by Kimberte William

Created on: March 26, 2009   Last Updated: March 27, 2009

The MLS (Major League Soccer); a league trying to thrive in a continent where soccer fails to capture the hearts of sports enthusiasts. Who can blame them? In a country where team sports such as American Football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey takes precedence , no wonder soccer has failed to make as strong an impression as it has on the rest of the word.

So how can the popularity of major league soccer improve? This is not a question answered easily. In the hopes of popularizing Major League Soccer, soccer on the whole in North America particularly the U.S. must come to the forefront of sport. Lack of significant television coverage for the MLS on major networks exists today. There are an estimated 25 million soccer fans in the U.S. and they are not being rewarded for their loyalty to the sport. It is not unexpected that America's favourite past times of baseball and football take precedence on the airways. Soccer has to compete with such coverage more specifically Major League Soccer has to compete with the NFL, MLB and even the NHL. In other words the first step to the MLS' popularity is gaining more coverage on its domestic television networks.

The second step in making the MLS more popular is gaining viewership outside the North American region. With over 3 billion fans worldwide this is the most popular sport in the world. The MLS has to tap into this market but first must gain credibility as a competitive and legitimate league. Outside North America world football fans find Major League Soccer quite frankly...to be a joke. Poor governing coupled with low level of play will not gain any fans beyond U.S. borders. With superior leagues such as the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, the French Ligue 1 and the Spanish Primera, Major League Soccer cannot compete, at least not how it is now. The MLS needs to foster it's young players enrolling them in the academies of major football clubs outside the U.S. in order for them to gain experience and develop abilities at the highest level. These players can then be brought back home boosting the quality of the league. MLS franchises should seek to make use of more free transfers to clubs outside North America in order for players to gain more experience. To conclude this point I will say this, the best MLS teams will have tough tasking beating the reserves of many major European teams. MLS' quality must improve for it to become more popular.

Finally, in order to make the MLS more popular marketing

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