World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

[alfablue]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

Keep thinking that Fox is a second tier setup. Considering they have rights to the NFL, MLB, College Football conferences, and the next 3 World Cups I wouldn't exactly think that. Fox has just as much, if not more, money than ESPN.


No I'm saying you're ignorant if you think you not tuning in is gonna change anything. You want to really change things? Start putting pressure on major sponsors, don't buy McDonald's, don't buy Adidas, don't buy the next FIFA game. Start putting pressure on the Justice Department to continue their investigation. And put pressure on the suits to enact meaningful anti-corruption measures and to support referees to control diving in games. Not tuning in is just empty gesture that accomplishes nothing.

I didn't say Fox, I said FoxSports. But, hey. Forgive me for being observant. According to Fortune, FSN has 83M subscribers to ESPN's 93M. Just over 10% fewer. That's a lot of potential eyeballs. According to this page- http://www.whatyoupayforsports.com/numbers/, ESPN + ESPN2 bring in a little over $8B in revenue, where FSN + FSN2 is just over $1B. So between the fewer numbers and lower income, ESPN is much bigger than FSN. Where I was wrong was putting NBCSN in the same boat- they are 1/3 of FSN. And CBS is 1/10 of FSN. There are your 4 tiers of cable sports. Last I checked, the Gold Cup was on FSN for the most part, or streaming.

As for not tuning, I already don't support the sponsors. All that's left is to stop watching. The game has turned to a poor game to watch anyway. I want to enjoy the game, but it's current form isn't fun.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

I didn't say Fox, I said FoxSports. But, hey. Forgive me for being observant. According to Fortune, FSN has 83M subscribers to ESPN's 93M. Just over 10% fewer. That's a lot of potential eyeballs. According to this page- http://www.whatyoupayforsports.com/numbers/, ESPN + ESPN2 bring in a little over $8B in revenue, where FSN + FSN2 is just over $1B. So between the fewer numbers and lower income, ESPN is much bigger than FSN. Where I was wrong was putting NBCSN in the same boat- they are 1/3 of FSN. And CBS is 1/10 of FSN. There are your 4 tiers of cable sports. Last I checked, the Gold Cup was on FSN for the most part, or streaming.

As for not tuning, I already don't support the sponsors. All that's left is to stop watching. The game has turned to a poor game to watch anyway. I want to enjoy the game, but it's current form isn't fun.

The FOX Sports Channels may be a cable offshoot of News Corporation's free-to-air network, but a number of these larger games were aired on the flagship free-to-air network.

There's one other thing to consider about revenue, which is primarily from advertising, especially if networks are starting to "pick their sports": With ellipti-ball, you have an advertising break at pretty much every single change of possession, which happens very often; I'd guess at least five times per quarter. With baseball and softball, it's usually the end of every half-inning, MAYBE an extra in there every now and again. With squeakball, lacrosse, and hockey, you have rough set times to have advertising breaks during a period. Soccer (and rugby for that matter) are 40-45 minutes of continuous play plus injury time. Where do you fit advertisements in there? This may be one of the reasons why, when the MLS was in its infancy, it used a countdown clock with actual stoppages for things that would normally warrant stoppage time (goals, penalties, cards, and injuries). Sure, you might be able to let a sponsor have a small part of the screen for a few seconds, but that isn't going to generate as much as even 15 seconds of an undivided message. The same might be said about NASCAR, also sponsored by FOX, which has started to go side-by-side for advertising breaks; I wouldn't be surprised if those don't generate as much revenue.

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

The FOX Sports Channels may be a cable offshoot of News Corporation's free-to-air network, but a number of these larger games were aired on the flagship free-to-air network.

There's one other thing to consider about revenue, which is primarily from advertising, especially if networks are starting to "pick their sports": With ellipti-ball, you have an advertising break at pretty much every single change of possession, which happens very often; I'd guess at least five times per quarter. With baseball and softball, it's usually the end of every half-inning, MAYBE an extra in there every now and again. With squeakball, lacrosse, and hockey, you have rough set times to have advertising breaks during a period. Soccer (and rugby for that matter) are 40-45 minutes of continuous play plus injury time. Where do you fit advertisements in there? This may be one of the reasons why, when the MLS was in its infancy, it used a countdown clock with actual stoppages for things that would normally warrant stoppage time (goals, penalties, cards, and injuries). Sure, you might be able to let a sponsor have a small part of the screen for a few seconds, but that isn't going to generate as much as even 15 seconds of an undivided message. The same might be said about NASCAR, also sponsored by FOX, which has started to go side-by-side for advertising breaks; I wouldn't be surprised if those don't generate as much revenue.

Fox Sports is also ramping up efforts recently with things like bidding on the world cup, which started with the 2015 WWC. The fact that ESPN has wider reach outside of the US doesn't matter because they weren't competing with FOX for rights outside of the US and that reach doesn't apply here...its not like Fox won the rights to broadcast the world cup everywhere, just within the US...and the 2015 women's world cup certainly was a big deal here...and those rights deals were worth something in the Americas with the fan friendly game times and the fact that USA is good. Overall the WWC isn't worth as much because of interest outside the US but within the US, I don't feel like the Men's is that much bigger a deal than the Women's.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

Handed down from UEFA: swastika = tie. Croatia has been docked a point for having a swastika painted on the field during the Italy match. They're also going to have to play the next two home matches in empty stadiums and are forbidden from hosting games in the city where the incident took place.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

There are 3 or 4 FOX sports channels here, none for ESPN. This country only has 100 million plus though....

