Friday, April 24, 2009

Randy Levine Attacks MLS Commish, Makes Yanks Look Silly

Yankee President Randy Levine responded harshly to comments made by Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber. Major League Soccer's commish said on Thursday, "It's incomprehensible that you watch a game, and there will be front-row seats empty," in reference to the expensive seats that remain empty at Yankee Stadium.

"We draw more people in a year than his entire league does in a year. If he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously," Levine responded on Friday

I suppose he may mean that the MLS needs to enter the Eastern Time Zone. That way they can be in the same time zone as the Yankees. Not really sure what Levine was trying to do there.

What Levine says is ultimately true though, the Yankees do in fact outdraw the entire MLS in attendance. But Is it really necessary for the president of the New York Yankees to get into a war of words with the commissioner of the MLS? After all, the Yankees outdraw the entire MLS. Levine himself said that.

For an organization that prides itself on class and success, the Yankees seem to have forgotten the "class" part of that formula. Something feels completely wrong about Levine taking shots at America's professional soccer league, one in desperate need of support in this country. Soccer remains the most popular sport in the world, and completely unpopular in the US, as indicated by horrendous attendance.

While some may say that Garber and the MLS deserve Randy Levine's scorn, Levine simply continues the trend of blind unaccountability from the "world's strongest sports brand," as Garber referred to the Yanks as on Friday. The problem here is that Randy Levine and Lonn Trost represent precisely what makes the Yankees unlikable, as they embody the complete disconnect between the Yankees and its loyal fans. Deny it if you want, but Randy Levine firing barbs at the MLS makes the Yankees look very silly.

Comments (8)

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Levine has apparently taken the role of attack dog in the Yankee front office. With the new Stadium completed and presumably not as much need for someone to go blow for blow with the politicians, someone ought to tell Levine to keep his public statements to a minimum.
Craig Robinson's avatar

Craig Robinson · 834 weeks ago

Agreed on the lack of class.

It's a distorted comparison, for one thing, what with the huge difference in number of games.
MLB's average attendance: 32,539. MLS's average attendance: 16,460, which, incidentally, is only about 400 less than the average in the Brazilian top division. MLS will never reach the popularity of baseball, American football, basketball, or ice hockey, but with an increasing Hispanic population, it's entirely possible that one day Randy may be ready to take the MLS commissioner seriously.

Figures from Wikipedia, btw:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attendance_f...

Off topic: I went to my first baseball game of the season yesterday at Safeco Field with thoughts your reporting of the new Yankee Stadium in my mind. What a pleasure it was to be greeted with smiles by all of the stadium employees, moving between sections without hassle, and generally feeling like the money that my wife and I spent there was appreciated.
I think the problem here is that Garber was not directly attacking the Yankees, he was simply discussing the domestic economic situation and its effect on the MLS, and suggesting that even the biggest teams, in the biggest markets are struggling to fill seats right now. For whatever reason, Levine took that as a direct attack on the Yankees and proceeded to make a fool of himself.
Levine had a temper tantrum when Garber was actually giving him a compliment in using the Yankees as an example of the "biggest and best".....I believe the Sounders are currently averaging better than the Mariners per game though (in seattle)....so not actually horrible in all realms
Craig Robinson's avatar

Craig Robinson · 833 weeks ago

Someguy is right, the average Mariners attendance so far is 26,104. The average Sounders attendance is 29,663.
One caveat, though, is that all of the Sounders' games - bar the home opener - have been at the weekend. If one takes the home opener + weekend attendances for the Mariners, the average is 36,050. Either way, soccer comes out looking pretty good in a nation that supposedly doesn't care about it.
1 reply · active 833 weeks ago
The Red Bulls are opening a soccer only Stadium in the NY/NJ area which
should be pretty good for them.

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