Major League Struggle - Major League Soccer - Statistical Data Included

Soccer Digest, Dec, 2000 by Michael Lewis

Tony Meola and the Kansas City Wizards may have won on the field, but off the field MLS continues to too often lose. What's next for the five-year league?

TRYING TO PAINT A TRUE PICTURE of MLS depends on the artist If you're an optimist, you might want to use bright, vibrant colors as you look toward the future.

If you're a pessimist, you might have to use harsher tones to bring out the long, hard road the league has taken.

If you're a realist, you might have to combine those two styles into a unique mixture of those shades and hues.

As MLS moves toward its sixth season, it faces a number of familiar problems and challenges, including attendance, TV ratings, ownership concerns, expansion, and soccer-specific stadiums.

On the bright side, the quality and level of play continues to rise. So does the number of promising young American players that the league is developing. MLS also got rid of the shootout and added some traditional soccer trappings to appease the traditional soccer fan.

Commissioner Don Garber has some lofty goals as he attempts to turn MLS into a masterpiece. "In time, we should be able to achieve the significant importance that the other four established sports leagues have achieved," he says. "When you look at demographic changes, ethnic changes, and global community changes that are taking place, we believe soccer is poised to capitalize on those, and other sports, long-term, might be at risk. The question is: When? And our investors are committed until that happens. I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to achieve some of that significance in time."

ATTENDANCE

Like it or not, attendance was down during the regular season and playoffs.

It dropped 3% from 1999's average of 14,282 a game to 13,756. That might not sound like a big dip, but in the bigger picture it must leave room for concern. After drawing an average of 17,406 in its maiden season in 1996, attendance has leveled off and dropped a bit in each year--14,619 in 1997, 14,312 in 1998, and 14,282 in 1999.

Seven teams saw attendance go down, including the Columbus Crew, which led the league in 1999 at 17,696, but fell to 15,451 last season. There also has to be serious concern with the New England Revolution, which might have MLS's most loyal fans. The Revs fans were among the top teams in attendance during four lean years, but actually fell 7.6% to 15,463 despite the team finishing at .500 for the first time in five years, and reaching the playoffs for only the second time.

The five clubs that saw increases? The MetroStars (up 19.8% to 17,621), Los Angeles Galaxy (15.6 to 20,400), Kansas City Wizards (11.3 to 9,112), Dallas Burn (7.2% to 13,102), and D.C. United (6.6% to 18,580).

The Tampa Bay Mutiny took the largest drop: 27.8% to 9,452.

What was perhaps the most disturbing and disappointing thing was that the league pushed just about all the right buttons to market itself before the season.

MLS went back to real soccer. It got rid of the controversial and hated shoot-out, added stoppage time at the end of halves and games, and the clock counts up instead of down. MLS added Soccer Saturday, in which more games were televised on that day. It also introduced MLS ExtraTime, a weekly highlights show.

In fact, the league's theme of the year was directed right at the fans--"It's Your Game."

"I would say our attendance has stagnated [not dipped]," Garber says. "We're down about 3%. That's several hundred people a game. Not improving is my concern. Next year we've got to show progress. We're not going to predict that we're going to hit a particular number. I will say that we will must get better and improve our attendance.... Am I concerned about it? Yeah. I would like to be sitting here and telling you that our attendance has gone up."

Playoff attendance was abysmal, plummeting from 16,338 in 1999 to a puzzling 11,973 in 2000.

"The playoffs were a disappointment for us," Garber says. "You have to consider that for a number of years--and last year in particular--we had two of our top-selling teams [Columbus and D.C.]. Those 20,000 and 23,000 gates for the third games really help those averages. We're questioning whether we have the right [playoff] format. There are a lot of different concepts that are on the table that may help us create more of a compelling interest story."

OWNERSHIP

Like it or not, too few people own too many teams.

While they must be given a tremendous amount of praise and credit for their commitment--emotionally and financially--there is a perception among American sports fans that the league is run by a handful of billionaires and multi-millionaires. Critics claim it might discourage potential new owners.

Let's take a look. Philip Anschutz is investor-operator of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chicago Fire, and Colorado Rapids. Lamar Hunt and his family own the 2000 MLS champion Kansas City Wizards and Columbus Crew. The Kraft family operates the New England Revolution and San Jose Earthquakes.

John Kluge and Stuart Subotnick own the MetroStars, with sights on having a expansion team in the New York metropolitan area and perhaps another East Coast club. Ken Horowitz is operator-investor of the Miami Fusion, a Fort Lauderdale-based team that has under-achieved and attracted an all-time league low of 7,460 per game this season.