Was reading World Soccer and came across the below article from September 2003 about MLS and fight to convert Euro Snobs. You could easily replace MLS with AL and it would be valid for what is happening today. Sorry screen caps not working so will try with txt.

"WE NEED to be more important. We need to have more credibility." The words of MLS commissioner Don Garber. And they are true enough - so true that they add up to The Great Soccer Platitude

Soccer's comparative lack of importance when set alongside the other major pro sports - baseball, American football, ice hockey and basketball - is at the core of its struggle for acceptance in the USA.

The not unreasonable hope is that time will take care of that problem. As the sport grows among kids-and it is arguably the leading participant sport at that level - logic says that this country's future adults will be much more familiar with, and more receptive to the sport.

So goes the accepted wisdom. There has, however, been a glitch in the process. The great US soccer youth boom started in the 1970s. Already, by 1981 the total of under-19 boys and girls playing had reached two million. So, here we are 22 years later, and the question needs to be asked: where is that huge group now?

It's easy to come up with an answer. If those people became fans and wanted to follow pro Soccer, they could do it only until 1984. That was when the North American Soccer League collapsed.

The vacuum lasted for 12 years. So maybe that generation lost interest, turned to other things. It's quite possible. There's never any shortage, in the USA, of activities and entertainments clamouring to get hold of the leisure dollar.

Besides, maybe that generation wasn't soccer savvy enough. They went to NASL games, but what else did they know? The international game was largely a closed book because there was virtually no soccer on television. On top of that, the performances of the national team throughout the 1970s and 1980s were embarrassingly feeble, so there wasn't even a patriotic handle to grasp.

Things have moved onwards and, it seems, upwards. The new US soccer fans are pretty sophisticated in the ways of global soccer. The number of games available on television - terrestrial, cable, dish - is more than any one person can cope with (GolTV, a soccer-only channel, has recently arrived), while the world's soccer powers now see marketing opportunities in the States.

The vastly-trumpeted Manchester United circus (albeit without shirt-seller supreme David Beckham) has visited the USA this summer and played to sell-out crowds. And the nomadic Italian Supercup (in Libya last year) descended on New York in August.

The top Mexican cubs love to play exhibition games in the USA, particularly in Los Angeles, where crowds of over 70,000 are pretty much guaranteed.

Add in the fact that the United States had a pretty good World Cup in Korea and are now ranked 10th in the world (ahead of Italy!) by FIFA, and the fan is likely to have a much stronger grounding in the game than did his counterpart of 20 years ago.

But if the future looks bright, the present is where the problems lie. Commissioner Garber's words about becoming "more important" betray the frustration felt at all levels of the game in the USA.

Garber says there are 50 million players in the country. This has to be an absurdly inflated number, but even half that figure is a formidable total. How is something that big unable to gain the attention, never mind the respect of the mainstream American media? It gets even more baffling when you realise that a huge percentage of those players are from white, middle-class, suburban families.

American soccer has only itself to blame for this damaging failure. The culprit is not so much MLS, or its predecessor NASL, as the governing body, United States Soccer Federation. The USSF has never made any attempt to mobilise and organise this massive constituency, and have it work systematically as a pressure group on the local and national scene.

Soccer's weakness in this area is internal, but far too often the outside world is blamed. There are those who can find no other explanation for this anomaly than to cry foul and accuse the media of a conspiracy to kill off the sport. This is highly unlikely. But there is enough evidence of an almost pathological dislike of the sport among many American journalists.

A number of columnists, evidently irritated by soccer's refusal to go away, regularly savage it.

These people speak with awesome certainty for the whole country - "Americans don't want soccer"- and back up their assertion with pseudo-scientific hogwash about Americans only appreciating "hand-eye coordination in their sports. The shrill and xenophobic nature of these attacks suggests that the writers are worried. They fear soccer - heaven knows why; they find they can't ignore it, so they trash it.

Yes, there are all those games on TV - but only a handful are on the main networks. Hardly any American newspapers have full-time soccer writers. Coverage, in short, is grudging, often ill-informed and swamped by baseball or gridiron stories.

Garber needs to tread carefully when the matter of TV comes up. Truth to tell, the MLS ratings on ESPN are poor. Very poor. In an interview E with the Oneonta Daily Star, Garber explained, with smooth marketing talk, why the ratings were not as bad as they looked. "Today, it's less a matter of ratings as much as the potency of the people watching," he said. "And we have a very, very important core of people, young people from 18 to 35 years old, that watch our games. That demographic is very desirable for advertisers. We also have a very ethnic audience, and that audience is also very important for advertisers."

For sure, the ethnic audience factor is increasingly important. At the beginning of the year, the US government announced that the number of made them, for the first time, the largest minority group, ahead of the 36 million blacks. That huge total demands attention. A population approximately equal to that of Argentina or Colombia. Greater than the combined populations of Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Bolivia.

