MLS 2018 Thread: Soccer in the Garden of Good and Evil

[Kingspoint]

Portland Management should have been nicer to Caleb Porter. Porter knew what he was doing.

[Kingspoint]

While I certainly understand the point about AU fans not being jaded by sins of previous MLS regimes in other cities, I will point out that Atlanta sports fans have been justifiably jaded (and repeatedly knifed in the back) by plenty of the other local teams over the past 50+ years. See:

The NFL Falcons while owned by Rankin Smith
The NHL Flames and Thrashers
The NBA Hawks
The MLB Braves in the Time Warner / Liberty Media eras.

On a good day, those groups were on par with the Mike Brown Bengals. On a bad day, they were borderline Jeff Loria. Outside of the Braves when owned by Ted Turner and the current iteration of the Falcons (coincidentally, also owned by Arther Blank), all of the local ownership groups have ranged from distant to dysfunctional to abusive. Winning was an afterthought. Occasionally it got some lip service, but even a novice observer could see that pieces were never in place for any of those franchises to be successful in the short term, let alone the long haul.

There's nothing magical about the AU formula. Great facility, affordable tickets, affordable concessions, family friendly entertainment, and a commitment to a good product on the field.

(Not much different than the formula that Blank and Bernie Marcus used to build Home Depot.)

To M2's point, it's something that almost every other owner in every other market can deliver if they so choose. And what AU has done in a short period of time is elevate the bar to a place where it's not just "great attendance by MLS standards", but "attendance on par with any club on the planet".

https://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-u...M6LY2kpPHcUSP/

Every other MLS owner should have walked into the office on Monday morning and after seeing the AU attendance figures, lined up everyone in the front office and asked a very pointed question: If Atlanta can do it, why the ____ can't we do it?!?!"

Nice post. It's always bothered me that the Atlanta franchises would always get free passes from the leagues as far as the effort they put into working with the local fan base, because whatever they were or weren't doing, local fans weren't buying. Always thought it was the area, because of the consistency across different sports. But, I needed to be giving them credit for integrity and not buying something shoved down their throats.

It's like REDS' fans showing little interest in the '95 playoffs because they were still upset with MLB and the players for the strike and their return needed more than just a product on the field to get them back. Where's the sincere apology to the best baseball fans in America? What other City closes it's schools and has a mid-week parade for any reason? Cincinnati does it for baseball and the Cincinnati Reds.

[Yachtzee]

Zlatan being Zlatan.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/...-angeles-times

I was typing a big long rant about MLS inside baseball on this, but I'll save it. Let's just enjoy Zlatan being Zlatan.

[Yachtzee]

Nice post. It's always bothered me that the Atlanta franchises would always get free passes from the leagues as far as the effort they put into working with the local fan base, because whatever they were or weren't doing, local fans weren't buying. Always thought it was the area, because of the consistency across different sports. But, I needed to be giving them credit for integrity and not buying something shoved down their throats.

It's like REDS' fans showing little interest in the '95 playoffs because they were still upset with MLB and the players for the strike and their return needed more than just a product on the field to get them back. Where's the sincere apology to the best baseball fans in America? What other City closes it's schools and has a mid-week parade for any reason? Cincinnati does it for baseball and the Cincinnati Reds.

Arthur Blank doing what he's doing with Atlanta United is all well and good, and I'm glad the people of Atlanta are enjoying it, but when it comes to soccer, he's basically dealing with Tabula Rasa. At least with regards with the people of Atlanta, they have no memory of how MLS has handled things from 1996. They only know 2017.

At this point in MLS history, you have a significant number of markets where, even if they bring in a new owner with billions of dollars to buy one of these original teams, they aren't starting from scratch on level ground. They have to climb out of the hole previous ownership and the league (because MLS as a "single entity" has joint responsibility) have dug for them. Think about it. MLS is a "single entity" league where, allegedly, all players sign contracts with the league, and all revenues are shared within the league. Which means that since 1996, Bob Kraft, the Hunts, Anschutz, and the owners who have bought in since then, have all been sharing the liabilities, but also sharing the assets, of the league. So when you look at the super sweetheart deal that MLS gave Beckham to come play for the Galaxy and realize that, not only did the Galaxy get a substantial amount of assistance from the league to bring in Beckham, but then they agreed to give Beckham rights to an expansion team at a huge discount, you know they're basically robbing the Peters (Crew, Revs, Red Bulls, Rapids, Dallas, Houston, San Jose) to pay Paul (the Galaxy). When you see Toronto and Seattle come into the league as expansion franchises and watch the league chip in millions to help cover the transfer fees to bring in Clint Dempsey, Jose Altidore, and Michael Bradley, but then your team only seems to rate a Michael Parkhurst on a free transfer, you wonder when MLS is going to come in and give my team money. With the amount of money MLS has used to subsidize LA Galaxy, Toronto, and Seattle, but mainly the Galaxy, combined with the amount of money they're bringing in on expansion fees, plus the shared revenues through Soccer United Marketing and the US National Teams, they could easily use that money to invest in Original MLS Markets that need a boost. They could easily use some of that money to help the Revs purchase land in Boston for a soccer specific stadium. They could easily help Columbus finance a modern downtown stadium to replace Mapfre. They could help every MLS team build out academy facilities to improve youth development. Imagine the attendance figures Boston or Columbus might draw if locals actually felt the league gave a crap about them. Yet all we hear about is how the MLS is bringing in another big name to help the Galaxy (or Seattle or Toronto), where they make it sound like it's the Galaxy bringing them in of their own accord. But when you dig deeper, you realize how MLS had to change their own cap and player allocation rules in order to bring him in, and how MLS had to chip in shared league revenues to bring him in. And then you hear Don Garber talk about how the move is proof of the "growth of the league" that "one team" can attract such an "international talent," and it all rings hollow.

