Never gave proper football a chance, until 2018 living downtown L.A. checked out the new stadium & team Los Angeles Football Club. Been hooked since, forever an LAFC supporter since they got me into the sport.
It's an awesome sport, for sure. But you don't have to--in fact, I'd say shouldn't--call it "proper" football. Football has never been a single sport, it's a family of sports that developed largely in parallel. Association football is by far the most popular in the world but isn't the oldest football code and is actually the biggest outlier among the six football codes as the only one in which players can't move the ball with some combination of both carrying and kicking. I recommend that people read up on the history of football. It's quite interesting; much messier than 99.9% of soccer fans in the world seem to know; and explains why nearly every English-speaking country, starting with England, has a history of people calling association football "soccer" and another sport "football" to varying degrees. Long story short, when you see someone call soccer "the real football," say that American football shouldn't be called football because clearly the name refers to kicking the ball with the feet, think a ball being more egg-shaped is a weird American thing (association and Gaelic are played with round balls but rugby league and rugby union, Aussie rules and gridiron with similar elongated balls), or they think calling it soccer is an Americanism, you'll immediately realize that the person doesn't know what they're talking about. No need to suck up to those kinds of people who reveal their own ignorance in their attempts to feel superior.
David Beckham brought legitimacy. Zlatan really helped. Drogba, kaka and other helped a lot too. It’s truly growing by leaps and bounds. If there was no beckham the league would be at a max of 14-16 teams If the league would still exist. Now there’s over 30 clubs and counting and there’s no slow down in sight
DP (designated players) have a cap hit, but less than what it costs to get them. Also, the teams can get up to 3 under 22 players where the transfer fee doesn't count against the cap but a part of their salary does. Lastly, homegrown players, depending on how the roster is set up, may not count against the salary cap.
They're reffering to top level players, purposely coming over to secure more money when they otherwise wouldn't if they continued to play in europe. MLS fan here, the league is growing into more of a farm league, which is a step in the right direction. But it's still fairly easy for some, not all, former European stars to play here at older ages. Until we see former big names come over and struggle, MLS will still have that stigma attached to it
@@Tu_Padre31 I know what they're talking about. But the reality is that the best players, by and large, are in their playing prime, or even younger. If you look, for example, at the top ten MLS scorers to this point in the season, they are all in their twenties. Yes, many/most are foreign. So what? Most decent leagues are majority foreign. It's a good thing that good players in their prime *WANT* to play in the league. Giakoumakis actively fought to play for Atlanta. I watched it closely. I'm a Celtic fan and I was pissed we sold him. I'm just looking forward to the day, when coming to MLS (or *staying* in MLS) is widely regarded as a strong career move. Getting back to Celtic.... Having watched the Scottish league, I'm here to tell ya - that league is shit. The Scandinavian leagues aren't much better. Turkey, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, etc etc etc... Not so great. In terms of quality, all are inferior to MLS. We've been conditioned to think "Europe = automatically better". I reject that as a given. Yes, the best European leagues are better.... For now...
@aregua188 they could care less... but they're literally the ones constantly bringing it up lmfao. The MLS makes great money, but they could be making much more. In years when the league continues to improve, they will. its amazing where it's currently at though.
11.6M for the team, NOT including designated players, homegrown players, or the U22 designated players rules which don't count under the salary cap edit: also the players making the minimum are not included
DPs, TAM, and U22 initiative all count towards the Salary cap but at a fixed number. Supplemental spots do not counts towards the Salary cap. Also, TAM and GAM complicate explaining all of it even more lmao
A couple updates since this EFD video is a couple years old: St. Louis City has now launched with a promising opening campaign and a beautiful, European style stadium. Just a week or two ago, MLS announced a 30th franchise in San Diego for a $500 million expansion fee. Meanwhile, clubs have brought in many more big names and small names alike in the last couple of years. Toronto bringing in Insigne and Bernardeschi from Napoli and Juve are two great examples, but there are many across the league. In December, Thiago Almada earned his way to a World Cup champion side while playing for an MLS team (tho he didn’t play much in the cup, this is still a great achievement for the league). MLS is a great league with incredibly entertaining, all be it sometimes defensively-lacking football. I’d compare the level of play to the Championship or Belgian, Dutch, and Portuguese leagues, tho again sometimes defenses lag a little further behind. The league is continuing to expand and current teams are continuing to invest (such as NYCFC, the latest team to announce a soccer-specific stadium build), this is a great time to get into it. The fan-bases are mostly great, and definitely much more family friendly than some European and South American leagues. Much of the fan culture here is a charming amalgamation of fan cultures from around the world (which some Europeans seem to look down on us for, but I think it’s charmingly American). As for your team choice, DC United is a nice choice. It’s one of the classic founding teams and has a lovely little stadium with steep stands by the banks of the Potomac. As a Palace supporter I can’t help but mention that Rooney has helped revitalize Benteke’s form this year and it’s lovely to see, they’re a really decent team to watch. Other teams to check out might be my New England Revs (tho we play in an NFL stadium not fit for the MLS), Atlanta United, LAFC, and the Pacific Northwest rivals the Timbers and Sounders. The MLS is an idiosyncratic and imperfect league, but I’m glad it’s being treated more seriously by the wider footballing world. Many of our fans pay close attention to the European leagues and are more cosmopolitan than maybe your average British supporter (no shade, I adore an English club and the league as a whole). If we could eventually have promotion/relegation with the USL, the league would be even better! There are many interesting projects happening in the American lower leagues right now too!
@@cjboyer4355 I left a long comment discussing something I’m really passionate about. Lighten up my friend, you don’t have to read it all if you don’t want!
Take it from an American Premier League fan who's been on and off with MLS for its entire existence and just jumped back on with the Apple TV deal: This is a very fun league to watch right now
I'm with you--American PL follower for years, on and off MLS fan for about a decade. This season is my first season following it really closely, and it is a great time to get in on the action. Very fun to watch.
As a Houston Dynamo fan, DC sounds like a great choice for you, Rooney, good history from the early days, consistent identity, great stadium, east coast with rail to new york, so not the hardest for you to travel to. Good supporters culture, all that. It's a good choice for you.
best soccer sequence ive ever seen was wayne rooney tracking down an orlando city attacker in extra time w an empty dcu net. they needed 3 pts to stay in playoff contention. he slide tackles and gains possession all in one move, takes a touch, and launches it to the far post where 5 foot nothin, luciano acosta finds his inner jordan and heads it in at the far post for a walkoff essentially. unreal stuff. that was an amazing cpl months for dcu. never seen anything like it. this was full on attack for the W and rooney fkn saved the day.
Tim Liewicke was allowed to own five different franchises due to a thing called Single Entity Ownership. Under this arrangement, the owners are more like shareholders in the league as a whole rather than just their individual franchises. In the early days, Anschutz Entertainment Group and The Hunt Family themselves each owned half the franchises in the league.
Part of the reason it was allowed was AEG basically saved MLS. the League was close to folding for good in 2002, and AEG basically buying out at least half the teams kept the league afloat, then the 2002 World Cup happened, and the USMNT's great showing there, many of the players played in MLS and it helped steady the ship and its been growing ever since. Now there aren't multiple team owners anymore.
Soccer is the second most popular sport for male and female youth in the USA just behind basketball. This is what is fueling the growth of the MLS. You now have parents and grandparents who played the sport and know the game taking their children and grandchildren to MLS games.
The 11.6 million salary cap does not include designated players. Each team can have up to 3 of them and their salaries do not count against the salary cap. The team I support (Toronto FC) pays around 25 million a season in wages, but 14 million of that goes to just 2 players in Insigne and Bernadeschi. It must make for an interesting changing room when 2 players are making more than the rest of the team combined.
There are also various other mechanisms that reduce what is charged against a teams salary cap. For instance, the U22 initiative allows teams to contract promising young players (mostly from South America so far) and count only part of their salary against the cap. This is why almost all the clubs have a total wage bill above the salary cap. Also of note is the two clubs with the highest wage bills (Toronto & LA Galaxy) are near the bottom of the standings. This is what happens when you put all your money is 2 or 3 players, rather that spread it around so that you have a competitive team top to bottom.
