Soccer attendance

HatterDon · Aug 19, 2012

There was an article in this morning's Excuse-Nuisance about the mighty San Antonio Scorpions. What made it amazing is that it appeared above the fold on page 1, and the Cowboys had to play second fiddle. A couple of things gleaned from the article:

San Antonio leads all "minor league" football franchises in attendance with 9623
six of the top 10 teams in the minor league group are NASL teams. This includes the Atlanta Silverbacks who might not be able to beat a decent pub team
In the MLS, Seattle's attendance is more than 40k per game -- well above most Premier League totals [including ours]
The worst attendance in MLS is at New England, but their average of 12,922 is pretty consistent with what you get in the Championship.

Oh, and the Scorps are still in first place. :banana-guitar:

Here's the full article:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/scor ... 798895.php

terrinh73 · Aug 19, 2012

Always beating up on my Silverbacks **sigh** :cry:

dcheather · Aug 19, 2012

If only the sports media and ESPN would give even more attention to the sport, sigh. It seems the sport in this country gets more and more supporters each year, and that's a very good thing. Just hope the TV rights keep going to channels that can show it across the nation to a wide audience. It won't keep growing if we niche supporters have to hunt down streams.

Good luck to the Scorpions, sounds like they have some great support. Would you like to see them in the MLS or no?

Clevelandmo · Aug 19, 2012

DCHeather said:

If only the sports media and ESPN would give even more attention to the sport, sigh. It seems the sport in this country gets more and more supporters each year, and that's a very good thing. Just hope the TV rights keep going to channels that can show it across the nation to a wide audience. It won't keep growing if we niche supporters have to hunt down streams.

Good luck to the Scorpions, sounds like they have some great support. Would you like to see them in the MLS or no?
Click to expand...

ESPN Sportscenter is starting to include soccer highlights quite frequently so I think that's a big step. Get the average sports fan knowing the teams, the names and the top highlights.

Also the NBCSports Network took on MLS and so far it has been a viable experiment for them. I dont know if their network is mainstream though for the average cable viewer - it certainly is for satellite. They also started an MLS 36 program to highlight MLS player stories. I saw one on Freddy Montero and really enjoyed it. I think this show will really help make MLS players, and therefore MLS, more popular.

I really think the key is that MLS needs to get on par with the top leagues in the world. People want to watch the best. The TV ratings for the WC, the premier league, and the euros have been skyrocketing. If MLS can get to the point where it is considered by the experts to be on par with Serie A or Ligue uuuuuhhhh, I believe they'll be major network coverage. I think we will eventually get there.

Major League Soccer programming on NBC Sports Network may not be breaking television ratings records during the first month and a half of the 2012 season. "MLS on NBC" is still in its infancy, but I don't think it's too early to call the experiment a success for everybody involved.
This past Saturday's Philadelphia Union vs. Columbus Crew game was the only nationally televised MLS contest to air on an English language channel during the weekend. Coverage of the match began at 3:30 pm on a weekend afternoon when many of us on the east coast had an opportunity to head outside and enjoy the sunny skies and warm temperatures. According to the Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com, average viewership during the actual contest was 139,000. According to the NBCSportsPR Twitter page, average viewership for MLS on FOX Soccer during the 2011 regular season was 68,000.
Before the start of the 2012 MLS season, I spoke with two "in the know" individuals regarding the MLS on NBC Sports arrangement. Both told me that the "100k" mark for average viewers was the unspoken over/under number. Anything over 100,000 would be considered a win for both the network and the league, and could also result in more games airing on both NBC Sports and NBC in later years. Thus far, MLS on NBC is averaging (according to NBCSportsPR) 106,000 viewers, an increase of 56 percent from MLS on FSC during 2011.
The average viewership for this past Saturday's game is actually more impressive when you really break it down. Philadelphia and Columbus are two teams currently in the bottom half of overall MLS standings. To say it nicely, Philly vs. Columbus doesn't exactly scream "stop what you're doing and chance the station to NBC Sports Network now!" The MLS game also had direct competition on two stations. Barcelona were taking on Levante from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, and that game was airing on both ESPN and ESPN Deportes. According to the previously mentioned Philly.com article, nearly 300,000 viewers watched that game via ESPN, while another 489,000 viewers watched the ESPN Deportes feed.
In short, an MLS on NBC Sports match featuring two bottom-half-of-the-table sides did just fine when competing with arguably the biggest and most popular club on the planet. Nobody over at NBC Sports is sipping champagne because of these numbers, but the viewership stats of the past month and a half do give all of us in the MLS community a reason to smile just a bit. Diehard MLS supporters also continue to praise NBC Sports for how the channel has presented matches. One big reason for this is play-by-play man Arlo White, who is slowly but surely becoming the Ian Darke of MLS (heard it here, first).
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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mls-nbc-sports-doing-good-not-historic-tv-173000489.html

AggieMatt · Aug 19, 2012

DCHeather said:

Would you like to see them in the MLS or no?
Click to expand...

