Seattle. Philadelphia. Portland. Vancouver. Montreal.
The days of supporter-based expansion in Major League Soccer appear to be over.
Whether it ends up being ego, money, or a festering mixture of the two, the suits at Major League Soccer have decided to abandon measured, organic expansion for the willy-nilly sales of franchises that made the early days of the league very hairy. There was a time when MLS was hurting, and needed every last fan they could muster to help the league survive. See the above expansions in recent years – all done in areas that had an existing base of fans ready to embrace the teams.
The Northwest triumvirate and Montreal all spent time in the lower divisions of a closed pyramid. The Sons of Ben were created in Philadelphia in 2007 in hopes of luring an MLS franchise to the City of Brotherly Love. According to Wikipedia, in 2009 the group had 4,500 members, which equals the support levels at most of the current NASL clubs. For teams that seem to have fleeting hopes of ever reaching the top division (Minnesota United, San Antonio Scorpions, Carolina Railhawks, just to name a couple), they have similar support to other successful new MLS franchises of the past.
But as we talked about a month or so ago, New York City FC was announced as the first of the next franchises to enter MLS. This strays almost completely from these previous expansions – no established supporter base, no stadium. It could be said that New York really lacks a strong fan-base at all, even with the Red Bulls a handful of miles away from Manhattan, but that may not be accurate. The New York Cosmos are beginning play in NASL soon, and they currently have a shirt sponsor, a television contract, and a plan for a stadium that isn’t being protested ardently by local residents. The history of the club cannot be ignored, but there are no guarantees that a team without a clear path to the top division can succeed.
Let’s get back to MLS. David Beckham and Marcelo Claure, the owner of Club Bolivar in Bolivia, are in cahoots, and guess what? Their joint venture appears to be circumventing a viable, flourishing club in the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. One trouble with the Strikers is the geographic distinction. Miami is the larger metropolitan area, and is the designated city of teams such as the Heat, Dolphins, and Marlins (who changed their name a year ago). In the minds of executives that look at bottom lines and market shares, I would imagine that a supporter-embraced Miami team would be more successful than a supporter-embraced Fort Lauderdale team.
And that’s where the ego I mentioned earlier comes in. In terms of American sports, leagues believe their endorsement is enough to turn a group of letters into a true brand. People are lemmings, and when they see some three-letter designate on a patch on the sleeve of a uniform, they will assimilate. The thing other sports leagues have in America is monopoly. Commissioner Don Garber knows this, and thus the reason he complained about Americans having too many leagues to choose from on domestic television and internet carriers.
To go back and look at the beginning, MLS wanted no part of the legacies of the old when they started. The Los Angeles Aztecs? Nope, the Galaxy. The San Jose Earthquakes? Nope, the Clash. The Tampa Bay Rowdies? Nope, the Mutiny. And of course, the New York Cosmos? Nope, the Metrostars. They went entirely on new brands – possibly to avoid the equation of the old brand to the failures of the original NASL. But there is also the ego aspect mentioned earlier – you call something Major League, and people will come.
That kind of strong support didn’t happen for a long time, and realistically, the largest crowds in MLS didn’t start happening until the old became new again. Teams gained some strength based on embracing their past. It really started in MLS with the Earthquakes, and while the team’s financial realities meant a relocation in the mid-2000′s, they are back and are preparing a new stadium in 2014. But when MLS accepted the Seattle Sounders from the USL-1 division, that was the beginning of NFL-size crowds. MLS had to acknowledge that supporters’ investment in a brand trumps the ability to take a token name and a wad of cash and generate a fan-base.
Now there are many other clubs that are grabbing hold of history. The Rowdies and Strikers are both playing in the 2nd Division NASL. And we can’t forget other current MLS teams who went for the historic while they waited for the call to the top – the fellow Cascadian rivals Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps.
The point of this isn’t to say that there needs to be a renaissance of all the old brands. But the point is, this support is there. Don Garber should be applauded for instituting the initiative to create soccer-specific stadiums that enhance the supporter role. Even when you look at these 2nd and 3rd division clubs, you can see that the potential that lies in the supporter, when their role in the club is recognized.
But this is America, and in America, leagues believe that they are greater than fans. In every sports league in this country, the corporate rules the day. That’s not the way it is in most other countries. The English Premier League has attempted to isolate itself from the FA pyramid in the past to failure. Soccer is worldwide, and the closed pyramid and corporate structure are not natural in the order that exists. Yes, many wealthy people and corporations own clubs throughout the world, but in almost every situation there is an acknowledgement that a team can build itself from scratch, through supporters club mentality, and climb its way to the top.
When the league struggled and needed to begin impacting the North American continent, it began accepting supporters’ cultures. They accepted established teams in the past, and those teams have been successes in their markets – especially the Sounders and Timbers.
But it appears that the league has made the decision now that the supporters have begun to gain too much power. They are snapping back, and now are poised to return to the ways of old (and of mainstream American sports).
The first sign of this was submitting patent applications to secure rights to the Supporters’ Cup properties. The Cascadia Cup, something that 5 years ago was nonexistent, has overwhelmed much of the trumped-up LA-NY “rivalry” that has not materialized. MLS hoped with the procurement of David Beckham and Thierry Henry that this would launch a real cross-country derby, but nothing can mimic a true supporters’ culture. The Cascadia Cup is the most organic and exciting rivalry in MLS, and it’s something that existed long before the single-entity structure. Yet, MLS will try and make it their own – it’s the American way.
So now that MLS has gobbled up the Supporters’ Cups, they have announced an unsupported, phantom team known as NYCFC will begin play in 2015 based on the endorsement of two financial donors that have little to do with American soccer, and that have done nothing to attach themselves to a group expressing early support. The next logical step will be for Beckham & Co. to get their promised franchise, and that it will likely be endorsed for Southern Florida. The question lies in whether they will grab history and current support by the horns and enjoy an easier road to MLS glory, or whether they will try and prove MLS’ (and Beckham’s) might and influence by birthing something they can call their own. Based on the hubris often shown in professional American sports. I’m guessing the latter.