Discussing the show "Sounders FC Weekly" on the ECS forum the other day, and I wrote this...

I think that from the features that they chose to do, and the way the show changed through the season, that it's obvious that they went into 2009 with the thought that they were going to have to have a very simple show that did a lot of education and lighter entertainment instead of a more in-depth footie show.

There was also a heavy feel of "getting to know you" since they had to introduce the entire team to the fans.  That won't be as bad this year since nearly everyone returns.

As the year went on, it became obvious that they had underestimated the Seattle soccer fan.  The questions in "Ask The Sounders" got much better and more involved in finer details of the game (Leo Henton, an ECS member, in particular kept asking awesome questions- keep doing it in 2010, Leo) and they started going into more detail.

I think another part of the problem for the show was the scheduling- Sunday nights, late, meant that the audience wasn't going to be your more average Joe- it was going to be someone who was into soccer and the Sounders enough that they intentionally tuned in or set up the Tivo.  That meant that they were more educated in soccer, not a more casual, new-to-the-game fan.

On top of that, the match reports sucked because of such short time to prepare; they were little more than repeats of what we'd get on the evening news.

Putting the show on Friday evenings or something, and making them an HOUR long with a serious match report, would go a long way to helping it, IMO.  You could have a match report where controversial calls or plays were really replayed in depth, and the reporter could take some time to really research it and get the coaching staff's opinion of something.

Plus, as Keith Hodo points out, you could do a serious preview of the upcoming weekend- and not just of the Sounders, but also of the rest of the league.

I think the league needs to pull its head out of its ass on this kind of stuff.  It's pathetic that in this day and age, a show like that in a major TV market like Seattle ([13th largest in USA in 2010) had to rely on shitty quality internet video for some of the match recaps.

Every MLS franchise should be providing all sports stations, news, review shows, etc a high def feed of the entire match if they can and certainly of highlight reels.

But then I'm just a plain old supporter and fan, WTF do I know?  :)