Just making sure this ends up where it belongs.
2024 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs
- Thread starter Gene
- Start date
By the way, I somehow missed this gem from our former contributor @dummyrun after the second Galaxy goal.
bsky.app
John Muller (@johnspacemuller.com)
Both clubs staying true to their tactical identity: the Galaxy looking to break lines to their pacy attackers, the Red Bulls collapsing in the playoffs
bsky.app
I can not stress how much this needs to be the Tifo for our next Derby:
It was back when the playoffs were the two conference winners and then the next few teams in the Supporters' Shield standings. If that left an uneven number of teams from the conferences, they'd shift a team or two to the other side.
Last year’s MLS Cup had minimal competition, especially from CFB. This year was opposite SEC Championship Georgia vs Texas.
If it's true, as was reported by a reputable sportsmedia reporter, that only 65,000 people watched MLS Cup on Apple TV, then this league has a massive, massive problem on its hands. That number should be at least in the 500,000 range, and probably a lot higher for the league's title game. MLS Cup 2021 that we played in, just for reference, which was on ABC, had a viewership of 1.14 million viewers and peaked at 1.63 million during the shootout.
You're comparing combined broadcast numbers from earlier years with Apple-only for this year. You can't conclude anything from that.
Further, the Apple figure, is, of course, unofficial and anonymous. Maybe it's right, and I would prefer transparency from Apple and MLS so we could know with more trust and certainty, but that's not how streaming platforms do things. They don't hire or enable third-party auditors to track and publicize viewership figures.
Linear audience for MLS Cup down nearly 50% from 2023
The LA Galaxy’s MLS Cup victory over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday drew an average of 468,000 total viewers across Fox and Fox Deportes, down 47% from the combined linear audience of 890,000 for last year’s championship match across the same channels.
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
This year officially had 468,000 average on Fox and Fox Deportes. If the 65k figure is accurate that's 500k plus total. The broadcast-only figure is down 47% from last year comparing like-to-like so that's a bad drop. But as I noted before even finding this article, last year's main competition was the 7.2M Army-Navy game and this year it was the 16.6M Texas/Georgia SEC championship. 2022 had 2.16M viewers but was a full month earlier on November 5 against Week 10 of CFB. Our 2021 match was, like 2023, Army-Navy week.
So the best like-to-like is our game in 2021 compared to 2023.
2023 1.14M ABC plus 350k Spanish networks = 1.49M.
2021 815k Fox + 75k Fox Deportes = 890k
Net difference before Apple 600k. If Apple viewing is really only 60-70k that's a big loss of more than 500k viewers. But we don't know that. I wish we did. But it's also more significant than comparing non-reported Apple-only numbers to broadcast numbers.
Finally, AFAICT the conflict with CFB Championship game week is a result of Thanksgiving falling on the last possible day it can fall in November. Probably won't happen next year, but MLS playoff schedule has not been released.
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A couple of things with this. I'm not terribly concerned with the low Apple numbers, if they can even be trusted, as this was also on broadcast TV. That's where I watched it; it's just easier. But also, I'm wondering if LA vs say Seattle or Portland would have done much better. How much of a fan base do the Red Bulls actually have? When we play them the stadium's half empty lately. Our stadium(s) aren't always full mid-season but for the playoffs they were. I'm just wondering if the Red Bulls fan base is on the small side but seems larger because their supporters are loud about it, but maybe it doesn't go much deeper than that.You're comparing combined broadcast numbers from earlier years with Apple-only for this year. You can't conclude anything from that.
Further, the Apple figure, is, of course, unofficial and anonymous. Maybe it's right, and I would prefer transparency from Apple and MLS so we could know with more trust and certainty, but that's not how streaming platforms do things. They don't hire or enable third-party auditors to track and publicize viewership figures.
Linear audience for MLS Cup down nearly 50% from 2023
The LA Galaxy’s MLS Cup victory over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday drew an average of 468,000 total viewers across Fox and Fox Deportes, down 47% from the combined linear audience of 890,000 for last year’s championship match across the same channels.
