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Adam Krause's avatar

MLS is in a unique business position for an American league because, unlike NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL, the best players in the world do not play here. It's never going to be the case that 90+% of the best play here. So MLS should be asking itself how, as a business, it can compete for soccer attention here. It has a monopoly on professional soccer TEAMS in the US, but it has no monopoly on sports entertainment and no monopoly on soccer as TV entertainment. Americans can watch the NFL or they can watch EPL, Liga MX, etc.

MLS can't run the NFL playbook and it can't run the LALIGA playbook or EPL playbook. I understand the concept that relegation and open leagues generates competition, but it's an insane business practice and should NOT be adopted by MLS. There is probably a reasonable floor of interest here that means MLS can suck but the league and owners still make a profit. But if they want to grow huge they need a plan to beat their competition and they need to understand who that competition is. I would argue that MBL and NBA are the targets. To win they need to do something truly different, not just be the soccer version of the same thing.

So what should they do? Or rather, where should they find inspiration? Indian Premier League Cricket, obviously.

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Mark Hudson's avatar

Too true. I moved here in the late eighties to a football free zone. Only the excellent USWNT (although ignored by most of your main stream media) gave me the fix I needed. When MLS started I had hopes but soon realized that the standard was high school at best. Thank goodness for Peacock, Paramount Plus etc. now I can get to watch my beloved Arsenal. COYG!

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