Having ABC telecast the 2006 MLS finals maybe a big deal but that is about it. ESPN and PTI promoted the finals quite heavily in SportsCenter. The Houston Chronicle reports that it was the first major title brought to the city since the Comets won the WNBA in 2000. And the Boston Globe highlighted the fact that Jay Heaps had missed his last three penalty kicks, something that Steve Nicol should have taken seriously into consideration.The coverage was expected because the finalists were from these two cities.
How about the NYT’s reportage, the newspaper that I subscribe to? The print edition devoted 10 lines ( < 100 words) on it, courtesy AP. It appeared under sports briefings. The NYT did not even bother sending a reporter to cover the finals.
Lets put this in context. The NY Giants- Chicago Bears game had two reporters, John Branch and Judy Battista writing two separate articles on the game. Dave Anderson, in Sports of the Times, wrote a column on Tom Coughlin's decision to go for a field goal that led to the longest return for a touchdown in NFL history. In total, 15 reporters wrote in the NYT Sports Monday section including NFL, NASCAR, NBA, MLB, College football, the Army Women's basketball team, and even Wladimir Klitschko's boxing title.
The NYT online edition was a bit better. It had a picture of the Dynamo and a more extensive AP report.
The world’s most popular game is not popular in the USA because the domestic league gets a stepchild treatment in the media. They do not even bother to cover the biggest game in the MLS season.