Three years ago, Chivas de Guadalajara began an intriguing experiment by starting a sister team north of the border. Chivas USA joined MLS in 2005, and three years later is one of the top teams in the Western Conference.
Although there have been rumors that Chivas' fiercest rivals, Club América, have been looked into purchasing an MLS team of its own, those rumors usually proved to be just hearsay. In truth, América's owner, Emilio Azcárraga was watching from Mexico City, waiting to see how Chivas's experiment went.
It seems now that they think it went very well, as Azcárraga, and América's new president Michel Bauer, say that the club is seriously interested in a sister club of its own in the United States. http://robots.cnnsi.com/2008/soccer/07/ ... index.html
If it's not apparent already as to the growing interests of the MLS now I don't know when it will be...The league expects to expand to up to 18 teams by the year 2012...
MLS plans on expanding to 18 teams by 2012 with currently two of the remaining four declared. To begin league play in 2009, the first of these teams will be Seattle Sounders FC. The week of MLS Cup 2007, commissioner Don Garber made the official announcement. The primary ownership includes USL Seattle Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer, Seattle Seahawks owner Paul Allen, comedian Drew Carey, and Hollywood producer Joe Roth. The team will play its home games at Qwest Field.
At a February 28, 2008 press conference, Garber announced the 16th franchise would be a Philadelphia MLS team based in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania. Joining the league in the 2010 season, the Philadelphia club will play in a 20,000-seat stadium to be built just west of the Commodore Barry Bridge. No name for the team has been announced. However, support for such a franchise seems solid as well before MLS awarded Philadelphia a franchise, a dedicated supporters group dubbed "The Sons of Ben" was formed in the hopes of attracting a team.
While no other cities have been named for the 17th and 18th spots, St. Louis is considered the next frontrunner. MLS has declared interest in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Montreal, Detroit, Portland, San Diego, Milwaukee, Ottawa, Vancouver, a return to Miami, and a second team in the New York City metro area. One of the latest cities to enquire about an MLS expansion team is Ottawa; Eugene Melnyk, the owner of the Ottawa Senators NHL Hockey team, met with the MLS commissioner to discuss the possibility of expansion. The possability of a second team in Canada would have to wait until at least 2010, as Toronto FC were given exclusive rights to operate in Canada until 2010. Recently the owner of Club América, Emilio Azcárraga Jean, has stated his intentions of having an expansion club in MLS, similar to Chivas USA. The possible expansion club would be Ãguilas USA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Leag ... #Expansion
The MLS has seen a resurgence of nation wide support since the USA's impressive quarterfinal appearance in World Cup Korea/Japan 2002 only be to robed a birth into the semifinals after a blatant no call on a goal line handball in a 1-0 loss to Germany...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Leag ... Resurgence
MLS 2006-present
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Leag ... 06-present
The Media sees the potential of soccer in America and it shows...
Media coverage
At the outset, MLS signed deals for coverage on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, while Univision broadcast matches in Spanish. The original Univision deal lapsed after a few years, leaving only the ABC/ESPN family of networks as the league's national broadcasters. Fox Sports World (later rebranded as Fox Soccer Channel in 2005), Fox Sports en Español and HDNet began airing matches in 2003. The 2007 MLS season was the first season, however, that television rights were sold to networks. Previously, MLS paid networks to broadcast its games. It is estimated MLS will receive about $30 million from TV revenue alone within the next eight years.
With the addition of Toronto FC, coverage of MLS expanded into Canada in 2007. The CBC, The Score and Rogers Sportsnet all broadcast Toronto matches nationwide.
The league's MLS Direct Kick package, which broadcasts out-of-market matches, has been expanded to ensure that every league match is broadcast. Univision and its family of networks resumed MLS broadcasts in 2007 as well, with most matches airing on TeleFutura and Galavision on Sunday afternoons and evenings.
The 2007 season was the first in the league's history in which every regular season match was telecast live, with many games shown on national television. MLS Primetime Thursday on ESPN networks featured a live match for the first time on Thursdays each week, and Fox Soccer Channel's MLS Saturday expanded to a 3-hour format, with both a pregame and postgame show wrapped around the featured match each week. Additionally, Fox Soccer Channel produces their own news on MLS and special original programs on players, such as Beckham Unwrapped, a biographical update for summer 2007 on Galaxy's David Beckham.
Major League Soccer also offers streaming live video of some matches via its own website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Leag ... a_coverage
Here is an MLS attendance analysis from 2007...
MLS Attendance Analysis - Updated 08/27
Here is a week-by-week look at (reported) attendance #'s from Major League Soccer.
Week 1 - 6 games - Average attendance - 16,109
Week 2 - 7 games - Average attendance - 16,827
Week 3 - 5 games - Average attendance - 13,848
Week 4 - 7 games - Average attendance - 14,971
Week 5 - 7 games - Average attendance - 11,304
Week 6 - 6 games - Average attendance - 14,455
Week 7 - 8 games - Average attendance - 17,272
Week 8 - 7 games - Average attendance - 13,222
Week 9 - 6 games - Average attendance - 15,773
Week 10 - 6 games - Average attendance - 16,317
Week 11 - 7 games - Average attendance - 17,752
Week 12 - 7 games - Average attendance - 13,599
Week 13 - 6 games - Average attendance - 11,573
Week 14 - 12 games - Average attendance - 15,984
Week 15 - 6 games - Average attendance - 14,649
Week 16 - 4 games - Average attendance - 12,472
Week 17 - 4 games - Average attendance - 13,974
Week 18 - 6 games - Average attendance - 15,372
Week 19 - 5 games - Average attendance - 25,406
Week 20 - 7 games - Average attendance - 23,740
Week 21 - 9 games - Average attendance - 17,381
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Total - 138 games - Average attendance - 15,897.83
Highest Single Game:
Los Angeles Galaxy @ New York Red Bulls (08/18) - 66,237
Lowest Single Game:
Colorado Rapids @ Kansas City Wizards (07/22) - 7,101
66,237 -- This rivals any soccer league game anywhere in the world...
http://themlszone.blogspot.com/2007/04/ ... pdate.html
Move over NBA and NHL,.there's a new kid in town,..and it goes by the name of...
:wah:...soccer/football...