We decided to do something we never done before and partnered with The Striker Texas to publish this piece. While all of you should be subscribers to the Striker (since they are good at doing their thing, just as we aim to be good at doing our thing), we did want to put this piece to be free to the masses.
When they told us about an opportunity to participate in Waving a Magic Wand Over MLS, we had to say yes, since we love the MLS (mostly because of its absurdities), and who doesn’t love magic and change. As a result, I decided to write down this piece about what the MLS needs to do to improve the away travel experience.
As fans of the beautiful game, we often watch European matches, where there are frequently thousands of fans in the away end of the stadium. Aside from it being much easier to hop on a coach (because let’s face it, National Rail stinks) to go from Liverpool to Leeds (only 77 miles, same as Austin to San Antonio, with Manchester en route!), or take the ICE (bullet train) from Frankfurt to Dortmund (where the Germans will complain endlessly about the train arriving three minutes late), tickets are affordable as the Bundesliga and Premier League have set standards for away fans.
Both leagues require 10% of the seats at matches to be reserved for away fans and the Premier League has a price cap of 30 GBP (about 37 USD). Away tickets in the Bundesliga tend to be even cheaper, landing in the 20-25 Euro range (which is about at parity with the USD today). While you may hear some grumbling about a Monday night match that ends late — and Germany has gotten rid of nearly all Monday matches — these football leagues have prioritized the voice of away fans in maintaining strong atmospheres in their home venues.
Here in the MLS, the league is more concerned about chasing every last buck than building up a generation of soccer supporters. From agreeing to a boring uniform contract with Adidas that prevents creative kit designs, to blasting out promotions of Heineken at the expense of craft brewers who love this game, MLS frequently is preventing the construction of amazing, home-grown communities and partners in order to serve their national sponsors.
There needs to be a balance — bringing in funds to the league from sponsors and other partners, and also making travel affordable for away fans, as we know a strong away section makes going to any MLS a match a better experience. Some clubs like Sporting KC already offer free away tickets to their supporters but that’s an unrealistic league-wide bar.
Here is our modest three-part proposal to increase away travel in the league.
The proposal
1) Cap away tickets at $30. Instead of charging different away fans different prices, charge all away fans $30. Yes, home fans may grumble a bit here in Austin, but this deal is way better for the greater culture of the game. Considering the extra expenses of traveling in the United States, this is the solution that MLS has the most control over, and therefore the easiest.
2) Since most MLS away days require a flight, Sun Country (as the official airline of the league) should schedule match-adjacent flights (either public or charter) if an away fan base commits to at least 100 tickets. The average cost of those seats should not be over $200.
3) With the league’s new partnership with Internal Hotels Group (IHG), there should be fan hotel rates at significantly discounted rates, ideally at $150 a night or less).
Due to the size of North America, it is not realistic to expect the same away crowds as England or Germany. However, the league, as a single-entity structure, should make the above choices in order to create a culture that will attract more great players and supporters to the league’s grounds.