The annual hype-fest known as the Super Bowl has come and gone for another year, leaving behind a trail of office absences, Monday morning hangovers, and for this writer, contemplation of the American fascination with the "Big Game". After weeks of interviews and features, countless hours of speculation and analysis, and day after day of endless buildup, a single American football game was played. Millions of Americans with no rooting interest gathered together around televisions in their homes or in bars to watch two teams compete for a championship. It's this iconic, far-reaching appeal that casts a shadow over the rest of American sports. The Super Bowl is so ingrained in the American culture that it has understandably colored how we view the tastes of the American consumer.
The behemoth of glitz, glamour, and marketing potential that is the Super Bowl has become a phenomenon that transcends sports. The NFL has 40 years of culturally relevant history behind its signature event, years that have served to make Super Bowl Sunday America's sports "holiday". The game on the field is often dwarfed by the extraneous happenings that come with it; the advertising boon the broadcast represents has itself become a major American cultural event. Mass media outlets descend on the Super Bowl's host city in numbers seen almost nowhere else. The exposure gained by the NFL, the NFL's corporate sponsors, and other entities that capitalize on the game's mass appeal is so large as to be almost immeasurable.
The hype that surrounds the Super Bowl can easily lead to frustrated feelings for soccer supporters in the U.S. The attention the final game of the NFL season receives often seems overblown, gratuitous, and (in some cases) undeserved, and we find ourselves asking why MLS Cup (or any American soccer event for that matter) cannot seem to attract even a fraction of the coverage the Super Bowl receives.
Major League Soccer, with a single game championship that echoes the nature of the Super Bowl, has looked to tap into the "Big Game" phenomenon. MLS has pushed the MLS Cup Final as their showpiece event, subscribing to the theory that the American sports mentality requires that a playoff tournament be played to determine a champion. While most of the world's foremost competitions use a single table format that crowns a champion based on overall points, MLS uses a playoff format that culminates in a championship match. In addition to fitting in with the American sports mindset, the MLS Cup final has served as Major League Soccer's biggest single annual event. The final is a benefit of the playoff format, a match that serves to draw attention to the league for one culminating day that would not exist in a single table league. The MLS Cup final garners almost no mainstream media attention, has little hype attached to it outside of the usual soccer suspects, and carries with it no culturally significant extras; yet it remains an important part of the American soccer effort, both presently and for the immediate future.
In a perfect world, I would prefer a single table. I believe that soccer, more than any other sport, is a game that does not need a playoff to crown a worthy champion. Other avenues to fill the American need for playoff competition (i.e. U.S. Open Cup) are available and should be expanded. But my view that MLS Cup is a necessary component of the professional game here (at least for the time being) is a pragmatic one; a point of view to which more American soccer fans should be attuned. Concepts like the single-table format, promotion/relegation, and the European calendar are intriguing and appealing to the traditionalists/Euro-centric among us, but are either too foreign, too difficult to implement, or simply impractical for professional soccer in the U.S. as it currently exists. Until a viable replacement for the marketing and exposure benefits MLS Cup provides can be found, the league cannot seriously consider a single table format.
While the MLS Cup final will more than likely never reach the level of the Super Bowl, the concept of a one off championship match aimed at pushing the hype meter as high as is possible remains a sound one. A single table format would certainly make MLS unique, but the loss of the MLS Cup final as the annual showpiece event of the American soccer calendar would more than mitigate any gains. MLS needs to garner all the attention it can; if the MLS Cup ceased to be, the league would lose a significant marketing tool. MLS Cup provides the league with an opportunity to exhibit itself for VIPs, current and possible corporate sponsors, the casual sports fan through a network television outlet it does not normally possess, as well as to reward loyal MLS fans with a "big game" event.
Despite the screaming of the vocal minority, MLS Cup will be around for the foreseeable future. The league may tweak the playoff format, and could conceivably consider staging the final in the home stadium of the team with the better regular-season record (which I believe is unlikely to happen), but the final itself will continue to be a part of the MLS schedule as long as it brings with it a showcase for not only the teams on the field, but the league and its future. Super Bowl-level hype or not, the MLS championship match serves a purpose for the league and fits nicely into the American concept that championships are won in championship games. With a little luck, a little more exposure, and a competition that continues to improve, perhaps MLS Cup can get its own share of hype.
