MLS takes TFC for granted and why we need the CFL

Article in the Sun about how the MLS just takes TFC for granted. This is why we need our own Canadian Football League as we have, do TFC fans really think that the American run MLS will care about them in the long run or even a few more Canadian teams? No, the leauge will succeed only if it suceeds in the US, 3 successful Canadian teams will not mean much for the long term success of the MLS IMHO:

MLS Takes TFC for Granted

[i]Somewhere in New York, there are more than a few people who take the rabid fan base of Toronto FC for granted.

Yes, Toronto soccer fans are the most loyal in the league, in many ways mirroring the blind loyalty Leafs Nation shows to a hockey team that charges a lot, entertains little and wins even less.

And, when the MLS announced its schedule last week, there were obvious signs that the attitude goes something like this: “TFC will sell out even if they were to play a reserve Atom girls team from Grand Rapids, Mich. on a Tuesday night. So why not take advantage of that??

During the World Cup, when soccer fans' interest is, lets say, a little distracted from all things MLS, TFC has three home games, none on the road. TFC plays three with at home during a time of watered-down lineups and interest. That's one fifth of the home sked.

If David Beckham indeed returns to MLS this season, he likely won't play in Toronto for the fourth year out of four. The schedulemakers gave TFC the Galaxy on June 26; in the midst of that minor World Cup thing. If Beckham makes the England squad, he won't be in North America for that game. He's missed one of the previous three years because of injury, and twice because of scheduling conflicts the MLS knew about months before the schedule came out.

Look, TFC doesn't need Beckham, but FC Dallas and the New England Revolution could use ticket-sales boosts, so make sure Mr. Posh plays when the Galaxy goes to those cities. When there's an international date conflict, one which would see Beckham and fellow MLS star Landon Donovan unavailable, that's a good time to pen in the "at BMO" game; TFC fans will watch anything. Donovan will, like Beckham, likely miss the June 26 date due to that thing in South Africa.

UEFA announced in 2007 that, starting in 2010, the Champions League Final, the world's most-watched annual sports event, would be played on the last Saturday in May.

So, the schedule maker has given TFC a home game -- to New England -- that goes head-to-head with the Champions League Final, where Arsenal will throttle Barcelona, like, 5-0 (a guy can dream, can't he?).

And, don't forget, Toronto has a home opener on a Thursday night, not a beautiful Saturday spring afternoon, against Philadelphia. The date was moved to accommodate ESPN. Unfortunately, Canadian viewers don't get ESPN. To us, it's a miserable Thursday night date. Same goes for the other two Wednesday night games on the schedule.

Last year, the schedule-maker front-loaded the TFC schedule so radically, that the Reds only had four MLS games at BMO Field through August, September and October. So it's not like this year's brutal schedule is an anomaly.

This is a case of MLS taking Toronto for granted -- the league isn't anti-Canadian. An expansion team in Vancouver, plus continuing expansion talk with Montreal show that MLS is a lot more pro-Canadian than the NHL nowadays. But, they have taken sellouts at BMO Field as a given -- and the schedule reflects that.[/i]

  • Toronto Sun

The MLS are foolish to take anything for granted now given also we are still in a deep recession with the job picture worse than ever since the Great Depression despite whatever you might here from the mainstream US media outlets. Just talk to any American trying to find a full-time job with decent health insurance who has not been laid off already.

The MLS will suffer another PR blow this year due to the World Cup just like it did in 2006 before the Beckham experiment helped it some and then the Seattle, Toronto, and Chivas USA expansions, but I hardly care as a player of football/soccer as well.

After that all bets are off for the ailing league anyway, and it will have to reform around its core teams with a truly solid fan base without a Beckham star of sorts like there in Toronto, Seattle, Portland to come, DC, Chivas USA, and Vancouver if not a few others with which I am not familiar.

Most of my peers down here do not care either mind you even though we are getting a new team here in Philadelphia. I'll be moving to Florida anyway by the end of the year, where all past efforts to field teams failed miserably despite the favourable weather most of the year.

With the internet via WiFi as well distance is no longer near the barrier it was for sake of watching the better action in Europe anyway, and most American and other players I know care more about that than the MLS except for certain hot-spots like Seattle and Toronto and LA x 2, with the latter being chiefly a Mexican or Chicano market now. It's no accident despite all the fuss why the NFL teams left LA years ago, though a real effort is underway again to field a team there again after USC and UCLA have dominated any craving over there for gridiron football.

DC has a good following as well as does Houston in the MLS.

Beckham is not coming back one way or the other either mind you.

To be continued in reality in July, when I expect happenings around the MLS to be quite dreary.

There was a report that Manchester United will be playing a game in T.O.- MLS are following the same path as another long defunct north american soccer league- anyone remember the Toronto Blizzard?

I don't wish bad on the MLS and wish all the success to TFC and franchises are going for around $40 mill now, TFC is worth $50 mill I've heard and they paid what, $10 mill for it. So there is some success there. But TFC and MLSE needs to tell the people running the show there that they better listen to TFC or else.

Either that or start the season in freezing early to mid-march and we've seen how that worked for MLS last year. I would say TFC is actually getting a favor playing against a team without two of its biggest stars who will be out with the World Cup duty. We need all the help we can get trying to make the playoffs. :oops:

As for MLS playing through the World Cup again, it's getting better. For the first time, MLS is actually taking a two week long break when 75% of the world cup games will be played. They can take the whole month off but again that means starting the season early or playing too many weekday games both of which hurt the attendance and also create problem with national TV scheduling.

Care to elaborate on this? You found something wrong with an extra event held at the stadium that both brings in extra money and some new spectators to the stadium? And what do you mean by following the same path as NASL?