Issues in the Lamar Hunt Open Cup – Part 3
- Updated: September 14, 2016
Today marks the final leg of the 2016 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament. FC Dallas and the New England Revolution will compete to determine the 2016 U.S. Open Cup Champion. With this article, my three part series on the U.S. Open Cup also comes to an end. This final discussion revolves around the need to televise the Open Cup tournament.
This year’s edition revealed few surprises—only one non-MLS team, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, progressed to the quarterfinals. To no one’s surprise, only three games (including the one tonight) received national broadcasts on ESPN2—and none of them featured non-MLS teams. U.S. Soccer showed the rest of the games on YouTube. This platform offers a free avenue for fans to watch the matches, but it fails to capture the mainstream popularity possible with a national broadcast.
Take the English Premier League for example. In 2012, NBC Sports acquired the rights to televise EPL matches in the United States. For the 2013-2014 season, 32 million Americans watched the games—a “118% increase over the average ratings from games shown on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Soccer.”[i] In 2015, “more than 17 million viewers” watched in “the first 11 weeks.”[ii] According to Steve Gera, a former NFL executive, “EPL is quickly becoming a behemoth, second only to the NFL.”[iii] Viewership continues to increase each EPL season per match from 438,000 in 2013-2014 to 514,000 in 2015-2016, which means the sport continually captures the attention of more Americans.[iv]
If U.S. Soccer sought out a meager television contract for the U.S. Open Cup, it might reach more Americans and hopefully increase the interest in American soccer as a whole. More Americans at least would learn about the national presence of the sport in the United States and see hundreds of teams exist. Families and fans would see teams compete in their backyard and hopefully attend their local team’s matches—a grassroots movement. More profit in local teams means the better the development of youth and the future of American soccer.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Open Cup fails to receive the respect it deserves from the American soccer community. Regionally, fans love it because it gives their teams the opportunity to shine on a national stage. Mainstream fans, however, see the tournament as a waste of time for their teams—MLS clubs—because they play against lower division teams and the games take effort and energy from the primary focus of MLS teams—the MLS Cup. Many of these fans seem to only care about MLS-only games and then exhibitions between MLS and international teams (with the exception of the CONCACAF Champions League matches). Yet, if you look at the European soccer community, they take all games seriously including inter-league competitions with one exception. One might go so far to say that they barely take MLS-European games seriously because they field reserve players much like MLS teams do with lower-division American teams.
This respect must occur at both ends of the American soccer pyramid. At the bottom, the lower-divisions already participate enthusiastically. At the top, U.S. Soccer promotes the Open Cup but not to the best of its ability because it puts the interest of Major League Soccer at the top of its priority list when U.S. Soccer is actually the national governing body for the sport at all levels not just the first division. Why does MLS not take the Open Cup seriously? One possibility could be that it fears the tournament might overshadow the league in popularity because it shows the vast number of American teams outside of MLS and USL—it’s just a guess. This question might never be fully answered though.
Overall, the future of American soccer depends upon grassroots development because the youth will eventually evolve into professional players. If they see local teams play, it increases their interest in soccer. They need more exposure to the wide variety of teams in the United States and part of this exposure comes from the national broadcast of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
I would like to hear your thoughts—whether you agree or disagree—so you may contact me at @patsalkeld. Also, feel free to check out my personal website at www.patricksalkeldhistorian.wordpress.com.
[i] Manny Otiko, “How NBC Helped the Premier League’s Popularity Boom in the United States,” Four Four Two, December 1, 2015, http://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/how-nbc-helped-premier-leagues-popularity-boom-united-states.
[ii] Otiko, “How NBC Helped the Premier League’s Popularity Boom in the United States,” Four Four Two, December 1, 2015.
[iii] Otiko, “How NBC Helped the Premier League’s Popularity Boom in the United States,” Four Four Two, December 1, 2015.
[iv] Steven Goff, “D.C. Loves Premier League Soccer the Most: NBC Ratings Confirm It,” Washington Post, May 18, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soccer-insider/wp/2016/05/18/d-c-loves-premier-league-soccer-the-most-nbc-ratings-confirm-it/.
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