Sky Sports to Show MLS Matches in UK

Beginning in March, Sky Sports will show at least two live MLS matches a week.

Coverage will include the MLS All-Star Game, Play-offs, and Championship Game
which is played in early December.

Since the matches are live, they would most likely be shown on Saturday and Sunday nights.
Thierry Henry will provide commentary.

MLS features notable players David Villa, Kaka and Robbie Keane.
Bradley Wright-Phillips was the leading scorer last season.
Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are expected to join the league in July.

MLS will have twenty teams this season, with Atlanta and LAFC being added in 2017.
David Beckham's Miami franchise is having difficulty in securing a stadium site.

Will anyone watch this?

http://www1.skysports.com/football/...-wins-rights-to-broadcast-major-league-soccer

I'm told the local product is far superior, why would Brits watch MLS?

I was at an MLS game in October and wasn't impressed compared to the English games I've been at.

Not a lot of live sports on between 9 pm and 2 am. Also, MLS announcers speak English so unlike Brazilian or Mexican league matches the choice isn't foreign language announcers or crappy fourth tier studio dubbing.

The product on the field is improving. I think it will be superior to the Championship within 5 years, in some ways it already is.

Oh, and England has weird blackout rules. I think no TV games after 3pm on Saturday or something? The US gets more BPL matches than England does (we show all of them).

What MLS match did you go to and compared to which English ones?

I was at San Jose Earthquakes v Portland Timbers. I've been to see several English games over the last few years - the best was probably Man United v Aston Villa.

They won't. The sports channels make most of their money on the big sports, in this case the Premier League. But they still need stuff to fill up the rest of the airtime.

Please tell me you're not a United fan.

Correction, has beens looking for a large final payday.

Frankly the up and coming talent should be of more interest than those lot.

Laughable.

Only 3pm games and only on a Saturday. The reason for this is that it dates back traditionally to when all matches were played at the weekend if some were televised it would impact ticket sales. A bit of the history of the game that you Soccer hipsters wouldn't know about. I suspect it'll die out soon though at the TV deals are becoming so financially powerful that soon the income from stadium ticket sales just won't be as relevant, at least not for Premier League clubs anyhow.

All well and good except that timeframe clashes with Match of the Day, British institution showing highlights of all EPL games.

The Championship as in div1 isn't that high a quality league, its fast and furious with lots of goals. Whether MLS is better or not is subjective. I would doubt it.

No live games between 3pm and 5pm. Then we get live game at 5.30pm and usually Spanish football in the evening.


As much as you might like to think this is MLS becoming a draw, I believe that its just a ploy by SKY to justify keeping prices high. What you may not be aware of is that from next season SKY have lost all rights to Champions League matches. That is a major loss and something most sky sports subscribers including myself will see as a loss. I would like to think my monthly subscription will come down as I won't be getting the same quality per month. However in addition to this MLS announcement, SKY have been acquiring other leagues and live games. Italian and Dutch football has recently been added to the offering. I expect SKY will use these leagues plus MLS to justify maintaining the cost of the sports package.

No, I don't support any club in particular.

Ah. Figured it might be something like that. Watching the number 18 team in the league host the number 11 team in a college soccer stadium (10k capacity) out in the boonies of Santa Clara while their new one is under construction....

Yeah, I imaging that would be pretty shitty compared to watching one of the top clubs in the world.

Check out Seattle next time you're stateside.

I might do that.

Also, maybe you can explain to me the nature of the "fanclub" that took up all the space behind the goals? They spent the entire match waving giant flags, possibly provided by the club, and singing club songs. Seemed very organised. The seats beside them that we paid for were really cheap - because they prevented you from watching the match. We eventually moved.

Considering you claimed the US wouldn't win a match in our group due to us having too many MLS players, forgive me if I find your opinion quite worthless.

Now. Notice I said 'in some ways'. One way we already top the Championship is in attendance. We're currently 6th or 7th in the world. We'll leap up to fourth this year with the shuttering of Chivas USA and with San Jose moving into their new stadium.

Also, I would say that in terms of 'Ideal XI' the MLS is superior to the Championship. For instance, what Championship sides would you say have a better striker partnership than Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins?

The problem with MLS is that our rosters are extremely front heavy. Our salary cap limits spending and since you're more likely to have your first team players play, that is where you spend your money. So when your 1.2m Designated Player (3 guys who's salary is 'off cap') goes down he gets replaced with a 90k player.

However, this is a relatively easy problem to fix. Outside your superstars soccer players are damn cheap (compared to American sports). It's supply and demand; the whole world produces players and only a handful of leagues have the money to pay them. Compared to American sports it's crazy. Did you know that MEDIAN salary of players in the Barclay's Premier League is comparable to league MINIMUM of Major League Baseball?

I think our cap is along the lines of 3.4m this year. MLS will be raising it's salary cap significantly in the coming years.

You mean like this:


That's the section where supporters stand. I don't know about San Jose, but the club does not provide Tifo or flags for the ECS (Emerald City Supporters). We make that ourselves. Same for all our chants.

It wasn't just "supporters". Almost everyone in the stadium was a San Jose fan, but that was the only section that seemed regimented.

Actually, just looked it up. Looks like they call themselves "Ultras".

If the Championship is so bloody awful, why aren't all your boys coming over here to sign up in it and show us how it's done?

/thread

Yes, we know, your tin pot club uses a stadium from another sport.

Except for the fact that that is not true. Over the past two seasons more Championship players have moved to MLS than the other way around.

Again, simply not true. Century Link field was built from the beginning as a dual use stadium. Soccer was explicitly written into the law that authorized the ballot measure:

RCW 36.102.010 DEFINITIONS

(9) "Stadium and exhibition center" means an open-air stadium suitable for national football league football and for Olympic and world cup soccer, with adjacent exhibition facilities, together with associated parking facilities and other ancillary facilities.

http://www.sounderatheart.com/2014/11/21/7266775/rcw-36-102-010

Yeah, a grand total of ten.

Are yoi obivious to how many players there are in a squad and how many teams there are in the Championship?

Translation: This stadium wouldn't be here unless we relied on another sport.

Instead of responding to my points you opted to throw a random point out there.

I can't help that along with being wrong it's also small sample size.

Feel free to try to counter my points in other ways.

Public financed stadia can suck it.

You claimed the stadium was built for another sport. That was incorrect, like most of these statements in this thread. It was built for both soccer and football b/c neither sport could get the votes alone.

Ok, that's turn this on it's and rephrase it in exactly the same words.

How many MLS player play in the Championship?

When your club plays in a stadium built 133 years ago for just football then you can pretend you're on the same level...and many of the Championship clubs and enjoy such longevity.

Your need to compete is cringe-worthy. You're not there yet I'm afraid, and I have to say that I know a great many American Spurs fans who would be genuinely embarrassed by a lot of what you're saying....and they're people who go to MLS games regularly and desperately want it to succeed.

Stop trying to pretend the MLS is more than it is. That day will come, but don't over egg it. I suspect that by the time it truly competes you'll have moved on to your next hipster project anyway.

I wonder why @El Chup is so hostile about this...

This is true. The Seahawks were going to come up short, so they took a risk on Soccer bringing in 5 more votes.