Last year the MLS Cup was televised on a Sunday night at the same time as an Eagles-Giants game, which basically assured that all the casual fans would be tuning in to watch football (the American kind) on NBC. Well, MLS has apparently not learned it’s lesson, because this year’s MLS Cup will once again be televised on a Sunday night (Nov. 20). And guess who’s playing football that evening? Why, that’d the Eagles and Giants again.
I guess it’s slightly better than playing opposite a Red Sox-Yankees playoff game. Slightly.
Major League Soccer Talk had last year’s grim assessment.
The TV ratings are in for the 2010 MLS Cup. And according to Sports Media Watch, the overnight TV rating was 0.5, the lowest overnight rating since at least the late 1990’s.
The 0.5 TV rating was down 44% from last year’s MLS Cup between Real Salt Lake and L.A. Galaxy. In the 2010 MLS Cup, Colorado Rapids defeated FC Dallas 2-1 in extra time in front of a not even sold-out crowd at Toronto’s BMO Field. The 0.5 TV rating was down 28% from the 2008 MLS Cup between Columbus and New York.
Then again, if there’s an NFL lockout, maybe the numbers for the MLS Cup won’t be as bad.