With J Hutcherson -- And some eyes turn to Seattle. More than you would think if the Western Conference Final rating is an indication. That game was scheduled at an inconvenient time for the East Coast, so maybe prime time on Sunday works out.
The major competition is NBC's Football Night In America. That's Philadelphia - Chicago. Relative competitiveness aside, this has been a Fall of high football ratings. Last week's game drew over 22 million viewers. MLS should be happy to break the seven-figure mark.
Do the generally interested expect MLS Cup to be on national cable on Sunday night with a prime time East Coast start? Part of that is simply getting that message out there. What were the ad buys in major markets? Is there any indication of an event past what's happening locally?
High ratings in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City should be expected, but it's the rest of the country that will make the bigger point. There's a trend with MLS that each time they make a change it's like starting over. That's an expectation reset. If Sunday night prime time works immediately, it justifies the quality behind the decision. If it doesn't, it's year one of a multi-year process.
There's a problem with that thinking, and it's more than just a straw man. If you can push away continuity, you're never being judged n history. MLS Cup used to be a major network game shown in the afternoon against regional NFL programming. Now it's a cable game up against the NFL's highlight contest.
All things level, this should be tougher for MLS to get a ratings result. Right now, that's every bit as important as who wins on the field, because the idea of MLS Cup as an event has always superseded the game itself.
Moving on, shocked looks all around but Ireland's World Cup dream really did end with the final whistle on Wednesday. No replay, and the continued media-enforced punishment for Thierry Henry.
Whether or not you associate gamesmanship and blatant cheating, the Henry move might not justify a rethink of officiating. The push for use of replay is nothing new, and it's also no guarantee of getting it right. Neither are extra officials, putting a tracking device in the ball to sense when it crosses the line, or anything else.
At best, they're all parts of a process that will always end with someone making a judgment call. In the specific France - Ireland example, the referee and the linesman were shielded and didn't see what the camera showed the rest of us. Fair enough, but the linesman should have been in position to make the offside call that started France's scoring sequence.
That's the bigger point. It was the simple call that was missed, setting up something decidedly more complicated. Barring something I'm missing, soccer isn't the kind of game that can stop for every questionable offside call or non-call to be reviewed. That's the reason the NFL limits replay rulings and coaches' challenges. Short of the team penalized, nobody wants to see a review on every holding call. It would damage the entertainment value of the game.
With appropriate apologies to the authors who try to make it ever-so-much more, at base this is what professional soccer is about. Hamper the entertainment, and people might find other things to occupy that chunk of their time.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