I think we've come too late to the party for that to happen since future expansion has already been sorted. The only way I could see it is if there was relegation/promotion and we all know that ain't happening. I guess we could have a shot if a club implodes financially somehow.

We are still in Year 1, so we haven't proven a lot just yet. But it's a great start.

articbob · Aug 19, 2012

I think this rant explains most of it. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sD_8prYOxo[/youtube]

But there two main reasons for the lack of coverage. The American media, and advertisers does not want Proper Football to be more successful than the NFL and the NCAA. Too many people make money off the NFL and NCAA to allow someone to cut into the profits. The second reason is even more asinine than the first. Because we are not the best at the game. The NFL stays on top because they do not play other teams from around the world that have American Football Leagues. They won't even play the CFL or BAFA teams, but they insist on playing games in their countries. Fox Soccer could have picked up an NASL game USL game per week, but as stated earlier, we are not the best at this game. They probably feel they will get better ratings and save money showing replays all damn day instead of investing a one or two camera crew to help promote the game in the US. And even if your not showing the games, just a weekly show would do wonders to get the word out. I won't even get into the race and nationalism issues because it frustrates me to think about it. But once these issues are adressed then maybe they can be solved.

Anyway this is just my opinion, I could be wrong.

As far as the Scorpions in MLS are concern, my answer is the same across the board. If you are good enough to be there, than you deserve to be there. You shouldn't have to pay an entry fee, force to change your logo, and forgo your history(ex: Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Montreal) in order to play. Personally I think the NASL is a better brand than MLS and can perhaps implement a promotion/relegation system with USL(slim chance I know). Doing something like that may make MLS turn their heads and realize the american sports model does not work for everything in america.

BarryWhite · Aug 19, 2012

Glad to hear the Scorpions are doing well in SA Don.

Mo, I get the NBC Sports channel through my cable company and have quite thoroughly enjoyed the MLS access I am getting between the cross coverage ESPN and NBC Sports is providing which is usually between 2-4 matches a week.

Bob I know Fox Soccer used to cover a USL game on Friday nights before I dropped DirectTV and subsequently Fox Soccer channel. I didn't realize they had dropped it.

Clevelandmo · Sep 21, 2012

Interesting article by a guy who tracks the popularity of the different sports in the USA. Among 12 - 24 yr olds soccer is the second most popular sport, second only to the NFL. He predicts MLS popularity is about to grow big time.

Soccer's big takeover
Posted by Roger Bennett
RECOMMEND8KTWEET430EMAIL

Soccernet / ESPN.com Illustration
Will soccer become as popular as MLB and NBA in the U.S. One researcher thinks it's inevitable.
The future of American soccer will be determined by one man. And, perhaps surprisingly, he is neither Jurgen Klinsmann, Clint Dempsey nor Ian Darke.

Rich Luker, a 59-year-old baseball-loving social scientist based in North Carolina, is the brains behind the ESPN Sports Poll, the complex database that recently pronounced soccer as America's second-most popular sport for those age 12-24, outstripping the NBA, MLB and college football. Luker is also the man who discovered that three soccer players -- Lionel Messi (16th), iconic veteran David Beckham (20th), and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo (24th) -- rank among the 50 most popular athletes in America. "Unbelievably, [Lionel] Messi ranks ahead of Dwyane Wade," Luker marveled. "Only two baseball players, Albert Pujols and Derek Jeter, are ahead of him."

Luker founded the Sports Poll in 1994 when he realized the industry lacked a systematic intelligence service despite the billions of dollars poured into it. The researcher quickly partnered with ESPN to track the minutiae of fan habits surrounding 32 major sports, hoping to understand how Americans watch, play, buy and express their fandom.

Luker is a gregarious chap whose passion for his craft is self-evident. Even after 30 years in the business, the researcher still sounds as if he is in the midst of his first "Eureka moment" as he litters his conversation with such off-the-cuff nuggets as "lack of discretionary spending power means that a larger proportion of Americans would now rather watch games on television than in person," or "since 2007, the only age group that has increased its interests in sports are males over the age of 45. Everyone else is down."

