US League Faces Dilemma

What is a league to do when its best players will be gone during the height of its season and its fans will be focused on action thousands of miles away?

That is the challenge facing the United States’ Major League Soccer, whose summer season will be occurring at the same time as the World Cup this year.

The obvious solution is to bring MLS’ schedule in line with the rest of the world. Start its games in August and play until spring. But that can’t happen this year, so some alternatives have been proposed.

I don’t think MLS needs to shut down or even shy away from it schedule. Sure teams will miss their international players and some fans might stay away, but there is also an opportunity to attract new fans. Football is rarely anywhere near the radar screen of most Americans, but during the World Cup it takes a place in the newspapers and on television that is normally reserved for other sports. The World Cup should be seen as an opportunity and not as something to fear.

With satellites beaming football into homes in the United States these days, MLS competes with better, more established leagues throughout the year for the attention of football fans in the US. But it is not the hardcore football fan that MLS needs to court. It is the many families whose kids play the sport but who don’t go to games. Many of these families will be watching the World Cup this summer and if MLS is smart it will try to convert them into fans of the domestic league.