All the happy talk about Portland maybe joining Seattle in the MLS in 2010 or 2011 should be tempered with the weird behavior of an Oregonian columnist towards the MLS commissioner.
Listen to the entire mp3 (really large file warning) (hat tip GS-1) to hear some weird thoughts from an actual sports columnist. I mean, he gets paid to think this stuff:
Unless the MLS is the best soccer league in the world (like MLB is the best baseball league and NFL is the best football league), it isn't a "major league." So, in years that the EPL falls below La Liga, then EPL isn't a major league? I dunno.
As MLS expands, raises in profile, more sports writers out themselves in the "I hate soccer irrationally" camp. Weird for a paper that has not only one, but two soccer bloggers to employee a knuckle dragging soccer hater.
Is Soccer Un-American? - Part 1
4 comments:
The problem is that sports writers are like non-sports writers: they have preferences, they like one sport more than another, yet so often have to cover sports they like less, or not at all.
It's a job.
The great thing about sport is you can find one you like and participate in it or watch it more than others.
When a bias is given a platform that is disproportionately large enough, that's when I really get irritated.
Calling the MLS "Major" is just the way we name things in this country. It is either a "World" Series that only includes teams from two countries, or a "Super" Bowl, or whatever. I think that a Qwest Field based soccer team would be a great addition to the local professional landscape, and if Portland has the chops for a MLS team as well, then great, we could use a close rival.
The problem with calling MLS major or minor is that FIFA actually has a designation for top flight soccer leagues for each country. The US was without one after the NASL folded and before MLS came around.
American soccer pyramid
Without promotion and demotion the US soccer pyramid is worthless really.
I can't disagree with you, but promotion/relegation system would be a vast (possibly revolutionary) departure from current American sports economics.
That said, the US Open Cup does allow some level of promotion between levels.
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