TV Report: MLS Cup sets viewership record
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Dec 13, 2016
The 2016 MLS Cup was the most-watched MLS final ever in the United States and Canada as
it averaged 3,534,000 viewers.
2016 MLS Cup Viewers:
1,430,000 TSN (Canada)
1,411,000 Fox
601,000 UniMas
92,000 (Canada)
TOTAL: 3,534,000
The Toronto-Seattle FC game was the most-watched final on an American network since 2001 as Fox averaged
1,411,000 viewers, more than double the ESPN audience of 668,000 for Columbus-Portland a year ago. Saturday night’s match, the first on U.S. network television since 2008, generated a 9.9
household rating in Seattle.
The Fox audience was topped by the 1,430,000 viewers on Canada's TSN, a record for an MLS match in Canada. French-language RDS averaged 92,000.
It's a shame the game was one of the worst MLS matches I have seen partly due to the awful refereeing by the referee MLS hand picked to ref the final with a reputation of not calling fouls with the expected result being a hatchet job by each team which I can only gather is what MLS wanted. Then there was the embarassingly bad announcing by Brad Friedel who ridiculed the players who fell as they were fouled and praised the ref for letting those fouls go
@jcr 3
Please leave the melodratic POV for the the padded rugby fans.
I am a huge football fan in which i give my time and following to MLS and our own National Football Team.
The MLS football final was far from stellar, but which i mostly put blame on SSFC. Toronto Football Club not only had the expectation to be the attacking side since they were playing at home, they attempted even if they failed miserably. By the same token, SSFC either did not want to risk to play ala Montreal and were simply waiting for a counterattack.
In the end, SSFC failed to have a shot on goal on the whole game which speaks volume as to who failed to show up to have made this final into a memorable one. Kudos to Montreal Impact in the way they played both legs without any fears.
Mind you, i am a SSFC fan and even own a SSFC jersey and watch their games via MLS live,but thruthfullu, TFC deserved it more in every way .
Oh, hogwash. Why is it that if a team chooses to emphasize offense in an attempt to win, they're complimented, but if they choose to emphasize defense, somehow they "don't deserve it"?
Both are perfectly reasonable strategies and since the point of the game is to both score goals for your team and to stop the other team from scoring goals, anything that works in that manner is a good thing.
Amen. Brad Friedel is a bad announcer, more inclined toward displaying his own macho than about understanding the game. Alan Kelly? He does seem to keep time accurately, otherwise does nothing to create an interesting game.
Hard game to watch, can't imagine anyone was converted to Soccer by watching it, probably switched back to NFL
+ and I would go further - this game was so bad it may have actually turned away soccer fans - from MLS.
A team's first responsibility is to WIN the game. Toronto had just come out of a seven goal win. 14 in last 4 games. Why wouldn't Seattle play, emphasize their strengths, defense and counter Toronto's strength, offense. The game was fast and full of great "efforts" by most players. You are not going to have a smooth "beautiful" game with 40 fouls allowed. Nothing wrong with this game that a couple EARLY yellow cards couldn't have fixed.
Comish by selecting Walton as the head of refs needs to admit his mistake and select someone with common sense. As for Friedel, he brings zero to the table.