Article by Matt Lichtenstadter
MLS’ All-Star game is a glorified exhibition game at best, at worst it’s a really shameless TV ad for a league that doesn’t do all that great on TV. The league tried to spice it up having the All Stars play big name foreign teams with varying levels of impact in the past, and while perhaps the individual games created some buzz, it didn’t do a whole lot to raise the league’s profile.
However, the 2018 edition felt different. Maybe it was because there was more star power on display than usual, even without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but it was mostly because of Atlanta. The game felt less like a usual MLS All-Star game and more like a victory lap for Atlanta, the soccer town. MLS has something to do with that but not everything, though they’ll certainly take the credit. But if this was in fact the glass ceiling for this incarnation of the All-Star game, what breaks the league through it?
Most leagues have All-Star games that were once relevant and interesting and have now become exercises in futility in terms of drumming up interest. Unlike the big four however, MLS didn’t ever start from a position of strength here; they added an All-Star game in the first place because they needed to have one. They went through East vs. West, MLS All-Stars vs. the USMNT, USA vs. the World and now the All-Stars versus insert big European club here. Most of the world’s biggest clubs have played in this game with varying levels of apathy or endearment to the spectacle, as Juventus did, but taking out the Atlanta sheen off the latest game, it still felt like an exercise in futility of getting the average sports fan to care, as all MLS All-Star games tend to be.
What can the league do to juice up a game that it has to have, even though it often falls flat as even a spectacle? Atlanta embraced the game in a way no other cities have, which helped give the game a jolt, but there’s not as much intrigue in a motley crew of MLS talent versus a European giant in preseason playing its reserves. Holding it in Atlanta every year is not an option, and not every city in the country with a team has taken to MLS in the same way (Orlando is next up, reportedly).
One of the rumored options may well be the best: a game featuring the best players in Liga MX and MLS playing against each other. Whether it would be called the “MLS All-Star Game” or not, that would be an exhibition with intrigue, and would get an important demographic to pay attention to MLS who might not otherwise do so: Liga MX fans. Said league is the most popular in the United States, and is also MLS’ biggest direct competitor in terms of talent acquisition and eyeballs. At some point, the well of European superpowers runs dry and there has to be a new idea to freshen up what is otherwise a stale occasion. The homegrown game has worked well in drumming interest in some of MLS’ best young and homegrown talent, even if most of it doesn’t play as much as it should, but that feels like some of the extra games at the NBA and MLB All-Star weekends, which in the end don’t amount to much either.
There is no comparison; the MLS All-Star game of 2018 is infinitely better than it was a decade ago, largely because the league is better in almost every respect. But while this edition of the game felt the best it ever has, that wasn’t necessarily because of the game itself; it was because of the city it took place in. That’s lightning in a bottle which can’t be replicated anywhere else.
MLS’ next challenge is to take the game to another level, and they can look outward in order todo so. The Liga MX vs. MLS All-Stars is one step towards making this game better, and there are certainly other ideas that may help juice this game too.
But while this All-Star game didn’t feel the same as previous ones did, that doesn’t mean the enterprise itself has turned a corner. MLS has more runway to tweak this game than the other leagues do with their All-Star games, which feel sadly like mere formalities now.
Hopefully it can use some of the essence of what made this All-Star game feel different to make every All-Star game feel different, unique and exciting in the future. If the game has come this far in 10 years time, certainly there is more room to grow, right?
