Has MLS Figured It
This sports league has the business all figured out
By Stephen Brunt Globe & Mail
For a league that non-believers will tell you really doesn’t matter, Major League Soccer has certainly generated a whole lot of press these past few months.
In large part, of course, the attention has been inspired by the David Beckham saga, whether the midfielder would return to the Los Angeles Galaxy from AC Milan, but it’s also more than that.
With an announcement expected today confirming an expansion franchise for Vancouver to begin play in 2011 (perhaps to be joined by Portland, though there are a few snags to be worked out there), the MLS is the only North American professional league that is growing in the face of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Wednesday’s Daily: North And South
By J Hutcherson USSoccerplayers.com
Hello Vancouver, or something like that. Later today, Major League Soccer will have compounded the player development problem by adding a second Canadian club, pushing MLS further away from the main reason it was founded. For those of you needing a reminder, that was a FIFA mandate about US player development. Country-specific because that’s FIFA for you. One country with one topflight domestic league.
MLS has opted for the business and promotions model instead of the competitive. For those of you nodding along, at least consider for a second what’s happening in Europe.
FIFA’s attempt to make the 6+5 rule is a way to literally force clubs to focus on domestic player development. That includes the awareness that limiting foreign players will lower the awe value of the world all-star squads turning out for the elite clubs. It doesn’t seem to be keeping them up nights.
Still-growing MLS gets set to start 14th season
By Mark Zeigler San Diego Union-Tribune
One of the signs of a growing league is that it has more teams than years, and that continues to be the case in Major League Soccer. It turns 14 this year. With the Seattle Sounders, it now has 15 teams.
The season opens tomorrow night when the Sounders host the New York Red Bulls before 32,000-plus at Qwest Field and a national television audience (6 p.m., ESPN2). The season also closes in Seattle, which hosts MLS Cup on Nov. 22.
Here are a few things to watch for along the way.
More Mark Zeigler
MLS exposed as inferior talent by other leagues
Eugene Melnyk Comments on Major League Soccer’s Decision to Award Expansion Team to Vancouver
OTTAWA, ONTARIO – Eugene Melnyk, owner of Senators Sports Entertainment, has issued the following statement with regards to Vancouver having been awarded an MLS franchise:
“Greg Kerfoot, Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett, Steve Nash and the entire Vancouver Whitecaps organization are to be congratulated on becoming the 17th team to join Major League Soccer. This is an exciting and historic day for Vancouver’s soccer fans. Having a second Canadian team join the ranks of MLS is a real testament to the continued growth and popularity of soccer in our country.
I know first-hand how committed Commissioner Garber is to expanding Major League Soccer’s footprint in North America, including Canada. The league’s focus on expansion will remain strong and, as such, I remain as committed as ever to bringing Major League Soccer to the nation’s capital. At the moment, our efforts are solely focused on supporting the City of Ottawa with its current review of our stadium proposal.
The city’s review and its conclusions are paramount in taking our expansion discussions with Commissioner Garber and MLS to the next level.
Ottawa is a world-class city that deserves a world-class stadium, and I want to help our community make this dream a reality. I am looking forward to the day when I can stand on the soccer pitch in our city’s new world-class stadium and be joined by more than 20,000 passionate fans to officially welcome Major League Soccer to Ottawa.”
What We’re Seeing Here Is A Petty League
By J Hutcherson USSoccerPlayers
“I don’t necessarily have to be apologetic to say that these are trying times. We’ve got to figure out ways that we can allocate the money we have, ensure that we are able weather the storm, make the priority at making our teams better at a time when we don’t necessarily see increased revenue coming in to be able to have an escalation of our salary budgets. When this crisis is over and our league continues to grow, then maybe we can think about investing more money in players’ salaries.”
Don Garber Commissioner, MLS
This Is Our Soccer Nation
Well said Commissioner Garber, but… remind me how much you expect to get from expansion fees?
Yeah, about that $40 million or so from every new club and the insistence that those clubs will pay or expansion doesn’t happen.
As always with Major League Soccer, we’re getting the ‘whatever is best us in the moment’ treatment of a broader issue they’ve already told us won’t have much of an impact. That would be the economy, the current excuse for pro sports to undo a multi-year spending spree.
Did the Arizona Diamondbacks really need over 300 employees at the best of times?
Probably not.
Was anybody questioning NASCAR’s expansion into new areas at the expense of established tracks?
Yes, they were.
Should anybody be surprised that the National Football League, already taking the most advantage of their players by operating without guaranteed contracts in a sport built on smashing into each other, would become even more economically conservative?
You get the idea.
Here we have Major League Soccer, to this point only spending on real estate and the occasional foreign player, deciding it’s Woody Guthrie season and times are hard. Well yeah. They were also hard when this same League ran itself $200 million into the hole and responded by cutting the Florida contingent.