@@donviajero2580yeah, you have Target allocation money (TAM) as well, it can be traded, earned, etc. both the DP and TAM players do still count against the salary cap though, although only up until a designated amount (which now I think is all the way up to 600k-ish). The league had come along way in terms of minimum salary as well! The early boys were basically below poverty line, now even the bottom makes a decent wage.
I am a big Real Salt Lake fan, they are really starting to turn this season around after a rough beginning. It can be jarring going from international level or higher to watching MLS. That being said, I have that oh so important emotional attachment. The passion is there and the quality is improving every year. I love that MLS is going about things it’s own way. It is a total paradigm shift from how Europe does it. I do hope for promotion/relegation in the distant future but I still want the manufactured parity to be a priority. That way all your top flight teams are spread out, rather than being concentrated in major coastal cities.
Yes, you heard right. MLS was in such financial crisis that some owners had to own multiple teams because no one wanted to invest even though teams cost very little back then (like $10 mill). The Beckham effect helped this league see increasing growth that hasn't stopped since he came and now the league has 30 teams with valuations approaching $1billion. If Beckham had such an impact on the league what will Messi do? I could see the league deciding to amend their salarystructure toi allow more spending. The world is looking. MLS will have the chanc to capture a huge audienc, but people will only follow the league if they like what they see.
Getting better on the field for sure! But off the field improvement has been insane over the last 10 years. New stadiums, teams, fans, TV deals, etc. I can’t wait to see where it’s at in 10 years
My complaint with the MLS is that they signed a deal with Apple so this year you have to use their streaming service to watch games. I think that will hurt fan growth. If you need a team to cheer for, may I suggest the Columbus Crew. One of the original teams of the league. Their owner tried to screw them over and move the team but the fans organized and stopped the move. #SaveTheCrew
When he mentioned the $11.6 million salary cap, that’s for an entire team. You are allowed to have three players that exceed that cap call designated players. Everybody else is total salary must be equal to or less than that salary cap point or you will get penalized.
Give it 10-15 years and soccer/football is going to be an absolute giant in the US. The west coast is already an absolute behemoth for soccer in the US with the Sounders, Timbers, and Galaxy all doing consistently big attendance rates for US soccer. I think things will really ramp up after the 2026 World Cup.
atlanta united fc is my favorite club as it arrived in 2017 and won the mls cup a year later as my dad was really happy about that. i do think things in the u.s. has not only gotten better with the game but i predict that they will win the world cup before england wins a 2nd one.
Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders game today should be wild. Portland and Seattle are a huge rivalry that has been going on since the late 70's. Should be a great game. Timbers beat the Sounders 4 - 1 at home. Today we are at Seattle.....hope to repeat that.
I truly enjoy all your videos. Soccer (European football) has never been of any interest to me, but this one intrigued me to start learning more about it. Great job, keep it up.
Apparently the Philadelphia Union, MLS team, lost the championship game the same day as the Philadelphia Phillies lost the World Series… As Crazy as that might sound, majority of the city didn’t even know we had some kind of soccer team outside of the USA women national team & under 12 years olds on Saturdays in the fall. **The Premier League (is that a big thing in Europe?) was in Philly in October 2022
Premier League Mornings held a fan-fest in Philly. They’re the NBC team that covers the Premier League for the United States audience. The league itself was playing in England that weekend, as they always do, but the event in Philly was just sorta a big festival for PL fans in the US to come together in a College Gameday type of setting. Also, my perception is that the Union have a solid fan base, they seem to generally sell games well and their fans are quite loud and passionate. I don’t live in the area or anything, but I guess ur comment doesn’t match the perception I had of the Union. That said, the growing MLS and global soccer audience in the US does seem to still be a bit of a blind spot for much of the established sports media in our country, so I see why many people still don’t know much about it.
I think MLS's ceiling is somewhere around where the Portuguese league is in Europe, as a talent feeder into the big leagues. Honestly it surprised me how quickly it turned into producing some legit talents like Alphonso Davies
I’ve gotta respectfully disagree with ya. I’d say MLS’s current level is somewhere around the Portuguese league (minus the big 3), its ceiling is unknowable but certainly much higher than Primeira Liga. In terms of where this league can go, I’d say in a couple of decades it could legitimately be up there with Serie A and Ligue 1 at least. In theory it could become the biggest league in the world but I think that is an unrealistic prediction. Technically possible tho.
Nobody in America will ever admit it. That doesn't make it any less of a fact. The surge in the legitimate talent that you are seeing is a direct result of Klinsmann and his total overhaul of the youth system and youth scouting. It's such a shame that he wasn't a better manager because he is not remembered appropriately among Americans. We simply do not give him the gratitude he deserves, and I think that's because people just aren't aware of how big of an impact he actually had. He changed the entire US Soccer system. All of the strides that we have made forward can be attributed directly to him. But nobody remembers because, and I'll be the first to admit it as well, he just wasn't very good at managing football games. But we took a great leap forward in every other area thanks to him. I swear to God, all it would take is a really nifty 30 for 30 about him and he might actually get the gratitude he deserves from Americans. I really believe we do not show him the appreciation he deserves because most people just don't know all he did.
@JJ-nu8qi you notice I didn't say it was perfect. But it was brought forward leaps and bounds with Klinsmann. And I know there's still a lot of politics but I'll tell you, man. I saw the youth system up close in Seattle for a couple months (u14's) and I straight up put ALL of that on the parents. They were all demons. Just the worst people on earth. I should note: I wasn't on the team. My roommate's daughter was on the u14s and I had to take her to and from for a couple months while her mom was at work. I had SO much contempt for those parents you have no idea. I would imagine we have a hard time getting blue collar and immigrants kids because their parents just don't want to be around the other parents. I don't even think it's a money thing. But that was just Seattle.
I find the MLS far more interesting and fun than the prem. it reminds me of 90’s prem when football was more fun. Lots of number 10’s that are the focal point of the team. Every team has a star player, wonder goals, sloppy defending, high scores. And I’m telling you now, one thing players do well in this league is direct free kicks, every week there is an insane free kick scored. Plus you get American production for the broadcasting and match atmosphere. And, you can get a season pass to watch every game for £80 a year. Can’t beat that.
For our 5th most popular sport, it's not bad. But not very many people care about it here. Highly doubt it could ever come close to Our Football, Basketball, Baseball, & Hockey. I do love watching EFL here on Saturday mornings. The intensity is amazing. That second leg League 1 playoff comeback by Sheffield Wednesday was thrilling. 🙂
I think it will very likely surpass baseball at some point and has probably comfortably surpassed hockey in most regions of the US. Our country has a lotta room for sports fandom tho, so I don’t like pitting soccer against the others as if we can’t adore them all. Soccer has been my favorite sport for years now, but I am happy to call myself a baseball, football, and basketball fan as well.
@Patrick Kerrigan Soccer night surpass hockey but definitely not baseball. MLB is making a mistake on their unfair international draft, that limits Americans, Canadians & Puerto Ricans of the same opportunity. Also, the legally but reprehensible child labor camps in the DR; all for cheaper players & to skirt around the labor laws here. I made my comment extra long on purpose (referencing the last guy that commented!) haha
@pjkerrigan20 will be a while before it surpasses baseball. The Phillies and Eagles were the talk of the town last year in Philadelphia. Nobody new the Union were in MLS cup, the news hardly mentioned them in their sports segments.
There is a difference between star power, and top footballer. Beckham was a massive star. It's debatable if the league would have survived without his arrival. By contrast Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard were top footballers. They brought legitimacy to the league, but they didn't do much to fill the stands. Casual sports fans didn't recognize them, but everyone knew Beckham. I say this, because in the UK, you don't need stars to sell tickets. You need quality players for your team to do well. So, Beckham's impact was due to his star power, not his playing ability. Not to say that he wasn't a great player, but his impact was greater than his ability would suggest. As this video has noted, the MLS is now developing talent of its own. I can confirm this because I'm a Vancouver Whitecaps fan who saw a 15 year old Alphonso Davies make his professional debut.
