Growth in MLS

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While we are on the topic of MLS, I'm gonna rant for a second. My son has been recommended for a tryout twice in the last two years to Nashville SC. Both times they said he was too old - at 13 and 14. So NSC apparently just decides 13 is the cutoff for any competition for spots in their Academy.

Then this summer he got invited to Spain and picked up an offer to play at a small club in Barcelona. NSC hears about the offer, says they are going to come scout him. For two months we coordinate the date and time and then they no showed. No email. No phone call. Nothing.
 
AlabamaSpur said:
While we are on the topic of MLS, I'm gonna rant for a second. My son has been recommended for a tryout twice in the last two years to Nashville SC. Both times they said he was too old - at 13 and 14. So NSC apparently just decides 13 is the cutoff for any competition for spots in their Academy.

Then this summer he got invited to Spain and picked up an offer to play at a small club in Barcelona. NSC hears about the offer, says they are going to come scout him. For two months we coordinate the date and time and then they no showed. No email. No phone call. Nothing.
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That's what you get for dealing with fucking Nashville.

Frustrated Clint Eastwood GIF
 
AlabamaSpur said:
This is just a reflection of the larger sports ticketing situation in the US. A damn upper deck Nissan Stadium ticket to watch the sorry ass Titans play the sorry ass Falcons is 100 bucks after fees.
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Surprised you can get an NFL ticket that cheap, honestly. Every time I've looked into tickets for a game it's $300 for nosebleeds. Which is why I haven't gone to a game in over a decade and likely will never go see one again. The view is better on TV and I'm old enough now I can manage to keep my bar tab under $100 with food.

Tickets in the US, like you say, are ridiculous across the board. My NBA tickets are the best value I've got. My Memphis Tigers basketball tickets are bar-none the worst.

The USL is probably my favorite, I can get in there for no more than $20/match and often as little as $5. Sad that they'll be gone soon.

My favorite sports are rapidly becoming Memphis Tigers soccer ::brace for impact::, volleyball, and baseball. Free and I can bring my own camp lounge chair (x2 men's and women's- women's ranked #12), free, free sometimes very cheap others.


Not just sport though, theater tickets have gotten very expensive too. I've stopped even checking into concert festivals. Most of the comedy shows I want to go to are $150+/seat. National tour Broadway productions are close to $200, so I spend my money on local theater. Twice a year or so I go to NYC, and it's cheaper for me to see productions on Broadway than it is to see the national touring B-cast when they come to Memphis.
 
MemphisWill said:
Surprised you can get an NFL ticket that cheap, honestly. Every time I've looked into tickets for a game it's $300 for nosebleeds. Which is why I haven't gone to a game in over a decade and likely will never go see one again. The view is better on TV and I'm old enough now I can manage to keep my bar tab under $100 with food.

Tickets in the US, like you say, are ridiculous across the board. My NBA tickets are the best value I've got. My Memphis Tigers basketball tickets are bar-none the worst.

The USL is probably my favorite, I can get in there for no more than $20/match and often as little as $5. Sad that they'll be gone soon.

My favorite sports are rapidly becoming Memphis Tigers soccer ::brace for impact::, volleyball, and baseball. Free and I can bring my own camp lounge chair (x2 men's and women's- women's ranked #12), free, free sometimes very cheap others.


Not just sport though, theater tickets have gotten very expensive too. I've stopped even checking into concert festivals. Most of the comedy shows I want to go to are $150+/seat. National tour Broadway productions are close to $200, so I spend my money on local theater. Twice a year or so I go to NYC, and it's cheaper for me to see productions on Broadway than it is to see the national touring B-cast when they come to Memphis.
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USL is a pretty fun watch. We got a USL 2 team this year and they have a 10 dollar ticket as well. It ain’t the PL but it’s still a fun time
 
AlabamaSpur said:
USL is a pretty fun watch. We got a USL 2 team this year and they have a 10 dollar ticket as well. It ain’t the PL but it’s still a fun time
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I really enjoy it a lot. Standard of play can be shit, but it's fun, inexpensive, and allows us to extend the Birmingham and Louisville rivalries.

Unfortunately, I think our team will be gone within 2 years. They aren't going to get a stadium built, and the edict that MiLB and USL cannot share stadiums after 25 will push them out of existence or force them to relocate.

Still holding out hope they scratch up some cash for the stadium. It would be located so that I could walk there, which would be awesome.
 
AlabamaSpur said:
While we are on the topic of MLS, I'm gonna rant for a second. My son has been recommended for a tryout twice in the last two years to Nashville SC. Both times they said he was too old - at 13 and 14. So NSC apparently just decides 13 is the cutoff for any competition for spots in their Academy.

Then this summer he got invited to Spain and picked up an offer to play at a small club in Barcelona. NSC hears about the offer, says they are going to come scout him. For two months we coordinate the date and time and then they no showed. No email. No phone call. Nothing.
Click to expand...
A couple of years ago, my buddy (a basketball guy who knew fuckall about footy) brought his 5-year old son to an area of his local park in Los Angeles (Griffith Park) to kick a ball around.

There was a team/group of kids training (practicing) on one of the adjacent fields.

One of the coaches came up to my friend and asked if his kid wanted to play with the others.

The kid's been playing in the PSG LA Academy for two-years now.
 
MemphisWill said:
Surprised you can get an NFL ticket that cheap, honestly. Every time I've looked into tickets for a game it's $300 for nosebleeds. Which is why I haven't gone to a game in over a decade and likely will never go see one again. The view is better on TV and I'm old enough now I can manage to keep my bar tab under $100 with food.

Tickets in the US, like you say, are ridiculous across the board. My NBA tickets are the best value I've got. My Memphis Tigers basketball tickets are bar-none the worst.

