Ask almost any Major League Soccer fan about the All-Star Game and they’ll likely tell you it’s a pointless exercise with virtually no upside for the league. They’ll point to the times that top European teams have dismantled their MLS opponents and declare the game an embarrassment just waiting to happen. They’ll argue that even when MLS teams hold their own (or, indeed, win) it comes with the caveat that their opponent was in pre-season.
MLS All-Star Game may be a fake competition, but it’s still important
Silly as it may be, MLS still needs events like this one on its calendar.
Many, even current players like Clint Dempsey, will call for the format to be changed back to East vs. West or USA vs. World in order for it look more like other North American All-Star affairs. At least that way, they'll say, it will be a true exhibition, rather than a trumped up, pseudo-competitive match.
All of those things may be true, but time after time league officials are asked about the game’s future and they insist that it won’t be going away -- or even changed -- anytime soon.
Why? It’s simple really: money.
Well, it’s more complicated than just money, I suppose, but that’s the driving force. Whether the die-hard MLS fan loves the All-Star Game or hates it, the game proves to be an easy sell on TV and in the stands. Casuals tend to tune in far more often than they will for your average regular-season match and the game always sells out, most famously drawing nearly 71,000 to Houston’s Reliant Stadium in 2010.
But it goes beyond the product of the field, and in fact that’s probably the bit that virtually guarantees that the All-Star Game will be around for the foreseeable future.
Especially now that MLS Cup is played at the home of the higher seed, the All-Star Game is the one event on the calendar that can be planned far in advance. It’s where league officials rub elbows with potential sponsors and where current sponsors can be wined and dined; where general managers are guaranteed to get face time with agents and where agents can bend the ears of future employers; it’s an event designed to be media friendly and the media absolutely lap it up, no matter how much they complain about how silly it is.
Why not do all this at something like the MLS SuperDraft? That’s an easy one too: Because there’s simply not nearly the draw.
Facing off against a European power like Bayern Munich might seem ridiculous, but the reality is that a significant reason all those people show up is so that they can be in those players’ presence. The SuperDraft might be convenient, but it only has a fraction of the draw.
So, make fun of the All-Star Game all you want. Call it a travesty if you must. But understand that the All-Star Game fills a very significant need in the MLS calendar and because of that, it’s here to stay.
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