Are Big Exhibition Matches Really Good for US Soccer?

By: Bob | August 9th, 2006

dc united.jpg Soccer fans in the United States will have the chance to see two of the world’s top clubs play tonight on American soil. In Houston, Barcelona will take on Mexican side Club America. In Seattle, Barca’s rival Real Madrid will square off against MLS leader DC United. Both games will see crowds in excess of 50,000 people. Both games will likely be proclaimed a success by organizers, the clubs involved and US soccer officials.

The influx of Europeans teams holding preseason tours in the United States began a few years ago when big clubs like Manchester United, Celtic and Chelsea started to realize that the US is a huge, largely untapped soccer market full of people willing to shell out big money to see them play and to buy their jerseys.

“It’s something a lot of players dream about,” DC United’s Jaime Moreno said about the opportunity to face Real Madrid. “It’s a great opportunity for us and a great opportunity for this league to keep doing these kind of games.”

Sure it must be a thrill for the players, but is it really a great opportunity for the league to host these exhibition matches?

The fact remains that while US soccer fans flock to see the best teams in the world they do not flock to see MLS games in part because MLS teams are not the best teams in the world. Not even close. That isn’t to say that MLS games can’t be fun to attend and that the soccer isn’t good, but not even the most optimistic MLS fan cannot dispute that fans will consistently see better soccer week in and week out if they watch games from abroad on one of the growing number of cable channels that show international soccer.

Moreover, because of the increasing amount of global soccer shown on television and the growth of the Internet, an American soccer fan in a non-MLS market like Seattle is likely to know much more about Real Madrid than it is about DC United. Attending an exhibition match likely won’t change that even if DC United wins and the spin becomes that US soccer is starting to reach the caliber found elsewhere in the world.

The fact is that more people will walk away from tonight’s match a Real Madrid fan than they will a fan of DC United. People are paying $60 to see the Harlem Globtrotters, not the Washington Generals. That is really the point of these exhibition matches. Their purpose is to grow the fan bases and the bank accounts of big clubs from abroad. Sure they also help to generate interest in soccer in the United States, but I remain skeptical that this interest will translate to growth in the domestic market.

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Karl

Well, the games might not turn people on to MLS as much as one might like, but they certainly won't turn people off if MLS teams get respectable results. Plus it's made MLS one of the few sports where the all-star game is actually interesting to watch.
Alan Jacobson

I agree that people will be attracted to the superior European teams. However the way that it will positively affect the US soccer market is to reinforce that there IS a US soccer market. The big sports money increasing being solicited to build 25,000 seat soccer arenas here and there need to know that, even though they could give a fig about soccer, there is money to be made and that they should keep writing the checks.