This year officially had 468,000 average on Fox and Fox Deportes. If the 65k figure is accurate that's 500k plus total. The broadcast-only figure is down 47% from last year comparing like-to-like so that's a bad drop. But as I noted before even finding this article, last year's main competition was the 7.2M Army-Navy game and this year it was the 16.6M Texas/Georgia SEC championship. 2022 had 2.16M viewers but was a full month earlier on November 5 against Week 10 of CFB. Our 2021 match was, like 2023, Army-Navy week.
So the best like-to-like is our game in 2021 compared to 2023.
2023 1.14M ABC plus 350k Spanish networks = 1.49M.
2021 815k Fox + 75k Fox Deportes = 890k
Net difference before Apple 600k. If Apple viewing is really only 60-70k that's a big loss of more than 500k viewers. But we don't know that. I wish we did. But it's also more significant than comparing non-reported Apple-only numbers to broadcast numbers.
Finally, AFAICT the conflict with CFB Championship game week is a result of Thanksgiving falling on the last possible day it can fall in November. Probably won't happen next year, but MLS playoff schedule has not been released.
You might be right that the RB soccer core fanbase in the US is a small one by MLS standards. It's hard to say. They do have some historic MLS appeal, despite the rebrand, as an OG team with the added interest point of will they ever win a cup.
For casuals Red Bull is probably the biggest brand in MLS because of soccer worldwide, auto racing, motocross, skiing, extreme sports, sailing, etc. They sponsor teams and events everywhere, and outside of soccer (with the opposition to corporate ownership/branding) I don't think there is any general dislike. My F1 friends associate Red Bull with excellence and generally like them even if they are not their favorite team or driver. I'm the weirdo with the soccer based antipathy.
i think there are a good bit of red bull fans who simply don't go to games because it's too much of a hassle to get over there. it's really hard to say with redbull.
overall, i think both neither of our teams are that popular relative to the market we're in. coverage is generally minimal. hopefully the new stadium will help with that especially after the world cup.
I was just coming back to add this point. Both NY metro area teams in MLS have small fanbases and don't shine in attendance, noise, or online presence. That's even before you adjust for market size. The sweet spot for MLS franchises seems to be midmarket cities with 3 or fewer other major sports teams. LA puts NY/NJ to shame based on the factors I just named.
Not saying this is you, just piggybacking on your related discussion. I have never really understood the hate of Red Bull as an owner, especially from us. I can understand fans with a real homegrown owner like Atlanta or celebrity feel good group like LAFC hating on them and us. But from us? Doesn't make sense. I mean how many of us would be that angry if our oil money owners sold us to Doritos or to Monster energy drink? Personally I wouldn't care. I root against NJRB because they are our rival and it's fun to mock them as such. I even get the hate driven by red wedding, fights at the derbies, their racist and flat earth players, etc. I just don't get the hate for the ownership brand.
LA definitely does it better for also being such a large market. I wonder why? Is it because of the beckham effect early on? maybe it's the continued strategy of signing a couple global stars to LA while here in NY, we've pretty much gone the no superstar route.
Would I care if we were bought out by Doritos or monster ? No. Would I care if they rebranded us to Doritos NY FC or monster energy drink fc and featured their company logo in our badge ? Yeah I’d be out .
I think some of the Red Bull owner hate is warranted based on how they constantly position the brand front and center over the teams and the fans. Their championship game day hype video they posted on twitter is a perfect example. The whole start of the video is centered on the dumb redbull can mobile and then the fans come second. Every interview has the drink cans, it's all over the stadium, and they go out of their way to show that the brand comes before anything. It goes far beyond the typical team sponsor relationship and is rightfully reviled by large swaths of the MLS fanbase.
Aside from the team name we are essentially Ethiad FC but they aren't putting the brand before the team. If the NYCFC official pregame video on our championship game day opened with 7 seconds of uniformed Etihad flight attendants walking in front of our fans smiling and waving we'd all be rightfully pissed and the entire league would be roasting us online.
Ok. Thanks. That’s a good distinction. It’s still an odd comparison in my mind - speaking as someone with lots of cognitive dissonance on the matter of our owners.
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