Sure, Major League Soccer is coming off its best-ever year, but how would an economic recession impact the league’s fortunes? MLS Commissioner Don Garber insists there’s no direct correlation between the country’s economic performance and consumer spending on sporting events and merchandise.
USSoccerPlayers’ J Hutcherson is not so sure. Some people look at American sports as a funnel where people spend their money, but not all sports are created equal in this country. If you look at it as a hierarchy, Hutcherson says, the NFL and college sports are at the top, somewhere in the middle you have racing (too many hardcores) and baseball (cheap tickets, so many games), and you have MLS.
What can MLS do to secure its portion of the funnel? “Push as much product as possible.” Good thing there’s “more professional soccer product available in the U.S. market than any of the other professional sports,” right? Not necessarily, Hutcherson says. Too much soccer (i.e. La Liga, the EPL, the U.S. national team, etc.) means a lot of inventory, which isn’t a good thing in a recession. Meanwhile, the owning vs. renting stadium panacea has yet to hit its first major roadblock, which is exactly what might happen in a recession, Hutcherson says.