Many soccer fans in the United States are accustomed to getting up in the morning and watching matches from Europe, leading to burnout by the end of each weekend day. Others focus on Liga MX and Latin American competitions that run concurrent with Major League Soccer and USL Championship matches. Others simply don’t like the product offered by the domestic league in the United States and opt not to watch it.
MLS TV ratings are poorer in the fall than during the summer. For those who take a very narrow Americanized-view of things this is due to the start of American football season. It is also quite likely that some of the drop-off in MLS viewership on ESPN and FS1 in the fall correlates with the start of the domestic soccer seasons in Europe’s “big five” leagues. We see MLS struggle at times in the spring as well after the initial excitement and promotion for the first few weeks of the season wear off.
I’ve spoken to quite a number of people who work in soccer or watch the sport closely. For some, it is true American sports, particularly college football more than the NFL, that’s the main reason for not watching MLS or USL matches in the evening. For others, it is the availability of matches from Latin America that dominates thoughts — though extremely late Eastern Time kickoffs such as the LA Derby or the Cascadia matches do appeal to them. A general sense is that matches on the west coast have a better appeal because of fan atmosphere. And quality of those teams drives interest. But if MLS has a late start time set to fit later TV windows or accommodate local fans, the potential viewership for these matchups is diminished. But it can be argued the Premier League deals with this regularly with many of the most appealing matches being aired during the early morning hours on the west coast.
It is also quite shocking the numbers the combined Turner and Univision viewership of UEFA Champions League gets relative to MLS considering the Champions League is a midweek, midday competition for American viewers. This is another indication MLS’ TV troubles are due to deeper causes than just when the matches take place and the prominence of American sports.
The response to the critiques by MLS fans and some in the US Soccer media generally is based on personal preferences or assumptions. The assumption that people are more likely to watch sporting events in the morning when no other sports are on than in the evening when others are on. Let me ask a frank question – when exactly do the viewers of the Premier League get to spend time with their families, go shopping, service their automobiles or handle the other errands associated with weekend lives for working people? Could it be that they have made a conscious choice to either push that to later in the day when traditional American sporting events take place or that they don’t watch as much of the Premier League or other European soccer as they possibly could because of the timing?
SEE MORE: Schedule of MLS games on US TV and streaming
As MLS expands, it’s also convenient for the league’s proponents and defenders to claim the next bundled TV deal will be the “big one.” But to this point, expansion has only helped in certain markets. Seattle’s entry to the league in 2009 made MLS marginally a more attractive media property. The same can be said for Atlanta’s 2017 entry. But by and large, MLS expansion hasn’t moved the needle enough, even as second clubs were launched with great fanfare and on-field success in New York and Los Angeles — the nation’s two largest TV markets. TV ratings for MLS are not much different today than they were in the late 1990’s. While it is true that the newness factor of the league wore off in the 2000’s leading to lower ratings, the marginal increase in numbers in the last five years has helped MLS simply recover lost ground in spite of constant expansion. By contrast, Premier League numbers are far higher now on NBC’s family of networks than they ever were on FOX or ESPN networks.
MLS on TV suffers from multiple problems. Burnout for core soccer fans is one of the leading causes of sagging TV ratings particularly during the spring and fall months. When combined with the lack of compelling storylines, the shifting broadcast windows as well as the general poor targeting of soccer fans by MLS, it is no wonder they are struggling for ratings.
As MLS moves forward with its next TV deal and looking ahead towards the World Cup in 2026, they’d be well served to understand fan burnout and the preferences of general soccer fans rather than spinning and making excuses related to general American sports.
Kartik I agree with you alot but it’s disingenuous to act like NFL/College Football doesn’t hurt ratings for MLS is is a tracked phenomena was also part of the reason beyond just the Int’l National break during the playoffs that the season length was compacted and shortened.
Football takes also takes a hit on EPL numbers. For instance this past weekend on Saturday the 1230 EPL game on NBC drew just 500k viewers thats a game on NBC!! Most EPL games average around 800k on NBC. People were watching alot of College football. This debate about NFL/Football not being the main culprit is just folly for those to be critical of MLS, not that MLS hasn’t given people some reasons but this one is off the mark. EPL can get away with 1200-1230 starts for the most part because there aren’t enough of those types of games in the past head to head vs football. I assure you though that if you as the EPL pushes for later start times things like Saturdays dip (300k dip on average) become more frequent and will take a chunk out of EPL numbers.
