Why The MLS Will Be Huge

Every year Major League Soccer remains as the punch line of all tacky sports jokes, while the public jabs at the sport itself or why America just 'Does.Not.Care'. But what every soccer hating critic leaves out of the argument is the raw data. An average attendance of 19,000 fans per match, emergence of multiple soccer specific stadiums, and two new teams in popular markets are paving the way for the MLS to be huge.

Attendance

No one is arguing the NFL is America's most popular sport. The television contracts and advertising opportunity alone blows most leagues out of the water, and attendance surpasses 50,000 most anywhere in the country. The MLB is a surprising second in average league attendance, but the variance of a 35,000 sold out Red Sox game and a struggling crowd of 8,000 in Miami is disheartening. Where else does this leave us but Major League Soccer surpassing both the NHL and the NBA in average game attendance. Sure there are less games in a season, but isn't that how sports like football became so popular in the first place?

Each game means more than the last, and with a regular season of 32 games you can get a taste of why the UK is a slave to soccer on the weekends. It is hard to explain, but each MLS match feels like the most important one, and bring out the best in the team's fan base with an atmosphere that is more electric than sleepy.

Grow, Grow, Grow

Like any professional sports league, the ability to scale as an organization is a difficult task. With factors of location, fan interest, investor/operator selection, and more, the clip at which the MLS is investing in league growth is fast. New York City FC and Orlando City SC have been worthy competitors since the 2015 season start and have attracted world soccer stars like David Villa and Kaka. Los Angeles and Atlanta are also receiving future teams, proving the demand for the sport is high and large cities like LA can indeed support two teams.

Playing Catch Up

Call it 'catching up' or what you will, but the United States' investment in soccer dates back to the early 1990's, when the MLS was chosen as the premier home grown league to develop a reputable USA team come the 1994 World Cup (hosted in the US). While most of the wold remains decades ahead of America in soccer tradition and skill, the MLS product is nothing to sleep on. New television contracts with ESPN, Fox Sports One, NBC Sports, & Unimas are raking in the dough. Ticket sales and apparel revenue is at an all time high. Star players in Europe are receiving competitive MLS offers in the millions and the average player salary is on the rise.

All things are looking up for Major League Soccer, yet nobody wants to admit it. The league has captured the most important fan base in the country, a demographic comprised of 18 to 35-year-olds who are organically creating the traditions that could last for decades. Never a soccer fan in my youth, the MLS was an easy league to gravitate to and extremely cost effective for catching a live game ($250 total for 18 home games for my team). I am a football / baseball / hockey fan as much as the next person, but there is something new and refreshing about the MLS that screams prosperity.