The MLS has been doing great for at least the last 5 years with an excellent organizational plan. And they don't care who makes fun of them or who hasn't been paying attention!
The 11.6 million salary cap is incorrect. According to MLS, the 2023 salary cap is $5,210,000 per team. That means that is all a team can spend for it's entire roster, minus the 2-3 designated players each team is allowed that can be paid over the salary cap. The clubs in MLS are also, technically, not separate entities from the league, and those operating the clubs are called "owner/operators." Yes, at one point in the early 2000's, the ten MLS clubs were operated by just two individuals, Lamar Hunt and Phillip Anschutz. Now, the 29 clubs have, each, their own "owner/operator". I live near St. Louis, and grew up with the old North American Soccer League, which operated from 1968 through 1984 ...a total of 17 years., The NASL was never stable, with clubs joining, then moving or folding within 2-5 seasons. MLS in now in it's 28 season, has had only one team move, and just three fold, over that 28 seasons. St. Louis City SC's owner/operators also own Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the largest car rental company in the United States. The owner/operators of St. Louis Sc spent their own money to build the club's home ground, CityPark, at a cost of $457.8 million.
The cap is for the whole team *AFTER* a whole bunch of extra adjustments have been made. For example: - Up to 3 players can be signed using a Designated Player Contract. Those contracts only count as, say, $750k/year, but the actual money the player can be paid is unlimited. - At the start of each season, the MLS hands out "allocation budgets". These aren't real budgets with real money, instead they are like credits that can be used to "buy down" contracts. This lets you pay a player $1 million per year, then use $500k of an allocation budget to "buy down" the contract so that it only counts as $500k towards the cap.
Check out FC Cincinnati. We were the worst team in the league for our first three seasons, then we turned it around and are currently the supporter's shield leaders. Lucho Acosta, Pat Noonan, and Chris Albright are an incredible team as captain, coach, and manager, respectively.
Each team gets 3 dp players (designated player) this can be those big name big nine players outside of the salary cap. These dp players are not included in salary cap, so they can be paid however much the owner wants
Frankly, we're not quite there yet, but we've seen some big strides forward. I feel like MLS would slot right between the Championship and League 1, maybe even near the Championship level. From a global perspective, that would make it a top 15 league. I'll never be sold on Beckham and his "impact." I recognize the media impact, of course. But he really didn't do anything on the pitch that's worthy of any praise. When he wasn't hurt, he was out on loan. And then he would get hurt when he was out on loan. I only give him credit for making a bridge for other players to cross over. That's it. And Pirlo was soooo bad in the States. HE is actually the person who destroyed the myth that you could just come over here and dominate in America when your career is coming to an end. When he was over here, he played like he was 60 years old and hadn't played football in 20 years. Always the very slowest person on the entire pitch. Very little creativity. Absolutely no defense at all. Several matches, even NYCFC fans were willing to admit he was really lacking in effort. But I don't think it was effort. He just literally couldn't hang. He really embarrassed himself in America, and I think that really shifted the narrative.
nah mate.... that $11.6M is for almost the full squad. Gotta remember the Beckham rule which if I recall.... allows 5 players (up from the original 3 players when first introduced) on a squad to not count towards the salary cap. Yeah.... American sports culture is BIG on salary caps.... keeps things interesting making teams always have juggle the numbers to put together a competitive team that could win it all. I guess very much unlike the English Prem where it's pretty much always the same teams winning the league... the ones with money for top players.
The salary cap is for team wages and not including 3 designated players. We don’t pay large transfer fees, only players on free transfers. The problem is the TV deals and once the league can get around 1 billion to 2 billion a year, it’s over for the rest of the world. It’s no relegation and money divided between teams and our wages could be 100 million salary cap, the league will be around 30 mid table premier league clubs or 30 athletico Madrid and no weak clubs, no city or Barca, psg is fine, they are getting ready for 2026.
The salary cap doesn't include designated players or the U22 initiative. I also don't think it includes homegrown players. Designated player salaries run in the millions but the average salary per non-designated player ranges from $300k to $700k, which is incredibly low by the top 4 leagues in Europe, which would put MLS salaries more in line with England's Championship League. I would expect to see in increase in the salary cap and possibly a fourth designated player slot added (Thanks Inter-Miami!) in the not-too-distant future. David Beckham definitely had a lot to do with the growth of MLS due to the implementation of the Designated Player rule after his arrival and his purchase of Inter-Miami, which after getting initially penalized for trying to skirt the salary cap, has managed to land Messi. And do yourself a favor... DO NOT follow DC United. Try following the Columbus Crew (Nancy has them playing some sweet soccer), Inter-Miami (for Messi), Seattle Sounders, LAFC, and Atlanta United.
Honestly the salary cap is what makes the MLS even worth watching. What everyone else does is bs lol it does not make the game fun or competitive and just makes one or two teams competitive 😅. Is a great example Tom Brady won 3 superbowls without the salary cap then the salary cap was introduced and he won three more and that is what makes competition fun that is what makes sports even worth watching watching somebody with all the firepower to somebody that you have to really pick and choose particular players with that will fit perfect to your team and bring that team to a championship. Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo they don't know anything about that they've always had pretty damn good teams around them even David Beckham and zlatan etc etc a lot of these big European soccer stars even the Spanish leagues get to spend way too much money and build superteams that's bulshit the MLS salary cap gives everyone a chance and actually gets a show-off real skills that slaps people in the face when they said all this guy is definitely not worth the big money and then that guy goes or team in general and as futbol fans overseas you guys should be pissed and should be wanting this MLS salary cap because I know a lot of you guys a die-hard fans of dying franchises because they cannot win nor have enough money to compete with all these other teams that have big bucks
It's a bad time of year for soccer here in the state's. Once the NFL season kicks off they dominate the ratings by a huge margin. Honestly we get a little interested during the world cup and the Olympics but it half hearted
One thing I think people outside the States don’t get about MLS is that the lack of quality is intentional. The league doesn’t want a few rich clubs to buy their way to relevance, so they limit how much can be spent. Americans no matter the sport love scoring, so clubs put their big dollars into offense and almost nothing into defense. What you get on the other side is really exciting attacking football paired with sometimes shockingly bad defense. It’s actually kinda rad, you never know who will win a match.
The MLS doesn't really need to beat out the NFL as the US's #1 sports league. It's successful and making money, and interest continues to grow. The MLS overtook the NHL to make it the 4th most watched league in the US, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it pass the MLB in the next decade to move it to #3.
Between hosting the World Cup and Messi, I think MLS will be on par with the top 5 Euro leagues in a decade. I think the best thing MLS can do is keep a salary cap to promote fairness but removed some of the other confusing financial restrictions.
No he did not own five clubs at once, he started them then sold them one after another. He was also never the majority owner either. His ownership was through a corporate entity.
I think MLS does a great job at showing why american sports are different. like Everton will not travel as far all year as any mls team. Hell Messi will travel farther to go on just one trip to play in Seattle than all but a few teams in England will travel all season. Also it's not just the USA all leagues but the NFL play in Canada as well. the NFL plays games in Mexico.
There is a video recently made where the salary is discussed. You are basing your salary on the EPL... The EPL is the most expensive league in the world. In Spain, only top 4 teams spend more then MLS teams.. in fact, the MLS is the most balanced league among the leagues across the world. Only Serie A, La Liga, and the EPL have teams that spend more in general than the MLS...
People don't understand any business takes time! Not top league now but give it another 10-20 years! People won't have a choice and it's actually growing faster than people think!
Also, I would totally disagree with Beckham "putting a face on it". The face should be that the city of Miami wants soccer, having Beckham holding a contract that says they have no choice and rich boy gets his way makes it look awful. It's like the opposite of sports.
Back then MLS only had a handful of owners because nobody was investing. Now a days owners are paying half a billion dollars for entry into the league.
