guncurug

Here's a collection of links for your weekend pleasure.  If I have missed something that you've been reading, please pass it along, topped off by the final round of English Premier League action.
Do wins in college football translate into better fundraising for the school? (Birmingham News)

ESPN and ACC agree to new media rights deal through 2026 ( ACC Sports Journal)

St. Louis Blues being sold in a short sale (Forbes)

Cantor Fitzgerald takes on sports betting (Bloomberg)

The end of the mtn, the first college conference network (The Wiz of Odds)

Stop me if you've heard this before, Pitt sues Big East in hopes of leaving early for the ACC (ESPN)

I know I haven't done this in a while but I will try to be a little better about it going forward.  In any event, here is this week's installment, which started on Tuesday but didn't get published until Wednesday:

When you're on a roll, the rule is to ride the hot dice and MLS is certainly doing that.  Coming on the heels of a very successful men's World Cup with never before seen fan interest in the US, a successful expansion franchise launch in Philadelphia this year and the opening of new stadia in New York and Philadelphia, MLS could rightly consider itself as well on the way to firmly establishing itself in the nation's sporting firmament. Expect the roll to continue as the league will be expanding by three more in 2011 and 2012 with franchises in Portland, Vancouver and Montreal coming on board.


Adidas has recognized the new reality voluntarily opening its ten year sponsorship agreement with the league and extending it until 2018, from its original expiration date of 2014.  In addition, the agreement is now worth more than $200 million, according to Sports Business Journal, making it one of Adidas largest investment in the sport.  That's a raise from the $150 million, 10 year deal, which the parties signed in 2004.  Of course, the league is certainly different than it was then, as I only highlighted above. There are seven new soccer specific stadiums, one football stadium filled with soccer crazed fans (Seattle, where no soccer specific stadium is necessary) and new deals with both ESPN and Univision.   Another soccer specific stadium is on the way in Kansas City.  Attendance is up, sponsorship is up, viewership is up and the league is clearly headed in the right direction.


All is not completely rosy, however.  There is still competition issues, most evident in CONCACAF Champions League games, even if nobody really cares about the results. MLS teams still have trouble competing with Mexican league teams, not to mention teams from South America.  It would be great if MLS could work with the South Americans to figure out a way to integrate MLS into the Copa Libertadores competition.  It would be great for the level of play in MLS and it would help the US Men's team.  Until then, I guess the CCL is all we have, so we'll have to make the best of it.

Apparently Don Garber hasn't learned any lessons from Gary Bettman and his disastrous hitherto disastrous television deal with Versus.  Granted, the deal has looked substantially better since the playoffs began, but that hardly makes up for a regular season in which the league was essentially MIA on television.  So how is this relevant to MLS?