The Champions League final also proved to me how hard it will be for the MLS to become anything more than a fringe league in the United States. Unfortunately for MLS, it holds the rare distinction of being an American sports league that competes heavily with foreign leagues for television viewers. During the past year, I've personally watched many more English Premier League and Champions League games than MLS games. Trust me, if ESPN thought people in the United States wouldn't watch the Champions League, they would not be spending millions of dollars to televise the games (at least i think they're spending a lot of money, they might not be because of the traditional advertising difficulties that soccer presents).
The MLS has a two-fold problem: (1) Trying to attract more Americans to the game of soccer; and (2) Trying to attract American fans of European soccer to MLS.
Solutions to Problems:
- The televising of the World Cup, Euro 2008, and the Champions League on ESPN gets more soccer on tv
- Getting more European players to play in MLS during their prime (i.e. younger David Beckhams)
- Successful US national teams (deep run in 2010 World Cup and Beijing Olympics; good performances in international friendlies)
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