I just dont see MLS "blowing up". Will it be more popular than today? Possibly, though I feel like its been given several chances to catch on and never has. Will it challenge NFL / NBA popularity in any way? IMO, absolutely not.
Back when I was involved in coaching youth soccer I found the other coaches had never heard of the New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, L.A. Galaxy, etc.
These folks were fans of man united but had no interest at all in US soccer.
Who knows? Maybe not having lockouts will mean that if some team starts playing well people will be able to watch it. MLS definitely needs something to happen to get people interested but it seems to me they should relegate the whole league.
They are definitely working on improving engagement - but perhaps each team is at a different level ;)
Just say “New York Fútbol Club”. See, it breathes already.
Also make way for teams that are just called “Sports Association Firebug” for historically cogent but difficult to parse at first.
There's literally "New York City Football Club" in the MLS.
Soccer will only benefit from the decline in youth American Football participation.
MLS is being fairly smart with its expansion and focusing on cities where they're not trying to pull fans away from the NY Yankees or the LA Lakers or whatever. Sure, they still have teams there as well, but the die-hard fans are going to be in the towns where folks are happy to have any team to be excited for.
In this thread we’ve learned there’s a New York Red Bulls and a New York Football Club.
This is why the NHL has spent the last few decades starting up hockey teams in the American South where there's few fans instead of say, Saskatoon, where there'd be a legion of fans. In Saskatoon it's a small market and you'd already be top dog with no growth. In Phoenix you may never reach the other leagues, but even if you can move viewership by a few percentage points, the size of the market ensures massive gains.