MLS: Exploiting global reach crucial to Liga MX race

MLS are competing with Liga MX to be the dominant team in the CONCACAF region. Its increased global reach will be crucial if the league wants to overtake its Mexican counterpart.

Major League Soccer has set itself up in a race with Liga MX. The league wanted to. The increased attention on the CONCACAF Champions League, a competition Liga MX teams have dominated, the invention of competitions like the Leagues Cup and Campeanos Cup, which specifically pit MLS and Liga MX teams against one another, have all led to this budding, somewhat one-way rivalry.

As Don Garber looks to grow and establish his league, proving it can is a deserving member of the world’s elite-level leagues, the first step along the way will be to overhaul Liga MX as the dominant league in the CONCACAF region.

This offseason saw the start of that. MLS teams started to buy some of the best talent in Liga MX. The teams now have the money to splash, three Designated Player slots with which to slide these players into the roster, and the gravitas of being a better advertised and globally seen league.

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It is this last point that is so vital in MLS’ venture to rival Liga MX. While Liga MX is still the superior standard league, and likely will be for some time, MLS is better-marketed competition and it grabs more eyeballs from around the world, especially in Europe, which is where every footballer eventually wants to end up.

Former Mexican managers Hugo Sanchez and Javier Aguirre discuss this phenomenon with ESPN this week. They both concluded that MLS excels regarding its global reach when compared to Liga MX.

Sanchez said:

"“The advantage some of us have is that we first played in Europe and later coached in Europe, like in the cases of Javier Aguirre and I. Sadly, in the Mexican league we don’t have visionary leaders that [internationalize Liga MX], like they did in England and Spain in promoting their tournaments. It would mean that games from Mexico could be seen in other powerful countries in the world. Instead, the United States are smart and do it better than us.”"

And Aguirre echoed the sentiment:

"“No one sees us [in Mexico]. They see MLS and they don’t see Liga MX. They see the Libertadores and not the CONCACAF Champions League.”"

In Major League Soccer’s attempts to catch and surpass Liga MX, this greater global advertisement and reach is crucial. As players like Miguel Almiron, Ezequiel Barco, Alan Pulido and others have all stated in the past, MLS offers them a much higher chance to successfully sell these skills to national teams and European clubs. Even if MLS is a lower quality than Liga MX, the greater public reach it has demands more eyeballs, and thus is a better shop window for players to put themselves in.

In turn, this will increase the quality of the league. As has been increasingly noticeable in recent years, players will choose MLS teams over their Liga MX counterparts because of the greater sell-on potential they provide themselves with. This increases the standard of the league, attracts more eyeballs, and thus brings more higher-quality players to the league. It is a self-perpetuating circle that only leads to MLS reaching and eventually surpassing Liga MX.

If Major League Soccer, then, is to equal its great rival league, it must lean on its superior marketing, advertising and global attractiveness.