Granted, Luker's terrain, the United States, is exceptional. "We live in a country that experiences a pent-up need for connection between family and friends, and sport has become the dominant way to do that," he said.

His studies have revealed that 85 percent of Americans identify themselves as sports fans, and the social scientist said with a giddy tone of wonder, "Most cultures have two, sometimes three dominant sports -- the United States has 12."

The U.S. soccer audience is also unique in Luker's eyes. "It is a true community. The only group that comes close are college sports fans or followers of the Grateful Dead. They embrace soccer as a communal lifestyle as opposed to a personal experience or a community that only exists on gameday."

Luker's analysis has revealed the reason soccer fandom tends to be expressed on a 24/7 basis. "Soccer was originally an expression of national identity in hotbeds like the United Kingdom or Brazil," he said. "So that seed has been imported and sown here in the United States."

However, Luker also believes soccer is underperforming. "It's a sport that should have been doing well a long time ago." The social scientist is well positioned to make that claim. He partnered with MLS back when it was planning the launch of the league in 1994. "We discovered 30 percent of American households contained someone playing soccer. The only game that comes close to that massive number is baseball."

Through decades of study, Luker was able to pinpoint the exact moment soccer's built-in early advantage traditionally evaporated. "The game was massive up to the age of 13, when sport was all about bonding with male peers, but in middle school, it became all about cross-bonding with other genders and high school football shot right to the top," he said. "You simply can't beat the social lubrication of the homecoming football game."

Soccer's social perception was further weakened by the sport's stigmatization in the 1990s. "Middle school kids were seen to lack the guts to play one of the big sports -- baseball, football, or basketball -- preferring to play soccer, the sport their moms were pushing."

But the sporting tectonic plates have shifted. America's cultural diversification, increasingly globalized outlook, and widespread access to the Internet all have benefitted soccer more than the other more traditional American sports. "In the last two years, Americans have been exposed to elite soccer on a very regular basis, which has allowed us to appreciate the sport and develop a savvy about it in a way we could not before," Luker said.

The impact of these factors has been as powerful as they are simple. "Kids growing up today gain cachet and social currency by knowing about the sport," Luker said. The old stigma has fallen away. Pride and esteem have become attached to the game for the first time as Americans have collectively undergone a "now we understand what it is all about" moment. It is only a matter of time 'til we see soccer take off in a big way."

By way of context, Luker rattles off statistics about soccer's competitors. "Twenty-five percent of Americans are avid NFL fans first and foremost, 14.4 percent are basketball fans, and MLB comes third with 13.9 percent."

Soccer's avid fanbase is 10 percent, which does not sound like much until you realize that is 33 million people. "Based on the way it is trending, I believe global soccer will soon be four or five times bigger than it is today, and MLS's fanbase will triple or quadruple," he said. For those who do not believe, Luker is keen to underline that change can happen fast. "In 1994, MLB was as popular as the NFL. This stuff can shift quickly and right now, soccer is like a rocket ship on the launchpad."

"If baseball and basketball don't adapt to this new reality they are going to have issues," Luker continued, discussing the NFL's challenge to continue to develop talent in an era in which youth participation has dropped precipitously. "Fewer and fewer kids are actually playing [American] football so they won't learn the game in the way it sustained their interest in the past. It is an inevitability that soccer will soon be as popular as MLB and NBA."

How long will it take to get there? "We are talking generational change," Luker said. "A generation of kids have now grown up as having MLS as part of their reality. Give us one more cycle and that is all it will take. One more generation."

Luker is bullish about the rise of MLS, given that 7.2 percent of Americans describe themselves as fans of the league. "That is 25 million people, of whom MLS can only currently account for about 5 million, a fifth of their potential audience," he said. "If the league gets its marketing right, there will be massive growth." Luker reinforces this bold claim by revealing a remarkable 50 percent of those who declare any interest in soccer ask to know more about the MLS when three percent is considered a positive response rate in the consumer product industry. "MLS's problem is they only have 19 teams and no regular national television presence," Luker said. "Right now, you are not going to bump into their product but they are working hard to change that."

Despite Luker's evident enthusiasm for soccer's future, he said that he grew up playing hockey in Ann Arbor, Mich., and only watches MLS and EPL for a living. When pushed, he concluded by confessing, "My greatest delight is to look out of a plane's window when I am crossing the country and see what people are playing in the parks below," he said. "If you watch it like that, soccer is the biggest sport in the nation."
Click to expand...

