I can’t stop thinking about you. I’ve never been to a match. I am in the habit of changing the channel when I see you on television. Yet, I can’t stop thinking about you.

It all started March 25, 2010. I rushed home to maker sure I arrved at my apartment before the Butler v. Syracuse game started on CBS. Naturally, I made my way to espn.com to check up on the wide world of sports and alas, I learned that the season opener for your league was airing on ESPN2. I was in complete disbelief. Why would you plan your season opener on the asme night as this countries most heralded amateur sports tournament? Sure, you were streaming the game via ESPN3.com (f/k/a ESPN360.com), but still the chances of me trying to watch the NCAA tournament on my 55 inch television AND the MLS on my laptop were slim to none.

I went ahead and enjoyed a sublime double overtime between Xavier and Kansas State, but I had a problem. I could not stop thinking about oyu and why you would schedule the season opener on the same night as the sweet 16. I realize that you have a contract with ESPN, but that is no exuse to air your season opener on a night where the avid sports fan as myself are going to be faced with this decision: MLS season opener or NCAA Men’s College basketball tournament?

Apparently, I was not the only one not tuning in to watch the SOunders v. Union that night. According to Sports Media Watch:

Last Thursday’s Union/Sounders match drew 285,000 viewers on ESPN2, down 14% from last year’s Red Bulls/Sounders opener (327,000)

Frankly, I am not surprised. I find it hard to believe that ESPN would walk away from the negotiation table if the MLS requested their season opener start on a Wednesday night to avoid conflict with the NCAA tournament. Do you know what was airing on Wednesday night on ESPN2…the NIT Quarterfinal featuring Dayton and University of Illinois. For those of you who also missed that game (like I did), Dayton held off a strong second half from Illinois to win it 77-71.

The 14 percent decline in viewership is troublesome, because for a league such as the MLS an increase in television ratings leads to greater bargaining power when renewing or seeking new television contracts (declines in ratings, obviously, create the opposite effect). In turn, this can aid with expansion, greater advertising or exposure, an increase in salary cap for the league, and most importantly, more cash going directly to the clubs. As the blog Footiebusiness puts it:

TV contracts are the financial life blood of professional sports leagues, and MLS is no different. While the League relies on multiple sources of revenue, the ultimate goal is to generate substantial rights fees from television partners.

We need look no further than the English Premier League (EPL), when it comes to generating revenue from television partners. Promotion to the EPL is like winning the lottery for any championship side. According to The Guardian:

The Premier League’s bottom club can expect £30m from TV this season, a 50% increase on last year’s £20m. The average Premier League club will receive about £40m from TV, top clubs about £50m. Championship clubs’ TV revenues, plus the new ladder payments, may amount to about £2m each, but the gap with even the Premier League’s bottom club has grown from £19m to £28m.

Now I am not saying that we should be expecting a billion dollar television deal like the EPL, but according to Forbes, the MLS distributed “less than $1 million to each team last season.” I have seen estimates that it is roughly $600,000 per team. (Do the math: 16 x 600,000 = 9.6 million / 23 million from ESPN, Fox, HDNet, and Univision). Yet, I do not think all is lost. I truly believe the MLS gets it for the most part. Don Garber recently spoke to Marc Narducci of The Philadelphia Inquirer regarding the expansion Philadelphia Union boosting television ratings:

“Philadelphia is the fourth-largest market in the county, and we weren’t in that market, and it’s hard when you can’t have those people connect with a club to drive TV ratings and add excitement,”

Garber clearly gets it. The best way to drive up television ratings and more importantly revenue will be to tap into thelargest markets in the United States and Canada. Here is a look at the top 20 television markets in the United States and their MLS representatives:

Red Text Indicates Cities with MLS Franchies
*Portland Timbers will be entering the league in 2011

As you can see from the above table, the MLS has managed to establish 8 teams in the 7 largest television markets in the United States. The head scratcher is why there is no MLS team in Atlanta and what was the motivating forces behind moving away from the Tampa and Miami markets (numbers 14 and 17 respectively). Nonetheless, I have to agree that the expansion into Philadelphia should help the television ratings; especially for some of those DC – Philadelphia matches. Throughout its 15 years, the league as a whole has experienced mixed television results. Yet, the 2009 season, the first season of an injury free Beckham helped the league see an increase of 15 percent for their ESPN2 broadcasts. Beckham’s Galaxy averaged 420,000 per match, while the league average was closer to 310,000. This is very similar to the return the NFL was receiving on the Versus channel. (Source: The Sports News Daily – Subscription Only)

The problem is the numbers are just not good enough (not after 15 years). The United States has millions of soccer fans, but given the availability of live matches from across the pond, the majority of viewers are opting to watch European leagues only. The World Cup Qualification match between the United States and Mexico had 1.2 million viewers on ESPN2 (resulting in the most watched World Cup Qualifier in the history of that network) and Univision had a whopping 10.7 million viewers. As the global market gets smaller, we now have access to matches every weekend from England, Spain, and Germany (not to mention Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Columbia). Some of us probably spend our weekends flipping back and forth between ESPN2, FSC and Gol TV.

What the league needs to do is bring those viewers (perhaps like yourself) back home. Before I go any further, I should admit right now that I absolutely want to see promotion and relegation implemented into the US Soccer system. (Whew, that feels good to get get off my chest). In addition, I think the MLS absolutely needs to move into the Southeast. We need a team in Atlanta. We need to reintroduce teams into Florida. The league needs to re-access its schedule (and no I do not want to emulate the EPL and move to a August – May schedule). The US Open Cup needs to be more relevant. The league needs to continue to build partnerships around the world. We need to completely revamp the marketing strategy. We need to bring Henry, Raul and other World Superstars into the league (but in a fiscally responsible way). I could go on forever.

Last and not least, the league absolutely needs to shift its season opener to a night where its only competition is the NIT tournament and Wife Swap on ABC.

Sincerely,

Michael R. Kilgarriff
DearMLS.com

Why are we writing this blog? (Even Alexi wants to know)

Alexi Lalas Would Have Hired Us

Dear MLS is an open letter to the league. We will chronicle the league’s triumphs and failures. We want this to be an open conversation for fans, such as myself, to create real change in the league. We are a long way from 1996 and the original 10 teams, but after 15 years, you should be better.

We want to help the league continue to grow and capture the imaginations of soccer fans young and old from around the world. We want to see the league transform itself into something that everyone can enjoy. We hope to provide the best Major League Soccer analysis found on the web and can build relationships with our readers as time goes on.

In other words, We want to be hired by the MLS to help run the league.

Sincerely,

The Brain Trust behind DearMLS.com