Everyone loves to talk about television ratings. One of the most cited indicators for any league’s popularity is how many sit down to watch games in the comfort of their own homes. These numbers have never been kind to MLS, and early numbers for 2017 continue that trend. This is not something soccer fans should be obsessing over, though. Low MLS TV ratings happen for a number of reasons, and none of them point towards the death of the league or that it’s minimal popularity is waning.
Do Not Worry About Low MLS TV Ratings
The World Soccer Talk podcast spoke about the slightly decreased MLS TV ratings for the first five weeks of the season. Their numbers showed that overall ratings for national broadcasts are down 8% from the same time last season. This appears to be a problem at first glance, especially after such large gains last season, but these numbers can be misleading.
Spanish Language Games are Down, English Language Games are Up
Univision’s ratings are the main cause of the decline. Their viewers for Saturday afternoon games are down 25% from 2016, when they broadcast games on Friday nights. Saturday afternoon is a congested time in American sports, especially in the spring and fall and UniMas has taken a hit because of that.
More importantly than moving to a more congested time slot is the lack of compelling matchups for these games. Here is a list of the matches UniMas has broadcast so far this season: LA Galaxy v. FC Dallas, New York Red Bulls v. Colorado Rapids, Atlanta United v. Chicago Fire, New York Red Bulls v. Real Salt Lake, Columbus Crew v. Orlando City, and D.C. United v. New York City. Only two of these games feature any of the big ratings boosting teams MLS tries to push onto national TV. Orlando City and Atlanta United are the biggest eyeball attractors on this list, but they played Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire respectively. Those are two of the least popular teams in the league, which drops viewing audiences significantly.
Setting aside popularity, the games themselves have’t been all that intriguing. The opener between LA Galaxy and FC Dallas and the second between Red Bulls and Rapids are the only ones on this list between title contending teams. The rest pit low end teams against each other or one of the contenders in a predictable game. MLS is never going to win over the Latin American audience by giving them such awful matchups.
ESPN and FS1 games tell a different story. ESPN ratings are actually up 29% while FS1 is slightly up with a 5% increase. Their games have featured more marketable teams. Portland has played three times on national television. So has Atlanta United. Seattle has been on national English language TV twice this year. As has Orlando City. These three teams are the biggest ratings drivers so far this year, and it’s a main reason ESPN and FS1 are seeing increased numbers.
We have to remember that MLS has very few ratings driving teams. The more often the likes of Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Orlando, and, to a lesser extent, New York City FC are on national television, the better ratings will look.
Lots of Competition in the Spring
MLS is competing with a lot of other events in sports overall, let alone soccer. Although there is rarely any conflict with MLS games, all the major European leagues are in the head of their title races. Their superstars and world class quality of play has people choosing them over MLS, in general.
Liga MX is the primary culprit in the soccer world. It is the most watched soccer league in this country and its average game gets four times the viewing audiences of the best of the best in MLS. Not only are the cultural ties Mexican-Americans feel towards their home league impossible to break, but their regular seasons are more meaningful due to the singe table system and threat of relegation at the end of the year. The quality of play is also significantly ahead of MLS, as the CONCACAF Champions League proves every year.
The Premier League also outdraws MLS, and it isn’t even close. A match between relegation contenders with little to no American fanbase gets better ratings than any MLS game available. Sure, the intrigue of a relegation battle has the power to draw in audiences, which could help MLS immensely, but I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole here. Another big reason this game will do better is because there’s no other sports on before noon on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Live sports are always better than canned studio shows and even a casual soccer fan will tune into that game over another edition of SportsCenter.
The impact of other American sports has an even greater impact than other soccer, however. MLS match weekends have gone toe to toe with some pretty important college basketball games so far. A general American sports fan will choose to watch the far more meaningful NCAA tournament, and the conference tournament games leading up to it, rather than the diluted regular season of MLS. The NBA and NHL are in the thick of their playoff races, which also draws eyeballs away from domestic soccer.
Things Will Even Out Eventually
Judging MLS TV ratings after one month of the season is a poor idea. There is too much random variation and competition from other soccer and other sports. Numbers will go back up as UniMas and Univision bag themselves some higher profile games and the more mainstream leagues end their seasons and free up space for more casual fans to tune in. This happens every year as viewership numbers spike in June, July, and August before the NFL sucks every American sports fan in.
