Major League Soccer (MLS) is a soccer league in North America which started back in 1996. It’s a fairly new league without too much support yet, but it has been seeing huge growth in many of the markets that it has entered the past few years. The players in the league don’t compare to the competition that you’ll find in the European Soccer Leagues, but the MLS is slowly building up its list of notable players with European Soccer experience. As the league becomes bigger and the fan base grows I’m sure there will be plenty of more European soccer stars to come and join the league.
Since the MLS is seeing a growth in the fan base and sponsorship base the league has been working on expanding and building stadiums for teams. Some teams already have home stadiums which are strictly designed for soccer, but other teams still need to do construction on there own stadiums. Most of the MLS team stadiums can seat about 20,000 spectators, so you won’t find nearly the audience at an MLS game compared to an EPL game.
Two new teams will be expanding the MLS throughout 2009 and 2010 with Seattle and Philadelphia entering the league with a team. Currently there are 14 teams in the MLS, but with the two new teams there will be 16 teams by 2010 with potential for more as well to form.
MLS Soccer Teams
Eastern Conference
• Chicago Fire
• Columbus Crew
• D.C. United
• Kansas City Wizards
• New England Revolution
• New York Red Bulls
• Toronto FC
Western Conference
• Chivas USA
• Colorado Rapids
• FC Dallas
• Houston Dynamo
• Los Angeles Galaxy
• Real Salt Lake
• San Jose Earthquakes
The MLS is televised regionally for every team and many of the games are also broadcasted nationally although there aren’t any international contracts yet. The TV contracts in the United States and Canada has helped the league gain more exposure and surely has increased the fan base. With TV contracts came more sponsorship and investors so I believe over the next 5-10 years the MLS should improve in quality and hopefully will be able to be compared to the EPL one day.
Many of the online sportbooks have already begun implementing MLS games into there sportsbook so you’ll be able to wager on all of the games. The league has some strong teams and some weak teams although any team could win any game because no team is really terrible. This makes betting challenging, but also exciting and I’m sure you’ll be able to make some money wagering on the games. It’s a lot more fun watching the games when you have some money on line so give it a try and see how it goes. I can guarantee this year is going to set record numbers in game attendance, televised viewers and money spent on wagers so don’t miss the action.
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