The USL is probably my favorite, I can get in there for no more than $20/match and often as little as $5. Sad that they'll be gone soon.

My favorite sports are rapidly becoming Memphis Tigers soccer ::brace for impact::, volleyball, and baseball. Free and I can bring my own camp lounge chair (x2 men's and women's- women's ranked #12), free, free sometimes very cheap others.


Not just sport though, theater tickets have gotten very expensive too. I've stopped even checking into concert festivals. Most of the comedy shows I want to go to are $150+/seat. National tour Broadway productions are close to $200, so I spend my money on local theater. Twice a year or so I go to NYC, and it's cheaper for me to see productions on Broadway than it is to see the national touring B-cast when they come to Memphis.
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Conversely, tickets for college sports in the right market can be the most challenging/expensive of all.

I have family in Charlottesville, VA, and good luck trying to get a couple of tickets to a 'Hoos 🏀 game.

'Program Benefactor' seats start at around $50K for the season.
 
AlabamaSpur said:
While we are on the topic of MLS, I'm gonna rant for a second. My son has been recommended for a tryout twice in the last two years to Nashville SC. Both times they said he was too old - at 13 and 14. So NSC apparently just decides 13 is the cutoff for any competition for spots in their Academy.

Then this summer he got invited to Spain and picked up an offer to play at a small club in Barcelona. NSC hears about the offer, says they are going to come scout him. For two months we coordinate the date and time and then they no showed. No email. No phone call. Nothing.
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There fucking loss. We used to have this stupid arbitrary age BS in the 90's lots of talent got over looked.
 
Shotgunofmichalebrow said:
There fucking loss. We used to have this stupid arbitrary age BS in the 90's lots of talent got over looked.
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Its so weird. When we were in Spain they told us they would constantly be looking for competion at every spot. Back home the coaches prefer to be comfortable with players they know. Doesn't seem the best way to get the top talent. We didn't even expect he'd make the team. We just wanted the chance to tryout and get an evaluation on his skill level.
 
Château NoHo said:
A couple of years ago, my buddy (a basketball guy who knew fuckall about footy) brought his 5-year old son to an area of his local park in Los Angeles (Griffith Park) to kick a ball around.

There was a team/group of kids training (practicing) on one of the adjacent fields.

One of the coaches came up to my friend and asked if his kid wanted to play with the others.

The kid's been playing in the PSG LA Academy for two-years now.
Click to expand...
Its been the strangest situation I've experienced. I didn't realize an MLS Academy would essentially decide that 12 years old was the threshold age for new recruits.
 
Château NoHo said:
Conversely, tickets for college sports in the right market can be the most challenging/expensive of all.

I have family in Charlottesville, VA, and good luck trying to get a couple of tickets to a 'Hoos 🏀 game.

'Program Benefactor' seats start at around $50K for the season.
Click to expand...
College basketball tickets are a huge rip off. Even Memphis, which is a metro school without massive numbers of well off alumni and lots of other activities to compete with. I pay $2000/seat for 15 games ($133/game), for a bubble team in a bad conference and half of those games are weekday games. Conversely, I pay 1/2 of $3000/seat for 21 Grizzlies games ($71/game), for one of the best basketball teams on the planet.

Somehow our (U of Memphis) atletic director can't figure out that he doesn't compete with Tennessee or Louisville....he competes with the Grizzlies, which are a better product at a lower price.

Also, no one can tell my wife how much I spend on basketball tickets, ok?
 
AlabamaSpur said:
Its been the strangest situation I've experienced. I didn't realize an MLS Academy would essentially decide that 12 years old was the threshold age for new recruits.
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Incentivizes pay-for-play, I assume? I assume U12, the parents are footing big bills to get their kids on the team/in the league/paying for travel. Probably over U12 the club starts footing the bill, and parents get their knickers in a twist when Carlos Kickball rucks up at 16 and puts Johnny Private School on the bench after they spent $40k on his soccer career up to U12.
 
MemphisWill said:
Incentivizes pay-for-play, I assume? I assume U12, the parents are footing big bills to get their kids on the team/in the league/paying for travel. Probably over U12 the club starts footing the bill, and parents get their knickers in a twist when Carlos Kickball rucks up at 16 and puts Johnny Private School on the bench after they spent $40k on his soccer career up to U12.
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The only logical thing I can come up with is they want kids that are experienced with the club's style of play. But hell, any team in the top 2 youth club leagues (ECNL, NPL) all play the same damn way as MLS academies do.
 
Saudi League is the new MLS, surely? A retirement home for decent pros and a place where not so decent pros can have a career in the game. The money in Saudi is slowly being used to dominate everything - including second tier sport.
 
AlabamaSpur said:
While we are on the topic of MLS, I'm gonna rant for a second. My son has been recommended for a tryout twice in the last two years to Nashville SC. Both times they said he was too old - at 13 and 14. So NSC apparently just decides 13 is the cutoff for any competition for spots in their Academy.

Then this summer he got invited to Spain and picked up an offer to play at a small club in Barcelona. NSC hears about the offer, says they are going to come scout him. For two months we coordinate the date and time and then they no showed. No email. No phone call. Nothing.
Click to expand...
Best of luck to your son. :thumbup:
 
AlabamaSpur said:
While we are on the topic of MLS, I'm gonna rant for a second. My son has been recommended for a tryout twice in the last two years to Nashville SC. Both times they said he was too old - at 13 and 14. So NSC apparently just decides 13 is the cutoff for any competition for spots in their Academy.

Then this summer he got invited to Spain and picked up an offer to play at a small club in Barcelona. NSC hears about the offer, says they are going to come scout him. For two months we coordinate the date and time and then they no showed. No email. No phone call. Nothing.
Click to expand...
How did he get on in Spain?
 
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