MLS Searches for Answers About Future
These are trying times for Major League Soccer as the six-year-old league struggles to decide whether it should reduce its number of teams.
Considering that MLS has only 12 teams, the problem becomes particularly vexing. Any reduction this early in the league’s history would seem to be an admission that a pro soccer league doesn’t stand a chance in the United States.
For baseball, contraction is seen by many as nothing more than an unseemly squabble over money. Which are going to get richer, the players or the owners? There never is any suggestion that baseball as a whole might collapse.
With soccer, it’s different. If MLS decides to cut even one or two clubs--and possibly as many as four--the public will immediately second-guess the viability of the entire league.
To forestall any such doubts, MLS on Thursday issued a peculiar statement. In effect, it said that the league will be here at least until 2006. Beyond that, who knows?
The league’s board of governors--read the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and a couple of friends--is “committed to funding and operating the league for the next five years, through the 2006 season,” Thursday’s statement said. “Included in this commitment are plans for extensive media programming, increased player development and progress on several stadium projects.”
The statement went on to admit, however, that contraction is very much on the mind of MLS.
League officials, it said, “also decided to evaluate closely the viability of several teams and markets, based on their ability to provide value to the league and the sport overall for the long-term. Factors to be considered ... include past market performance, future market potential, current stadium situation and ownership status.”
The Colorado Rapids (owned by AEG) and the Kansas City Wizards (owned by the Hunt family) are woeful when it comes to attracting fans. If neither team has been able to do so in six years despite on-field success, they are unlikely to do so in the near future.
Both could feel the cold blade of the ax.
Four other candidates for contraction are the league-operated Dallas Burn and Tampa Bay Mutiny, the Miami Fusion, run by investor-operator Ken Horowitz, and the San Jose Earthquakes, which as run by Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment (SVS&E;).
In each case, however, there is a catch.
* Dallas has built its fan base over the last couple of seasons and there is serious talk of a soccer-specific stadium being built north of the city. If the Burn had its own home instead of playing in the aging Cotton Bowl, it might eventually turn a profit.
* Tampa Bay, with its minuscule attendance, is chopping block material but for the fact that the Glazer family, which owns the Buccaneers of the NFL, has long been courted as a potential MLS investor-operator. If the Glazers balk, the Mutiny’s over.
* Miami saw its attendance increase by a third last season, and even though Horowitz reportedly wants out after losing around $40 million, AEG is interested in the Fusion and could help him recoup some of his losses. If AEG gets the team, it almost certainly would move it from Fort Lauderdale to Miami.
* San Jose had been a league-operated team until the Kraft family and then SVS&E; took over the show. MLS was hoping the latter company would become an investor-operator, but that apparently is not going to happen. The league can hardly afford the double blow of losing its champion and the Bay Area market.
So far, according to Commissioner Don Garber, no decision has been made on whether to reduce the number of MLS teams. But such a decision is probably only weeks away. The league is losing too much money--perhaps $300 million so far--for it not to act.
Cutting away the deadwood is not necessarily a step backward. Look at it this way: If AEG, backed by Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz’s vast resources, gets rid of Colorado, it still would control the Galaxy in Los Angeles, the Chicago Fire, Washington, D.C., United and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars.
Throw in Miami and AEG has five top markets covered. More significant, all five cities draw big soccer crowds if the right foreign teams are brought in. Such games, in AEG-built stadiums, can be played year-round and could more than offset any financial losses incurred by AEG’s MLS teams.
If AEG can make it work, so can Lamar Hunt if he drops the Wizards and picks up Dallas and its proposed stadium. Hunt already has shown what can be accomplished. His Columbus Crew is close to breaking even. The Kraft family, meanwhile, has endured nothing but on-field failure with the New England Revolution, but attendance has always been solid, the new stadium at Foxboro won’t hurt that, and Boston is too good a market to give up on just yet.
One thing MLS cannot afford to do is make a mess of contraction. It can’t contract and then contract again. If it’s going to cut teams, do so now and make the incision swift and clean. Cutting some now and others later will only erode fan confidence.
The message to MLS is clear: Get rid of Colorado, Kansas City and Tampa Bay and save Dallas, Miami and San Jose.
Fans would rather see a nine-team league with a future than a 12-team league without one.
It was Dec. 17, 1993, that Alan Rothenberg announced the formation of MLS and unveiled the league logo.
One week short of eight years later, the league still is searching for the right formula to tap soccer’s potential in the U.S.
