Saturday's 1-1 tie in Seattle, the first MLS game between the old North American Soccer League rivals, drew a 3.0 rating in Seattle/Tacoma and a 2.2 rating in Portland. In the ESPN2 broadcast, no other market registered higher than a .7 rating and the national average was a .2 rating.
Ratings for Cascadia Cup Solid in involved markets
Weak in rest of nation. MLS fans, if you don't watch you aren't supporting the league.
about 1 year ago
Dave Clark
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Definitely weak nationally.
Also, is it normal for a home team to have a higher rating for a game than the away team? You’d assume that, with the evil Sounders FO limiting the TA to only 500 supporters, that the “authentic” Portlanders would be flocking to the TVs in droves. Yet the bigger market captured a significantly higher percentage while 36,000+ of the fans were already at the game? Interesting.
This is Rating not Share
so it is not a percentile. There are also issues with measuring bar/pub/etc
The TA’s watch party was at a theater.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
I'll betcha there were more than a few Sounders in bars as well
I mean, could a theater really make up for that 8% difference over a smaller area? I’d love to see the raw numbers, how many eyes were on that game in the given regions. Because this would be wonderful hard evidence in the ongoing Cascadia slap-fight.
I get confused about the difference between Rating and Share
One is percent of tv viewers, while other is percent of population? Or what?
a point is a specific number of people. Share is % of people with TVs on that had it tuned to the game.
Still… For all the sound and fury (including Spencer’s hissy-fit today)… only 2.2 in PDX? After all that about how they could use so many seats at Qwest? Ridiculous. And they’re telling us who’s “authentic.”
I guess all the Timbers fans watched the game together on one screen in the Rose Garden or something?
Well you aren't being very good hippies
If your town owns more then one TV.
by Derek R on May 17, 2011 5:22 PM PDT up reply actions 4 recs
How can the nation watch? Kickoff was not much before midnight on the East Coast.
Who sits down at 11pm on a Saturday night and says “I think I’ll start watching a soccer game”
East Coast does it for football all the time
MNF starts at 8:40, 9pm for the East Coast, and games regularly go past midnight, on a weeknight. Baseball games are regularly at 7pm out here, which means Boston fans watching from home will have to stay up past midnight.
This also ignores that it failed to reach 1.0 in any other market, even though there are a few of them outside of the East Coast.
I think one issue is that soccer appeals to the middle-class 18-34 young professional, and predominantly male, demographic. This demographic generally does not stay in on Friday and Saturday nights, so even if they are going out and watching the game, Neilsen ratings are not picking them up.
The issue is not that it was too late for the East Coast, the issues are that the MLS might not be leveraging its demographics properly, there is no presence or interest in the Southeast, there are few star personalities that fans feel they need to watch, and the quality of programming is weak compared to other pro leagues.
11pm start time
Is still significantly different from 9pm. If they wanted east coast to watch it they would have done a 5pm pst start.
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
I'd sympathize but I got up at 4AM to watch games
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
by Dave Clark on May 17, 2011 4:04 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
I don't know that this is really such a bad thing
Those are quite strong ratings in Portland and Seattle, which is where the ratings matter most. Realistically, sports fans have a lot more quality sports they can watch on television than they have hours to watch sports on television. I’m more worried about MLS fans showing up and tuning in to their local games than watching whichever miscellaneous game is on ESPN or FSC each week. When people are dialed in to what their local team is doing, then they will care more about other league results.
Attendance is up 6%
and maintained during the recession. MLS is making a ton of money from Gate already.
What it isn’t doing is making much money off of tv at all, and that’s because no one is watching.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
What else was available on TV that night?
More specifically, what would have been in direct competition for the game.
Not just about the gate...
…but also local TV ratings. Seattle’s local TV ratings must be pretty decent if they are getting a 3 for a rivalry game. I’m guessing here, but I’d bet MLB makes a lot more off their 30 local TV deals combined than they make off their national deals with ESPN and FOX, excluding the playoffs. (And maybe including the playoffs.)
