Guys
American Professional sports clubs lost their souls completely the day the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles. New Yorker MLS fans got off light at least their team didn't leave town !
at least red bull new york are still gonna be playing in new york,the san jose earthquakes were sold and relocated to houston texas where they'll be given a new name.so there's no team in sanjose now but there's talks of giving them a new team next season
well hamish i think that's the price for having an advert-free game, particularly over here - two uninterrupted 45 minute chunks of television would not fly in the states no way no how. the tv/ad money u.s. sports gets i'd say allows the teams more leeway with advertising rules?Originally Posted by sirhamish
Actually the New York Red Bulls will play this year and probably next at Giants Stadium. Which is in New Jersey. As do the New York Giants and New York Jets. Also I dont think there will be an MLS team in San Jose for quite some time.
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
Metrostars, what would be the REAL soccer towns/cities in the US - if you follow me????
True KF, I just can't get used to players running around looking like a moving billboard but that's just me I guess.
hear ya, one thing i can't f*ckin STAND is those animated hoardings they have at o. trafford and bernabeu, so disgusting
Too right - drive me nuts (oops already there) they do - it's kinda like trying to read a book with a fly buzzing in front of the page.
San Jose? Sure that's the back of beyond!
Even Dionne Warwick had to ask someone how to get there...I'll get my coat.San Jose? Sure that's the back of beyond!
This is the cooooooooooooolest footy forum I've ever seen!
The closest you would get is a soccer "area". Places like Southern California and New Jersey are known for producing a lot of good talent mainly due to the interest in those areas e.g. Claudio Reyna, John Harkes, Lalas, Meola and a number of other current/former internations all came from the same area in New Jersey. Other guys like John O'Brien, Donovan, Cherundolo, Mastroeni and Bocanegra(I think) - all current internationals came from southern Californina. The teams with the best following in MLS are LA, DC, Chicago. I think the new team in Houston(formerly San Jose) will do well.
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
I would just like to point out that Claudio Reyna (Man City), Tim Howard (Man U), and Giuseppe Rossi (Man U) are all from New Jersey.
I can't stop, I can't start
It holds me together while it tears me apart
youth-wise, texas has a huge bed of talent. i believe they host a significant underrage championships there every year? i think the revs' dempsey is from there
Yep, cos Bud is pish ... now if it was something like Athlone Carlsberg ..Sorry to hear about your club Metrostars. I tell ya, if Athlone Town changed their name to Athlone Budweisers or something like that, I'd find it very hard to continue supporting them.
Larry Be Wyse
www.acsportsimages.com
Yep, in Dallas. Teams from all over go to that one: http://www.dallascup.com/
Also on Dempsey, I think he will do well at the World Cup.
Last edited by Metrostars; 13/03/2006 at 5:54 PM.
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
What kills the MLS for me is that so many teams get into the playoffs. For a while there it was a complete p1sstake with 8 out of 10 teams (80%) qualifying!! It meant that the first 2/3rds of the season was more or less meaningless.
It's gotten better with 8 out 12, but that's still way too much. I think it should be top team in each conference gets to SF, with 2nd and 3rd playing off for the other SF spots.
Also, the conference setup doesn't sit well with me. It reminds me of the old provincial set up in GAA, before they brought in the back door. If the strongest 4 teams are in the one conference, then that's unfair.
As far as REAL soccer town, historically St Louis has probably the richest tradition in the sport....... and yet they have no MLS team? Go figure.
Likewise Seattle has a USL/A-league (2nd div, but remember there is no pro/releg) team, the Sounders that is well supported, and that used to play in the old NASL and drew average crowds of 25k or so back in the 70s and 80s....... yet they never get a look in for an MLS team.
I've never been able to understand the logic of that.
MLS is a strange bird sometimes. But it has come a long way though. It was weird there for a bit, with "shootouts" instead of draws, weird points system and that stupid count down clock with the buzzer. The cool thing was that it actually got stronger when they got rid of the silly "americanizations".
You make some good points, Volcan. I agree the playoff system is a bit stupid with the majority of the teams still getting in. But OTOH, being that there is not relegation to prevent the poorer teams from fighting to stay in the league, the other objective of having a lot of teams qualify for the playoffs is to make sure all teams play meaningful games throughout the season e.g. all the teams in the Eastern Conference were still in with a chance of qualifying for the playoff last year going into the last day. If only one or two teams made it, the other 4 teams would have chucked it in with a month or two to go. I think something like you suggest would be better though. As for the conferences set up, there isnt much you can do, e.g. last year Chivas and Salt Lake were new teams in the West and were pretty crap while all the teams in the East was tough.
Regarding places like St Louis and Seattle, it really comes down to money and league management. MLS is not the same as NASL and they are going about it in a better way than NASL did. NASL grew too quickly in the 70's, sometimes teams would come and go in a 2 or 3 year time frame. The criteria for adding a team is you have to provide a $10-$15 million franchise fee but also have agreements with local authorites to build a sss(soccer specific stadium) in place. I have read that places like St Louis, Seattle, Philly, Miami, Rochester, Minneapolis have recently been in talks with MLS to add a team but a lot of these places have not committed the money.
Having teams play in huge 70K NFL stadiums where you only get 15K-20K for MLS is a poor experience. Also because teams dont own the stadiums, they have to pay rent, and lose out on parking money, concessions etc. The Metrostars pay $200K in rent each time they play at Giants Stadium. So getting teams into their own stadiums will help the league get in the black. Teams such as LA, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas now own their own stadiums. Other teams will be adding new facilities in the next few years.
I like the way MLS is doing things. It is not a traditional way of operating a league when compared to Europe. But it's the way it has to work here for it to succeed.
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
Oh God forgive ya Ash.
BTW - hoping to get over to the game next weekend if the brother in law is going or maybe might get the bus. If so, are you, Battery Rover and atfconline on for a pint??
If Bubbles isn't working, she might go too.
or maybe Micky Brennan, Michael Francis or Tony Knight might have a spare room and I can "crash" there if there is no late bus back to Beeslow after the game.LOL
Play off bonanzas are part and parcel of American team sports. You see it in Ice Hockey , Basketball, Gridiron and Baseball... it was always going to happen to real football alas!
i hate the whole franchise aspect of american sports,its so soul-less.
sad to see any team get raped by a company for profit.
red bull are parasites.theyve already destroyed austria salzburg-a very annoying story that any true football fan would despise.
anyhoo, no to franchise football, ie red bull fc, milton keynes dons, dublin city fc etc
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