CONCACAF Champions League: Ever heard of it?

I’m one of the few people who loves CCL, as much as most other people don’t. If MLS teams can play more games vs. Mexican clubs and fire up that rivalry a bit more, I think CCL would gain more ground.

Truth is the competitiveness just isn’t there, when you watch the UEFA Champions League you expect nothing but the best performance. The root of the problem is that most of the best players from every respective country is playing in the UEFA, so it’s a tough problem because some of these leagues can’t provide the money the others can, not to mention we’re still behind the South American leagues, I mean Argentina and Brazil are very competitive.

Think the CCL would benefit if the league ditched Superliga (please!) and focused more attention on it. Also, CCl games should be part of a season ticket package rather than friendlies. If an MLS team is able to make a deep run in it, maybe things will change.

Also, what lrrlicht said. It’s going to take an MLS team making a good run for people to notice.

Oh, and maybe getting it on something other than FSC and Univision/Galavision/Telemundo.

But mostly, it’ll just take time.

I don’t think the level of play is really that bad. But the fields certainly bring their own special uniqueness to them. Especially after a day long tropical rainstorm. Or, for that matter, during a tropical rainstorm. The Deseret News reporter blogged that the 10K that were there in Rio Tinto were actually drawn into the game by the horrible histrionics from AU. That’s one part of the time-taking — as people experience these games, the appreciation will grow.

And as MLS teams develop rivalries with teams outside the US. That will take years.

But it will happen.

Another problem, at least in Columbus, is that the team insists on charging full-price for tickets for the team to play games in the middle of the week against teams that the casual fan has never heard of in a tournament that means nothing to a casual fan. If the Crew wanted a full stadium, they could discount the tickets and get a (more) full house. I can’t imagine what the foreign teams think about MLS when they come to play in the US in an important international tournament and see mostly empty stadiums.

on a cable sports network would help. You probably have quite a bit of casual soccer fans that would take notice if one of the games was on ESPN 2 mid-week. I know I’d watch it too.

I enjoy getting to see my team play against teams from outside MLS. That applies to Super Liga as well…although it might make sense at this point to abandon Super Super-liga and focus on one non-league tournament. Can’t always make the mid-week matches in person, but I try to follow them one way or the other.