Galaxy Forced Into Back Seat
The incestuous three-way relationship among Major League Soccer, the U.S. Soccer Federation and CONCACAF has never been made more distressingly apparent than by Wednesday’s events in Los Angeles.
On the same night and at the same time that the Galaxy was playing a CONCACAF Champions Cup match against Necaxa of Mexico at Cal State Fullerton, an exhibition between Club America of Mexico City and Chivas of Guadalajara was taking place at the Coliseum.
The result?
The Galaxy drew a pitifully small gathering of 3,814, while the meaningless exhibition attracted an announced crowd of 38,713.
Why did U.S. Soccer sanction the game at the Coliseum? Why did CONCACAF not protest the blatant undercutting of its own supposedly prestigious tournament? Why did the Galaxy not scream long and loud at being upstaged in its own backyard?
The answer to all three questions is the same: Because there was money to be made from the Mexican exhibition and no one really gives two hoots about the CONCACAF Champions Cup anyway.
Of course, no one in a position of authority will admit that.
More insidiously, there is the matter of the Anschutz Entertainment Group’s increasingly octopus-like hold on the game in this country. By operating (that is to say owning) six MLS teams, AEG pretty much can do what it wants within the league.
Add in AEG’s long-term contract with the Mexican soccer federation under which it controls the Mexican national team’s money-spinning, almost once-a-month games in the United States (quite possibly to the long-term detriment of the U.S. national team) and it is abundantly clear that U.S. Soccer is not in charge of its own house.
The federation made a chunk of change from Wednesday night’s Coliseum game, as did the Coliseum, which pocketed even more when 68,035 showed up there for the Mexico-Argentina game in February.
Funny, it was only last year that the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission made a great fuss and fanfare while filing a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer, claiming restrictive business practices, restraint of trade and all sorts of similar nonsense.
But neither party bothered to mention the fact when the suit was amicably settled earlier this year.
It is not inconceivable that the settlement included written or unwritten provisos under which AEG would continue to bring national and club teams from Mexico to the Coliseum, acting behind or in concert with local promoters. Certainly, U.S. Soccer would have been happy to see AEG get it off the legal hook, even if it meant giving up its own authority.
Wednesday’s Club America-Chivas game might have been a case in point. There were rumors that AEG was backing the game even though one of its own MLS teams, the Galaxy, was playing that night.
If the Galaxy suffered, so what? It’s all about money, not sport.
In a free-market society, the law of the jungle prevails. It’s eat or be eaten.
In Los Angeles, Mexican teams will always have the edge, especially two as popular and powerful as Club America and Chivas. If the Galaxy can’t attract fans, its owners can always subsidize the club by making money off teams that can.
That makes perfect sense from a business standpoint, but it discourages would-be Galaxy supporters from getting behind the team. I mean, why bother?
In the Hunt
With AEG showing the way via ownership of the Galaxy, the Colorado Rapids, the San Jose Earthquakes, the Chicago Fire, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and Washington D.C. United, is it surprising that Lamar Hunt’s Hunt Sports Group (HSG) has decided to follow suit?
Hunt, who already owns the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards, last week plunked down a cool $10 million toward the $65-million cost of building a stadium and 17-field soccer complex in Frisco, Texas.
A few days later, the announcement came that HSG had taken over ownership of the Dallas Burn, which will occupy the 20,000-seat stadium once it is completed in 2005.
Like the Galaxy, whose Home Depot Center stadium will open in June and will be the site of the MLS All-Star game and the MLS Cup league championship match this year, so the Burn’s new home will be the site of the All-Star and championship games in 2005.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the Frisco soccer complex also will play host to MLS preseason training for three years, starting in 2005.
Meanwhile, Robert Kraft, with only one MLS team to his name, the New England Revolution, must feel like the poor kid on the block.
Never mind, there’s always expansion in 2005. Perhaps he can buy a couple more then and not feel quite so isolated.
Guevara Arrives
The MetroStars, who stole Coach Bob Bradley from Chicago in the off-season (well, it was one AEG team helping another, so perhaps “stole” is too strong a word), on Friday completed another coup.
By signing Honduran national team captain Amado Guevara, the MetroStars went from a team with teeth (Clint Mathis and Jaime Moreno) but no jaw, to a team that potentially could take a big bite out of MLS this season.
Guevara is a playmaker and goal scorer, as evidenced by the two goals he put past the Galaxy in an earlier round of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid, for one, believes Guevara can have a huge impact in the league.
“He’s a good player,” Schmid said. “He’s done well for their national team. He can play different roles in midfield. He’s a feisty competitor. He will do very well in this league.”
In short, he would have been the perfect acquisition for the Galaxy as a replacement for Mauricio Cienfuegos, who is in his farewell season.
Of course, if AEG can move Bradley from Chicago to New York, who is to say that next year it can’t move Guevara from New York to Los Angeles?
That’s the nice thing about owning an entire sport. Nothing is forbidden.
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Top Soccer Crowds in the U.S. in 2003
*--* Match, Date and Location Crowd 1 Mexico vs. Argentina 68,035 Feb. 4 at Los Angeles 2 Mexico vs. Bolivia 38,858 March 19 at Dallas 3 Club America vs. Chivas 38,713 April 9 at Los Angeles 4 Club America vs. Chivas 38,710 March 12 at San Francisco 5 Mexico vs. Paraguay 35,000 * March 26 at San Diego 6 Mexico vs. Colombia 28,764 Feb. 12 at Phoenix 7 U.S. vs. Argentina 27,196 Feb. 8 at Miami 8 MetroStars vs. Crew 23,786 April 12 at E. Rutherford, N.J 9 Wizards vs. D.C. United 22,403 April 12 at Kansas City, Mo 10 Crew vs. Galaxy 22,058 April 5 at Columbus, Ohio * Estimated
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