Johnny...johnnyangryfuzzball wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 6:15 pmDon't kid yourself.
Expansion teams are about one thing first and foremost, and that is expansion fees. Each new team means a few extra million for every other team in the league. That goes for every professional sports league in existence.
The only reason major leagues don't do it more often is because they're much less willing to see an expansion team fail.
Especially for the MLS which many have called a ponzi scheme, keep expanding to cover other teams cost.
The other reason they don't expand is it dilutes their revenue share from league revenue sources. But for MLS expansion fees IS the League wide rev source. This is why they needed that Apple deal (desparate). They've run out of large mkts to expand. And MLS teams are already over valued vs mature leagues (Value to revenue).
Sounder...
you would think having a national league footprint would help... but not always. MLS is like MLB fans are homers, they watch their team... vs FB where people will watch other teams too (aka TNF, SNF, MNF are good examples). It's truly amazing how low their ratings still are with what 27 teams and being around for 25 or so years?
It will be interesting to see what ESPN and FOX do in 2023, ie if they pick up games when they aren't exclusive.
ESPN now has NHL/NBA still some MLB and XFL. Fox has USFL/Nascar. July Aug needs some filler.