Kartik I know you have to talk about topics though. I think a more fair assessment can be had next yr or the start of the new TV deal when MLS should have a consistent OTA TV schedule. For now we are comparing a league (EPL) that has about 200k more TV with 6x the OTA coverage to MLS and trying to prove a point. You must surely see there are holes in your logic Kartik. Its not apples to apples. Also why are you comparing a Champions League Final the equivalent to the World Cup of club Euro soccer to regular season MLS games??????? It’d be more representative to compare it to MLS Cup but if you did it kills your argument. Point is where are all these Domestic foreign soccer leagues drowning out MLS I literally count two Liga MX and EPL.
Counter narrative based on fact” MLS has outpaced the majority of Foreign Leagues on TV in the US”.
Is it not disingenuous to not point out the game on NBC on Saturday was Newcastle vs Brighton? Two awful boring teams that nobody would be surprised if they got relegated this season. Nobody could have predicted a 0-0 score line before that game started….
Definitely “Fake News” by Edwin there, not mentioning the teams for that (relatively) low-rated EPL game
But that’s the feature of the EPL. Most people would only watch 3 or 4 teams, that’s it. So what about the other 16-17 teams? Same with La Liga and Serie A, and probably Bundesliga too. There are only 2-3 teams that fans watch, but you can’t pick and choose just those teams’ games when you talk about a particular league. MLS chooses parity over 2-3 mega-teams, which increases the competitiveness of the league as a whole.
“MLS TV ratings are poorer in the fall than during the summer. For those who take a very narrow Americanized-view of things this is due to the start of American football season. It is also quite likely that some of the drop-off in MLS viewership on ESPN and FS1 in the fall correlates with the start of the domestic soccer seasons in Europe’s “big five” leagues.”
Define “fall”. The EPL started on August 8th. La Liga began on 8/16. When did the MLS numbers start dropping appreciably? If the answer is early September, then that “narrow” view might be accurate.
Exactly you can see the yearly drop occur every season during the first few weeks of the NFL season. It’s less pronounced during College Football for MLS but there is a dip at the start of college football season. Things in the past during NFL season collapse. Which supports the long held argument that there are almost two subset of fans that watch MLS and EPL. MLS fans tend to be your typical American sports fan with a super niche diehard sect. EPL tends to be just a bigger portion of niche soccer fans with some casual American sports fan support. While both leagues are affected by the start of Football season in the US due to the nature of MLS sports fandom being more the traditional type MLS is impacted more. The MLS season won’t be as impacted this year as in years past with the regular season going until late October. This is the type of analysis that is missing IMO. Too often there is people wanting to dumb it down over blanket statements give deep analysis if people are going to put out opinions.
Can only speak for myself, but many reasons I don’t watch much MLS except for some on local TV for my club.
Other sports! I’m most apt to tune in during the summer when there is literally nothing else going on sports wise other than baseball. In the Spring focused on NHL playoffs, NBA playoffs, and NCAA tournament, In the Fall focused on NFL (September) and start to NHL and NBA (October). When given the choice of MLS vs these other sports it will almost always lose out.
In regards to the Euro leagues, yes I still watch these in the Spring, Fall, and Winter. However as you mention the matches are often on when no other sports are in action unless it’s football season. It’s getting to the point now where I’ve largely given up on college football and only religiously watch my local NFL team, so this isn’t as much of an issue for me anymore, but can see for many how it would be. If the matches conflicted additionally with my local NHL and NBA clubs (mostly 7-7:30PM) sure I’d be following much less European soccer. MLS often conflicts with these other sports once Summer ends.
The sad truth is the market for soccer in this country just isn’t that large. Could probably take the combined viewers during any one match window across all the leagues and it wouldn’t match what many of the big 4 (NFL, NBA, NHL. MLB) sports teams get in their local market, let alone national TV.
Not necessarily an MLS problem of their own doing, just where they fall in the American landscape for sports. Consistent national TV match days/times/channels would help though, as would more matches OTA.
