Sporting Kansas City

[KCMax]

Clint Dempsey to sign with the Seattle Sounders.

Great to see such a high profile USMNT player come back to the States, but I'll hate seeing my favorite non-SKC player play for one of my least favorite MLS teams!

[chaglang]

The MLS doesn't have an All Star Game to make existing fans happy. The MLS has an All Star Game to grow the brand. MLS vs. MLS will only bring in existing MLS fans, and with no reputation to protect, that type of matchup becomes totally worthless and uninspired.

I can't imagine any potential fans being enticed by what they saw Wednesday night. Speaking of a worthless and uninspired game, that was it. Anyway, how exactly would a fan excited by playing AS Roma translate into MLS regular season? Or is the goal to just make them excited about soccer in general?

You can use a small sample size to try to disprove the merit of most things. In most of the ASGs, viewers have seen MLS stars competing against top tier talent and holding their own. Also, any potential fans turned away by the AS Roma performance weren't exactly going to fall in love with third tier, who is that guy, MLS players matching up. The top guys are going to all be "injured" if there is no international pride involved.

Ok, but tell me how liking the ASG translates into becoming a fan of the MLS regular season. If the goal is to show that the caliber of play has improved, any regular season game would do that. An All-MLS ASG certainly would. If people are turned away from " third tier, who is that guy, MLS players matching up", there is no way they become regular MLS fans. None.

[bobbyhawks]

Ok, but tell me how liking the ASG translates into becoming a fan of the MLS regular season. If the goal is to show that the caliber of play has improved, any regular season game would do that. An All-MLS ASG certainly would. If people are turned away from " third tier, who is that guy, MLS players matching up", there is no way they become regular MLS fans. None.

The entire point is that soccer fans, and people generally curious about the sport, have all heard of these gigantic, sometimes more valuable than the Yankees, franchises. They tune in to see what the fuss is about or because a team they respect is finally playing in our time zone during prime time. Getting eyes on TV sets is the single most important thing for that event. Eyes on TVs leads to more ad revenue, which leads to better network scheduling, which leads to more money and exposure for the league, which leads to better players, which leads to a general circle of growth. The league is not marketing to existing fans. They are trying to attract new ones. Outside of a few players and hometown connections, there is very little allure to an MLS regular season game if you are not already a fan.

If a Wayne Rooney fan and EPL purist tunes in and sees Clint Dempsey, or Landon Donovan, etc. score a great goal, it is a win for the MLS. That fan probably wouldn't be watching an MLS vs. MLS game to begin with, but if they were, they are going to be way more impressed with a crazy finesse goal vs. Man U. than they would vs. other MLS players (who they assume just aren't as good). D-III basketball teams look pretty great when they play one another, but you wouldn't be nearly as impressed with a team showing off vs. another D-III team as you would if they beat KU or Duke.

[aknowledgeableperson]

Ok, but tell me how liking the ASG translates into becoming a fan of the MLS regular season. If the goal is to show that the caliber of play has improved, any regular season game would do that.

Any regular season game is just that, a regular season game. Between the two teams you might have 3 or 4 "stars" but the other players will just be "average Joe's". An all star game is something special, although meaningless. At least for this league one team is made up of "stars" while the other team may have just a few. Overall though there should be more talent on the field.

[chaglang]

Ok, but tell me how liking the ASG translates into becoming a fan of the MLS regular season. If the goal is to show that the caliber of play has improved, any regular season game would do that. An All-MLS ASG certainly would. If people are turned away from " third tier, who is that guy, MLS players matching up", there is no way they become regular MLS fans. None.

The entire point is that soccer fans, and people generally curious about the sport, have all heard of these gigantic, sometimes more valuable than the Yankees, franchises. They tune in to see what the fuss is about or because a team they respect is finally playing in our time zone during prime time. Getting eyes on TV sets is the single most important thing for that event. Eyes on TVs leads to more ad revenue, which leads to better network scheduling, which leads to more money and exposure for the league, which leads to better players, which leads to a general circle of growth. The league is not marketing to existing fans. They are trying to attract new ones. Outside of a few players and hometown connections, there is very little allure to an MLS regular season game if you are not already a fan.

If a Wayne Rooney fan and EPL purist tunes in and sees Clint Dempsey, or Landon Donovan, etc. score a great goal, it is a win for the MLS. That fan probably wouldn't be watching an MLS vs. MLS game to begin with, but if they were, they are going to be way more impressed with a crazy finesse goal vs. Man U. than they would vs. other MLS players (who they assume just aren't as good). D-III basketball teams look pretty great when they play one another, but you wouldn't be nearly as impressed with a team showing off vs. another D-III team as you would if they beat KU or Duke.

But it's not sustainable, outside of that 90 minute period. If the goal is to get eyes on the screen for a single 90 minute period, they're doing it in a way that is so dissimilar to actual league play that there's little chance that any of those new fans would watch a full 90 of MLS. Nobody who watches MLS-Roma is tuning in to New England-Montreal.

[kboish]

Robb Heineman is doing a Reddit AMA right now. Lots of interesting nuggets for those interested..

http://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/1k ... /?sort=new

[kboish]

Here are some of the items I found interesting


RE: USMNT facility in KC

site selection should be done in the next 30 days, construction beginning next spring. HOF is interesting to us, but we haven't really been approached to do it.

RE: Stadium expansion

no timetable necessarily....demand in 2015 will probably dictate

probably around 8,000 more seats....
mostly [in the] east [section]. we do have an additional plan that would add a couple thousand above the cauldron

28k is max expansion capacity

i'd guess the 28k includes SRO since they already average about 20k now...


RE: buying lacrosse or rugby team

if the opportunity presents itself, yes

Interest in Jermaine Jones

no interest

RE: what will happen when USLPro partnership ends- create our own new affiliate

yes - we will likely do that if/when orlando enters the league. location within 200 miles of kc likely

RE: would you buy the royals?

can't buy until they're for sale

-tough to tell if this is sarcasm or not...he is very sarcastic about things, but hopefully they are serious!


RE: his opion on CCL and Club vs Country (ie usmnt)

think it's (CCL) great for players and fans. huge priority....to give you a sense, peter's incentive bonus is same for it and MLS Cup

winning the world cup is the most important soccer accomplishment i can imagine

[chaglang]

Kamara to Middlesborough FC. Permanent, not a loan.

[pash]

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[KCMax]

Nice to see SKC destroy an inferior opponent despite missing a lot of their top players. Love the way Saad is playing. Would love to see Sapong become the offensive threat. Uri Rosell had some absolutely beautiful pasees. First place is ours!

[shinatoo]

Looks like a very light crowd in Huston. Thought that would have been a big Futball town.

[AllThingsKC]

Lost in the world record holding, undefeated Kansas City Chiefs talk is the fact that Sporting KC has clinched a playoff spot.

[heatherkay]

I love this column -- notable today for the appearance of KC's own Zusi

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... or-dodgers

[KCMax]

Looks like Orlando will be the newest MLS Club. They approved a stadium deal and will join the league, possibly as early as 2015.

http://soccer.si.com/2013/10/22/orlando ... -approved/

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[TheBigChuckbowski]

Good win. Hello again, Houston.

... But why the hell does MLS not do golden goal?

Probably because no one does golden goal.

[pash]

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[KCMax]

With NY and Orlando coming on board, should I assume KC is going to the Western Division soon or are they going to do some wacky realignment? I really hope they don't do divisions.