I think the Sounders were very, very smart to put the games on local broadcast TV. The more teams can get fans to watch the home team, the more money they can make on local TV deals, and even with attendance going up, there are plenty of empty seats around the league.
ESPN
Probably going over ground that has been covered here more than a few times, but let’s be honest… ESPN paid billions for SEC football, more than a little for NFL, plenty for the NBA, NASCAR, MLB…
MLS is barely a drop in the bucket for them. They will promote the daylights out of every other sport (hell, even the Poker Tour) bc they have so many dollars invested and must deliver an audience to their advertisers in order to make their money back. It’s no accident that even before games are played, we hear from ESPN how the SEC is the “best conference in college football.”
They also know that people like us will dependably seek out soccer, whether it makes Sportscenter or not. And, even though FSC has its own deal, let’s be honest and say it doesn’t have the reach of ESPN.
I love that the Sounders have a local TV deal and I honestly wish they had a deal like baseball some nights where ESPN cannot pre-empt the local broadcast. If the Sounders get a 3.0 rating in Seattle, I’d rather it reward KING 5 than ESPN who thinks our little soccer fandom is adorable.
I know alot of casual fans
That were really excited about watching the game saturday night. Was that true in portland?
Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.
The start times are simply too late in the rest of the country
No other major sports start at 11 pm on a Saturday night on the East Coast. People who stay in are getting ready for bed and people going out aren’t watching soccer while doing so, regardless of who is on.
which ignores that was a fine time on the Pacific
and they didn’t watch either
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
I'd be interested to know
what the ratings are in Seattle and Portland for MLS games on national TV not involving the Sounders/Timbers. I’m sure they are probably comparable. I know I try to turn on every game I can on the TV to show support for the MLS but I doubt many fans really give a crap aside from watching their team.
Ratings for any of the Galavision games would be interesting too… because I don’t see how those can be getting many viewers when I know that here (in Alabama) I can’t get Galavision, and when I was living in Philly last year I couldn’t either.
I’d watch all the MLS games on MDL as well if I could…..
It was pretty late on the east coast when that game kicked off. Can hardly expect anybody outside the Pacific Time Zone to stay up for a game on soggy plastic turf.
Manager at Vancouver Whitecaps and western Canadian soccer website Eighty Six Forever and infrequently-posting flunky at Edmonton Oilers blog The Copper & Blue.
by Benjamin Massey on May 18, 2011 10:53 AM PDT reply actions
which still ignores that pacific & mountain time ignored the game
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
by Dave Clark on May 18, 2011 4:09 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
MLS "fans"
“Weak in rest of nation. MLS fans, if you don’t watch you aren’t supporting the league.”
Huh? A league supporter doesn’t make any sense. I’ve never heard of a NBA “supporter” (go fighting Sterns!). I’ve never heard of a NFL “supporter.” MLS doesn’t equal American soccer.
Ok I'll bite....
Let me break this down for you. I support Seattle first, but if a nationally televised game is on that doesn’t conflict with my first interest I will probably watch it. I like watching MLS games to see how teams are playing. Is this team going to be able to hold possession against the Sounders? How is this keeper looking since Montero nutmegged him for a goal? Are the DC United still playing in a crappy and empty stadium?
Oh and by the way, I have heard of people watching the NFL not caring who is playing. That is why they play multiple games over the air waves in every market….
what is the NBA?
Nos audietis in somniis, Nos audietis in altum: You will hear us!
MLS is our first division.
If they aren’t what defines “American soccer” I think that’s a problem. What do you think defines American soccer?
The fact is MLS needs better TV ratings to grow. We know that soccer has less fans watching on TV than the other big sports. If all those fans tuned in to watch the nationally broadcasted games we can improve ratings and hopefully help the MLS secure more money in TV deals in the future, thus growing the league.
You can’t tell me that the NFL, NHL, or NBA will solely watch their team games and never watch a game involving two different teams. That’s ridiculous. Also, those three leagues have enough support that they don’t need as many fans to watch games not involving their team. MLS doesn’t have that luxury right now. If you want the MLS to stick around watching a game even if it doesn’t involve the Sounders (or whatever your team is) is a good place to start.
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