Great piece and a lot to think about. One factor towards apathetic (or perceived apathetic) league-wide fandom could just be the newness of both the USL and many of the teams. With a dozen teams kicking a ball for the first time in the USLC in the last 5 years, as a "new" fan, there's a lot to catch up on and the casual fan probably won't go further than learning some names of players on the team they follow. At least at the beginning. For a more hardcore fan, you still have an entire league to learn, even if you already know your own squad really well. That requires a lot of bandwidth.
That was my own experience as a fan of an expansion team. It took most of the first season to become really well versed with our own guys. The 4-team groups and repeated matches against the same teams in 2020 really helped me to be familiar with some of the guys on a few other squads. And when players from the team I followed transferred elsewhere, I started to pay more attention elsewhere. It just took time.
And then I guess I wonder if this is a USL problem? Do fans of Real Salt Lake watch a Montreal/NYRB match? Do Wolverhampton fans know many players on Crystal Palace? Beats me.
Anyway, keep up the great work. The stuff you and Nicholas and others put out really provides the access to information that fans need to grow their interest and knowledge beyond their local ponds. It's much appreciated.
I could not agree more wholeheartedly! I have considered becoming a de facto reporter for my team Monterey Bay, simple to grow the team in my local area. But to read this article it seems we would need this a national, every single team, scale. USL Championship is such a high quality product and it still blows my mind that ESPN, aside from coverage on ESPN+ covers nothing. How can I help bring about this change? That’s for writing and I am so glad I found your blog!
As a current STH for OCSC (yes it's me, superfan OCSoccerDad), Angel City FC, and LA Dodgers (group) and former STH for SD/LA Chargers (10+ Seasons), LA Lakers (2 Full Seasons, 4 group seasons), here is my take on "League Fandom".
Even when I was entrenched in all things Chargers (2002 - 2008), I never knew as much about NFL as many of my friends because I didn't participate in Fantasy Leagues and I didn't bet. My best friend (who also didn't do those things) knew alot more than me because he was a "League Fan" and he listened to sports talk radio everyday on his commute to/from work. The same is true for my Lakers fandom. I used to watch enough NFL and NBA that I knew the "top 50" players across the league. I guess you could say I was a mile wide and an inch deep?
My MLB share is only 6 games. And it is mostly because the group I am in has amazing seats. of the 6 games we typically attend 3 and use the others as donations to silent auctions for charities we support. I will never be engaged on MLB.....
And after this season, we are ending Angel City (due to logistical challenges).
But when it comes to USL (and Soccer in general) I am growing my "League Interest". I typically watch a minimum of 1 full game per week in addition to either attending OCSC home (and occasional away) games or watching them on the road.
I see several problems with growing the USL Fandom. The biggest problem is the "closed system" in USA. If we had even some small pathway towards pro/rel, it would make every second division team that much more interesting in a local market. But alas, IMHO, we are so far away from that. The second problem is the USL themselves. It makes it really, painfully hard to get all in on an organization that seems to be so biased towards the East Region, and Tampa Bay in particular (I was at 2021 Final. There were USL League officials at my hotel who were clearly in the tank for Tampa). An additional factor hurting us is TV coverage. The quality of USL broadcasts are so inconsistent. I get that we won't get 50 cameras like MLS or EPL. But at least get a state of the art camera rig on every half way line and get a cameraman that knows how to follow the game. Have you ever watched a New Mexico game? I assume that guy has about 50 seizures a match. And frequently the contrast/brightness of games sucks because the cameras are just shoddy. Casual viewers want a good experience if they are going to watch something for 90 minutes. And finally, we have the problem of MLS. I don't necessarily hate MLSNextPro. But it is clear that it is being executed to displace competition. And with MLSGo, they are coming after the entire youth/rec/academy segment. These efforts aren't to grow the beautiful game...they are to corner the market.
Aww man. Had a nice sized reply but guess I didn't check the right button and it vanished. Short version... USL problems on ESPN+ are just a minor league version of MLS tv viewership problems...
Update: my “seat neighbor” season ticket holder next to me and I have started a podcast Instagram channel The_Union_Report (shameless plug) and I think helping to grow the league as a whole will require the efforts of fans and the local communities. The product on field is top notch in my opinion (not MBFC in July 😩) and I fully agree with Russel that the broadcasts and camera work (for most games) isn’t helping. I see a real boom in the beautiful game in the United States and potential for massive growth over the next several years and a promotion relegation system would truly elevate the entire USL but in order to compete with the big 3 (MLB, NFL and NBA) MLS would need to join forces with USL in promotion relegation to match the Euro model. Then and only then do we have a consolidated system that rivals the big 3.