Well I can’t stand baseball and rarely watch the NFL anymore, so those are not factors for me in my low viewership of MLS. I don’t think the quality is that bad, and do watch if no Eurpopean or Latin American matches are available. My main problem wit MLS is that I absolutely hate the playoff system and think it’s a total farce. If they had a table I’d be on board. Or even the East winner meets the West winner. But this system where 70% of the teams qualify is just ludicrous in my opinion.
Zlatan agrees with you
No domestic leagues covered in this country get big ratings other that Liga Mx (latin factor) or Premier League(little competition). Believe MLS ratings trumps all others bar those two. Are they great-no, but it’s highly unlikely to change,so I’m not sure of the need to harp on it every few months.When I do watch (and I’m more likely to stream on plus than watch the one on TV) I’m impressed at the atmosphere at many of these matches. Bottom line is we’re in the States and the big-3 will always dominate, pretty sure the networks understand and accept that, it’s why there’s less TV money for MLS than the other sports. That’s also why the player make less money and so on. We’re just fortunate to get all the coverage we do, would rather just enjoy than fret about ratings.
“Football takes also takes a hit on EPL numbers. For instance this past weekend on Saturday the 1230 EPL game on NBC drew just 500k viewers thats a game on NBC!! Most EPL games average around 800k on NBC.”
While this is factually true, the week mentioned was for co-dumpster fires Newcastle v Brighton with a 0-0 draw and previous week’s OTA 3-2 Norwich v Man City. If there are any conclusions to be drawn there, I submit that it is an increasing sophistication among the soccer viewing audience who is less concerned with patronizing the EPL product as it is with patronizing quality futbol, This translates into an aversion to domestic (aka MLS) non-local soccer and the poorer and poorer ratings as a share of total US soccer viewership and is collaboratively evidenced in the flagging numbers for USMNT,..#IMO
I grew up in the 80’s when I had lots of time and very few games on TV (and no American soccer); now there are tons of games and little time. I’m a huge MLS fan but I can only squeeze in a couple of hours here and there so I prefer to watch the 15-minute mini-games on the MLS app, even though I did subscribe to ESPN+ just for MLS games. So I’m not counted and rightly so, I guess, because I don’t see ads on TV. But if I’m 49 and do this I imagine the young kids might be as well. If “quality” were the only factor, then La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A would presumably have higher ratings, but don’t. Is Liga MX “better quality” than any of these? Personal and communal connection and good marketing are very strong factors in making something desirable or “cool.”
Also, soccer fans are younger than those of other sports, especially the target audience of 18-34, and they might be out on Saturday nights, and while many may go to a local game as an event on Saturday night, they won’t sit home and watch TV. But they’re relaxing/recovering on Saturday mornings, and can watch live soccer to boot. For Champions League, the competition is work, and you’d rather watch than work, and for students they can make time on a weekday.
As for soccer in general, it’s a shame there is such a competition for eyeballs, but the good news is that there is a growing percentage of people, especially young ones, declaring soccer as their favorite sport to watch on TV. This is admittedly old news (Jan. 2018), but for ages 18 to 34 soccer is even with basketball at 11%, and almost double that of baseball (6%), and the closest competitor to football, which is 30%, (football’s lowest age-group share); for those over 55 years old, soccer is 1% and baseball is 14%. So as the old folks die off, soccer may continue to increase its share.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-watch.aspx
I grew up watching English League and Serie A among other soccer, but I just greatly prefer MLS now. Why others don’t may be due to scheduling but also to marketing, which really means perception. Ronaldo went to Juventus (retirement league?) and now the entire league is perceived as being better than before. Every kid knows Messi, if no one else. If he comes to Miami, will the perception of the league be improved, or will Messi be viewed as going into retirement, in contrast to Ronaldo? I think it might have a bigger effect than Beckham.
Just some theories
Your sport is boring and a ridiculous waste of time. Most sports are. Soccer happens to be the King of Zzzzzzzzzzz’s
What changes would they have to make to the rules of soccer to make it more interesting?
Imagine being this author and comparing apples to oranges, can’t relate.
It might help MLS to not put so many games on at 7:30pm. Most Saturday EPL games kick off at 3pm local time!
Yup with EPL you are guaranteed to see a game at 10am ET as long as it’s not a FIFA or FACup week. MLS kickoffs are all over the place, from noon to 11pm.Of course West coast start times are a ratings killer for all US sports leagues