Of vital interest to Garber and US soccer in general is the news that two-thirds of the Hispanics are of Mexican origin, and therefore presumably highly soccer-susceptible. Yet the matter of integrating the Hispanics into the American soccer scene remains dismayingly incomplete. Consider the following:

For six years MLS had a Game of the Week telecast with one of the main Spanish-language television networks. In 2002 that outlet was lost when Telemundo refused to renew, saying its viewing figures indicated that MLS was not an attraction for Hispanic fans.

MLS employs 10 head coaches, plus 37 assistant coaches. Only three Hispanics figure in that total, none of them a head coach.

MLS runs a nationwide network of summer soccer camps for kids aged six to 18. More than 500 coaches are employed - and nearly 90 per cent of those are British, actively recruited in England and imported for the summer.

This is a tricky area for Garber and MLS. The kids of those wealthy white suburban families are an obvious target, but that is a long-term aim. For immediate support - and MLS would dearly love to increase its 15,000 average attendance (a questionable figure anyway) – the Hispanic fans are a more credible option

But Hispanic fans like Hispanic players and Hispanic-style soccer. MLS gives them too little of both. It is also finding that its new-found energy to build soccer stadiums-a huge step in the right direction - doesn't always work well for Hispanic fans. Those fans tend to be working class, inner-city dwellers. The new stadiums are built where land is cheap – out in the suburbs, often way out. Dallas Burn's switch from the centrally-located Cotton Bowl to a temporary home in suburban Dragon stadium has resulted in attendances slumping from 13,000 to under 7,000 per game - with a large part of the missing 6,000 being Hispanic fans.

A new, soccer-specific home is being built for Burn – but again it is in an area, the city of Frisco 25 miles north of Dallas, that may well not be ideal for Hispanic fans. A similar problem may yet affect Los Angeles Galaxy, with their switch from the Rose Bowl to the state-of-the-art Home Depot Center, just opened in suburban Carson, California.

An enigma for Garber to wrestle with the League's essential move to build soccer stadiums, a move that will greatly help the push for more importance and more credibility, may at the same time estrange it from a vital set of supporters.

A similar problem arises for Garber when he surveys - with a certain amount of envy, no doubt the sold-out Manchester United games. The fans who stormed the stadiums for those events were not Hispanic. But most of them belong to a highly irritating group known as EuroSnobs. Fans who will watch only the Premiership and Serie A and La Liga and the World Cup on television. Fans who wouldn't be caught dead attending an MLS game, fans who consider MLS so inferior as to be unworthy of their attention

The United contingent – all beaming smiles at their unarguable success on the field and at the gate - were careful and diplomatic enough to state that they felt they had helped the growth of American soccer. Possibly - though definitely not if their main influence has been to bolster the insufferable EuroSnobs (of whose existence United seemed blissfully unaware):

Australian eurosnobs are worse 

It will be interesting to see if MLS and Liga MX become one league/system and merge.

it would accelerate growth. Probably the only way to compete with Europe.

It would take a long time however to win over fans in Latin America. They are rusted Eurosnobs. Real Madrid, Barcelona and to a lesser extent Man U

I get why there are eurosnobs here cause our league is pathetic and has been forever.

But the MLS is going fantastic has a plan and sticks to it and is building an incredible completion 

I’ve been of the opinion for years that using the whole EuroSnob phenomenon would make a humorous and memorable marketing campaign for the A-League. You’re never going to compete with European leagues for quality but for connection and passion you most certainly can. 

Most AL probably support 2 teams.

Eurosnobs probably 2 teams too but ithe second may well be NRL or AFL...

There is nothing wrong with people making their choice.
Here AL supporters get the poops because the euro snob knock down AL.
I understand your passion to defend but your not going to convince them one bit are you as you well know.
As you can see I support LFC for years and years AND I support grass roots/PL (been a sponser) /AL with as much passion but I'm unique :) theres that word.
Until our game/product improves they will NOT come.
Accept it, they have a good point.

It wouldn’t matter how good they try and make the MLS, it’s unlikely to translate in the eyes of many to anything but an inferior product to the big European Leagues.

The MLS is largely re-inventing itself, trying to move away from big name older stars using it as a pre-retirement payday and instead looking at starting to develop players for the future. 

That would be great I can see that taking off if a league gets to the heights if 2012-2014 again 

It's definitely a bit of a chicken and egg scenario.

The question is, how "good" do we have to get before these Eurosnobs get on board? What's the measuring stick?

mls is good for young and upcoming south american talent and watchable as a result. 
the a league needs an identity for youth 

don't know what type of measuring stick is needed to draw the euro snob but dvanadidas makes one good point in my mind.
Our youth has been stifled over the years and some who showed some promise ended up lost in the AL merry go round not lifting to the next levels much.
Was it them (not good enough ? but why were they selected in that case) or the Club not nuturing them enough leving them to warm the pine but keep using a Visa player.
SFC being my club has had many promising young uns but I can only recall Dimi stepping up...and Gersbach off the top of my head incl Grant to a degree.
So many looked promising but got sick and tired warming the pines, some I used to think gtfo you poor bugga.
Recent one Ivanovic.
Joel King has fallen away.
Chianese, seriously not good enough.
Triantos, showed alot of promise, finito..
Gameiro another showed much promise, yes injury came to play but never lifted after that.
Blackwood say no more.
Lokolingoy, on the pine forever after stellar Youth career, went to nothing.
Kofi Danning, promising to zilch.
To name a few, Arzani's, we need more types like him to inspire and showcase promising young local talent for starters.

