Major League Soccer

Dec 31 15:14 UTC 1995

With the new Major League Soccer program getting started in the United
States, I've been looking all over newspapers for information about it.
However, I have come up empty handed.  I have a few questions about it,
and I thought that maybe somebody in this confrence could help!  :)
*       When will the season begin, and how many games will be played?
*       Which teams will Tab Ramos, Alexi Lalas, and other World Cup '94
                stars be playing on?  Have rosters been announced yet?
I'd really appreciate any help you could give me!  Thanks!!  :)

response 2 of 26:

Jan 3 23:43 UTC 1996

I know that they have announced the team names and locations, but that's all
I've really heard.  LIke, for instance, I know that my hometown, Columbus,
Ohio, has a team named the "Crew" (certainly not the name I would have
chosen, but who asked me...).  I'm sure that they've even held try-outs, at 
least preliminary.

But that's all I know!!!  :(

response 4 of 26:

Apr 2 19:26 UTC 1996

I don't know about Tab Ramos, but I do know that alexi Lalas is going to play
for the New England revolution.

response 6 of 26:

Apr 13 20:18 UTC 1996

I'm sure there is a TV contract.  Now, was it ESPN, TNT, ESPN2, FOX, 
SportsChannel, Nashville Network, DirectTV,...? (A&E, Home Shopping, 
History, ...???)

response 8 of 26:

Apr 16 00:04 UTC 1996

I know one of the games was on MSG (in NY), so it may be only regional, 
for now.  I'm sure there is also a national, probably cable, outlet.  I 
haven't seen a listing yet and can't remember.

  I think soccer has a long way to go as a widely followed sport.  An 
illustrative point:  Think of all the sports on the radio, including minor 
hockey, pro & college everything, high school bball and football (big in 
many areas), etc, in addition to local and national broadcasts of so 
called major sports.  I think this assumes a high degree of familiarity 
and interest in all these sports, even if the radio casts aren't 
tremendous ratings winners in all cases.  I can't remember every hearing 
a soccer game on radio.  The pro teams probably will have outlets, but I 
still have a hard time seeing CBS radio doing a Game of the Week or 
Monday Night Soccer broadcast.   

response 10 of 26:

Apr 24 21:32 UTC 1996

I still haven't seen any games listed on t.v.  I don't know what the 
season's duration is, but I expect some games will be on sooner or later.

response 12 of 26:

May 27 00:24 UTC 1996

I'll probably start watching as soon as the hockey season is over and I have
nothing left to watch but *baseball* . I don't think much of baseball, and
would much rather watch soccer. The Olympics is coming and bringing more
soccer, too.

response 14 of 26:

Jul 12 15:53 UTC 1996

(This seems to be the appropriate item..) Just like to state that the
Crew lost another game yesterday in a shoot out.(There's a real shocker) 
Lost to the Revolution (Go New England!) 2-1 Final score. Pretty good
game too.

p

response 16 of 26:

Aug 3 15:36 UTC 1999

wow, three and a half years go by and no one's said a word in here... guess
we can chalk that one up to the pitiful performance of the MLS... is anyone
alive out there???

response 18 of 26:

Aug 7 09:00 UTC 1999

well, the first WC I remember was Mexico 1986, so I've been following soccer
for quite a while... and to tell you the truth, MLS gets no respect from me
whatsoever (well, maybe a little respect to the Columbus Crew for building
their own stadium).  But because the first league I ever followed was the
Mexican League, and after that the English and Italian Leagues (Premiership
and Serie A, respectively), I feel that MLS is just another joke of a league
(reminds me too much of the WLAF in the 80s).  One thing that MLS has going
for them is bringing in Garber as commissioner.  I've read some of his quotes
from soccer mailing lists and so far things are looking good for MLS (famous
last words).  I think I'll simply stick to the Mexican League on Univision
and the Premiership by going to Conor O'Neil's every Saturday morning starting
tomorrow...

by the way, kevin... just read y#13, and the match you saw mas the 1996 FA
Cup Final... a tad different from the Stanley Cup in the NHL.  If you want,
I'd be glad to explain how the English professional leagues are setup (or any
other competition for that matter...

response 20 of 26:

Aug 19 21:49 UTC 1999

Well, in England, there is the domestic league, then there are two cup
competitions and then the European competitions.  The English Premiership has
20 teams and is the most important professional league in England.  The
European Champions League is the highest European club competition and
3rd-placed Chelsea qualified for the third qualifying round.  2nd-placed
Arsenal and Premiership champion/European Champions League winner Manchester
United qualified for the group stage.  4th-placed Leeds United and League Cup
winner Tottenham Hotspur qualified for the UEFA Cup.  For more information
on the European club competitions, check out
http://www.risc.uni-linz.ac.at/non-official/rsssf/ec/ec199900.html

Below the Premiership there are three professional leagues with 24 teams named
First Division, Second Division and Third Division.  At the end of the season,
the bottom three clubs of the Premiership are sent to the First Division,
while the 1st and 2nd-placed teams in the First Division are sent up to the
Premiership.  The 3rd through 6th-placed teams playoff in a home-and-away
series for the final promotion spot.  The bottom three clubs in the First
Division are sent down to the Second Division, and the same "promotion setup"
is used as in the First Division (top 2 gain automatic berth, 4-team playoff
of 3rd to 6th place).  The bottom four clubs in the Second Division are sent
down to the Third Division.  The top three in the Third Division receive
automatic promotion, and there is a playoff between 4th through 7th place for
the final promotion spot.  Lastly, the bottom club of the Third Division is
ent down to the semi-professional Conference, but only if the Conference
Champion is approved by the Football League (things taken into consideration
for promotion into the Third Division is the condition of the ground [stadium]
as far as capacity and whether the grounds are all-seater, I can go into why
this is a requirement in England in a later post, since this one is already
fairly large).

At the start of the post, I said there were two cup competitions, but in
actuality there are three.  The FA Cup is open to all clubs registered with
the Football Association (the governing body of soccer in England).  Automatic
byes are given to Premiership teams as well as First Division teams.  The
League Cup is only for the 92 professional clubs in England (Premiership down
to the Third Division).  Byes are given to Premiership teams.  The last
competition which professional English teams play in is the Shield, which is
limited to the 48 teams in the Second and Third Divisions.  There, that covers
the competition setup, and I'll leave it up to you whether you want me to
elaborate on any particular part of English soccer.

response 22 of 26:

Aug 21 07:25 UTC 1999

It definitely looks that way, even though they haven't acquired any new
talent, Forest are one of the favorites to win promotion back to the
Premiership... but they've started off the season with mediochrity (is that
a word???)... lost to ipswich town away, beat grimsby town at home and tied
west bromwich albion away.  they're in 9th place, but every other team save
west brom have a game in hand on them... still, it's early in the season, and
they should be able to stay in contention until late in the season.

response 24 of 26:

Sep 4 06:37 UTC 1999

Hmmm, I seem to be getting different reports as to the Forest' record 
from you and from my Brit connection.  I'll have to go a web surfin' 
for independent verification.  And if I find out he's been lying, or 
just deluded, I'll have a word with him!  :-)  BTW, what are some URLs 
for checking out English football league standings?