USA Soccer: Now some Better News

Go Wiz!

Contrary to yesterday's post, soccer is not unappreciated and unnoticed in the United States. In fact, the world's most popular spectator sport has finally found itself a place in world's largest entertainment market. Of course, soccer is not about to usurp college football or Nascar or the NFL from the nation's sporting liturgy, but the nation has slowly and steadily created opportunities to attract and retain passionate fans.

The most important effort has been the creation of Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1996. Major investments in America's domestic league began with ten teams in 1996 as an effort to capitalize on the enthusiasm generated by the 1994 World Cup finals held in the United States. Rather than splash out on top European or Latin American players in hopes of attracting huge crowds, as the ill-fated North American Soccer League did in the 1970's, the initial investors agreed to tight-fisted salary caps. Moreover, for the sake of nurturing domestic talent, i.e. the national team, each club was limited to carrying only five foreign-born players.

The experiment has undergone a number of growing pains. At first, many of the teams competed in giant stadiums designed for American football. Though these established venues were happy to lease out space in the spring and summer months, their over-sized dimensions meant that even a great turnout of 20,000 fans would bring a stadium to maybe 25% capacity. Now many franchises have sought out smaller, more intimate venues on college campuses or minor-league ballparks. LA and Columbus even have soccer-specific stadia.

Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH, offers a more fitting soccer venue than the city's 100,000-seat Ohio Stadium, aka "The Horseshoe."

Those early optics were not helped by the 1990's American sports trend of nicknaming teams for concepts and non-plural nouns. This trend produced head-scratchers like Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL, but MLS took it to another level: Columbus Crew, San Jose Clash, Tampa Bay Mutiny. Most of these clubs were stationed in growing cities with only modest experience in pro sports, but Kansas City should have known better than to call its club KC Wiz. The name may reference "The Wizard of Oz," but a crowd chanting, "Go Wiz!" won't really intimidate the opposition. The team hastily became the Wizards in November 1996; Dallas Burn are now simply FC Dallas, and San Jose plays as Earthquakes.

The name change for Dallas taps into the current MLS trend: burnishing a side's soccer bonafides by imitating established club names in Europe. Incremental expansion has brought Real Salt Lake, Houston Dynamo, Toronto FC, and soon Philadelphia Union. Los Angeles even has Club Deportivo Chivas USA, an American offshoot of the established Guadalajara club and the area's Spanish friendly counterweight to flash LA Galaxy.

Stuart Holden of Amigo Energy (Houston Dynamo) challenges Seth Stammler of Red Bull (New York Red Bulls). Photo by Mike Stobe for Getty, 16 May 2009.

For fourteen seasons MLS has declined to buy their way to the top of the US sporting scene and settled instead for organic growth. This patience has helped to manage expectations and build a loyal fan base. The most publicized MLS story, LA Galaxy's purchase of celebrity footballer David Beckham in 2007, stood as a clear exception to the overall business model. The first franchise owners may have included heavyweights from the NFL and NHL, like Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and the late Lamar Hunt, but they ventured forth with a rather conservative, even European business model. Notice the choice to accept the dependable revenue of shirt sponsors. It might be a common practice worldwide, but none of the major television sports in America does that. MLS knew they were starting a league that couldn't outplay or outdraw the English Premiership or Serie A for viewers or players. Sustainability had to trump theater.