In the NBA and MLB, Canada is where sports go to die. Chris Bosh is one of the best players in the NBA and seems extremely personable and marketable, but because he plays in Toronto he isn’t in any commercials and we hardly ever get to see him play. Similarly, Roy Halladay is one of the best pitchers in baseball, but because he plays in Toronto his games are typically not on TV for most of us. Both the NBA and baseball have had to move teams out of Canadian cities after they realized that no one wants to play in Canada and the Canadians didn’t really care about their baseball or basketball teams.
However, I’m sitting here watching an MLS game being played in Toronto and loving it. Toronto’s stadium looks like a soccer stadium should except for the fact that it has artificial surface (seriously, they need to fix that). The stadium is set up for soccer dimension-wise, the stands are shaped in a rectangle so the fans perfectly encompass the field, and the backdrop is Toronto’s skyline. More importantly, it feels like a soccer stadium. The stadium is full of fans, the fans are wearing the team’s colors (red), they are rowdy, they know when to cheer, and they even have some elements of hooliganism (throwing things on the field). Plus, there seems to be a bar behind one of the goals. How cool is that? This stadium and atmosphere are perfect for soccer. It may not be Man United’s Field of Dreams at Old Trafford or Liverpool’s Anfield, but it is comparable to many of the smaller, less prestigious stadiums in England.
And fittingly, Toronto’s team looks and plays like an actual football team. Their players are towering over San Jose’s players. No guys on this roster who only played soccer because they were too small for other sports. And they emphasize possession and try and get the ball down the sideline to cross it into the box. The team makeup adds to the flavor as they have players from all over the globe.
I bring this up for two reasons. First, the last time I was excited about an MLS game was when the league first started and I was hopeful that the U.S. would finally have its own soccer league. Of course the MLS has failed to live up to even modest expectations and over the years I’ve become angry at how the MLS is run and haven’t been able to make it through an entire MLS in years (with the exception of the game where Beckham came to the Galaxy and played in the final 7 minutes or so).
But that gets to the second reason for bringing this up, which is that the MLS could make soccer work in the U.S. However, they’d have to think outside of the box to get that done. For one, while Baseball and the NBA hate Canada, hockey is pretty much kept alive by its Canadian audience. So the MLS should take that queue and realize that they are going to have to capture an audience that enjoys soccer or at least enjoys sports outside of the big three (football, basketball, and baseball). That means finding nontraditional sports fans. And many of those fans are in Canada or Mexico or American cities that don’t have any other professional sports teams. And they’re going to have to try to create a small, kitchy feel to their sport. For example, build small but cool stadiums like the one in Toronto. Also, the players the MLS should go after aren’t the big name guys in Europe, but the young up and comers from Africa, Asia, and Central America. Take those guys with the American guys and find a style of soccer that doesn’t look like an AYSO game, and all of a sudden the U.S. could have a soccer league that doesn’t replace one of the big three sports in the U.S. and doesn’t have the same quality of players as the European leagues, but is very entertaining, financially viable, and firmly places soccer in the American sports landscape.
The bottom line is that the MLS has to do the opposite of what NASCAR does. NASCAR epitomizes the commercialism and over the top self and product promotion of the other major sports. It’s easy to understand, it thrives on larger than life events, and it lends itself perfectly to advertising. The MLS has none of those things. Its fans are going to be people who are either Europhiles or actually from Europe or from Central America or Africa, or they will be educated enough to appreciate multiculturalism, or they will be smart and patient enough to appreciate the sport of soccer, or they will be faux intellectuals who want to root for a sports outside of the mainstream. Those people don’t number high enough to make soccer function in a way that could mimic the big sports and even if they could mimic them, it would alienate the people that would actually enjoy soccer. One of the great and amusing things about soccer in America is that the people who like it the most are either affluent liberals or destitute immigrants. The MLS has to recognize this and use that as their base to build the league. To do that they have to first accept their fate as a niche sport and develop a quality product before they try to sell soccer in the U.S. as a potential major sport.
Until then I’ll enjoy watching my new favorite MLS team, Toronto FC.
Interesting post. You’re totally right, MLS has to find that middle ground in its fan base. I don’t think it’s been bad to try to attract bigger name European players (or Latin American) to this point because the audience they’re after can’t appreciate really good players if they’re not known commodities. I think the longer term goal of trying to recruit younger players as you mentioned is spot on, but at this point they still need to raise awareness and get people interested in watching soccer in the first place.
Of course Canada has had other disasters with American sports before with the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Montreal Expos. What sucks is that American sports leagues have completely wasted great cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal in favor of boring American cities like Oklahoma City or cheesy ones like Orlando. It will be interesting to see what happens when the Bills start playing one game per year over the next five in Toronto.
I just feel like MLS is trying to get new fans right off the bat when they should be simply acknowledging the fans that will come to them automatically. Just start with the people that already like soccer, build some momentum, develop talent, develop a style, and then try to draw in everyone else.
You mentioned the cities. That’s a great point and gets right at the issue. So much so that I’m going to write a post about where MLS should be. So start coming up with a list of what cities would be best for MLS teams in preperation for that post.
Anyway, also along the city line of thought. I wanted to write a post about what to name the Oklahoma City team, but I really like the name Outlaws, so I couldn’t come up with enough substance for a post (not that that’s ever stopped me before). However, a buddy of mine was stationed at Fort Sill in Okla. near Oklahoma City. He said is was the worst city he’s ever been in (other than the ones in Iraq I guess). It apparently has a huge gang problem and is just run down. So imagine you are playing for the Sonic in beautiful Seattle with a nice mansion and scenic veiws and then you’re told you have to move to gangland USA and be surounded by a whole lot of nothing. NO THANKS.
I give the Oklahoma Outlaws 5 years. Then the “fan support” that was “so amazing” will die down (literally if the stories about gangs are true) and Kevin Durant will be doing everything in his power to force a trade.
Lastly, you can’t move the Bills. That city is already depressing. If they move teh Bills to Canada Buffalo will sink into hell. But playing games in Toronto is still a better idea than taking away a teams home game to make them play in Europe.
God I hate sports sometimes! Anyway, I’ll work on the MLS cities list.
Yeah, I have several ideas for a list of that sort. Especially considering there aren’t any teams in the southeast, which has some super strong areas of soccer interest.
I agree about Oklahoma City. Seems like a terrible place.
[...] This stadium really is great, as mentioned the other day by The Stormy Present. Totally sold out, built for soccer, skyline in the background. Doesn’t get any better than [...]