America is a country like no other when it comes to professional sports. No other country has four strong professional sports leagues (NBA, NHL, MLB, and NFL). With all these leagues comes stiff competition and an already saturated professional sports TV market. The "Big 4" sports leagues consume a large portion of the coverage on ESPN and Fox Sports. However, it is all slightly changing as soccer continues to slowly integrate its way into the mainstream.
This is due to the large influx of Premier League and Liga MX soccer matches that have taken over the average sports fans television set for the past twenty years. On average, most Liga MX games on a Saturday night drawn in one million viewers. During the most recent round of playoff games, Liga MX drew in three million viewers alone!
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Meanwhile, the Premier League continues to draw in at least 750K viewers for some of its earlier games--as early as 4:30 AM. With the biggest games like Manchester City vs Liverpool getting over 1.5 million viewers, the numbers are a bit larger than the most recent MLS Cup Final (between the Seattle Sounders and Toronto FC), which drew in 1.4 million people--the most watched game in league history.
Despite MLS's strong progress, the league continues to deliver on its TV ratings. This is due to multiple headwinds the league faces to drawing in the average soccer fan.
One of the headwinds is the fact that MLS is very 'regional'. The league fails to create a collective unity amongst fans when it comes to watching its national broadcasts on ESPN or Fox Sports. This never happens when it comes to the NFL's Sunday Night Football program.
Another headwind is the quality of play the league is at. Most fans who first get into watching soccer in America look at Europe first, because that is where you can watch the highest quality of play in the world, and see some of the biggest stars play the game. MLS's quality of play right now is below Europe's, which is pretty obvious if you watch a European game and an MLS game side-by-side. Right now, most Euro-loving fans don't care that much about MLS, because they are too devoted to their own clubs with flashier players. However, MLS is on an upward trajectory when it comes to quality of play.
A third headwind is the lack of rivalries the league currently has. In MLS right now, there is really only one intercity derby (in New York), and a few other rivalries based on geography (Cascadia, California, Rocky Mountains, Texas, etc.). As MLS continues to add more teams in a strategic fashion, the league will grow these rivalries and begin new traditions, which will attract new fans into the game as the hype surrounding these games grow.
The last headwind MLS ultimately faces is getting recognition from the day-to-day sports talk shows in America. Soccer in general has this problem in America as football and basketball take up most of the lime-light, but the Premier League and Liga MX once in a while get their mentions on ESPN Deportes or NBC Sports. MLS, however, usually never gets talked about on the mainstream sports talk shows, like ESPN or Fox Sports, unless it's MLS Cup. If MLS wants to be considered one of the biggest leagues in America, it needs recognition from the sports talk show hosts, which is challenging given the crowded sports and soccer market in America.
Overall, MLS is heading in the right direction.
