A lot going on personally for me today, and I still somehow set a new record in number of posts (incidentally, I'm averaging 2 page views per post, which I guess means I should keep up the good work; or not).

I wanted to follow up on the news regarding MLS Primetime Thursday's "cancellation", which by now has elicited commentary by a number of soccer bloggers (WVHooligan here, and MLS Daily here).

ESPN is naturally spinning the cancellation, and schedule revision of their MLS package, as a good thing. While there is definitely some smoke being blown up our collectives asses, I'm actually going to back the network on this. Having greater flexibility in game choice is a major advantage going forward, and while some fans may bemoan a lack of diversity among teams involved (expect A LOT of Galaxy, Red Bulls, etc.), the change should pay dividends for all in the long run. While FSC is nice, I believe ESPN exposure for MLS is crucial for the growth of the league, and there won't be any if the recent lousy ratings continue.

ESPN has proffered the possibility that better lead-ins will result in better ratings for MLS games. I'm not sure that's going to be true all of the time, but even if a few stragglers stay on ESPN for the first half of games, the ratings are bound to look better. Better ratings equal more exposure (and larger investments in advertising and the like), which equals better ratings, and so the cycle goes. As soccer fans, we can't sit around and ignore the reality of the situation, crying about lack of exposure when the numbers have, to this point, been abysmal.

I think I've mentioned this before, but it bears reviewing; the Euro 2008 ratings achieved across a couple of ESPN's networks indicates that soccer has an audience to be found in the U.S. It seems clear that the discrepancy is due to my oft-repeated lament of Eurosnobbery, in addition to the perception that MLS regular season match-ups have little significance. All the more reason for ESPN to be allowed to pick games that will maximize ratings based on the importance of the match and extraneous factors like rivalry and star power.

We'll see if these changes put a dent (or bulge) in the ratings; even these changes might mean nothing without an effort to push the games. ESPN needs to step up in the ad department, and do so quickly. Properly highlighting the things that soccer and the MLS (maybe with some video like this) have to offer would go a long way towards drawing viewers.