OK, let's get serious! Here's a recent article concerning increased attendance this season so far as Tron mentioned!
After almost two-thirds of the 2015 season, Major League Soccer is averaging 21,142 fans a game, up 10.4 percent over last season's record average of 19,149.
The increase is largely attributable to the arrival of expansion teams Orlando City and New York City FC, which are averaging 33,960 and 28,785, respectively, to rank second and third in MLS behind the Seattle Sounders, who have led the league in attendance in each of their seven seasons. Chivas USA which averaged only 7,063 fans a game in 2014, folded.
The 18 returning teams are up 4 percent year-to-year after the same number of games. The San Jose Earthquakes, who moved into new Avaya Stadium and also played games at Levi's Stadium and Stanford Stadium, are up 59 percent. The New England Revolution is up 14 percent.
The only teams with double-digit declines are the Montreal Impact (down 20 percent) and D.C United (down 13 percent). If you throw out D.C. United's 2014 match at FedEx Field that was played as part of a doubleheader with Spain-El Salvador and drew 53,267 fans, its average attendance is up 12 percent. Montreal opened this season with one, not two MLS games, at Olympic Stadium.
Ten teams are averaging more than 20,000 fans a game. Never before has more than eight teams reached that mark.
Success on the field does not necessarily translate to success at the gate. FC Dallas and D.C. United, which share the overall league lead, rank 19th and 20th in average attendance.
2015 MLS Attendance Leaders:
(RANK) TEAM AVG. (+/-)
(1) Seattle 40,251 (-7%)
(2) Orlando City 33,960
(3) New York City 28,785
(4) San Jose 24,331 (+59%)
(5) Toronto FC 23,978 (+6%)
(6) LA Galaxy 21,889 (+8%)
(7) Portland 21,141 (+2%)
(8) Vancouver 20,752 (-1%)
(9) Houston 20,618 (+4%)
(10) Real Salt Lake 20,059 (-1%)
(11) Sporting KC 19,929 (-1%)
(12) NY Red Bulls 18,888 (+3%)
(13) Philadelphia 17,608 (-2%)
(14) New England 17,444 (+14%)
(15) Chicago 15,734 (+2%)
(16) Montreal 15,589 (-20%)
(17) Colorado 15,458 (+6%)
(18) Crew SC 15,439 (-2%)
(19) FC Dallas 15,368 (-9%)
(20) D.C. United 14,458 (-13%)
AVERAGE: 21,141
Now the salary cap issue with being able to get top talent from Euro leagues without having scrubs filling up the rest of the roster!
The league also released its salary cap figures, which it should be noted were collectively bargained with the MLS Players Union. The salary cap for 2015 will be $3.49 million, for the 20 players comprising the senior portion of the roster. The remaining eight players on the supplemental roster do not count against the salary cap, with roster spots 21 through 24 having a minimum yearly salary of $60,000 while those taking up spots 25-28 will have a minimum annual salary of $50,000.
It's worth noting that the cap hit for Designated Players -- as it has in the past -- will be limited. Designated Players over the age of 23 will result in a charge of $436,250 against the cap. Players from age 21 to 23 will cost $200,000, while those under the age of 20 will result in a cap hit of $150,000. That explains why teams like Toronto and Seattle can spend well over $10 million on salaries and still be cap compliant.
As a percentage of the salary cap, the cap hit for each older DP remains unchanged, and comes out to 12.5 percent per player. Yet it drove home the extent to which the MLS Players Union traded a limited form of free agency at the expense of increased salaries.
The salary cap increased $390,000 from last year, and a team like the Seattle Sounders, with three senior DPs, would only have an additional $243,750 to apply to the remaining 17 players that comprise the senior roster. While the Supplemental Roster players don't count against the cap, they received significant percentage raises of between 23.7 and 37 percent.
It's clear that the mid-range player will continue to get squeezed. It's difficult to see how MLS can reach its stated goal of being one of the top leagues in the world by 2022 so long as this situation continues.
So as is often the case, MLS continues to make progress, yet it's just as obvious that it has a long way to go.
And even if the salary cap increased significantly, the present TV revenues from the 2014 contract below probably won't cover it!
MLS has their new TV deal. They have their new (and old) TV partners. They have their future. They have their money. But does MLS have a good TV deal?
The agreement, to run through 2022, will see ESPN and FOX become equal broadcast partners in the league, with each broadcasting one match a week, on Sundays, and sharing the playoffs. MLS Cup will alternate between the two over the course of the deal, too. In all, it's very similar to the contract the Pac-12 signed with the two networks, with both ESPN and FOX covering football and basketball games throughout the regular season then alternating broadcasting the football championship game and men's basketball tournament each season.
One could look at this as MLS finally making the leap to getting TV contracts like American sports' heavyweights, but the reality is that MLS is not the Pac-12. It is not the SEC, the NBA, NHL or MLB either. And $90 million, the reported annual rights fee for MLS, is not $252 million, the Pac-12's ESPN and FOX take, which doesn't include the Pac-12 Network revenue.
MLS isn't really competing with the big boys yet, but they are going to force themselves to in eight years' time. The decision to sign a TV contract that ends in 2022 puts them in the same cycle as the NFL, MLB, NHL, Pac-12 and, possibly, the NBA.
That means that the league won't benefit from its current position rare available live sports at a time when all of the big deals are locked up for years. They will have to compete with the biggest sports organizations in the country for their next TV deal and even the most ardent MLS supporters don't believe the league will be anywhere near the front of the pack.
One thing the league can definitely hang its hat on is TV revenue that will more than double what they were bringing in. The additions of clubs in Orlando, Miami and Atlanta, as well as another New York team, were in large part for TV, and the league could be benefiting from that already. It's also possible they just benefited from the sports rights boon and they didn't fully capitalize on the increased viewership these markets are supposed to bring, leaving themselves to wait eight years before their most aggressive expansion ever produces real, league-wide benefits.
It's a deal full of question marks that only raises more questions to be answered over the next eight years. Is it smart to set the league up to compete with all of the major American sports next time around? Is banking on FOX reversing years of abysmal production really just a hope and a wish? Is taking on so many unknowns and locking yourself into eight years when you are at least if you believe in the league on the verge of massive growth really worth it?
MLS has made their move, and no matter how things turn, that's what they're stuck with for eight years. It may come good, and they may not just bank a much bigger check this time around, but set themselves up for huge increase in 2022 if their new and old TV partners can help push them to the next level. At a time when ESPN and FOX are battling for cable sports supremacy even if it's not much of a battle yet MLS has gotten into bed with both, and that has its benefits.
But are those benefits enough to outweigh the considerable concerns, or even question marks? MLS is betting that they are.