The only thing it really has going for it is the time of the season. The only competition it has is the only game more boring than it. There’s a lot of sports junkies and gamblers here
most of us are boycotting the Leagues Cup because MLS wants to fully pull out of the US Open Cup (The Domestic Cup in America). Leagues cup is mostly a Money grabber for the league (not mentioning Lionel Messi)
IMO, the MLS can say it has arrived as a major league when young international stars prefer to play with the MLS. Rather than the soccer giants like Premier League, La Liga, etc.
Galaxy supporter here, the video is wrong. Tim Leiweke never owned any team, he was the president of AEG the owners of the LA Galaxy. Phil Anschutz is the actual owner of the LA Galaxy and at one point had to own several teams to keep MLS from dying. He only owns the LA Galaxy and the LA Kings (hockey) clubs
The MLS seriously needs to re-align their season. It needs to be played to match up with the Euopean season so transfer windows align. Secondly, they need to combine MLS and the USL Leagues for promotion/relegation. Refusal to do these 2 things by the the powers that be will ensure MLS will continue to be nothing more than a bottom tier league in the scope of world football. And as long as the USA keeps their "pay to play" philosophy, US football will forever be behind the power curve.
MLS should aspire to be the best premiership in the world, bar none. Aiming for anything less, is a waste of time, money, and energy. To Europeans who think that sounds ridiculous... You watch our movies. You listen to hip hop and rock and roll. You wear blue jeans. You live on a continent, rebuilt by American political will, money and technology. Do you really want to bet against us when we get serious about achieving a goal? To Americans who think that sounds ridiculous... North America (that's charitable - let's be honest... Canada is just along for the ride) is already home to the best leagues in the world for three global sports; baseball, basketball, and ice hockey. It's also home to the world's most lucrative professional sports league of any kind. Why is it far fetched to think MLS might join those other leagues? Changing tastes and demographics are on the league's side.
You're absolutely right that if Americans ever really got serious about soccer as a nation MLS would almost certainly become the dominant league in the world. That doesn't mean that it will ever happen, though, especially if you mean within our lifetime. (Or my lifetime, anyway - I'm old.) Those best leagues in the world for three global sports, not to mention the world's most lucrative professional sports league of any kind, are all in competition for our entertainment dollars. It isn't entirely a zero sum game, but for MLS to compete on the same level it would almost certainly have to attract some attention and money that now goes to one or more of the other four sports. The four better established (in the US) sports already fill the entire year with significant overlap, and I suspect the biggest factor slowing the growth of hockey in the US is the fact that its schedule overlaps almost exactly with basketball. An MLS that competes with (or exceeds) the Premier League might not be possible without a significant decline in one or more of the other sports. Now, if you believe that soccer is a better spectator sport than one or all of those, then you won't see this as a serious long term problem for it. (And the word spectator is important in that sentence - however enjoyable a sport is to play, professional sports leagues rely on spectators and TV ads for their revenue, so you need people willing to pay to watch and a straightforward means of collecting ad revenue in order to fund a league.) Soccer has grown a lot in the US during my lifetime, if rather slowly. There are good reasons to expect that the growth will continue, and some reasons to think that it might accelerate. But I think we're still a long way from ousting the Premier League as the dominant soccer league in the world.
@@hkpew I don't know what you consider old. To a teenager, 35 is old. To an octogenarian, a sixty year old is a pup. I'm 52. Pelé made me a lifetime fan when he came to play for the Cosmos. I played competitively from age 6 to age 18, and recreationally into my 40s. I adopted a foreign club to support (Celtic FC) forty years ago. All this is to say, I consider myself an American soccer OG. Frankly, I never thought I would live to see what the game has become to this point... A legitimate premiership. Live matches broadcast from all over the world on mainstream media outlets. A national side which is no longer content just to show up. World class academies and youth development (witness, the U20 World Cup - we're the only country in the world to make three consecutive quarter finals). Roughly two hundred fully professional clubs in every corner of the country. What has happened to the great world game in this country is nothing short of staggering, and it shows no signs of stopping. If we make a deep run (semi final or better) in 2026, we will see an explosion in this country. Is that guaranteed? Obviously not. Is it possible? Was the War of Independence possible? The dissolution of slavery? The intercontinental railroad? The Doolittle raid? Putting a man on the moon? I'm not some sort of jingoistic flag-waving, 'Murca kind of a guy. But I know enough history to know that when we get serious, things get done. I dare to believe that we're serious about proper football.
The video you are watching reminds me how much I really hate the sing-song BBC style presentation. It seems every Brit presenter trys to mimic it. It has ruined a UA-cam generation. Lol!
At a season ticket holder for almost 20 years, if anything I take MLS less seriously each year. Our best level is a stepping stone for central and south americans to real clubs in Europe.
Its a fine sport for kids , it uses up time and energy which kids have too much of, any size field any number of players very basic skills are needed easy to understand and follow and the best player makes no more goals than the worst so nobody's feelings are hurt.Its just not an adult sport.
The only people who think it isn't an adult sport are people who haven't watched professional club or high-level international matches. You're like the English people who make fun of baseball because rounders is a similar game mostly played by young girls there. All sports start with basics for little kids then ramp up to progressively higher levels of skill and knowledge that take many years and a lot of talent to pull off. People who have only watched little kids play don't know anything about the advanced layers of skills and tactics of the sport at higher levels. That's fine, I just wish people wouldn't spout off without even having watched the professional level of the sport first.
Never gave proper football a chance, until 2018 living downtown L.A. checked out the new stadium & team Los Angeles Football Club. Been hooked since, forever an LAFC supporter since they got me into the sport.
You mean Chivas Celebrityjara?
It's an awesome sport, for sure. But you don't have to--in fact, I'd say shouldn't--call it "proper" football. Football has never been a single sport, it's a family of sports that developed largely in parallel. Association football is by far the most popular in the world but isn't the oldest football code and is actually the biggest outlier among the six football codes as the only one in which players can't move the ball with some combination of both carrying and kicking.
I recommend that people read up on the history of football. It's quite interesting; much messier than 99.9% of soccer fans in the world seem to know; and explains why nearly every English-speaking country, starting with England, has a history of people calling association football "soccer" and another sport "football" to varying degrees.
Long story short, when you see someone call soccer "the real football," say that American football shouldn't be called football because clearly the name refers to kicking the ball with the feet, think a ball being more egg-shaped is a weird American thing (association and Gaelic are played with round balls but rugby league and rugby union, Aussie rules and gridiron with similar elongated balls), or they think calling it soccer is an Americanism, you'll immediately realize that the person doesn't know what they're talking about. No need to suck up to those kinds of people who reveal their own ignorance in their attempts to feel superior.
@@sarahr3076Preach sister!🤩
David Beckham brought legitimacy. Zlatan really helped. Drogba, kaka and other helped a lot too. It’s truly growing by leaps and bounds. If there was no beckham the league would be at a max of 14-16 teams If the league would still exist. Now there’s over 30 clubs and counting and there’s no slow down in sight
Please stop forcing. MLS is so bad
@@j_james_01 I mean it's not but okay
@@j_james_01 Messi 👏😼
Keane established what a designated player should be like.
@@j_james_01MLS is bad compared to what exactly? Answer that
The cap is for a whole team minus 3 players that can be more expensive so it’s a whole team for 12 million
Came to make this comment. That's exactly correct
DP (designated players) have a cap hit, but less than what it costs to get them. Also, the teams can get up to 3 under 22 players where the transfer fee doesn't count against the cap but a part of their salary does. Lastly, homegrown players, depending on how the roster is set up, may not count against the salary cap.
DP’s hit the cap at the maximum player salary at about $651,000 each this season
Yep, 11mil roster cap, minus your home grown players and your Designated Players (Messi, Becks, Drogba, etc).
Average age, EPL: 26.75 years
Average age, MLS: 25.8 years
Retirement league, my ass.
Exactly
They're reffering to top level players, purposely coming over to secure more money when they otherwise wouldn't if they continued to play in europe.
MLS fan here, the league is growing into more of a farm league, which is a step in the right direction. But it's still fairly easy for some, not all, former European stars to play here at older ages. Until we see former big names come over and struggle, MLS will still have that stigma attached to it
@@Tu_Padre31 The MLS could care less about any stigmas. They have been laughing all the way to the bank.
