MLS teams facing the prospect of Saprissa or, worse, América across town or a few cities over is just the opposite of the Messi effect. Messi is a sugar rush, and a US league match for a Latin American team is a sugar rush that sucks at least some of its sugar out of MLS. Live by the something, die by the something or other?
Back when Alexi was doing Twitter spaces, there was a guy who called in from Liverpool who stuck with me. His complaint was so similar to what we hear from baseball fans. Liverpool doesn’t care about season ticket holders like him, they care more about tourists from Denmark who will buy a program and maybe a jersey. And for two years I’ve wanted to call this guy and remind him, Mo Salah doesn’t play for free. And if I were a Central American club fan, yeah, I think I would accept one regular-season “home” match played in the US as the price of keeping a winning squad together.
I wonder if Conmebol teams will do this too. Peru and Uruguay and etc have diasporas too, although the calculations will be different with distances and populations.
I don’t think there will be guardrails. When the Spanish Supercopa went to Saudi Arabia, the horse left the barn. FIFA sold out to enough corrupt money, to the surprise of absolutely nobody.
MLS teams facing the prospect of Saprissa or, worse, América across town or a few cities over is just the opposite of the Messi effect. Messi is a sugar rush, and a US league match for a Latin American team is a sugar rush that sucks at least some of its sugar out of MLS. Live by the something, die by the something or other?
Back when Alexi was doing Twitter spaces, there was a guy who called in from Liverpool who stuck with me. His complaint was so similar to what we hear from baseball fans. Liverpool doesn’t care about season ticket holders like him, they care more about tourists from Denmark who will buy a program and maybe a jersey. And for two years I’ve wanted to call this guy and remind him, Mo Salah doesn’t play for free. And if I were a Central American club fan, yeah, I think I would accept one regular-season “home” match played in the US as the price of keeping a winning squad together.
I wonder if Conmebol teams will do this too. Peru and Uruguay and etc have diasporas too, although the calculations will be different with distances and populations.
I don’t think there will be guardrails. When the Spanish Supercopa went to Saudi Arabia, the horse left the barn. FIFA sold out to enough corrupt money, to the surprise of absolutely nobody.