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Originally Posted by inkcil |
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As long as the best players in the world play in leagues in other countries, forget about it.
The reason why we love the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA so much is because the best players in the world come here to play. Then they assign themselves with us geographically - Boston, Cleveland, LA, NY, Oakland, Philly, etc. There is a sense of community and family around the teams and their "top of the world class" players. That geographical connection is HUGE and it is something we'll never get from a League in another country. Sorry.
The minute the NFL becomes a European League and all of the worlds best players go there to play is the minute (i.e. the London Steelers and the Paris Raiders) that the NFL starts to fall off in America, and not a minute sooner.
Besides, where does the MLS rank in terms of World Leagues? Is it the 10th best? 20th? Someone please tell me because I listened to the commentary team on the ESPN FC call MLS highlights this week and they laughed their way through it. Some of you guys saw it too. They laughed through the whole highlight reel.
The World Cup is an International Spectacle akin to the Olympics in that it creates a passion centered around nationalism and pride. "Everybody" gets caught up all over the world, whether you follow the sport all year round or not. Do the masses follow gymnastics or sprinting all year round in America? No. But come the Olympics you couldn't tell.
Soccer is a great sport and America has room for it year round. But until the best players in the world come here to play in Jacksonville, in Dakota, in Seattle, in LA, in Chicago, in Charlotte - it will always be a "once every four year World Cup fling" that has as much or more to do with national pride and people wanting to chant "USA" than anything else.
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Yet the people who actually follow the sport both here and abroad have no problems tuning in to watch top level soccer in Europe. If you and your friends don't follow it, then that is fine, nobody is judging. However that argument is flawed when you say nobody will watch the sport because the MLS isn't a top level league. What you should say is that hardcore american sports purist won't watch it.
MLS is designed to create playing time for american players for the world cup. That is why there is a limit to the number of foreign players per team. There are also other "american" rules like salary caps, draft, etc. As far as the league quality, Most would consider fairly close to English Championship which is one step down from Premier league.