MLS standard? (Non GB thread)

Antoine Griezmann has recently started that after his Barca contract is up he wants to move to the MLS.

What is the draw suddenly for big names to move to the States to play football?
Is it purely for the £££ or is it seriously an up and coming football country?

In the old days, players would drop down the leagues, now for the stars its the MLS. Look at the salary for what in essence is an exhibition league. On the world stage, it isn't.
It's a semi-retirement stint.

I lived in Vancouver for 6 years and watch a couple of whitecaps games every season

The standard for the Whitecaps is poor but I would say 80% of the US squad play in the US are ranked 14th in the world and turned over Mexico in the qualifiers

What you have to remember for a lot of these footballers is they’ve only grown up in their own country (Bale excluded obviously) and have not really experienced anything outside of their own culture

The lure of living in a sunny climate all year round, English speaking and I think critically in Bales case a place where he’ll be able to walk around fairly anonymously. LA is Hollywood obsessed and most wouldn’t even be able to pick Bale out of a line up

The standard isn’t as bad as people make out for the better teams, they certainly would beat Cardiff LA FC so he’s hardly turned down a Liverpool to go there

I think it’s more a way of life and to experience a new culture that also allows you to be a little bit lazy in having to learn a new language etc to really embed yourself into the place