MLS differs from MLB and other sports in that it claims to be "single entity." They don't have individual owners, they have investor/operators, who invest in the league as a whole with the right to operate a club in a particular city. When you look at it that way, and realize how much money has flowed to the Galaxy and a few other teams with "Most Favored Nation" status, quite frankly, it can piss you off. When you think about it, unless you're a fan of one of the favored few, your owner has not only had to sit by and watch as the league has facilitated player acquisitions to help your rival teams, but your owner has likely been subsidizing those moves. And don't think that just because they're in LA that the Galaxy generate massive revenues for the league. If you take a minute to consider things, the Galaxy have a Multi Level Marketing Scheme based on Psuedo-Science Wellness products as a jersey sponsor, have a suburban stadium named after an online ticket scalping platform, and have an exclusive TV deal with the same Cable TV operator (Spectrum/Time Warner) that caused Crew to lose half their TV viewing base because you have to be a Spectrum/Time Warner subscriber to get the channel.

If MLB were run like MLS, you'd basically have teams like the Oakland A's not only having to use "Moneyball" tactics to be competitive, you'd also have the league taking their revenues, throwing into the pot with the other teams, then using that money to help the Yankees and Red Sox buy up the best free agents.

So yeah, I'm happy for Atlanta getting a team and supporting it, but I'm not going to view them as some sort of super soccer fans for coming out for a brand new team. If they're so great, where were they in 1994-1995, when MLS was still on the drawing board and they asked fans in cities across the US to drop money on season ticket deposits when they couldn't even be guaranteed they'd get a team. Honestly, at this point as much as I have tried to support the growth of American Soccer, at the MLS, USL, and college levels, I'm almost to the point of saying screw it and just watching Euro soccer on TV.

Sorry for the rambling. Beers after Friday Night Over-40 soccer gets me fired up.

[IslandRed]

So yeah, I'm happy for Atlanta getting a team and supporting it, but I'm not going to view them as some sort of super soccer fans for coming out for a brand new team. If they're so great, where were they in 1994-1995

Griping about all the Olympics construction.

Sorry, not related to your point, carry on.

[Redsfaithful]

The Crew with 10 points through 4 games.

[paintmered]

The Crew with 10 points through 4 games.

In other news, Wil Trapp captained the USMNT team on Tuesday and bossed out for 90 minutes.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Going to the first Galaxy LAFC game on Saturday, which has been dubbed "El Traffico" which I kind of enjoy.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Going to the first Galaxy LAFC game on Saturday, which has been dubbed "El Traffico" which I kind of enjoy.

Oh. My. God.

[dougdirt]

Oh. My. God.

Kind of worked out, huh?

[M2]

Oh. My. God.

Tell me that's not better than a MLS Cup win.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Tell me that's not better than a MLS Cup win.

So my buddy and I actually had that exact conversation because we’ve been to 2 of the MLS Cup games in the stadium. When Donovan scored against Houston the place went pretty nuts, but I don’t remember it being close to the Zlatan goal. When Curtis Samuel scored against Michigan in OT is about as close to the level of pandemonium in a stadium that I’ve experienced. It’s hard to say it’s better because it was a championship, but the fact it’s a legit question tells you how great it was. It’s easily the best soccer game I’ve ever been to and honestly unless the US does that exact same thing to Mexico I’m not sure how it’s going to be beat. It really was one of those games where you remember why you love sports. You deal with all the bad games and heartbreak losses because everyone in a while....THAT happens.

[15fan]

A buddy and I were among the 45k at the LAFC @ ATL game this afternoon.

TV doesn’t do justice to how freakin big the halo video board is.

Score got ugly (5-0) w a couple of late PKs for the home team.

College and pro football need to take a page from the MLS video review process. Rather than viewing a review as an opportunity to run 90 seconds of tv ads, it takes about 20 secomds to review and get play moving again. Thumbs up.