it than ever before. But what will it take for the UK football audience to really embrace MLS the way it has other leagues around the world? You know…in theory.
Earlier this week I quietly followed an interesting discussion on Twitter, where the respective editors of MLS Rumors and MLS UK were considering whether Major League Soccer could ever develop a genuinely noteworthy audience in the United Kingdom. The question of whether MLS reaching, say, Eredivisie level would convince viewers in the UK that its as viable an adopted league as its Dutch counterpart is one I’d like to explore further.
Somewhere, there is a biting point at which MLS grabs the attention of the bog-standard UK football viewer and it’s most likely based on improved quality of play. Where on the spectrum of quality that biting point resides is certainly up for debate. Poor quality is the criticism most often levelled at American soccer by European fans (and indeed American soccer fans), who see no reason to pay attention to a league that is inferior to the first division on offer domestically (even if that’s effectively a glorified toy for the kind of super-rich moron who’d erect a statue of Michael Jackson outside the stadium) and also to the others around the continent. At some point, either in the future - or our collective imagination for the purposes of this post - that argument disintegrates.
At face value that level probably is around Eredivisie standard. The average fan in the UK has done as he’s been told for the last couple of decades, and ranks the leagues of Europe as follows: Premier League, La Liga (or the Football League Championship if he’s really patriotic), Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Eredivisie. The German top flight will overtake Italy when the fourth Champions League spot moves over, and that will be that. But the fact is that all of those divisions, to some degree, have audiences in the UK. In theory, any league that meets those standards in the future should get viewers.
As a slight aside, it’s questionable whether quality really matters that much. Hundreds of thousands of supporters in the UK watch football every weekend that can’t live up to even Major League Soccer’s present standard. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked, “How can you watch that rubbish?” when I sing the league’s praises. The answer’s simple: “Do you mean MLS, or Tooting & Mitcham?” Real football fans aren’t as picky about quality as we think we are. Television audiences undoubtedly are, but if MLS can up its game over the next 10-15 years it could well get a foothold. We have people here who watch leagues from all over the world, some better than MLS and some not, and they’re the ones that can lay the foundations for when the masses (who do care about quality) are ready to add MLS to their roster of world leagues.
As always in football, though, it’s all a little more complicated than that. MLS is a special case and can’t be taken entirely at face value here.
MLS has a lot going for it beyond being sociologically freakish and English speaking. Let’s say for the sake of argument that MLS in five years is as good as the Dutch top flight - that would be a good standard of football and, crucially, takes place during those awful summer months during which we’re all starved of football and a few of us lose control of all of our senses and start to believe that we’re actually enjoying the break. The MLS calendar has been subject to debate during the last couple of years, with many commentators arguing in favour of a winter season. In vast areas of the United States that simply doesn’t work.
Coupled with filling a barren, football-free summer, the fact that MLS is an Anglophone league opens up a far more important factor, namely the Twitter and blog community that focuses on American football. Twitter has narrowed the Atlantic for those of us on either side of the pond who want to engage with one another, and as we get to know each other and become friends, more of us might take an interest in MLS.
Soccer blogging in America is truly remarkable. With limited (but growing) interest in mainstream media, bloggers who cover MLS are the league’s key media and do a brilliant job of producing reams and reams of top-notch content. Trouble is, that’s great for you and me - people who read and write football blogs and pay attention to posts about MLS - but it doesn’t translate easily into a TV audience.
Those who do embrace the league will discover a body that wipes the floor with every other football league in the world when it comes to openness, “fangagement” (vomit) and content. There are blogs, Twitter feeds, video podcasts, audio podcasts…you can even watch match highlights on the website. Take that, Premier League! MLS is modern, self-aware and keen to please and then please a bit more. The appetite of fans is sated one minute and further teased the next, all with mostly A-grade content.
We can watch MLS on TV in the UK too, of course, and that’s a really welcome development that should snare a few hundred more fans a season and turn those of us already hooked into real advocates for both the league and the network that carries it. Perhaps the one thing that would be even better is a weekly highlights wrap-up show, shown at an accessible time and helping to thread the narrative of the season through the action. For all I know, that already exists here.
Of course, the reason we’d need such a wrap-up show for MLS highlights is primarily that the majority of matches are played at an awkward time for UK viewers. US-based supporters of English clubs always amaze me with their dedication to the cause, waking up in the middle of the night to sup a pint and watch their mediocre team play out a 0-0 draw against another mediocre team. Regardless of the other arguments discussed here, that might never be replicated by UK fans of MLS, though a few of us will occasionally tune in to a late Western Conference match. Saturday and Sunday afternoon kick-offs are much more accessible.
In my mind, quality is in truth a secondary justification for ignoring Major League Soccer and is over-ridden by a deep-rooted scepticism about US football and, in some cases, the US itself. We don’t approve of the supposed Americanisation of the beautiful game, even though it hasn’t been heading in that direction in reality for a number of years. People here don’t ‘buy’ America as a football nation, echoing many of the assumptions made within the USA and adding to the all the dated or downright mythical guff about points for corners, game clocks, ice hockey shoot-outs or multi-effing-ball. Mud like that sticks in this game.
