Sam Sundermeyer
Donovan, Angel, Altidore, Blanco. And of course, you can’t forget about Beckham.
As Major League Soccer enters its 13th season, the names on the back of the jerseys have become more noticeable, and expectations have never been higher. With the addition of prominent international players like David Beckham, and the expansion of the league from 14 teams this year to 16 by 2010, the MLS is growing like it never has before both in terms of on and off the field.
When MLS began play in 1996, the league consisted of only ten teams. Over the 13 year history of the league, financial losses have been reported at over $350 million, two teams have folded, and the average salary for players is currently at around $129,000. This is in stark contrast to the English Premier League, where the average salary is over $2,000,000.
These numbers don’t make good reading for MLS, but the league is thriving like it never has before. The aforementioned average player salaries are up 12% from last season, and over the past four years, the league has added four teams. The league has also penned national television deals, and in 2007, every single MLS game was televised for the first time. Soccer-specific stadiums are being built all over
2007 saw the introduction of Toronto F.C., the first MLS team located outside of
Compared to other foreign domestic leagues, MLS has much to differentiate itself. The league has crowned six champions over 12 seasons with the most successful club being D.C. United, winning four MLS Cups. Houston Dynamo has become one of the most successful clubs as of late, winning the past two MLS Cups. The league uses a playoff tournament to crown its season champions, a format that allows less successful teams a chance at the title, but alienates the teams with the best regular season record. For the past 5 seasons, the team with the best record has not won the MLS Cup. There have been many critics of this system, saying that the league should adopt a regular season champion system as other foreign leagues have. Supporters of the current system say that the tournament is easier for the American sports fan to identify with, as every major sport in
A supporter of the tournament, Commissioner Garber said in 2006, "Seeing the excitement of the semi-finals and the conference championships in the past couple of weeks was enough to convince all of us that our current playoff format does create excitement, it increases fan following, it certainly leads to higher attendances in those later games, it increases media coverage, and overall we think that’s a positive thing." Another differentiation MLS has is that it does not follow the promotion/relegation method that other leagues such as the Spanish La Liga and Segunda Divisions do. There are other leagues in the
For the start of the 2007 season, MLS introduced the Designated Player Rule. This allows teams to sign up to one player whose salary only counts for $400,000 against the team’s payroll, no matter how big their contract is. The rest of the remaining money is paid for by the owner of the team. The installation of this rule has allowed MLS to sign top flight international players such as David Beckham of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Cuauhtémoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire, Juan Pablo Angel of the New York Red Bulls, and Claudio Lopez of the Kansas City Wizards.
Beckham’s impact has already been felt on the league, as LA Galaxy jersey sales have increased over 700% in the past year and with the Galaxy selling out nearly every single home and away game since acquiring Beckham. On the field, Beckham has had mixed results. When he joined the Galaxy on July 13th, he only played five games due to a lingering ankle injury he acquired at Real Madrid, and an injured knee he picked up later in the year. The Galaxy failed to make the post-season tournament, and many people began to deem the signing as a failure. However, Beckham came into this season at full health, and in the first two Galaxy games, he has a goal and an assist while the Galaxy have compiled a
Over the years, MLS has compiled some excellent American talent as well. American players like Eddie Johnson, Clint Dempsey, and Tim Howard who began their careers in MLS are making names for themselves in the English Premier League, while younger players like Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley are having great seasons in
One player MLS has managed to keep a hold of is Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan. Already the leading scorer in U.S National Team history at only 26, there are many who consider Donovan to be one of America’s best ever talents. Donovan started his career with German side Bayer Leverkusen, but transferred to the Galaxy in 2005 at his own request. Over the next couple years, with the continued growth of the league, MLS hopes to keep rising American stars such as Red Bull New York’s Jozy Altidore, and Chivas USA’s Brad Guzan, who almost transferred to English Premier side Aston Villa during the European January transfer window.
With only 12 seasons under its belt MLS is an infant in terms of experience compared to other foreign leagues. The next few years are going to be the most important ones of the league’s short life as the focus on MLS has never been stronger. With the introduction of more teams, players, and international tournaments with foreign leagues, there is no question that MLS is heading in the right direction, and that season 13 just might be the lucky one.
