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Major League Soccer

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MLS logo
For the defunct indoor soccer league, see Major Soccer League.

Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top soccer league in the United States in the American Soccer Pyramid. It is sanctioned by the professional division of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF or U.S. Soccer), which is a member of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

History

MLS was formed on December 17, 1993, in fulfillment of U.S. Soccer's promise to FIFA to establish a "Division One" professional football (soccer) league in exchange for the staging of the FIFA World Cup USA 1994 in the United States. The league began play in 1996 with ten teams and had strong attendance the first season. Numbers declined slightly after the first year, but have stabilized in subsequent years. The original 10 teams were divided into two conferences: the Eastern Conference (Columbus Crew, D.C. United, New England Revolution, NY/NJ MetroStars, and Tampa Bay Mutiny), and Western Conference (Colorado Rapids, Dallas Burn, Kansas City Wiz, Los Angeles Galaxy, and San Jose Clash).

Expansion, contraction, and relocation

The league expanded to 12 teams in 1998, adding the Chicago Fire to the Western Conference and Miami Fusion to the Eastern Conference. In 2000 the league was reorganized into Eastern, Central, and Western Divisions; Chicago, Tampa Bay, Dallas, and Columbus were moved to the new Central Division. However, following the 2001 season, both Florida teams (Miami and Tampa Bay) were disbanded and the league contracted back to ten teams. The league returned to Eastern and Western Conferences, with Chicago now in the Eastern Conference.

Following the 2004 season, the league expanded again, adding Real Salt Lake, located in Salt Lake City, Utah and C.D. Chivas USA, which shares the Home Depot Center with the Los Angeles Galaxy. The two new teams were placed in the Western Conference, with Kansas City moving East.

MLS is expected to expand by two new teams by the 2007 season, with Toronto having been approved by the league, and whose city council has approved the construction of a soccer-specific stadium. Other current expansion possibilities include Seattle, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis, Tulsa, and Milwaukee. Other cities frequently mentioned for future expansion include Rochester -- home of a popular USL team, and Philadelphia.

Following the conclusion of the 2005 season, the San Jose Earthquakes were relocated to Houston and renamed Houston 1836. However, the Earthquakes' name and history was not transferred, with the possibility of an expansion franchise coming to San Jose as early as 2007.

Name changes

In 1997, after only one year in the league, the Kansas City Wiz changed their name to the "Kansas City Wizards" following a trademark dispute. In 1998, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars dropped the "New York/New Jersey" tag, becoming simply the "MetroStars". In 2000, the San Jose Clash changed their name to the "San Jose Earthquakes", an homage to a previous Earthquakes team that played in the North American Soccer League from 1974 to 1984. The Dallas Burn changed their name for the 2005 season to "FC Dallas". All the changes have reflected a rejection of flashy, "innovative" Americanized monikers to more traditional soccer names, reflecting an apparent change in marketing strategy. When San Jose moved to Houston after the 2005 season, their name became Houston 1836, regarding the birth year of the city. However the team is planning on a new name after the 1836 name raised a furor among locals of Mexican decent. Since this is a group the team needs to have attending their games, they are now in process on a new name.

Stadiums

When the league was started, most teams played in stadiums built specifically for NFL or NCAA (college) American football. However this is a considerable expense to the league, and to provide better facilities as well as to control revenue for the stadium, a major goal of MLS management is to build its own stadiums, which are often called "soccer-specific stadiums".

The Miami Fusion played in Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which was a former high school stadium converted into a soccer-specific stadium. However, the Miami Fusion ceased operation in 2001 and Lockhart is no longer used by MLS for regular season matches. Lockhart is now the home of the Florida Atlantic University Owls football team.

In 1999, Lamar Hunt personally financed the construction of Columbus Crew Stadium, the first major stadium ever built from the ground up specifically for soccer in the United States. The Crew formerly played at Ohio Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University, but were forced to find a new home when the university began renovations on the stadium.

The Los Angeles Galaxy got a new home beginning with the 2003 season, the Home Depot Center (HDC) located in Carson, California. In the first year of operation, the HDC hosted the MLS All-Star Game, the 2003 Women's World Cup (including the championship final), and the 2003 MLS Cup Final. The Galaxy previously played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. In 2005, expansion team Chivas USA joined the Galaxy as tenants at the HDC.

In August 2005, FC Dallas moved to Pizza Hut Park, a new soccer-specific stadium in the northern Dallas suburb of Frisco. The team, previously known as the Dallas Burn, played at the Cotton Bowl until the 2003 season, when they moved to Dragon Stadium in Southlake, Texas, a football stadium belonging to the Carroll Independent School District. Like Chicago's home during this time, Dragon Stadium featured a FieldTurf surface with permanently-painted football lines which were unpopular with fans. In 2004 they returned to the Cotton Bowl and announced plans for the Frisco stadium.

Two teams, the New England Revolution and the Kansas City Wizards, are operated by the owners of their cities' respective NFL teams and use those teams' stadiums: Gillette Stadium and Arrowhead Stadium, respectively. The remaining teams rent stadiums to play in: Colorado Rapids play at Invesco Field, D.C. United play in Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, the MetroStars play in Giants Stadium, and Real Salt Lake play in Rice-Eccles Stadium, located on the campus of the University of Utah.

