MLS Final - Want vs Need

MLS does not hide their desire to have good teams playing in big markets. Los Angeles is the biggest beneficiary of top talent with Toronto and NY (Red Bulls normally or City FC) not far behind. Ever since Seattle joined, they too have landed huge stars. For the most part, it has worked the way MLS wanted as the LA Galaxy have been in almost half (9/19) the finals across league history, which includes appearances in three of the last four (winning each).

Is that the right recipe, though? TV ratings for the MLS Cup final (the league's highest-rated match of the year) have generally declined since 1996. Part of that is due to the move from ABC to ESPN, but those games have been steadily shrinking since the switch over in 2009.

To help turn this around the league gave in and allowed two channels to carry the final last year. It worked as far as eyes on the game. At first glance you would think that it was the star-heavy team in LA and the large market in New England that drove the uptick in ratings - ESPN pulled 1.0 million, it's best since 2009, and Unimas pulled another 0.7 - but in reality it was likely just one of those stars that helped it out... a retiring USMNT star in Landon Donovan.



MLS is trying out the same approach this year, only the final will be missing Donovan. Both ESPN and Unimas will televise the match. It means more viewers for sure but the potential matchups this year are far from what they had last year (not to mention what the weather might be in a couple of those cities).

Two years ago Sporting KC hosted Real Salt Lake. The game was broadcast on ESPN and it pulled a miserable rating of 500k viewers. Two lesser known teams in mid-sized markets with no crossover national team stars (sorry Zusi and Besler) played in bad soccer weather conditions.

There is a real possibility that this year the league could see a similar matchup. Even if the NY Red Bulls beat out Crew SC and host the final, they don't have the star power of 2014 LA (or 2012, or 2011 LA). The big market, yes. That checks off one box, but they miss on big names and good weather. None of this is to mention that the game starts at 4 pm in the middle of a NFL afternoon (in a previous post I noted what the NFL does to MLS ratings, see links at bottom).

This adds up to bad news for MLS on the TV ratings front. No matter the matchup in the final, fewer people will be watching this year.

How many fewer? Here is a look at where the teams remaining fell during the regular season across all networks on ESPN and FS1 (pulled out UniMás, as good as ratings were, their cable reach measurably less - different market as well, will get a separate post in the future).

MLS likely wants a Portland at NY Red Bulls Final

The bright side of this situation for MLS is they type of soccer that can be played by the four remaining teams. Each one of the remaining teams try to play the sport. It might not always be pretty, but they aren't out there hoofing it (Houston) around or fouling the hell out of the opponent (KC).

You can't overstate the power that Landon Donovan had last year for both the English and Spanish-speaking audience. There are many issues MLS brings on themselves in terms of scheduling, competition format, rules, etc... but one thing they'll get right this year is having the "right" teams in the final.

The league might not be happy with the ratings and the regulars out in the media world will go deep on what didn't work in the shadow of bad ratings, but there is good that will happen in that final.

It might not be what they want, but it will be a little taste of what they need.

Now... about this competition format.

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This post is part of my continued look at MLS TV ratings this year. For a couple recent thoughts on the subject, check out:

MLS TV Ratings Flat in Playoffs
Over There is a League
NFL Decimates MLS TV Ratings

Win of the Season Hijacked by Supporters

The table was set by new investor / operator Anthony Precourt when it was announced that the team would honor Landon Donovan before the match.

While Donovan has never played for the Columbus Crew he has made more than a handful of memories for local fans through his heroics with the men’s national team. Many of the same fans cheering him on during all those dos a cero matches though, wanted to make it clear that those deeds have nothing to do with these deeds in league play.

The ceremony before the match was, of course, attended by Precourt but also former teammates (and one would assume, friends) of Donovan, Gregg Berhalter and Frankie Hejduk. In fact, in all likelihood the idea probably came from Hedjuk. It was as classy as an on-field presentation could be and the star of the show even appeared to tear up.

(finest kind)

Into the match we jumped. With the first tifo raised in the Nordecke gone I breathed both a sigh of relief that it wasn't something calling Donovan out specifically. Not because I don’t think the supporters should have stayed away from the eyebrow raising thought of honoring a player on another team but because I could see what the Crew, as an organization, is trying to do. At least, what I think they were.

Columbus isn't seen as a destination city. A great place to live, yes. A great place to raise a family, yes. Many, many other things and I have enjoyed my time here - but one thing it is not is a place for a male 20-something professional athlete that has a bit of cash in the bank.

On top of that, the Crew have a recent history of mistreating players and being generally poorly run. Perhaps it can be traced back to 2010 when the team was broken down. Was it the right thing to do? Lots of different answers to that. One thing we can answer is the way it happened didn’t go over well with players.

