WORLD CUP USA ’94 : A Tall Order : Major league soccer, hoping to ride the wave of momentum from World Cup ’94 and set to make its debut in 1995, faces the daunting challenge of surviving on the competitive American sports landscape
Lee Stern can laugh about it now. He can find humor in a little enterprise he once undertook that had its ups and downs.
“Obviously, I never was interested in money,” Stern said. “Being in soccer prevented me from being one of the major owners of the Chicago Bulls.”
Stern, a successful Chicago commodities broker, once was a major force in American soccer. He owned the Chicago Sting of the now-defunct North American Soccer League.
He turned down a chance to be involved with the Bulls because by the time the offer was made “the Sting was losing more money than I could think about,” he said.
Stern, who also once was an investor in the Chicago White Sox, lost millions trying to sell soccer to America.
So did Texas oilman Lamar Hunt, who once owned the NASL’s Dallas Tornado.
If anyone in the United States has reason to be bitter by the mere mention of the word soccer, it is these gentlemen.
Yet, last week there was little doubt who was running a soccer fever in Chicago and Dallas.
They, like so many other Americans, have been swept up in a euphoric wave of excitement over World Cup ’94. Hunt had seen 10 matches by the third weekend and was leaving town to see more.
But before anyone declares America a bona fide soccer-crazy nation, there is much to be done. The architects of the World Cup organizing committee face a heady task, the development of a professional soccer league that becomes part of Americana.
That, after all, is the ultimate aim of this monthlong extravaganza.
“It’s not like soccer comes into America today as a virgin sport, untouched and untried,” said Kyle Rote Jr., one of the biggest names in U.S. soccer 20 years ago.
If the Lee Sterns, Lamar Hunts and a host of other successful sports owners could not make it work, how will it be different this time?
“I think the party will be over in a couple weeks and soccer will be where it was,” said David Burns of Burns Sports Celebrity Service, a Chicago-based company that promotes athletes for commercials.
Even Leigh Steinberg, a sports agent from Newport Beach who represents a number of U.S. national team players, is not sure the sport will gain a foothold in America. And if it does not, then the legacy of the World Cup will be nothing more than fond memories.
After the United States upset Colombia in the first round of Group A, the sport’s future looked promising. The next day, calls came pouring in, Steinberg said. But when the team lost a few days later to Romania, “It hit with a dull thud.”
Such is the fickle nature of the American public. Obscure Olympic athletes such as speedskater Dan Jansen or skier Tommy Moe were darlings during the Winter Olympics last February, but where are they now?
Put simply, Steinberg believes soccer’s future rests on the outcome of Monday’s Brazil-United States match at Stanford Stadium.
“It won’t be different (this time) unless there is a spectacular upset victory against Brazil on July 4,” he said.
“We’re a trendy country. We tend to focus on things that are hot. All of a sudden soccer is hot.”
But a bad show Monday with millions of viewers expected to be watching could cool America’s interest.
Still, the soccer community is unswayed. Now that the World Cup has captured the imagination of a nation, those who have toiled in the soccer trenches for much of their lives believe their sport and time has come.
It might take five years to find out if they are right. Major League Soccer, which is scheduled to open in 12 cities in April of 1995, is hoping to lay a foundation to sustain the sport. The World Cup was the jump start, and today, optimism is oozing from the Century City offices it shares with the World Cup ’94 organizing committee.
Alan Rothenberg, head of World Cup USA ‘94, the U.S. Soccer Federation and MLS, is part of the reason many believe the new league has a better chance of succeeding than past efforts.
“Alan came up with this brilliant scheme that might be the only scheme that could work,” said Rote Jr., a Memphis sports agent.
But when the World Cup started June 17, the proposed league had so many question marks some were skeptical. For instance, the day before the Cup opener in Chicago, Rothenberg introduced seven cities as charter members of MLS instead of the expected 12. Rothenberg said this week five more cities will be named by Aug. 1, although others say it probably will happen sometime in the fall.
Furthermore, sponsors and financing, the backbone of the single-entity league, which will have an operating plan similar to the franchise system used by McDonald’s restaurants, have not been announced.
But as much as the World Cup has piqued interest, it has brought potential investors to the table, MLS insiders say.
Harley Frankel, senior vice president of MLS, worked as an NBA executive for eight years. Before that, he worked in the Carter Administration.
“But this is a challenge that I think can succeed,” he said. “What a lot of people miss is this is not an attempt to have instant success like the NBA or baseball is enjoying.”
Frankel said the league’s blueprint to build slowly is solid, but the unexpected success of the World Cup has solidified its position.
