By VictorM:

The 2007 Major League Soccer came to an end. At the request of friends, here's my take on the 2007 season, relative to the state of the league:

As a league still striving to live up to the first word in its name, Major League Soccer (MLS) had its most eventful and successful year since the inaugural season of 1996. But its success cannot and must not be measured against the NFL (best team sports league in the country) or the EPL (the best soccer league in the world). American soccer haters and soccer snobs respectively keep pushing comparisons to those two leagues, but those arguments are not based on common sense or brought up in good faith. MLS has humbler goals: attracting solid owners, becoming profitable, continually increasing attendance, developing better American players, expanding footprint and visibility, increasing the caliber of play, and playing in stadiums that enhance atmosphere and profits.

In every respect that matters, the league took steps forward in the 2007 season:

Ownership: Solid progress. Several very wealthy individuals joined or are interested in joining, almost all of them with extensive sports management experience. In Seattle, the new owners include Joe Roth (former chairman of Disney Studios and Twentieth Century Fox), Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame and owner of NFL’s Seahawks), and, for cool factor, comedian Drew Carey is now a minority owner; in San Jose, Lew Wolff (owner of the Oakland A’s); and in Chicago, billionaire Andrew Haupman. People looking to join in: Fred Wilpon (owner of NY Mets) and Arthur Blank (owner of Atlanta Falcons), among others. These names are in addition to an already existing list of high-profile owners such as: the Hunts (owners of Kansas City Chiefs), Kraft (New England Patriots), Kroenke (Denver Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, St. Louis Rams), Anschultz (the world’s largest owner of sports teams and sports events) and Toronto’s Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (Toronto Maple Leafs and of NBA’s Raptors). More than attendance figures and TV ratings, the involvement by people of this caliber may be the best gauge of the positive direction of professional soccer in the USA.

Caliber of Play: Several foreign players made contributions in 2007 that elevated the level of play, but the play is still very scrappy at times, lacking consistent ball possession and a transition game that is too slow. Improving the caliber of play is one area that the league needs to address at a faster pace, particularly with expansion coming. The need for more and better players will be the number one issue for the league to resolve. The good news is that they seem quite aware of this situation. It also seems to have sunk in that improvement isn’t coming in the form of American players because: one, while the number of American players with adequate skill is improving, there aren't enough of them; and two, the very best American players still choose to go to Europe. The league has turned its attention to Central and South America to fill the gap. The league needs to continue this practice, hopefully going after players a notch above the current crop. On the development of American players front, the current college system isn’t providing the league with an adequate pipeline of talent. The league is trying to resolve this problem by having each team run their own youth academies, but it may be many years before this system bears significant fruit.

Attendance: In 2007 the league posted its second best per game average (16,670). For the first time ever, the league broke the 3 million attendees mark for a single season. And the most significant improvement to me is this: the number of games with less than 10,000 people in attendance were the lowest ever at 8% (previous best was 18%). And while there was a bump from superstars Beckham and Blanco, neither played a full season. There’s reason to believe that, barring injuries, these 2 players (and possible other superstars in the coming months) will contribute even more to the attendance numbers next season.

Visibility: 2007 was the best year ever in this respect, and it can be summarized with two words: David Beckham. Enough said. TV ratings on ESPN continued to be very modest, but moved in the right direction (25% increase over last year). The biggest gain was on Spanish-speaking TV, another sign that the league made gains attracting life-long soccer fans. Improving the caliber of play and expanding into large media markets are priorities.

Footprint: The Toronto expansion was a huge success as that first year team sold out all its games for an average of 20,000+ and have already sold-out its season tickets for 2008. San Jose will be added in 2008, Seattle in 2009, and either St. Louis or Philadelphia in 2009 or 2010 (hopefully both by 2010). New league goal: 18 teams by 2010 or 2011, then pause and evaluate the progress before resuming expansion.

Stadiums: Seven of this year’s 13 teams (LA, Chivas, Dallas, Columbus, Chicago, Colorado, and Toronto) play in their own soccer specific stadiums with capacities in the desired 20,000 or so range where they control the schedule and share in the concessions and parking. Salt Lake stadium will be ready in 2008, New York in 2009. Houston is still negotiation for theirs and DC United had a setback but they are still aiming for 2010. Kansas City and San Jose are in negotiations to build heir own stadiums and both will play in temporary smaller facilities in 2008 and 2009. St Louis and Philadelphia will be ready with their own stadiums when they join. By 2010, only New England and Seattle will be playing in NFL stadiums but in both cases the owners own both the NFL and MLS teams. Most importantly, the stadiums being built include many soccer fields around the stadiums, making them a destination for local youth and school soccer tournaments, and placing the MLS teams at the center of that activity. This kind of forward thinking is the best sign that the league does have a solid vision for the future.

In summary, the league continues setting up a solid foundation for growth: attracting solid owners, establishing Youth Academies, exercising control and building soccer friendly stadiums, carefully selecting foreign star players, keeping costs down, and steadily increasing revenues (deals with TV, sports gear makers, team sponsors, and SUM – an arm of MLS that promotes non-MLS soccer games).


Tags: soccer, mls, major league soccer