Great piece and a lot to think about. One factor towards apathetic (or perceived apathetic) league-wide fandom could just be the newness of both the USL and many of the teams. With a dozen teams kicking a ball for the first time in the USLC in the last 5 years, as a "new" fan, there's a lot to catch up on and the casual fan probably won't go further than learning some names of players on the team they follow. At least at the beginning. For a more hardcore fan, you still have an entire league to learn, even if you already know your own squad really well. That requires a lot of bandwidth.
That was my own experience as a fan of an expansion team. It took most of the first season to become really well versed with our own guys. The 4-team groups and repeated matches against the same teams in 2020 really helped me to be familiar with some of the guys on a few other squads. And when players from the team I followed transferred elsewhere, I started to pay more attention elsewhere. It just took time.
And then I guess I wonder if this is a USL problem? Do fans of Real Salt Lake watch a Montreal/NYRB match? Do Wolverhampton fans know many players on Crystal Palace? Beats me.
Anyway, keep up the great work. The stuff you and Nicholas and others put out really provides the access to information that fans need to grow their interest and knowledge beyond their local ponds. It's much appreciated.
I could not agree more wholeheartedly! I have considered becoming a de facto reporter for my team Monterey Bay, simple to grow the team in my local area. But to read this article it seems we would need this a national, every single team, scale. USL Championship is such a high quality product and it still blows my mind that ESPN, aside from coverage on ESPN+ covers nothing. How can I help bring about this change? That’s for writing and I am so glad I found your blog!
As a current STH for OCSC (yes it's me, superfan OCSoccerDad), Angel City FC, and LA Dodgers (group) and former STH for SD/LA Chargers (10+ Seasons), LA Lakers (2 Full Seasons, 4 group seasons), here is my take on "League Fandom".
Even when I was entrenched in all things Chargers (2002 - 2008), I never knew as much about NFL as many of my friends because I didn't participate in Fantasy Leagues and I didn't bet. My best friend (who also didn't do those things) knew alot more than me because he was a "League Fan" and he listened to sports talk radio everyday on his commute to/from work. The same is true for my Lakers fandom. I used to watch enough NFL and NBA that I knew the "top 50" players across the league. I guess you could say I was a mile wide and an inch deep?
My MLB share is only 6 games. And it is mostly because the group I am in has amazing seats. of the 6 games we typically attend 3 and use the others as donations to silent auctions for charities we support. I will never be engaged on MLB.....
And after this season, we are ending Angel City (due to logistical challenges).
But when it comes to USL (and Soccer in general) I am growing my "League Interest". I typically watch a minimum of 1 full game per week in addition to either attending OCSC home (and occasional away) games or watching them on the road.
I see several problems with growing the USL Fandom. The biggest problem is the "closed system" in USA. If we had even some small pathway towards pro/rel, it would make every second division team that much more interesting in a local market. But alas, IMHO, we are so far away from that. The second problem is the USL themselves. It makes it really, painfully hard to get all in on an organization that seems to be so biased towards the East Region, and Tampa Bay in particular (I was at 2021 Final. There were USL League officials at my hotel who were clearly in the tank for Tampa). An additional factor hurting us is TV coverage. The quality of USL broadcasts are so inconsistent. I get that we won't get 50 cameras like MLS or EPL. But at least get a state of the art camera rig on every half way line and get a cameraman that knows how to follow the game. Have you ever watched a New Mexico game? I assume that guy has about 50 seizures a match. And frequently the contrast/brightness of games sucks because the cameras are just shoddy. Casual viewers want a good experience if they are going to watch something for 90 minutes. And finally, we have the problem of MLS. I don't necessarily hate MLSNextPro. But it is clear that it is being executed to displace competition. And with MLSGo, they are coming after the entire youth/rec/academy segment. These efforts aren't to grow the beautiful game...they are to corner the market.
Aww man. Had a nice sized reply but guess I didn't check the right button and it vanished. Short version... USL problems on ESPN+ are just a minor league version of MLS tv viewership problems...
Update: my “seat neighbor” season ticket holder next to me and I have started a podcast Instagram channel The_Union_Report (shameless plug) and I think helping to grow the league as a whole will require the efforts of fans and the local communities. The product on field is top notch in my opinion (not MBFC in July 😩) and I fully agree with Russel that the broadcasts and camera work (for most games) isn’t helping. I see a real boom in the beautiful game in the United States and potential for massive growth over the next several years and a promotion relegation system would truly elevate the entire USL but in order to compete with the big 3 (MLB, NFL and NBA) MLS would need to join forces with USL in promotion relegation to match the Euro model. Then and only then do we have a consolidated system that rivals the big 3.