@@Tu_Padre31
I know what they're talking about. But the reality is that the best players, by and large, are in their playing prime, or even younger.
If you look, for example, at the top ten MLS scorers to this point in the season, they are all in their twenties.
Yes, many/most are foreign. So what? Most decent leagues are majority foreign. It's a good thing that good players in their prime *WANT* to play in the league. Giakoumakis actively fought to play for Atlanta. I watched it closely. I'm a Celtic fan and I was pissed we sold him.
I'm just looking forward to the day, when coming to MLS (or *staying* in MLS) is widely regarded as a strong career move. Getting back to Celtic.... Having watched the Scottish league, I'm here to tell ya - that league is shit. The Scandinavian leagues aren't much better. Turkey, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, etc etc etc... Not so great. In terms of quality, all are inferior to MLS.
We've been conditioned to think "Europe = automatically better". I reject that as a given. Yes, the best European leagues are better.... For now...
@aregua188 they could care less... but they're literally the ones constantly bringing it up lmfao. The MLS makes great money, but they could be making much more. In years when the league continues to improve, they will. its amazing where it's currently at though.
11.6M for the team, NOT including designated players, homegrown players, or the U22 designated players rules which don't count under the salary cap
edit: also the players making the minimum are not included
DPs, TAM, and U22 initiative all count towards the Salary cap but at a fixed number.
Supplemental spots do not counts towards the Salary cap.
Also, TAM and GAM complicate explaining all of it even more lmao
Fork the record, concacaf champions league, and the US Open Cup (our fa cup) are both fun competitions in addition to the MLS season and playoffs.
A couple updates since this EFD video is a couple years old:
St. Louis City has now launched with a promising opening campaign and a beautiful, European style stadium. Just a week or two ago, MLS announced a 30th franchise in San Diego for a $500 million expansion fee. Meanwhile, clubs have brought in many more big names and small names alike in the last couple of years. Toronto bringing in Insigne and Bernardeschi from Napoli and Juve are two great examples, but there are many across the league. In December, Thiago Almada earned his way to a World Cup champion side while playing for an MLS team (tho he didn’t play much in the cup, this is still a great achievement for the league).
MLS is a great league with incredibly entertaining, all be it sometimes defensively-lacking football. I’d compare the level of play to the Championship or Belgian, Dutch, and Portuguese leagues, tho again sometimes defenses lag a little further behind. The league is continuing to expand and current teams are continuing to invest (such as NYCFC, the latest team to announce a soccer-specific stadium build), this is a great time to get into it. The fan-bases are mostly great, and definitely much more family friendly than some European and South American leagues. Much of the fan culture here is a charming amalgamation of fan cultures from around the world (which some Europeans seem to look down on us for, but I think it’s charmingly American).
As for your team choice, DC United is a nice choice. It’s one of the classic founding teams and has a lovely little stadium with steep stands by the banks of the Potomac. As a Palace supporter I can’t help but mention that Rooney has helped revitalize Benteke’s form this year and it’s lovely to see, they’re a really decent team to watch. Other teams to check out might be my New England Revs (tho we play in an NFL stadium not fit for the MLS), Atlanta United, LAFC, and the Pacific Northwest rivals the Timbers and Sounders.
The MLS is an idiosyncratic and imperfect league, but I’m glad it’s being treated more seriously by the wider footballing world. Many of our fans pay close attention to the European leagues and are more cosmopolitan than maybe your average British supporter (no shade, I adore an English club and the league as a whole). If we could eventually have promotion/relegation with the USL, the league would be even better! There are many interesting projects happening in the American lower leagues right now too!
Dear lord we’re you trying win a best seller with that novel lol
@@cjboyer4355 I left a long comment discussing something I’m really passionate about. Lighten up my friend, you don’t have to read it all if you don’t want!
@@pjkerrigan20 hey man I’m just giving you shit lol it’s all good but damn that was long
@Cj Boyer
No one told you that you had to read it! Get over yourself.
This just in: Soccer ⚽ still sucks and nobody cares about it here in the good ol USA.
Take it from an American Premier League fan who's been on and off with MLS for its entire existence and just jumped back on with the Apple TV deal: This is a very fun league to watch right now
Especially after Today 😳👏😼
I'm with you--American PL follower for years, on and off MLS fan for about a decade. This season is my first season following it really closely, and it is a great time to get in on the action. Very fun to watch.
Enjoying it! Leagues Cup games have been great
As a Houston Dynamo fan, DC sounds like a great choice for you, Rooney, good history from the early days, consistent identity, great stadium, east coast with rail to new york, so not the hardest for you to travel to. Good supporters culture, all that. It's a good choice for you.
best soccer sequence ive ever seen was wayne rooney tracking down an orlando city attacker in extra time w an empty dcu net. they needed 3 pts to stay in playoff contention. he slide tackles and gains possession all in one move, takes a touch, and launches it to the far post where 5 foot nothin, luciano acosta finds his inner jordan and heads it in at the far post for a walkoff essentially. unreal stuff. that was an amazing cpl months for dcu. never seen anything like it. this was full on attack for the W and rooney fkn saved the day.
Absolutely one of the most spectacular moments in the MLS
That sequence was absolutely amazing! One of the greatest plays in MLS history
Tim Liewicke was allowed to own five different franchises due to a thing called Single Entity Ownership.
Under this arrangement, the owners are more like shareholders in the league as a whole rather than just their individual franchises.
In the early days, Anschutz Entertainment Group and The Hunt Family themselves each owned half the franchises in the league.
It wasn't Lieweke. You're referring to Philip Anchutz of AEG. Leiweke was GM of LA Galaxy and Toronto FC.
Does this still apply today?
@@wholelottateo Yes. It's built into the structure of MLS.
Part of the reason it was allowed was AEG basically saved MLS. the League was close to folding for good in 2002, and AEG basically buying out at least half the teams kept the league afloat, then the 2002 World Cup happened, and the USMNT's great showing there, many of the players played in MLS and it helped steady the ship and its been growing ever since. Now there aren't multiple team owners anymore.
Soccer is the second most popular sport for male and female youth in the USA just behind basketball. This is what is fueling the growth of the MLS. You now have parents and grandparents who played the sport and know the game taking their children and grandchildren to MLS games.
The 11.6 million salary cap does not include designated players. Each team can have up to 3 of them and their salaries do not count against the salary cap. The team I support (Toronto FC) pays around 25 million a season in wages, but 14 million of that goes to just 2 players in Insigne and Bernadeschi. It must make for an interesting changing room when 2 players are making more than the rest of the team combined.
There are also various other mechanisms that reduce what is charged against a teams salary cap. For instance, the U22 initiative allows teams to contract promising young players (mostly from South America so far) and count only part of their salary against the cap. This is why almost all the clubs have a total wage bill above the salary cap. Also of note is the two clubs with the highest wage bills (Toronto & LA Galaxy) are near the bottom of the standings. This is what happens when you put all your money is 2 or 3 players, rather that spread it around so that you have a competitive team top to bottom.
@@donviajero2580yeah, you have Target allocation money (TAM) as well, it can be traded, earned, etc. both the DP and TAM players do still count against the salary cap though, although only up until a designated amount (which now I think is all the way up to 600k-ish). The league had come along way in terms of minimum salary as well! The early boys were basically below poverty line, now even the bottom makes a decent wage.
I am a big Real Salt Lake fan, they are really starting to turn this season around after a rough beginning. It can be jarring going from international level or higher to watching MLS. That being said, I have that oh so important emotional attachment. The passion is there and the quality is improving every year. I love that MLS is going about things it’s own way. It is a total paradigm shift from how Europe does it. I do hope for promotion/relegation in the distant future but I still want the manufactured parity to be a priority. That way all your top flight teams are spread out, rather than being concentrated in major coastal cities.