From 1996-2005, the San Jose Earthquakes played in Spartan Stadium located at San Jose State University. Attempts were made to finance a soccer-specific stadium in the Bay Area, but failed, resulting in the club's relocation to Houston.

Houston 1836 plays its home matches at Robertson Stadium, located on the campus of the University of Houston. The club has a three-year lease with the university, allowing club officals to secure a deal for a soccer-specific stadium within that time frame.

The Colorado Rapids broke ground on an, as yet, unnamed new facility in Commerce City, Colorado in 2005, while Real Salt Lake recently announced plans for a new stadium to be located in Sandy, Utah. Both stadiums are anticipated to be opened in time for the 2007 season.

The Chicago Fire played at Soldier Field from 1996-2005, excluding the 2002 and 2003 seasons, which was when the stadium was undergoing renovations. While renovations took place, the club played at North Central College's Cardinal Stadium in Naperville, Illinois. The artificial turf permanently marked with lines for American football was a disappointment to the fans. In late 2003 renovations were completed and the Fire returned to Soldier Field, and that same year they announced plans for a new soccer-specific stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois. Ground was broken for the stadium in November 2004 and the facility is expected to open in the spring of 2006.

The MetroStars are planning to move to Harrison Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey in June 2007. D.C. United have proposed a new stadium at Poplar Point (Ward 8) in Washington D.C. Their current status requires a ground share at RFK Stadium with the Washington Nationals of MLB.

The move to "soccer-specific" stadiums has been seen by many as essential to building up attendance and fan support for MLS. So far every team that has built its own stadium has not only seen its game attendance rise, but also has helped MLS to come closer to the ultimate goal of breaking even financially. The Los Angeles Galaxy were the first team to make a profit, and other MLS teams are sure to follow eventually.

MLS announced its first non-US team may be based out of a brand new, public and privately funded, provincially approved soccer-specific stadium in Toronto. The stadium will be owned by the City of Toronto and will be operated by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The new stadium would hold approximately 20,000-25,000 fans, and cost roughly 80 million Canadian dollars. This team would be one of two potential expansion teams to join the league in the 2007 season, with MLS receiving bids from several other major cities for league franchises.

One of those other cities is the Great Lakes city of Cleveland. A massive soccer and shopping development has been proposed for the Cleveland area totaling over 260 million dollars in construction. The stadium promises to be one of the most expensive in the MLS, with a price tag estimated by the prospective developer at 160 million dollars. As yet, the MLS has not committed to giving Cleveland a team, although there is no doubt they are impressed at the committment from the city and the prospective developer. An announcement on their decision is expected within the year.

Profitability

Major League Soccer since its founding has lost more than 215 million dollars, according to a report by BusinessWeek last year. However, several signs and trends in media and in the MLS itself suggest that situation is going to change within the next decade or so. The first reason for this change is the much greater availability of soccer on American television, with the Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, and other channels now having coverage of the MLS, various latin american leagues, and the English Premier League. The exposure to so much more soccer on television helps to erase the image of the MLS as being a league of a 'niche' sport.

The second trend noticed is the growing amount of money and profit to be had in soccer(in the US) thanks to increasing advertisements and the bright idea of building soccer-specific stadiums to better control revenue and earnings. All new MLS franchises are now expected to have soccer-specific stadium plans, and only a few of the old teams in the league do not have stadiums under construction or on the drawing board.

According to The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA), "The Los Angeles Galaxy made a profit the year they opened their new stadium, the Home Depot Center, in 2003. They've made a profit every year since. FC Dallas, which opened its new stadium — Pizza Hut Park — in August, is projecting a profitable season in 2006. Several more MLS stadiums are in various stages of development." Some say the Chicago Fire are also on their way to being profitable, with Fox Soccer Channel's Jamie Trecker reporting that "Season tickets sales have doubled; 31 of the 42 club suites (which range from $25,000-$60,000) are spoken for and 80% of the 1000 "swanky" club seats are locked down." Official site information shows however that shortly after his visit to the Fire's new stadium, the club seat section was sold out for the entire season. With more soccer-specific stadiums being built, increasing tv coverage, and a steadily growing fanbase, it appears the MLS is on its way to profitability, albeit slowly.

Moreover, The Virginian-Pilot reported that the MLS may get its first ever rights fees for television, greatly improving its chances as a league to outlive the old NASL and MISL. According to the article, American media is more interested in soccer than just the covering the World Cup, saying "The interest also extends beyond the World Cup. Part of the agreement for 2010 and 2014 includes a handshake deal that likely will extend the MLS television contract with ABC/ESPN, and give the league its first rights fees. The fees may even be enough to immediately make MLS profitable, and thus do the same for nearly all its teams."