Events don’t happen in a bubble where other players don’t pay attention. Soccer, unlike other US sports leagues, is unique in that good-to-great players have dozens of options not just a couple. So when a city gets a reputation (even if it isn’t that bad of one) from a front office or coach or bad facilities it causes a player to put it down the list of places to go. You see this everywhere, not just in Columbus.

(side note: There’s probably a metric I could create of which players on rosters have decided to play for a team vs which ones are there because they are the only place that would have them. (I’m not doing that.))

So, when Precourt and the Crew announced they were honoring Landon Donovan pre-match - it was a nice thing to do. Intentionally done to erase some of the wrongs in recent years or just done out of gentlemanly behavior, it was fine.

And it matters.

What also matters is how the fans react to it. And react they did a few minutes before the match ended by raising a tifo painted last year that reads “New Heroes” with a stylized image of Jurgen Klinsmann. Those keeping track of the drama between Klinsmann and Donovan got the purpose of it. It was where most impactful tifos come from; that deep dark obsessive place in supporters’ hearts.

Supporters’ voices are very important to the sport. Right or wrong, good or evil. There is no doubt they are necessary. This particular one though might have had unintended results, however. Be it good will towards an important player in US Soccer history, just showing class or trying to clean up the world view of Columbus, Ohio – the tifo undid just about all of that and shows that supporters are not in lock-step (un-knowingly, it seems) with the winds of change Precourt is trying to introduce.

That’s not to say that it was wrong though. The other purpose of supporters is to give the team it’s shape. To represent the city. After what happened I’m thinking that the new front office might have a different view of things and that metropolitan image Precourt talked about doesn’t stick for a reason.

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The Crew ended up beating LA 4-1 in one of the best games I’ve seen the team play since I started writing about them four years ago.

Podcast: Red Cards in Helltown Episode X

Rick Gethin, David Burgin, Justin Bell and Larry Johnson sit down for an hour to go over soccer things. Mostly MLS and Crew this week with some John F. Kennedy thrown in.

0:40 HEADLINES
• Landon Donovan retirement, thoughts from the room
• Importance to the US Soccer, MLS (overshadowed)
• Did he take it to the level(?)
• Donovan moments, best American player discussion (Justin doesn't think so)
• Jermaine Jones, MLS

16:20 COLUMBUS CREW
• Mix Diskerud, almost. We jump way in.
• Right fit? What are the needs
• "Vessels for MLS get excuses out, reasons out"
• "..we're like one leg of the table..."
• Limits of Berhalter, focus on many things
• Where is Asher Mendelsohn
• Romain Gall signed
• Toronto FC match comments
• Larry presses the wrong buttons!
• Berhalter audio (at min 30:00)
• Enertaining game
• What to do with Arrieta

39:20 MLS NEWS, NOTES
• MLS standings
• Same old story for some of the playoff bubble teams
• "don't do nothing"
• 13 min "media scrum" telling
• Did this result matter more?
• Expansion draft
• Bobby Warshaw piece, JFK's "We Choose to go to the Moon" speech.
• Stay or go, best situations

55:00 QUICK HITS, WRAP UP
• DC United, Sunderland partnership
• NYCFC and Red Bulls coexisting

Who Would Landon Donovan Have to Be?

By: Vidda "JibJab" Grubin

Given Jurgen Klinsmann’s Logic for cutting Landon Donovan from the 2014 World Cup squad, who would Landon Donavan have to be to make the 2014 World Cup squad?

Given the fact that Landon Donovan has been a highly skilled, versatile and tireless player his entire career, who would Landon Donovan have to be to make the 2014 World Cup squad?

Given Landon Donovan’s infectious energy and pure joy for the game, who would Landon Donovan have to be to make the 2014 World Cup squad?

Given the fact that Landon Donovan has consistently made good personal decisions in regard to his mental and physical health and how those decisions affect the teams he plays on (See: Multiple MLS, Gold Cup, Open Cup titles. Goals and Assists at a rate no other American player has ever achieved. A World Cup goal total, 5, which puts him in rare company on the world’s stage), who would Landon Donovan have to be to make the 2014 World Cup squad?

Given the fact that Landon Donovan is one of those rare players who seems to play with the wonder of a child, some sort of magic always tucked securely within yet visible to all, who would Landon Donovan have to be to make the 2014 World Cup squad?

One can only guess that Landon Donovan, in Jurgen Klinsmann’s mind, would have to be an indestructible, Paolo Maldini like wall, inside a Usain Bolt of lightning, all slathered with Messi goal scoring Blaugrana Jam.