sheiks showed up. If there’s any “big” European club that I can see shrinking into obscurity in the near future, and becoming less appealing than NYC or LA, it would be them. Their current fanbase is mostly bandwagoners who don’t have the deep tribal loyalty of fans of clubs like, say, ManU, Atlético Madrid, Valencia, or Olympique Marseille.

But the only way I see something like your scenario materializing anytime soon is if the Top 15-20 clubs in Europe do end up forming a pan-European “Super League”, as was proposed a few years back (and which Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus are still pushing). This could weaken the “Big 5” European domestic leagues enough that MLS could eventually sneak up into the #2 spot. But even if it happened, there would be a huge gap between #1 and #2 for the foreseeable future.