Many people consider the English Premier League to be just that, the premier football league in the world. But while it’s definitely one of the most popular on the planet, it still might be able to improve in some areas.

In fact, the English top flight might even want to look across the Atlantic to the Major League Soccer (MLS) for some tips on how to improve its overall image. This may seem a little odd as the MLS is a relative newcomer when it comes to football leagues. However, it’s starting to grow in both quality and popularity with expansion teams being added and top-class players such as Thierry Henry joining the ranks to play against the likes of Landon Donovan, Freddie Ljungberg, and David Beckham.

While the MLS needs to promote itself, the Premier League is in a stronger position, but to many fans, it often seems they’re being slightly ripped off as for many the Premier League is more concerned about making money than satisfying their loyal followers.

Competitiveness

Over the years the English top flight has basically become nothing more than a four- or five-horse race, with the top teams consistently winning the league. While it’s better than some leagues with only two realistic title contenders, such as Spain and Scotland, it doesn’t offer much hope for fans of the poorer and less skilled clubs. Yes, any given team can beat another on any given day, but it doesn’t happen on a consistent basis. The rich teams keep on getting better by simply going out and buying players while the rest of them struggle.

The MLS, with its salary cap system, offers a much more competitive and interesting playing field as most teams have a legitimate shot at winning the league and the cup. The MLS playoff system also adds excitement as it often features nail-biting battles that come down to the last day of the season between teams trying to make the playoffs.

The Premier League comes down to the last day of the season too on occasion, but more often than not it’s for the relegation battle between the league’s worst teams. Granted, the title can go down to the wire, but if it does, it’s usually between just two sides.

No matter how you look at it, there’s quite a gap between a handful of elite Premier League teams and the rest of the league. This usually results in boring, lopsided, and unexciting games as most lower-league teams just go out to defend against the top clubs. Fans of Blackpool and West Brom know their heroes have no realistic chance of winning the league this season, or any season for that matter, while supporters of all MLS teams know they have a realistic shot most years.
 

 

Television restrictions

It seems a little odd that many other countries across the globe get better and more television coverage of Premier League games than fans do in England. For instance, in North America, you can usually access every Premier League game played during a week either live or on a short tape-delayed basis.

This isn’t the case in England, as there are quite a few matches that aren’t shown, especially live games with 3pm kick-offs on Saturday afternoons. The English top flight states it doesn’t want attendance at games to be affected by showing them live.

When it comes to the MLS, every game is broadcast online as well as in a television package that fans can subscribe to. The games are also shown live by regional sports networks, which usually come with a cable TV package for a minimal charge.

In England, many of the Premier League matches are only available on premium broadcasters that need to be paid for with a monthly fee. The MLS makes all of its games easily accessible to the fans at a much lower cost.

Online videos

The MLS also offers video highlights of its games for free on the internet whereas the Premier League doesn’t want to allow fans to see them without some type of monetary gain. Some Premier League clubs offer subscriptions through their websites to fans who want to see video replays.

The practice of charging for videos has backfired on the Premier League somewhat though as the league has been embroiled in court cases to try and stop people from illegally uploading and showing short highlights of matches.

The MLS is more than happy to promote itself through videos and even allows fans to embed the highlights on other websites. This is an ideal way to advertise the league as well as getting more hits on the MLS website. The Premier League are actually pushing online visitors away as they’re busy surfing the web looking for unofficial, but free highlights.

Financial structure

The salary cap system of the MLS basically saves clubs from themselves as they have to abide by the league guidelines. In the Premier League, it seems like a free-for-all and there are situations such as Portsmouth found themselves in last season. That situation not only hurt the club, it also hurt the league. Too many Premier League teams are in debt and too many of them are trying to buy a championship with little regard for developing players of their own. The MLS structure means it’s highly unlikely a team will go into massive debt.

The Premier League may well provide the world’s best footballing product – though that’s arguable – but despite the advances it has made it could still do worse than look across the pond as it plans how to reach the next level.