Even if MLS could overcome those issues and ‘convince’ the rest of the football world, the UK is a saturated market. Football geeks already watch the game in Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Holland, Argentina, Brazil…there’s not a lot of room to move and even less chance of shifting a dedicated observer’s focus once their choice of overseas league is established. MLS, stigma-riddled or not, would be competing for our attention with more settled leagues, regardless of how good it becomes (to a point).
But does any of this really matter? Major League Soccer doesn’t necessarily need the UK’s approval, or its viewing figures. There is a worthwhile debate to be had about whether MLS needs to market itself abroad but for now it has a battle to fight on home soil, a battle it’s winning. To be a success, it doesn’t have to dethrone pointyball or baseball, it just has to exist and prosper alongside them, and it’s forever taking long strides in the right direction. When it comes down to it, what difference would it make to either MLS or to its few loyal UK supporters? I don’t think the marketing department really cares whether I have a slightly wider choice of people to go for a beer with to talk about DC United or how Juan Pablo Angel’s settling in on the west coast.
Overall, improving quality is all well and good, and there probably is a biting point at which the UK will sit up and pay attention to Major League Soccer. But the complications outlined in this post - both in terms of the difficulty in convincing fans and the questionable need to actually do so - push that biting point significantly higher than Eredivisie standard. It’s quite likely to never happen, and that might not be such a bad thing.
Tags: Bloggers, Television Coverage
i´m in the office just now, meant to be working, so i´ve just scanned the article-i´ll have to read it more thoroughly later on.
however, i believe a key component of football fans watching other leagues isn´t necessarily for the actual football but for an emotional attachment, however distant, that the viewer has for the club for various reasons;
-their nationality or descendancy (perhaps an irish american watching celtic),
-political views (possible attachment to st. pauli, liverno, lazio etc etc)
-traditional of a distinct football philosophy (ajax, barca for example)
-attachment borne out of past glory (numerous obvious examples)
-intensity of fan culture (argentinian clubs)
-an historic, socially and culturally interesting derby (so many to choose from)
if i were to watch a game from a foreign league it would normally be for one or many of the above reasons.
now, without wanting to appear to be confrontational; why would i choose to watch the MLS when it has none of the above?
at the risk of sounding like a cliched reporter/blogger, evidently football is much more than just 22 players and a ball-it is about history, local culture/society and fans…understandably the US has not yet developed as strong a football culture/identity as other societies.
i´d be interested in the responses-to both the main article and my comments. cheers.
Well this year, with Vancouver and Portland moving up from the second division there will be passionate derbys that have existed since the NASL days, around 30 years, between Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver all of which will sell out and have great atmospheres.
I wonder if the players may play a part in this, especially those who make the move from England or to England (and I’m not talking about Beckham here, who is an anomaly wherever he goes because he’s Beckham).
Football fans will always take an interest in ex-players, especially fan favourites. If more of these start making the move to MLS, especially before they’re at that winding-down stage of their career (Akinbiyi, Savage, etc), then it might take fans sit up and take notice.
Similarly, I can see a lot of youngsters released by Premier League clubs trying their luck in MLS. If some of these develop and start making waves across the pond before returning home, and turn out to be quite good, this will also make people may more attention to it.
Finally, if you start getting more players move across from the MLS to England - and that’s already happening, you may well get more interest.
Great piece.
Personally I find it annoying when people say they won’t watch MLS here in the US. They always sight the “inferior” product mantra. They then run off at the mouth about how College Basketball is better than the NBA and college football is so much more exciting than the NFL. The truth is, competition is always relative.
In response to some of the other comments, the USA will never have the same atmosphere as the other leagues in terms of traveling fans, simply because the country is huge (unless the teams are close) but we don’t really have that for regular season games in any sport.
I think the MLS will eventually need a second division as well, but that needs to come in time. Let’s make sure the first division works before we worry about a second division.
Will the MLS ever get a strong following abroad? I doubt it, for reason other than the late TV times. There is still that Anti-American sentiment abroad regarding our place sport. Almost a “they can’t have football too!” Kind of thing (and it’s really about more than sport, but that’s a whole other comment). This is evident on any social networking site and on any team message board. A strong league won’t change that.
TV coverage is important to building an audience for MLS in the UK. The time difference is a problem. Only the most dedicated fan will watch matches that kick off at 2am (when ESPN don’t have vital UFC to air, of course), but “as live” broadcasts and highlights shows could help brisdge the gap between those hardcore MLS fans and would-be, could-be converts to soccer.
No doubt this year ESPN will simply be showing the US coverage over here as they did last year - show starts at kick off (no build up), and is off when the final whistle sounds. Then MLS is scrupulously ignored by the channel for the rest of the time like a red-headed stepchild.