 

[JF_Gophers]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

USA gets group C with T&T for round 4 of WC qualifiers.

The other 2 teams will be bottom feeders.

Mexico got group A with Honduras and likely Canada.

Costa Rica is group B.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

Mexico and Honduras will have Curacao-El Salvador and Canada-Belize.

Costa Rica and Panama get Grenada-Haiti and Jamaica-Nicaragua.

We'll be with Trinidad, along with the winners of St. Vincent and the Grenadines-Aruba, and Antigua and Barbuda-Guatemala.

Group B will definitely be the hardest group. It should be Gold Cup quarterfinals every game.

 

[Jimjamesak]

USA gets group C with T&T for round 4 of WC qualifiers.

The other 2 teams will be bottom feeders.

Mexico got group A with Honduras and likely Canada.

Costa Rica is group B.

Missed a few things...

Group A
Mexico
Honduras
El Salvador/Curacao
Canada/Belize

Group B
Costa Rica
Panama
Grenada/Haiti
Jamaica/Nicaragua

Group C
USA
T&T
St. Vincent/Aruba
Antigua and Barbuda/Guatemala

Group A is "have fun with that Canada!" Canada gets lovely trips to Azteca, San Pedro Sula, and El Salvador. I'm guessing their GD will be in the neighborhood of -15. Group B is "Panama and Costa Rica, this time when we * you, we aren't using lube." 4 Quarterfinal teams from the Gold Cup potentially in one group. That'll be entertaining at the least and you know Panama and Costa Rica have to be steaming. Group C "America goes island hopping!" Although I'm confident Klinsmann can find a way to * it up...

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

CONCACAF: Yeah, we screwed up.

 

[Jimjamesak]

CONCACAF: Yeah, we screwed up.

You know I've been sitting on this for awhile but, as somebody who's been a referee the reaction to all of this has just kind of PO'd me.

Was a mistake made? Absolutely. But I can understand why Geiger made the call, given his angle. Same thing in the MEX-CR game. This isn't the first time something like this has happened, even at a World Cup. Most of the time it would get a "it's part of the game, deal with it" reaction. That's what the US got in 2010.

The problem is, the Mexican press, and fans, hates Herrera and wants him fired so Mexico plays bad, gets lucky and the press piles on. Couple that with the fact the ref was an American MLS ref and American press and fans, who have a hard on for calling MLS refs terrible, and they pile on. Throw in Panama, the bridesmaid of CONCACAF lately, just finally getting fed up of losing at critical moments and completely going insane. Add in the corruption investigation and you have all the elements for a perfect *storm.

I understand being upset but this situation needs a heavy rational thinking. Is it possible that match fixing occurred? Yes, and given history there are higher chances of it. But, rationally? CONCACAF, already under serious scrutiny, in a tournament in the US, actively fixing results? Really? It's just astounding.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

I forgot about the game, then couldn't find it, then watched the Tigers before thinking to check FS2. Caught the last two minutes of ET.

Why do they play ET? No one cares about this game. Just do penalties after 90 if you need a winner.

 

[Jimjamesak]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

We lose to Panama on penalty kicks. WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot is wrong with this program? Fire Klinsmann.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

I'm not going to get too upset about this. Essentially meaningless game for us. Panama had an axe to grind after what happened in the semis, and we knew no matter what we're going to have to play October 9.

Go Jamaica, if not because it makes the play-off easier, but because Mexico has eeked through two games on the backs of the officials.

 

[Jimjamesak]

I'm not going to get too upset about this. Essentially meaningless game for us. Panama had an axe to grind after what happened in the semis, and we knew no matter what we're going to have to play October 9.

Go Jamaica, if not because it makes the play-off easier, but because Mexico has eeked through two games on the backs of the officials.

If Klinsmann wants to talk about "progressing" and the other things he's talked about for the last 4 years then the US should've gone out and had professional performance befitting the play of the top team in CONCACAF. Instead we got a sluggish and lazy performance of a team spinning in the mud, exposing all the flaws of the management.

Bob Bradley got fired for less than Klinsmann's performance at this Gold Cup.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

Jim your last few posts have been anything but rational.

 

[MaizeRage]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

They're playing a country with fewer people than metro Phoenix. I don't think expecting a win is an unreasonable expectation.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

It has nothing to do with expecting a win. His nice try at "explaining" the reasons behind the reaction to the ref eff up is preposterous and Bradley looked far more over matched than Klinsman.

 

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

They're playing a country with fewer people than metro Phoenix. I don't think expecting a win is an unreasonable expectation.

Stop with this reasoning already, that mean we shouldn't ever lose to a concacaf team not named Mexico ever? That's unrealistic.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

Re: World Soccer XXVI: Fun for MLS Fans and Eurosnobs Alike

They're playing a country with fewer people than metro Phoenix. I don't think expecting a win is an unreasonable expectation.

And the Big Ten should rule college hockey because they have more money than the MAC and D2 schools.

 

[Jimjamesak]

It has nothing to do with expecting a win. His nice try at "explaining" the reasons behind the reaction to the ref eff up is preposterous and Bradley looked far more over matched than Klinsman.

Preposterous? What is so preposterous about it? Everything I said is absolutely true.

You're correct about Bradley, he's looked terrible. Klinsmann is the main problem on that, he wants him to play as a CAM and that's not his position. Bradley's a box-to-box destroyer, not the lynch pin of the attack.