Rule changes

In an attempt to "Americanize" the sport, MLS experimented with rule changes in its early years. The clock, which counts up in international soccer, would instead count down, and would stop on dead ball situations, at referee's discretion. Once the clock hit 0:00, the game would be over. The other major change was the inception of shootouts to resolve tie games. If the game ended in a draw, a situation similar to a penalty shootout would ensue. A shootout attempt consisted of a player getting the ball 35 yards from the goal and five seconds to put it past the goalkeeper. Just like with penalties, it was a best-of-five competition, and if the score was still tied, the tiebreaker would head to an extra frame. The winning team would get one point (as opposed to three for the regulation win), the losing team zero.

Unfortunately for MLS, the rule changes, especially the shootout, failed to bring in a wider American audience, and alienated some traditional fans. The tiebreaker was gone after the 1999 season. MLS experimented in settling tie games with golden goal overtime periods from 2000 to 2003 (the tie would stand if no team scored after ten minutes), but in 2004 dropped the extra session, turning to a more traditional model of letting ties stand.

Previous professional soccer leagues

There have been several previous professional soccer leagues in the US and Canada, most notably the North American Soccer League (NASL; 1968-1984), which featured, among others, soccer legend Pelé. The NASL failed for a number of reasons, ranging from short-sighted spending policies to overexpansion to over reliance on foreign players. Following the collapse of the NASL, only the Major Indoor Soccer League operated as a first division league in the United States. However, this league was disdained by soccer purists and faced many of the same problems as the NASL. It ceased operation in 1992, and there was no major first division league in the United States until the formation of MLS.

American soccer leagues have not generally been considered to be successes, for a variety of reasons. Some blame the continual nature of soccer, with relatively few set plays or fixed positions. This may make the sport hard to follow for the average American. Others attribute failures to the low-scoring nature of the game; still others blame the perception of soccer as a "foreign" sport. Still the survival of MLS for several more years appears secure, even if it might never reach the status of the major professional leagues.

Organization

In contrast to most other established professional sports leagues in the United States and abroad, but like most recently founded leagues, MLS is organized as a "single-entity" organization, in which the league (rather than individual teams) contracts directly with the players, in an effort to control spending and labor costs, share revenue, promote parity and maximize exposure. Each team has an owner/investor and the league allows an owner to have more than one team, although this may be more because of the lack of willing investors than the single-entity structure itself.

The full roster for each MLS team is limited to a maximum of 18 senior players, plus a maximum of ten roster-protected players. Of the 18 senior players, MLS teams are allowed a maximum of four senior (over the age of 25) international players on their active roster, as well as three youth international players (under the age of 25). In MLS, a player is not considered an international (regardless of eligibility to play for the U.S. National Team) if he is a U.S. citizen, is a resident alien (green card), or is under asylum protection. International players are so defined by U.S. Soccer to accord with U.S. Immigration and Naturalization laws, which prohibit an employer from limiting the number of permanent or temporary residents, refugees, and asylees.

As a result of these restrictions, most of the players in the league are from the United States, but some are renowned international players, with Latin America and the Caribbean being the home region for the largest number of international players.

In Europe, MLS is often viewed as a 'retirement league' on par with the old NASL, where stars who are past their prime can collect easy paychecks. Although this may have been true of the early years of the league, far fewer older players have been imported recently. Lothar Matthäus spent a forgettable year with the MetroStars, Mexican star Luis Hernández was a big flop in LA, Korean star Hong Myung-Bo failed to earn a position in the Galaxy's starting lineup, and the league has seen a high percentage of failures from less notable foreign veterans. One of the few recent exceptions to this trend is current MetroStars player Youri Djorkaeff. The league has instead focused more on acquiring talented young players from the CONCACAF region, such as recent successes Amado Guevara, Carlos Ruiz, and Damani Ralph. MLS has also become a springboard for young American players looking to join wealthier European teams, with Tim Howard, Carlos Bocanegra, Clint Mathis, Bobby Convey and DaMarcus Beasley being the most notable recent exports. A number of young Americans have also chosen to come back to play in the league instead of languishing on Europe's benches and reserve teams including Gus Kartes, Taylor Twellman, and Philip Salyer. Another young American, Landon Donovan, was, at his request, loaned to MLS by his German Bundesliga club, Bayer Leverkusen and, after briefly returning to Germany, subsequently purchased by the league.

Unlike most other nations, there is currently no system of promotion and relegation in American soccer; although repeated suggestions for such a system have been made, such an organization does not exist in any sport in America, and the disparity in attendance between divisions makes such a vertical integration impractical. It is highly unlikely that any professional sport in the United States will have any such system in the foreseeable future, both because of lack of popular minor league teams, and certain opposition from team owner/operators in top-level professional leagues, including MLS.

Major League Soccer teams

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

2007 Expansion

Defunct teams

Past MLS Cup Championship games

Notable players

Notable former players

   

MLS commissioners

MLS awards

Average attendances

Regular season/playoffs

  • 1996: 17,406/17,673
  • 1997: 14,619/16,015
  • 1998: 14,312/17,885
  • 1999: 14,282/16,339
  • 2000: 13,756/10,274
  • 2001: 14,961/11,805
  • 2002: 15,821/13,872
  • 2003: 14,899/13,776
  • 2004: 15,559/13,954
  • 2005: 15,108/14,390

MLS Cup

  • All Time: 38,656

See also