It’s a chicken and egg scenario - ESPN (or other networks/channels) won’t invest the money on magazine shows, pre/post game build-up and analysis without the audience. The audience won’t be there as long as MLS is shown in the dead of night with the kind of coverage that has all the razzmatazz and enthusiasm as a Dulux book of beige paint tones.
Just had a scan as I can’t sit down just yet and read thoroughly, but what I think provides the Dutch league credibility is the players that come out of it. MLS has only goalkeepers as noteworthy exports to date (with a couple of exceptions). I think if fans felt like they were watching a market of future stars it would perhaps gain needed credibility. I think intime it will become that, but it is at least 5 years away from that at best.
[...] Two Footed Tackle: Where is Major League Soccer’s UK biting point? [...]
One advantage that MLS has is that a lot of people from the UK holiday in America in the summer so will probably see a game on TV or even go to one.
As an earlier commenter posted you need to feel an emotional attachment to the team and nothing does that more than seeing them play. It’s a shame that Florida can’t seem to support a team but MLS should push soccer based vacations to the European audience.
Thanks for linking to MLS UK. I appreciate everyone who has visited the site.
I think the tide is turning in terms of MLS’s reputation here in the UK. There will ALWAYS be the ignorant minority who blindly bash the league, but for the most part people are accepting that America has a perfectly valid league which is improving all the time.
The problem is coverage. People in the UK are spoiled with supposedly the best league in the world, and so they won’t work too hard to seek out other leagues. La Liga is quite prominent here, so that gets quite a lot of attention. But while MLS has little to no coverage, it won’t be a big deal to Brits. It’s the same as language; we speak the most widespread language in the world, so we don’t bother learning anything else. It’s cultural ignorance.
MLS is broadcast irregularly on ESPN UK, but it is barely promoted. Given that few are going to stay up til 4am GMT to watch live games, ESPN should arrange some sort of weekly primetime review show with highlights of the league. When that happens and Brits are seeing the best of MLS, it’ll really take off here.
In short, the point isn’t that people don’t like MLS in the UK, it’s that most Brits haven’t had a chance to check out the league.
Interesting piece.
My wife is from Seattle and it is amazing how every time we go over there more and more people have converted to soccer through the Sounders. Interestingly, they are often Sounders fans and nothing else - in other words their support for their MLS side does not translate into a wider interest in football (excepting the World Cup, of course).
I think that your point about the domestic battle being more important for the league than an international one is spot on. The import of players who we regard as past-prime (Henry, Angel, Ljungberg, etc.) make us see the league (I think) as a pasture for former greats - akin to the Saudi Premiership, or whatever it’s called - whereas they work in the states to promote interest, by granting the MLS product (in contrast with most American sports) an air of international credibility.
the question should Where is Major League Soccer’s US biting point?
youre putting the cart waaaaay ahead here.
and even for arguments sake, the Dutch comparison is pure science fiction. the dutch have the best schools and their players are technically skilled. they are a small country but the quality of their players is not.
comparing the US to the scottish league or even english 2nd division is much more logical (or even the 12-14 teams in the EPL that no one really wants to watch outside the UK… when people say EPL they mean the Mans, the Chelseas and Arsenal,etc…. not Sunderland, Stoke or any team starting with W)
i watch quite a few foreign games thanks to rojadirecta and an euro satellite dish… language is of ZERO importance, so on top of watching greek, russian, swiss and portuguese, ive seen on rojadirecta a lot of arab football, asian, brazilian and another dozen south american leagues like peru and Columbia… Im NOT a football snob.
But I DARE you to watch that Vancouver vs Toronto game last week to start the season.
it was painful to watch.
I can watch a great game from ecuador (and its truly a case of impress me or Im switching) last week and not even remember the names of the teams but still have been entertained but sitting down to an MLS game is often a labour.
you can insult people who dont agree with you all you want but unless you have a team in your city (20 teams for 400 million people means its guaranteed you dont), why should a fan care?
if youre going to watch a game on TV and you have the world at your fingertips why should you cho0ose the MLS if you live in the US? because its your national league?
people work hard all week and its not everyone who has time to watch a game… if you have kids, you know the drill (I put the game on the laptop and watch at practices)… so if you have just 2hrs a week for yourself, you want to be enttertained.
Anyways, like I said above, the problem isnt MLS visibility in the UK but in the US.
As far as I know, ESPN does NOT carry the MLS in the US. They only do euro footie.
That and doing something about the level of skills the players have. Too many players are athletes first and footballers second
The Vancouver-Toronto game was painful? Really? Because I watched it and thought it was great entertainment? Even if it hadn’t been entertaining, painful is a terribly-exaggerated term. At what point does soccer become ‘painful’? Literally, when you’re getting punched in the face while watching? Or even metaphorically, surely there is a LOT lower quality than MLS. Amateur, youth, pub league.
I think some people look at the best things in life and deem EVERYTHING below it rubbish. Not the case.