Yes, you heard right. MLS was in such financial crisis that some owners had to own multiple teams because no one wanted to invest even though teams cost very little back then (like $10 mill). The Beckham effect helped this league see increasing growth that hasn't stopped since he came and now the league has 30 teams with valuations approaching $1billion. If Beckham had such an impact on the league what will Messi do? I could see the league deciding to amend their salarystructure toi allow more spending. The world is looking. MLS will have the chanc to capture a huge audienc, but people will only follow the league if they like what they see.
Getting better on the field for sure! But off the field improvement has been insane over the last 10 years. New stadiums, teams, fans, TV deals, etc. I can’t wait to see where it’s at in 10 years
Let go DC!! Headed to the game tonight. I’ll tell Wayne you said hi.
My complaint with the MLS is that they signed a deal with Apple so this year you have to use their streaming service to watch games. I think that will hurt fan growth. If you need a team to cheer for, may I suggest the Columbus Crew. One of the original teams of the league. Their owner tried to screw them over and move the team but the fans organized and stopped the move. #SaveTheCrew
Not a fan of the streaming service deals either.
But I have to subscribe to peacock for premier league? So not sure what you’re getting at. I have both
@@tfries72 That he wants it on regular TV not some random streaming app. I don't want 30 streaming apps
When he mentioned the $11.6 million salary cap, that’s for an entire team. You are allowed to have three players that exceed that cap call designated players. Everybody else is total salary must be equal to or less than that salary cap point or you will get penalized.
Give it 10-15 years and soccer/football is going to be an absolute giant in the US. The west coast is already an absolute behemoth for soccer in the US with the Sounders, Timbers, and Galaxy all doing consistently big attendance rates for US soccer. I think things will really ramp up after the 2026 World Cup.
atlanta united fc is my favorite club as it arrived in 2017 and won the mls cup a year later as my dad was really happy about that. i do think things in the u.s. has not only gotten better with the game but i predict that they will win the world cup before england wins a 2nd one.
Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders game today should be wild. Portland and Seattle are a huge rivalry that has been going on since the late 70's. Should be a great game. Timbers beat the Sounders 4 - 1 at home. Today we are at Seattle.....hope to repeat that.
I truly enjoy all your videos. Soccer (European football) has never been of any interest to me, but this one intrigued me to start learning more about it. Great job, keep it up.
Apparently the Philadelphia Union, MLS team, lost the championship game the same day as the Philadelphia Phillies lost the World Series… As Crazy as that might sound, majority of the city didn’t even know we had some kind of soccer team outside of the USA women national team & under 12 years olds on Saturdays in the fall.
**The Premier League (is that a big thing in Europe?) was in Philly in October 2022
Premier League Mornings held a fan-fest in Philly. They’re the NBC team that covers the Premier League for the United States audience. The league itself was playing in England that weekend, as they always do, but the event in Philly was just sorta a big festival for PL fans in the US to come together in a College Gameday type of setting.
Also, my perception is that the Union have a solid fan base, they seem to generally sell games well and their fans are quite loud and passionate. I don’t live in the area or anything, but I guess ur comment doesn’t match the perception I had of the Union. That said, the growing MLS and global soccer audience in the US does seem to still be a bit of a blind spot for much of the established sports media in our country, so I see why many people still don’t know much about it.
And then, a few months later, the Philadelphia Eagles lost the Super Bowl.
@Ligan Leroy
Thanks for the reminder, should we bring up the Sixers too 😭💔
I think MLS's ceiling is somewhere around where the Portuguese league is in Europe, as a talent feeder into the big leagues. Honestly it surprised me how quickly it turned into producing some legit talents like Alphonso Davies
I’ve gotta respectfully disagree with ya. I’d say MLS’s current level is somewhere around the Portuguese league (minus the big 3), its ceiling is unknowable but certainly much higher than Primeira Liga. In terms of where this league can go, I’d say in a couple of decades it could legitimately be up there with Serie A and Ligue 1 at least. In theory it could become the biggest league in the world but I think that is an unrealistic prediction. Technically possible tho.
It can become the biggest league in the world simply because of the country the league is in. It's ceiling is unimaginable.
Nobody in America will ever admit it. That doesn't make it any less of a fact. The surge in the legitimate talent that you are seeing is a direct result of Klinsmann and his total overhaul of the youth system and youth scouting. It's such a shame that he wasn't a better manager because he is not remembered appropriately among Americans. We simply do not give him the gratitude he deserves, and I think that's because people just aren't aware of how big of an impact he actually had. He changed the entire US Soccer system. All of the strides that we have made forward can be attributed directly to him.
But nobody remembers because, and I'll be the first to admit it as well, he just wasn't very good at managing football games. But we took a great leap forward in every other area thanks to him.
I swear to God, all it would take is a really nifty 30 for 30 about him and he might actually get the gratitude he deserves from Americans. I really believe we do not show him the appreciation he deserves because most people just don't know all he did.
@The Last Man on Earth There's still a truck load full of problems with our youth system. It's still to much of a rich kid sport.
@JJ-nu8qi you notice I didn't say it was perfect. But it was brought forward leaps and bounds with Klinsmann. And I know there's still a lot of politics but I'll tell you, man. I saw the youth system up close in Seattle for a couple months (u14's) and I straight up put ALL of that on the parents. They were all demons. Just the worst people on earth.
I should note: I wasn't on the team. My roommate's daughter was on the u14s and I had to take her to and from for a couple months while her mom was at work.
I had SO much contempt for those parents you have no idea. I would imagine we have a hard time getting blue collar and immigrants kids because their parents just don't want to be around the other parents. I don't even think it's a money thing. But that was just Seattle.
Beckham is forever a legend to the mls
"I'm spoiled, I"m from Manchester... We have the best Manchest..."- British Guy **Man City fans Freak out** I'm dying.
I find the MLS far more interesting and fun than the prem. it reminds me of 90’s prem when football was more fun. Lots of number 10’s that are the focal point of the team. Every team has a star player, wonder goals, sloppy defending, high scores. And I’m telling you now, one thing players do well in this league is direct free kicks, every week there is an insane free kick scored. Plus you get American production for the broadcasting and match atmosphere. And, you can get a season pass to watch every game for £80 a year. Can’t beat that.
For our 5th most popular sport, it's not bad. But not very many people care about it here. Highly doubt it could ever come close to Our Football, Basketball, Baseball, & Hockey.
I do love watching EFL here on Saturday mornings. The intensity is amazing. That second leg League 1 playoff comeback by Sheffield Wednesday was thrilling. 🙂
It has already passed hockey. At least that’s what several surveys have said
I think it will very likely surpass baseball at some point and has probably comfortably surpassed hockey in most regions of the US. Our country has a lotta room for sports fandom tho, so I don’t like pitting soccer against the others as if we can’t adore them all. Soccer has been my favorite sport for years now, but I am happy to call myself a baseball, football, and basketball fan as well.
@Patrick Kerrigan
Soccer night surpass hockey but definitely not baseball. MLB is making a mistake on their unfair international draft, that limits Americans, Canadians & Puerto Ricans of the same opportunity.
Also, the legally but reprehensible child labor camps in the DR; all for cheaper players & to skirt around the labor laws here.
I made my comment extra long on purpose (referencing the last guy that commented!) haha
It’s already surpassed hockey
@pjkerrigan20 will be a while before it surpasses baseball. The Phillies and Eagles were the talk of the town last year in Philadelphia. Nobody new the Union were in MLS cup, the news hardly mentioned them in their sports segments.
There is a difference between star power, and top footballer. Beckham was a massive star. It's debatable if the league would have survived without his arrival. By contrast Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard were top footballers. They brought legitimacy to the league, but they didn't do much to fill the stands. Casual sports fans didn't recognize them, but everyone knew Beckham.
I say this, because in the UK, you don't need stars to sell tickets. You need quality players for your team to do well. So, Beckham's impact was due to his star power, not his playing ability. Not to say that he wasn't a great player, but his impact was greater than his ability would suggest.
As this video has noted, the MLS is now developing talent of its own. I can confirm this because I'm a Vancouver Whitecaps fan who saw a 15 year old Alphonso Davies make his professional debut.