“It has given potential investors more confidence,” he said. “It has given television more confidence that it will succeed. The World Cup has given us more muscle.”
Or as Roy Wegerle of the U.S. national team said: “If this doesn’t kick it in, nothing will.”
Yet, like most new endeavors, MLS faces many obstacles. There is a gulf of difference between interest and investment. No doubt the league has gained the attention of sponsors, but until the money is raised the going will be difficult.
The league hired a Wall Street investment banker to help raise funds, either a sign of strength or weakness. And those who invest must overcome the fears of MLS’ own five-year projections.
According to a staff memo, the league expects to lose $63.6 million from 1993 to 1997, including almost $30 million in its first season. The losses are based on an average attendance of 12,500 per match.
By comparison, the Clippers, in their 10th season in Los Angeles, averaged 11,489 in 1993-94.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing U.S. soccer is bringing its community together with a common purpose. Although that is Rothenberg’s aim, his stranglehold on the sport has caused ill will.
Rick Davis, coach and general manager of the Los Angeles Salsa of the American Professional Soccer League, has fired a loud salvo. His league is being told it will serve as a second division, or minor league, to the MLS.
“Why has the MLS been given preferred status when the APSL has been going for four years now?” asked Davis, a former member of the NASL’s Cosmos.
And don’t forget yet another league already in place: Jim Paglia’s League 1 America. All three want to have the prestigious first division status, but MLS has clout.
Mostly, it has Rothenberg, who has gained immeasurable respect from FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, because of the success of World Cup ’94. Rothenberg said FIFA President Joao Halvelange told him last week America’s Cup has been the best in the sport’s history.
Few would question the work of World Cup organizers. But when it comes to the MLS and the sport’s future, Davis thinks an opportunity has been lost.
“I am disappointed and frustrated that the MLS isn’t going to play a game for nearly a year after the World Cup,” Davis said. “The league should have been ready to capitalize on new spectator interest here as soon as the World Cup ended. They knew in 1988 that the World Cup was coming here, so they had six years to organize and get the pro league going.”
Said John Harkes, a star on the U.S. national team: “If people who are up there in top places are doing it for the game and not for making a buck, it will succeed. If they’re doing it to make a quick buck, it’ll be out of there in a heartbeat. That’s the way it’s always been for soccer.”
If MLS sticks to its modest goals in the beginning, it has a chance to gain acceptance. Hunt, 62, said he would love to join the fun, but is too old to start up another adventure. But being around football much of his life, he notes that sports goes through in cycles in America.
“Nothing stays the same,” he said, adding that soccer just might catch on this time.
To do so, it must compete with a broad menu of sports options, from baseball to football to basketball to hockey to college sports.
“We’re not a culture where one sports dominates,” Rote said. “You can’t go from no passion and no knowledge in one step.”
But the World Cup has at least changed perceptions. The international flavor of the matches in the nine host cities has been a wonderful experience for Americans who have participated. Without the electrifying scene of World Cup competition, soccer could lose its dynamics, said Burns, the Chicago agent.
“Atmosphere isn’t a bunch of little kids running around in shorts for momma and papa to watch them,” he said. “That’s the mistake soccer is making.”
Stern believes soccer has made it here all along because of the number of youths playing--as many as 16.4 million.
“This sport is here to stay,” he said. “It’s just too much fun for kids to play.”
Does that translate into a successful pro league?
It has not in the past.
But after the World Cup, it might in the future.
*
Staff writers Julie Cart and Mike Penner contributed to this story.
An MLS Chronology
* Dec. 5, 1993--The United States Soccer Federation designates Major League Soccer as U.S.’s lone Division I league.
* Dec. 17, 1993--The USSF and MLS present the business plan for the league to the FIFA Executive Committee.
* Jan. 22-23--MLS holds a conference for the 29 communities bidding for franchises in the proposed 12-team league.
* March 15--The league announces television contracts with ESPN, to televise regular-season games, and ABC, to televise the title game.
* June 15--Seven of the 12 franchises are announced, with teams to be placed in Boston, Columbus, Ohio; Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, San Jose and Washington, D.C.
Facets of the MLS
* A single-entity structure, with all franchises and player contracts owned by the league.
* Local management for all teams, with the ability to make trades and bonuses awarded for success on the field.
* A talent pool created by the league, from which teams rosters will be filled by a draft.
* An emphasis on U.S. players, with a limit of three or four foreign players per team.
* A commitment to creating a more entertaining game by experimenting with rule changes.