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/relegationzone/id/262?cc=5901

shinerbockguy · Sep 21, 2012

DCHeather said:

It won't keep growing if we niche supporters have to hunt down streams.
Click to expand...

The thing is, the fanbases/following here in the USA have grown tremendously over the last decade or two - despite the lack of really good network coverage. The Internet has ushered in a new generation of fans being able to follow foreign clubs.
Now that more national TV coverage is becoming available - you see a recent explosion of interest. Big-time soccer games nationally televised on Super Bowl Sunday? I wouldn't have imagined that 10yrs ago. The emergence of NBSports and the Al-Jazeera sports channel could be phenomenal for domestic and (non-EPL) European games. The EPL is of course, way out in front in terms of exposure here.
I get the point, though - that for the MLS to take off - it needs an actual TV contract. A good one. The big money is in the TV rights, and the MLS just isn't there yet. That's the revenue stream (or lack thereof) that also limits the MLS' ability to compete with other leagues.

articbob · Sep 21, 2012

shinerbockguy said:

DCHeather said:

It won't keep growing if we niche supporters have to hunt down streams.
Click to expand...

The thing is, the fanbases/following here in the USA have grown tremendously over the last decade or two - despite the lack of really good network coverage. The Internet has ushered in a new generation of fans being able to follow foreign clubs.
Now that more national TV coverage is becoming available - you see a recent explosion of interest. Big-time soccer games nationally televised on Super Bowl Sunday? I wouldn't have imagined that 10yrs ago. The emergence of NBSports and the Al-Jazeera sports channel could be phenomenal for domestic and (non-EPL) European games. The EPL is of course, way out in front in terms of exposure here.
I get the point, though - that for the MLS to take off - it needs an actual TV contract. A good one. The big money is in the TV rights, and the MLS just isn't there yet. That's the revenue stream (or lack thereof) that also limits the MLS' ability to compete with other leagues.
Click to expand...

The TV rights are indeed an issue. But another thing I've notice unless I am mistaken, MLS has never had a weekly recap or preview show. Having a 30 min to an hour show one to two times a week(Thursday and Sunday) on ESPN or NBC Sports would help immensely. Since neither station or even ESPN NEWS spends 3 minutes showing highlights from MLS games unless they are in the middle of broadcasting a game. I know advertising is a big deal, but just because you can't show a commercial every 5 minites does not mean you should deny people the sport and information about the sport they want.

shinerbockguy · Sep 21, 2012

^Good call. That would be pretty cool.

nevzter · Sep 21, 2012

Good thoughts - DirecTV recently dropped GolTV and my Bundesliga fix.

dcheather · Sep 21, 2012

shinerbockguy said:

DCHeather said:

It won't keep growing if we niche supporters have to hunt down streams.
Click to expand...

The thing is, the fanbases/following here in the USA have grown tremendously over the last decade or two - despite the lack of really good network coverage. The Internet has ushered in a new generation of fans being able to follow foreign clubs.
Now that more national TV coverage is becoming available - you see a recent explosion of interest. Big-time soccer games nationally televised on Super Bowl Sunday? I wouldn't have imagined that 10yrs ago. The emergence of NBSports and the Al-Jazeera sports channel could be phenomenal for domestic and (non-EPL) European games. The EPL is of course, way out in front in terms of exposure here.
I get the point, though - that for the MLS to take off - it needs an actual TV contract. A good one. The big money is in the TV rights, and the MLS just isn't there yet. That's the revenue stream (or lack thereof) that also limits the MLS' ability to compete with other leagues.
Click to expand...

I mostly made that comment out of frustration that BeINSports was not available at the time, thus losing some of my ability to watch some US players play in Europe. But the thing that made take note of the Premier League and Fulham in the the first place was the ability to watch on Pay-per-view channels back in the day. I wouldn't have gone on the internet looking for streams of an event I really had no interest in seeing at the time. I think that's one possibility to recruiting new fans...channel surfers who just happen to catch an exciting match or goal. The game caught me that way, although I had an interest in the US team before then (I was a teen when the WC was here and played a bit of youth soccer but that's about it). I just didn't go out of may to watch "European" or MLS games, now I do because I just happened to stumble on it while channel surfing one early Sat morning.

shinerbockguy · Sep 21, 2012

Ironic - Similar discussion in Grant Wahl's Mailbag today.....

I especially like this part:
"you can see more live Premier League games on U.S. television than you can in England."
Wow. Now if we could get more Serie A, more MLS, (insert desired Big league here), and every (I mean every) USMNT game. It's coming.......

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/w ... z279Xx1AEH

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Soccer attendance

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