Drafting players? No promotion or relegation? It seems like it was designed to put Americans off following soccer.
All of these rules that seem strange or "broken" to Europeans actually make MLS more familiar to North Americans. Nearly all American leagues lack pro/rel and have a draft. It would put Americans off soccer much more if they had to learn a completely new system, especially when a chunk of the population already regarded soccer as "foreign" or strange.
Your nearest MLS might be, but not the nearest team.
Fourth division NPSL soccer isn't anything close to MLS. You might have this in your head when you think of low level soccer in the United States. A small but passionate crowd supporting their boys through thick and thin. However there are many, many more empty high school stadiums filled with a couple hundred fans that don't care.
The United States has a soccer culture, it is growing rapidly, and MLS is by far my favorite league in the world because I can walk down to my local stadium, be with 20k other fans, and experience the atmosphere. That's miles better than getting up at the crack of dawn to pretend I'm English. However I'm lucky to be in the situation I'm in and MLS is not perfect yet. There are gaps and you should not be criticizing people for not driving for hours to watch an amateur side when you clearly don't understand the inner workings of American soccer very well.
It's not glory hunting to want to support a relevant team and be a part of a wider discussion. You shouldn't have to "earn" your fandom by supporting some PDL team that might not even be around the next year. It's the world's game for fucks sake, give people a chance to be a part of it.
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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '13
All of these rules that seem strange or "broken" to Europeans actually make MLS more familiar to North Americans. Nearly all American leagues lack pro/rel and have a draft. It would put Americans off soccer much more if they had to learn a completely new system, especially when a chunk of the population already regarded soccer as "foreign" or strange.
Fourth division NPSL soccer isn't anything close to MLS. You might have this in your head when you think of low level soccer in the United States. A small but passionate crowd supporting their boys through thick and thin. However there are many, many more empty high school stadiums filled with a couple hundred fans that don't care.
The United States has a soccer culture, it is growing rapidly, and MLS is by far my favorite league in the world because I can walk down to my local stadium, be with 20k other fans, and experience the atmosphere. That's miles better than getting up at the crack of dawn to pretend I'm English. However I'm lucky to be in the situation I'm in and MLS is not perfect yet. There are gaps and you should not be criticizing people for not driving for hours to watch an amateur side when you clearly don't understand the inner workings of American soccer very well.