The MLS has been doing great for at least the last 5 years with an excellent organizational plan. And they don't care who makes fun of them or who hasn't been paying attention!
The 11.6 million salary cap is incorrect. According to MLS, the 2023 salary cap is $5,210,000 per team. That means that is all a team can spend for it's entire roster, minus the 2-3 designated players each team is allowed that can be paid over the salary cap. The clubs in MLS are also, technically, not separate entities from the league, and those operating the clubs are called "owner/operators." Yes, at one point in the early 2000's, the ten MLS clubs were operated by just two individuals, Lamar Hunt and Phillip Anschutz. Now, the 29 clubs have, each, their own "owner/operator". I live near St. Louis, and grew up with the old North American Soccer League, which operated from 1968 through 1984 ...a total of 17 years., The NASL was never stable, with clubs joining, then moving or folding within 2-5 seasons. MLS in now in it's 28 season, has had only one team move, and just three fold, over that 28 seasons. St. Louis City SC's owner/operators also own Enterprise Rent-a-Car, the largest car rental company in the United States. The owner/operators of St. Louis Sc spent their own money to build the club's home ground, CityPark, at a cost of $457.8 million.
The cap is for the whole team *AFTER* a whole bunch of extra adjustments have been made. For example:
- Up to 3 players can be signed using a Designated Player Contract. Those contracts only count as, say, $750k/year, but the actual money the player can be paid is unlimited.
- At the start of each season, the MLS hands out "allocation budgets". These aren't real budgets with real money, instead they are like credits that can be used to "buy down" contracts. This lets you pay a player $1 million per year, then use $500k of an allocation budget to "buy down" the contract so that it only counts as $500k towards the cap.
Beckham’s role is enormous. I mean, he just landed Messi! His contributions keep on rolling forward.
Check out FC Cincinnati. We were the worst team in the league for our first three seasons, then we turned it around and are currently the supporter's shield leaders. Lucho Acosta, Pat Noonan, and Chris Albright are an incredible team as captain, coach, and manager, respectively.
Each team gets 3 dp players (designated player) this can be those big name big nine players outside of the salary cap. These dp players are not included in salary cap, so they can be paid however much the owner wants
Check out Saint Louis City SC,you should also look into the history of The Beatifull Sport in that area the was a league established there in 1884.
Frankly, we're not quite there yet, but we've seen some big strides forward. I feel like MLS would slot right between the Championship and League 1, maybe even near the Championship level.
From a global perspective, that would make it a top 15 league.
I'll never be sold on Beckham and his "impact." I recognize the media impact, of course. But he really didn't do anything on the pitch that's worthy of any praise. When he wasn't hurt, he was out on loan. And then he would get hurt when he was out on loan. I only give him credit for making a bridge for other players to cross over. That's it.
And Pirlo was soooo bad in the States. HE is actually the person who destroyed the myth that you could just come over here and dominate in America when your career is coming to an end. When he was over here, he played like he was 60 years old and hadn't played football in 20 years. Always the very slowest person on the entire pitch. Very little creativity. Absolutely no defense at all. Several matches, even NYCFC fans were willing to admit he was really lacking in effort. But I don't think it was effort. He just literally couldn't hang.
He really embarrassed himself in America, and I think that really shifted the narrative.
The top MLS teams could definitely hang in the Champions league. I dunno if all of them could.
nah mate.... that $11.6M is for almost the full squad. Gotta remember the Beckham rule which if I recall.... allows 5 players (up from the original 3 players when first introduced) on a squad to not count towards the salary cap. Yeah.... American sports culture is BIG on salary caps.... keeps things interesting making teams always have juggle the numbers to put together a competitive team that could win it all. I guess very much unlike the English Prem where it's pretty much always the same teams winning the league... the ones with money for top players.
What we are doing in St. Louis had been long overdue
Fun to watch this and read the comments on June 10th.
The salary cap is for team wages and not including 3 designated players. We don’t pay large transfer fees, only players on free transfers. The problem is the TV deals and once the league can get around 1 billion to 2 billion a year, it’s over for the rest of the world. It’s no relegation and money divided between teams and our wages could be 100 million salary cap, the league will be around 30 mid table premier league clubs or 30 athletico Madrid and no weak clubs, no city or Barca, psg is fine, they are getting ready for 2026.
Extratime podcast good way to keep up with MLS.
Nope it is not for one player, the salary cap is for the entire squad minus players with the DP (designated player) designation.
The salary cap doesn't include designated players or the U22 initiative. I also don't think it includes homegrown players. Designated player salaries run in the millions but the average salary per non-designated player ranges from $300k to $700k, which is incredibly low by the top 4 leagues in Europe, which would put MLS salaries more in line with England's Championship League. I would expect to see in increase in the salary cap and possibly a fourth designated player slot added (Thanks Inter-Miami!) in the not-too-distant future.
David Beckham definitely had a lot to do with the growth of MLS due to the implementation of the Designated Player rule after his arrival and his purchase of Inter-Miami, which after getting initially penalized for trying to skirt the salary cap, has managed to land Messi.
And do yourself a favor... DO NOT follow DC United. Try following the Columbus Crew (Nancy has them playing some sweet soccer), Inter-Miami (for Messi), Seattle Sounders, LAFC, and Atlanta United.
Honestly the salary cap is what makes the MLS even worth watching. What everyone else does is bs lol it does not make the game fun or competitive and just makes one or two teams competitive 😅. Is a great example Tom Brady won 3 superbowls without the salary cap then the salary cap was introduced and he won three more and that is what makes competition fun that is what makes sports even worth watching watching somebody with all the firepower to somebody that you have to really pick and choose particular players with that will fit perfect to your team and bring that team to a championship. Lionel Messi Cristiano Ronaldo they don't know anything about that they've always had pretty damn good teams around them even David Beckham and zlatan etc etc a lot of these big European soccer stars even the Spanish leagues get to spend way too much money and build superteams that's bulshit the MLS salary cap gives everyone a chance and actually gets a show-off real skills that slaps people in the face when they said all this guy is definitely not worth the big money and then that guy goes or team in general and as futbol fans overseas you guys should be pissed and should be wanting this MLS salary cap because I know a lot of you guys a die-hard fans of dying franchises because they cannot win nor have enough money to compete with all these other teams that have big bucks
The MLS has indeed evolved into a very exciting league to follow. You'll have a lot of fun watching it!
It's a bad time of year for soccer here in the state's. Once the NFL season kicks off they dominate the ratings by a huge margin. Honestly we get a little interested during the world cup and the Olympics but it half hearted
One thing I think people outside the States don’t get about MLS is that the lack of quality is intentional. The league doesn’t want a few rich clubs to buy their way to relevance, so they limit how much can be spent. Americans no matter the sport love scoring, so clubs put their big dollars into offense and almost nothing into defense. What you get on the other side is really exciting attacking football paired with sometimes shockingly bad defense. It’s actually kinda rad, you never know who will win a match.
Its not 11. 6 technically. Usually comes out to 20-50 million depending on the Dps, homegrowns etc.
Will MLS grow? Yes
Will MLS ever get close to NfL? No
The MLS doesn't really need to beat out the NFL as the US's #1 sports league. It's successful and making money, and interest continues to grow. The MLS overtook the NHL to make it the 4th most watched league in the US, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it pass the MLB in the next decade to move it to #3.
Between hosting the World Cup and Messi, I think MLS will be on par with the top 5 Euro leagues in a decade. I think the best thing MLS can do is keep a salary cap to promote fairness but removed some of the other confusing financial restrictions.
Orlando City had Nani if you need another Man U-MLS connection
FYI - that new broadcast media deal was signed last year, after this video was made: 2.5billion for 10 years 👌🏽
No he did not own five clubs at once, he started them then sold them one after another. He was also never the majority owner either. His ownership was through a corporate entity.
Thiago Almada will break the MLS transfer record if he’s sold.
I think MLS does a great job at showing why american sports are different. like Everton will not travel as far all year as any mls team. Hell Messi will travel farther to go on just one trip to play in Seattle than all but a few teams in England will travel all season. Also it's not just the USA all leagues but the NFL play in Canada as well. the NFL plays games in Mexico.
