By Paul Kennedy For those of us who have covered soccer going all the way back to the days of the original NASL, the report Forbes published Wednesday on MLS club valuations is stunning. Much was madeof the so-called $250 million the Galaxy was paying David Beckham, but that was money well spent if you […]
Soccer Business Insider
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LeBron James talks up football
By Paul Kennedy and Ridge Mahoney Tuesday is the day MLS is scheduled to announce Orlando as MLS’s 21st team, but there is other big news on theexpansion front out of Florida. On Monday, NBA superstar LeBron James confirmed he’s had preliminary talks about teaming up with David Beckham, who has been exploring using his […]
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Indy Eleven open waiting list on season-ticket deposits
By Paul Kennedy Indy Eleven’s first game in the North American Soccer League is still five months away, but it has already hit 7,000 season-ticketdeposits. Indy Eleven will play at the 12,500-seat Michael A. Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium so they will limit for the time being space for 7,000 season tickets. Indy is the […]
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Mizuno enters U.S. market
By Paul Kennedy Mizuno, the well-known Japanese brand, is moving into the U.S. soccer market. Mizuno USA will be offering select models of itspremium soccer cleat line-up online starting December 2013. For the brand’s U.S. launch, four Mizuno soccer cleat models will be available: two exclusively made-in-Japan models,Morelia Neo (MIJ) and Morelia II (full leather/MIJ), […]
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Earthquakes to christen new '49ers' stadium
By Paul Kennedy and Ridge Mahoney The San Jose Earthquakes will open a new stadium in 2014 — though it won’t be the new stadium they’re buildingnear San Jose Airport. The Quakes will be partnering with the Santa Clara Stadium Authority to host the Seattle Sounders on Aug. 2, 2014, in the first event at […]
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Good news for soccer, bad news for baseball
By Paul Kennedy If you were a fan of the Red Sox or Cardinals — two teams with huge and loyal followings that extend far into neighboring states — you were probably gluedto your television watching the World Series that ended Wednesday night. But the Wall Street Journal reports that the demographics of World Series […]
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Seattle breaks MLS attendance record for fifth year in a row
By Paul Kennedy The Seattle Sounders set an MLS attendance record for the fifth year in a row as they averaged 44,038 fans a game at CenturyLinkField. That’s higher than any MLB team averaged in 2013 except the Los Angeles Dodgers, who averaged 46,216, and more than double the Seattle Mariners averaged. The Sounders’ average […]
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The power of Messi
By Paul Kennedy One’s first thought upon reading the report that Lionel Messi became the first soccerplayer to rank in the top 10 in the ESPN Sports Poll of Americans’ favorite athletes is, what took so long? It would have said something if, after all these years of blanket coverage of soccer on themajor networks, […]
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Hexagonal finale is top-rated Mexico game of year
By Paul Kennedy Telemundo’s broadcast of Tuesday’s Hexagonal finale between Costa Rica and Mexico that almost resulted in El Tri’s elimination fromthe World Cup averaged 4.64 million total viewers and 2.81 million adults 18-49, outperforming Fox’s entire primetime lineup, as well as ABC’s programming from 9-11 p.m. ET among adults18-49. The “Rumbo al Mundial” broadcast […]
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Fox lands Bundesliga on long-term deal
By Paul Kennedy Fox, without a major European league since the loss of the EPL to NBC and Serie A and Ligue 1 to beIN Sport, has signed a deal withthe Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL) to carry the German Bundesliga, beginning with the 2015-16 season. GolTV currently carries the Bundesliga but it has struggled to […]