After Successful 1st Season, Pro Soccer Looking To Grow
The first season is over for Major League Soccer. But the work has just begun.
“Probably if someone was to go back to the opening NASL (North American Soccer League) season, there would be the same tendencies to pat oneself on the back,” MLS commissioner Doug Logan said.
“I am a student of history. And we know we’ve just begun,” he said. “What we are looking for is slow, steady growth. And permanence.”
The league’s inaugural season ended Sunday with D.C. United’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy in MLS Cup ‘96. More than 34,000 fans braved torrential rains and gusting winds to see Eddie Pope head Marco Etcheverry’s pass into the net for the winner 3-1/2 minutes into sudden death.
“This sport is here to stay,” United coach Bruce Arena said. “We by no means think we’ll replace football or baseball or basketball or hockey. But we think there’s room for a fifth professional sport in this country.”
That may be, but whether MLS can carve out a niche in a crowded marketplace is in doubt. After all, even the title game’s hosts - Revolution operators Robert and Jonathan Kraft - skipped it to see their New England Patriots play a midseason NFL game in Indianapolis.
As Logan says when asked how the league is doing, “Compared to what?” Compared to the other U.S. soccer leagues that have tried and folded? Or compared to the major sports?
In its first year, MLS surpassed its conservative attendance estimates by half, averaging 17,416 fans per regular-season game. And the soccer itself was, by all accounts, of a high quality.
“We knew that there were fans out there if we would just give them the product they were dying to have,” MLS founder Alan Rothenberg said.
After proclaiming the first year a success, Logan admitted there was still work to do.
Logan conceded the refereeing must be improved. Expansion will proceed only at a pace the talent and the fans will support. Corporate sponsorships and TV ratings will have to grow.
A fifth foreign player will be added to the rosters - but only temporarily. Logan said the key there is to have enough foreigners to enhance the talent and cultivate ethnic interest while retaining enough American players to involve mainstream U.S. sports fans.
A lot of things will undoubtedly change as the league matures, if it matures. Denver star Marcelo Balboa said at a panel discussion during the weekend that he expected the players to unionize.
Logan even seemed willing to accept it, promising to share the wealth when the league gets some.
“When we get well, they will get well,” he said. “And they will share in whatever largesse comes down the pike.”
If the league can overcome past American apathy. If it can improve attendance and TV ratings. If it can continue to attract top-quality players from abroad and lure top American athletes into soccer. Those are all questions for the future.
So far, though, the league can take heart in its accomplishments.
“We did what we said we were going to do,” Logan said. “We said we were going to put on our playing fields high-quality, aggressive soccer, and we did. We said people were going to come, and they did.
“We said we were going to put out an honest and affordable product. And we have.”