G. Willow WilsonWell, #MLS fans? Soliciting your spiciest takes. This is a safe space. #mastodonfc
https://deadspin.com/mls-playoffs-soccer-apple-tv-streaming-lafc-union-1850141392
https://deadspin.com/mls-playoffs-soccer-apple-tv-streaming-lafc-union-1850141392
Gary E. Walker@GWillow I am just sad that MLS hates it’s fans _almost_ as much as MLB.
Uncle 6 🌁@GWillow I’m genuinely more interested in the fortunes of my USL teams than the local MLS side - partly because Quakes ownership is a disgrace, but largely because USL feels organic and local somehow. (That I should live to see a soccer team in Birmingham AL with a multiracial fan base and a forge striking iron ingots for goals…what a time to be alive, hammer down)
J.
Dalia@GWillow Several great points. "Something to play for" is indeed vital. Most tedious games of the season- your eliminated-from-playoffs team playing another eliminated team... and then, not even giving the young bench decent playing time. #MLS #MastodonFC
Adam Gessaman 
@GWillow okay, so you asked: MLS is an oligopolistic investment vehicle for the 0.1%, not a true competitive league.
Their goal is to be juuust good enough to keep us coming to games and paying for merch and streaming subscriptions through forced parity. LAFC bucked the system and look what happened.
If they truly believed in both competition and capitalism, they'd implement a pro/rel system which would mean that every game mattered and the consequences at both ends of the table are very real.
Matthew Nadler@matthewmuses @GWillow
Good for those middle teams. This only impacts them if the overall level of play goes up and they don't improve with it.
It depends on how you evaluate competitiveness. In NFL, MLB, and NHL the salary cap helps enforce parity. It turns it into a performance per dollar calculation, a.k.a. Moneyball.
While there's relative parity in EPL due to the law of diminishing returns, the rest of the English league system you can see big returns on relatively small investments.
@matthewmuses @GWillow oh no. The players were certainly competitive. Pre salary cap, a team had the opportunity to gather as much talent as the owner could afford. It’s obvious how this can impact parity.
The cap protects owners’ investment by narrowing the upper bounds on the amount of talent teams can accumulate. You see this almost every year as free agency dismantles the teams that make it to the Super Bowl.
(A possible solution: cap payroll at a % of club income, not flat for all clubs.)
Christopher@GWillow I am convinced that MLS handing over exclusive broadcast rights, including local, to all matches except the national broadcasts will go down as a Top 5 Dumbest decision MLS ever made. $320 Million a year for 10 years and no team can do over OTA local broadcasts for their matches? They are gonna knee cap their local fan growth in every market. DUMB!
Hamburger Dipshit🌹@GWillow in the general sense I’m very interested to see how the streaming exclusive thing works out. I’m up in Seattle this weekend for a concert and I have no idea if I’ll even be able to find a bar that will show me the Quakes game. The chicken/egg problem with bad production vs low viewership always leaned “bad production” to me, but no idea how much they’ll kill the ability for new fans to see it behind a paywall. In a narrower sense, the fact that they keep messing with the playoffs 1/2
@GWillow is very dumb to me, but also the Quakes are always so godawful we’re going to miss out on them so personally sort of immaterial. 🤷♂️
@dohimjob You're in Seattle and you're not going to the Sounders game on Sunday?? Screw the Quakes, come freeze your butt off at Lumen haha
@GWillow haha much as I would like to freeze, my flight leaves too early. But I have been up here for games before! Including for maybe the single worst DP signing in league history’s (Innocent Emeghara) first and only MLS goal. Banger of a goal, though.
@dohimjob @GWillow well luckily for you, the MLS package is free on Apple TV for 7 days starting this weekend, so you can probably watch at least on your device, maybe. But after that, you are SOL. I will be in the same boat too; I refuse to buy the package to watch the #Sounders that were always available on a local broadcast. My support for them will probably shrink this season because of this dumb decision by #MLS.
Dave Clark
Jeff Lake@GWillow I may be insufficiently salty to participate here, but my take is: MLS produces more watchable games than the European leagues do.
The salary cap (holey though it is) generates more parity.
@GWillow I liked the single-elimination playoff format, it was quick and exciting.
MLS doesn't need pro/rel.
It can't compete with the top teams in the top leagues, but MLS is on par or better than most leagues.
You may not agree with the above statement, but you should still support your local MLS or USL side. Why? Because it's OURS, damnit.
This is the Revs year. (Will repeat until true)
Alan Jacobson@GWillow if there was an effective challenge filed to Fraser v MLS, MLS would lose. MLS' current structure (compared to when Fraser was decided) doesn't meet the tests in Fraser.
Rocco Comisso's suit vs USSF and MLS wasn't an effective challenge.
Rodney Simba 🇿🇼 🇺🇸 
@GWillow I’m not a fan of playoffs and there should be relegation
Todd Brooks@GWillow so I got the free trial so I could watch the opening weekend. I watched one game as I was pretty busy most of the day. Now how do I cancel so I don’t get charged lol. I figure the entire season doesn’t matter until the middle playoffs now.