Originally Posted by
Dub Narcotic
I'm getting pretty tired of every single thread on this board having some comment along the lines of 'stupid MLS, blah, blah, blah' or 'Don Garber is a moron, blah blah blah'. The MLS existing at all, and providing a sustainable scaffolding for North American football, is a small miracle, and is the result of hundreds of millions of dollars of investment at the public and private levels and countless careers and man hours of work in the face of incredible hurdles and skepticism. Certainly nobody is getting rich off this league. Yet, listening to some on this board, it seems like everyone involved in the league should be grateful that sophisticated European football watchers here in Toronto have condescended to watch a few games.
Look at the problems in European football:
A few big teams win *everything*. How is this sustainable? Not only do the elite teams constantly destroy everyone else, but they use their influence to pry players away from their home clubs and exert influence over referees and officials. Sport should be about a level playing field, and the European leagues are anything but.
Match fixing. From the biggest league to the smallest, match fixing is a repeated problem all across the continent. This is a huge problem, but seems to be accepted as part of the business.
Transfer anarchy. The typical transfer process in Europe involves greedy agents, compliant newspapers, corrupt managers and jerk-ass narcissistic players (err, 'slaves'). This is what we are aspiring to?
Owner insanity. Corrupt Russian douchebags, criminal politicians, debt-ridden flippers and Ken Bates. What else has to be said?
Compare this to MLS, which has good parity between the teams, so half the games aren't already decided before they start, and good ownership, so as long as there is some fan support, the franchises are stable. The player allocation process supports parity, but still allows smart clubs who allocate their cap dollars and scouting resources well to have long-term success. MLS certainly needs to improve in a lot of areas, but in the most important ones, quality of play and fan experience, the league is growing organically, if slowly, and is is a pretty good place for being less than fifteen years old.
It's hard to build something good from nothing, and easy to crap over someone else's efforts. I'm disappointed that so many on this board (and I know not everyone is like this) choose simple-minded cynicism and negativity over more moderate and nuanced discussion over MLS's present and future.