A bit of a stretch for this blog, but it’s a great tale of trying to make a soccer league for people who don’t like soccer. To bring this back to radio/media, I used to have discussions with one executive about how we kept tweaking the very popular comedy channels to appeal to people who weren’t interested in the comedy channels instead of super-serving the folks who liked them, and trying to find more like-minded folks. It made no sense to me, especially on a subscription service. Fish where the fish are.
Anyway, if you don’t like soccer, boy do we have a soccer league for you! Good stuff…
From a unique structure and laughable team names, to garish uniforms and crazy rule changes, how the sport’s biggest North American league kicked off.
Source: An Oral History of Major League Soccers Frenzied First Season | Complex
Twenty years on I think MLS is fantastic. I understand what it is. It’s not the Premier League, I get it. But it is fun for me to follow, I go to games, and I love the way they standardized the national TV package so that I know where to find games on television on Friday (UniMas) and Sunday (ESPN/FS1). Nice job MLS. Now about those kick-ins…SMH.