| @MD_Law: Well, you can call it a "major" sport if you want but it's not on the verge of turning the Big 4 into the Big 5 anytime soon. You say it draws "better" than the NBA or NHL, but that simply isn't the case. Basketball and Hockey are played indoors, on a small court/rink, meaning the attendance simply isn't going to rise above a certain point. If you take away Seattle from the MLS attendance numbers it would probably look a lot different. Think how many NBA cities could sell 35 or 40 K a night if it were possible: Chicago, New York, LA just for starters. There are also something like 15 home games in the MLS; in the NHL and the NBA there are 41, so the average is gonna be dragged down. But for me that's not even the point. In the midwest, NE, Canada and other parts of NA even hockey is still major amongst the "main-stream." Even in cities where there's a fair amount of support for the MLS it's still a niche sport. It just doesn't move the needle, despite a huge push by ESPN and Fox, and what amounts to a built in core fanbase from the Latin community. Attendance is just a small part of it. A lot of the folks going to these MLS games are just soccer fans. They don't care about the other NA sports. That's usually not the case for fans of the other leagues. There's competition amongst those leagues. I don't think the crowd that fills up the Houston whatever they are called is going to go to too many NFL games. The MLS is the best that NA has to offer soccer fans. There aren't many comparisons to be made because Soccer is clearly the only other team sport that has a viable pro league in NA. The final point is that it's not like the league is on fire and ready to pass hockey and becoming the new 4th member. The game of soccer has never been more popular in this country, and yet unless you follow the sport it's virtually invisible. Meanwhile, Hockey is in yet another workstoppage, but the Stanley Cup Playoffs will never be invisible. |
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