Just glad that the Vancouver stadium has a retractable roof. Too bad for Toronto and Mtl.
Taking a break in Dec/Jan/Feb, so get your Winter in order.
November and late February/March is wintry in Toronto and Montreal. Jays had snow on their first day of play in April 1977.
My assumption was incorrect. I just got a notification that MLS will give season ticket holders an Apple TV subscription.
Vancouver-LA match here next Saturday should have the atmosphere of a World Cup match with 53,000 in attendance. Looking forward to it.
Incredible game and atmosphere last night. If this is what 54,000 fans in BC Place sound like at a WC game it will be a great success.
LA should have won last night so it was sweet that a Canadian team beat them after the Dodgers broke my heart by beating the Jays. Son was the star for LAFC but the Caps’ goalposts were their stars.
Here is how you win as an expansion team in MLS:
Short version. Be more innovative (use analytics), want it more, ignore the fact that no matter what happens you’ll be in the same league next year (as opposed to many MLS teams that care less about the competition and more about their wallets), so go for it. Sure, one day you’ll settle into the routine of printing money for the owners.
San Diego did do an impressive job but I am hoping its great season ends on Saturday….
Should be a great game. Worthy of some non-subscription network showing it.
But no.
I will have to go to a local sports bar to watch it; the sacrifices I have to make to view my teams!
Good to see the Inter Miami Gerber’s finally advance to a final. If they get the trophy, I wonder if Beckham will give Don a shout-out for the extra effort to prop up his investment so it didn’t go to complete shit.
I hope they don’t get the trophy, of course.
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MLS should promote a “Messi vs Müller” storyline for the final but MLS is lousy at marketing.
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The media seem to be covering it that way. This article is typical. The two stars seem to have very different roles for their respective teams. Müller has become the spokesperson and the clear field general for the Whitecaps. Messi is there to score goals.
“Maybe as the development of the lower divisions continue to grow, as they’ve been doing so well over the years, there will be a proper ecosystem. I’m not sure. Frankly, I don’t believe that ecosystem can exist today, but who knows?'” he added. “I’ve learned never say never. That doesn’t mean we’re having promotion/relegation anytime soon.”
Uh-huh. Sure helps growth when you keep those other Divisions down under your feet.
Issue started at its inception: find owners who will agree to a cartel, and forget the grassroots teams that already exist. Find new owners willing to pay the current owners to join. Profit.
I hope the solution actually becomes: USL gets more popular than MLS, MLS gives in, asks for Div 1 status, and USL says, “No, you will be our new Division 2, and 3 teams will promote/relegate each year. If your teams are good enough, they’ll all become the Div 1. After ten years or so.”
Also:
Garber was less enthusiastic about the situation in Vancouver, where the Whitecaps’ lease with home venue BC Place expires at the end of the year, and progress on acquiring a site for a new soccer stadium remains slow.
“The MLS team, its owners, its fans, its players have done everything to earn the support that they’re not getting today from the city and from the province and that’s an untenable situation,” he said."What we have there has to change. And right now, we’re not necessarily on a path to do that. … We had a very positive meeting with the mayor. We’re looking at getting a better lease at BC Place right now. There’s been no movement on that, and it’s been a month.
“We are in the business of delivering for those people that really, really want to have an MLS team that they can love and embrace. And that’s not just fans. They’ve done that,” he added. “You need to have cities and provinces do that, and we’re still waiting to see whether they’ll be able to deliver. And if they don’t, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”
So, basically strong-arming cities, provinces, whole nations even, in order for the public to pay to build a stadium eventually managed by the MLS Soccer Team.
“It’s the American Way!”
MLS announced recently that its games would move to Apple TV’s main subscription service after existing as MLS Season Pass, an additional subscription under the Apple TV umbrella. The two sides also agreed to end the agreement early after the 2028-29 campaign. Garber didn’t view this switch as a defeat, but more as a case of staying flexible if some aspects of the deal weren’t working.
“Good businesses think about having the planning and strategy to go into making the right decisions and having the courage to pivot, to evolve those decisions, if it’s not delivering everything that we’re looking to deliver,” he said."We had a deal that was a revenue-sharing deal based on the subscriptions. When that went away, we sat down, didn’t take a lot of time, and said, ‘Let’s redo our deal,’ and that has a different term and some other elements. They couldn’t have been better to work with. They couldn’t have been smarter to work with. They’ve been great partners.
Hell of a spin: “We did the brave thing by crawling back to AppleTV+ to get a worse deal.”
What was the MLS looking to deliver? More money for owners? More eyeballs caring about your product which leads to more money for owners?
“When that went away…” Seems like Apple wanted out.
More pointed analysis:
No comment from me.
Fortunately, public subsidies of stadiums are not popular with Canadian taxpayers. In Vancouver, the BC Place venue is already a great place to watch soccer in any month of the year. No need for another stadium especially since BC Place only currently hosts a few CFL games and concerts during the year. I have no problem if the Whitecaps negotiate a better deal with BC Place but a new stadium is a non-starter.
We also have a decent “Division 2” team to watch here if the Whitecaps leave town. However I think outdoorsmen like Müller really like the recreation that Vancouver and its surroundings offer. Can’t imagine he would be thrilled if the team relocates.
I wonder if the timing of the WC 2026 Draw today and the scheduling tomorrow detract from the MLS Final?
Not sure who cares this early about the times of the matches.
Big issue for MLS moving to traditional season is competition from other leagues called “football” where the feet are used on the ball extremely sparingly and at rare times illegally. NFL on Sundays, and Th and M and some F and Sa. College on every day except the rare Sunday before NFL starts. High School on Fri.
And yes, the Xenophobia of Soccer in the USA is still alive and well. The getting-stupider-by-the-tackle Jaxson Dart recently reminded everyone of that.
There ain’t no “xenophobia” with soccer. It’s just boring as hell to watch 