You know what Dude, I would like to see the MLS Clubs competing in La Copa libertadores de América. Let us know your thoughts on that one.
This video is a couple of years old. A lot has happened in thay shirt time including a couple of new teams and of course...MESSI
He got Messi to go to his club, so I think Beckham should continue to get some recognition
There is a video recently made where the salary is discussed. You are basing your salary on the EPL... The EPL is the most expensive league in the world. In Spain, only top 4 teams spend more then MLS teams.. in fact, the MLS is the most balanced league among the leagues across the world. Only Serie A, La Liga, and the EPL have teams that spend more in general than the MLS...
Beckham was the flashpoint for bringing soccer to the public eye. Pele was not enough.
The cap is for the whole team except the 3 designated players.
People don't understand any business takes time! Not top league now but give it another 10-20 years! People won't have a choice and it's actually growing faster than people think!
Also, I would totally disagree with Beckham "putting a face on it". The face should be that the city of Miami wants soccer, having Beckham holding a contract that says they have no choice and rich boy gets his way makes it look awful. It's like the opposite of sports.
Love my Atlanta United.
Glad to say I live in the soccer capital of the United States. Kansas City!
Back then MLS only had a handful of owners because nobody was investing. Now a days owners are paying half a billion dollars for entry into the league.
Well... Now Messi is here. I think the league is going to get verrrry interesting!
React to "MLS best/loudest crowd reactions"
In order to understand ⚽ in America, you first have to comprehend the difference between a franchise and a ⚽ club...
The only thing it really has going for it is the time of the season. The only competition it has is the only game more boring than it. There’s a lot of sports junkies and gamblers here
Will you be reacting to the 2023 MLS Cup (LAFC v Columbus) by chance?
most of us are boycotting the Leagues Cup because MLS wants to fully pull out of the US Open Cup (The Domestic Cup in America). Leagues cup is mostly a Money grabber for the league (not mentioning Lionel Messi)
IMO, the MLS can say it has arrived as a major league when young international stars prefer to play with the MLS. Rather than the soccer giants like Premier League, La Liga, etc.
Galaxy supporter here, the video is wrong. Tim Leiweke never owned any team, he was the president of AEG the owners of the LA Galaxy. Phil Anschutz is the actual owner of the LA Galaxy and at one point had to own several teams to keep MLS from dying. He only owns the LA Galaxy and the LA Kings (hockey) clubs
One other similarity between the EPL and MLS is the lack of English players now a days...
Messi coming to MLS
Nope. That's the team excluding 3 designated players that can go above.
The MLS seriously needs to re-align their season. It needs to be played to match up with the Euopean season so transfer windows align. Secondly, they need to combine MLS and the USL Leagues for promotion/relegation. Refusal to do these 2 things by the the powers that be will ensure MLS will continue to be nothing more than a bottom tier league in the scope of world football. And as long as the USA keeps their "pay to play" philosophy, US football will forever be behind the power curve.
DC UNITED!!! DC UNITED!!! DC UNITED!!! DC UNITED!!!
I'm a soccer fan who lives in Untied States and I don't watch MLS. It's a second tier league
MLS should aspire to be the best premiership in the world, bar none. Aiming for anything less, is a waste of time, money, and energy.
To Europeans who think that sounds ridiculous... You watch our movies. You listen to hip hop and rock and roll. You wear blue jeans. You live on a continent, rebuilt by American political will, money and technology. Do you really want to bet against us when we get serious about achieving a goal?
To Americans who think that sounds ridiculous... North America (that's charitable - let's be honest... Canada is just along for the ride) is already home to the best leagues in the world for three global sports; baseball, basketball, and ice hockey. It's also home to the world's most lucrative professional sports league of any kind. Why is it far fetched to think MLS might join those other leagues? Changing tastes and demographics are on the league's side.
You're absolutely right that if Americans ever really got serious about soccer as a nation MLS would almost certainly become the dominant league in the world. That doesn't mean that it will ever happen, though, especially if you mean within our lifetime. (Or my lifetime, anyway - I'm old.) Those best leagues in the world for three global sports, not to mention the world's most lucrative professional sports league of any kind, are all in competition for our entertainment dollars. It isn't entirely a zero sum game, but for MLS to compete on the same level it would almost certainly have to attract some attention and money that now goes to one or more of the other four sports. The four better established (in the US) sports already fill the entire year with significant overlap, and I suspect the biggest factor slowing the growth of hockey in the US is the fact that its schedule overlaps almost exactly with basketball. An MLS that competes with (or exceeds) the Premier League might not be possible without a significant decline in one or more of the other sports. Now, if you believe that soccer is a better spectator sport than one or all of those, then you won't see this as a serious long term problem for it. (And the word spectator is important in that sentence - however enjoyable a sport is to play, professional sports leagues rely on spectators and TV ads for their revenue, so you need people willing to pay to watch and a straightforward means of collecting ad revenue in order to fund a league.) Soccer has grown a lot in the US during my lifetime, if rather slowly. There are good reasons to expect that the growth will continue, and some reasons to think that it might accelerate. But I think we're still a long way from ousting the Premier League as the dominant soccer league in the world.
@@hkpew
I don't know what you consider old. To a teenager, 35 is old. To an octogenarian, a sixty year old is a pup.
I'm 52. Pelé made me a lifetime fan when he came to play for the Cosmos. I played competitively from age 6 to age 18, and recreationally into my 40s. I adopted a foreign club to support (Celtic FC) forty years ago.
All this is to say, I consider myself an American soccer OG. Frankly, I never thought I would live to see what the game has become to this point... A legitimate premiership. Live matches broadcast from all over the world on mainstream media outlets. A national side which is no longer content just to show up. World class academies and youth development (witness, the U20 World Cup - we're the only country in the world to make three consecutive quarter finals). Roughly two hundred fully professional clubs in every corner of the country.
What has happened to the great world game in this country is nothing short of staggering, and it shows no signs of stopping. If we make a deep run (semi final or better) in 2026, we will see an explosion in this country. Is that guaranteed? Obviously not. Is it possible? Was the War of Independence possible? The dissolution of slavery? The intercontinental railroad? The Doolittle raid? Putting a man on the moon?
I'm not some sort of jingoistic flag-waving, 'Murca kind of a guy. But I know enough history to know that when we get serious, things get done. I dare to believe that we're serious about proper football.
The video you are watching reminds me how much I really hate the sing-song BBC style presentation. It seems every Brit presenter trys to mimic it. It has ruined a UA-cam generation. Lol!
Uhhh no?
MLS also has Messi 🐐
I think in another 10 year it can pass MLB
One name. Hany mukthar
How about some MLS reactions?
The youth system in America is horrible pay to play
I will only take the MLS seriously until the day they add relegation and promotion
With DC United, in addition to Wayne Rooney you also get Leeds United’s king of shithousery Mateusz Klich.
Enjoy.
MOT💛💙EBFG💚💙
Who’s here after Messi news
At a season ticket holder for almost 20 years, if anything I take MLS less seriously each year. Our best level is a stepping stone for central and south americans to real clubs in Europe.
Join the Union 🐍 I guess a Brit wouldn’t want to do that though😂
USL >>> MLS
MESSI
Its a fine sport for kids , it uses up time and energy which kids have too much of, any size field any number of players very basic skills are needed easy to understand and follow and the best player makes no more goals than the worst so nobody's feelings are hurt.Its just not an adult sport.
The only people who think it isn't an adult sport are people who haven't watched professional club or high-level international matches. You're like the English people who make fun of baseball because rounders is a similar game mostly played by young girls there. All sports start with basics for little kids then ramp up to progressively higher levels of skill and knowledge that take many years and a lot of talent to pull off. People who have only watched little kids play don't know anything about the advanced layers of skills and tactics of the sport at higher levels. That's fine, I just wish people wouldn't spout off without even having watched the professional level of the sport first.
this video is slightly outdated
MLS is on Apple + exclusively now. Its hurting the league and looks to be a blunder of a media deal.