Then the type of football, so SFC have swept the floor so to speak, I sure can't say I'm inspired by the type of play at some home games. Yep 3points is 3 points but I leave some games going, I could have watched that from my couch.
Its boring at times, regimented, pass back pass back re group re set, they are not the only ones playing this type of game.
We need some open style football, youth game players are robotic today, so is our game at times.
Then we have so many sub standard players doing the club merry go round, this is not good for the game nor encourage outsiders let alone euro snobs.

I don't know - some may say I'm talking crap but it sure is hard when your invested in EPL/LLiga/SerieA etc - now I know its a another level but we need more exciting type football.
Today you can watch anything from your mobile etc of many leagues easy as, thats what else your competing without even being a euro snob.
Euro snobs are also used to P/R, some may say bollocks here but thats proper football system to me.
Franchise system ? another X.
I support AL because its our top flight and for the "game" here itself - unfortunately so many don't look at it this way and as I've said, I don't blame them not liking it.

I've highlighted the two points I'm going to touch upon:
The first one.. pretty spot on I think.
The second one.. I wouldn't particularly say. Euro Snobs tend to follow and watch the teams that are traditionally up the top of the ladder (Madrid, Barca, Manchesters, Juve, etc), and probably would not care who got relegated, as long as they watch the Champions League

Agree. Amazing how many fans seem to be fans of those clubs that win the league at certain times in a persons life :)

re your 2nd response, a portion for sure follow the top clubs (a natural human trait no matter what) and no care what happens at the bottom and there would be a portion who enjoy keeping an eye on the relagation battles and outcomes and those of the division below battling to come up.......
Some would even look at the leagues below that for interest.
From my perspective you can't bucket them all the way you see it for it just isn't the case, I know alot of football fanatics in varying ways who are so consumed and know so much who where they follow and others who know and cover many leagues in much detail.

"We need to have more credibility." The words of MLS commissioner Don Garber

Lol like that will happen whilst they persist with the NFL-lite model. The standard is good enough, they have some good players and it's gotten a lot better.

No one respects the MLS though because of their insistance on keeping stupid Americanisms like drafts, conferences and no pro/rel. 

Draft is effectively a thing of the past in MLS with rise of academies and all the good young players opting to sign with the senior team instead of going to college. Still an avenue to get kids into the league but not even close to what it was with all the good academy products going straight into the professional setup at 17 or 18.

The league has pivoted to bringing in more and more South American and Mexican products and standard is rising a lot. Fun to watch because of that. 

How many epl players has the mls produced?

How is that battle going against the Eurosnobs, change the world then?

Nissan almiron

Not many EPL, but two biggest players recently are Alphonso Davies at Bayern, came through the Whitecaps system and is now a lockdown starter with Bayern and arguably the best left back in the world on current form. Other would be Tyler Adams who has been a regular with RB Leipzig when healthy and came through the NY Red Bull’s system.

Weston McKennie at Schalke came through FC Dallas academy and he’s linked with Everton and a few other EPL teams, Schalke gonna need to sell some players due to their finances and he’s valued at 25 million or so I think.

Chris Richards made his debut for Bayern late this year and he came through FC Dallas as well.

17-year old Gio Reyna, who came through NYCFC system, turned into a regular with Dortmund for much of this year, with lots of appearances off the bench.

Might be a few others but they’ve had at least a few guys get into top leagues after coming through the academies, with Germany in particular sniffing around a lot of the young talents in MLS. Christian Pulisic never touched an MLS team, though.

My favourites are the Eurosnobs who support ManU and Chelsea!! 

Even better, what about the new dawners who actually support Man City!!
That never fails to bring a smile to my face.

They don’t have a measuring stick because they don’t know themselves. Most EuroSnobs I know who critique the aleague quality as if there are Pep or Klopp level analysts have never actually watched a game. They just parrot some BS they once heard from a mate because it became the trendy thing to do to hang shit on the aleague once upon a time. This is why I think a marketing campaign taking the piss out of them would work so well cause the majority have no idea what they’re talking about.

A lot of second hand Arsenal shirts on eBay lately.

Eurosnobs are as prevalent as they are as the matter of the fact is they see about 100x more news and marketing of European leagues than locally. Even through like FIFA and such, they will know those players better than the ones here. And even worse than that, it is even easier to watch those games than it is to watch games here because fuck me who wants to use Foxtel.

In my defence.. I fell in love with Zola before Abramovich!

I agree you can't bucket them all into one, however, I think the majority would be the former, and not the latter

This is the list.

Ex pats from other countries, fair enough.
Former fans of the league disgruntled around the time active support in this country died.
People who love the sport but can't get into the A League for whatever reason.
Casuals who fit the Eurosnob definition perfectly and hurt to listen too.