American Club Football in Crisis? 2010 Will Tell the Story
We’re not quite there yet, but the situation is much worse than a great number of American footy fans would like to admit to.
First tier Major League Soccer may have officially hailed 2009 as a watershed year for the sport in the United States, but in fact 2010 will be the year which determines whether or not MLS is on the right trajectory.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement with the MLS Players Union expires in January 2010 and all early indications tell us that MLS does not want to move in the players direction on reforming MLS’ structure to meet FIFA mandates and directives. MLS’ appears ready to move in the players direction on salaries and spending, but not more importantly on dumping single entity, allowing free agency and transfers within the league.
MLS was also the centerpiece of the USSF’s plans unveiled in 1998 to compete for the World Cup title in 2010. Entering the year, not many experts give the United States a realistic chance of competing for the title, but then again these same experts didn’t give the US its due before the 2002 World Cup.
The second tier United Soccer Leagues competed with half as many first division clubs in 2009 as it did in 1999, a clear sign that second division football, or minor league soccer of a professional variety cannot survive in most American markets without the prospect of promotion to the overall top flight nationally. Now USL finds its most storied clubs, including several that have stuck around since the 1990s leading a breakaway league that has adopted the name of the defunct NASL, the league that made the sport big time in many American homes in the 1970s.
But the new league is not the NASL, even if they call themselves such. Kaka, Ronaldo, Lampard, Seedorf and Ballack are not flocking stateside the way Pele, Eusiebo, Best, Cruyff and Beckenbauer did. This league instead is trying to bridge the gap between USL which was decidedly minor league (despite some very good results in international competitions)and MLS, which despite being a “major” league has serious issues with its structure and the way it treats its players.
I’ve spent some time speaking to NASL leaders, and have no doubt they are competent and that the league has potential. But, I also know that after twenty years, USL has essentially failed with its professional setup (despite its outstanding amateur and youth structure) and that MLS isn’t as far along after 14 years as many of us had hoped it would be. These realities mean that skepticism of the new NASL must be higher than optimism. After all, we still haven’t gotten club soccer right in this country after so many tries.
American Club Football/Soccer isn’t in crisis yet, but 2010 could be a very bad year, or the tipping point of something even greater. Right now, we just don’t know which way things will turn.
I think you’re probably right. We got to meet with Garber in Seattle. I think it depends what you mean by “crisis.” I think MLS’ business model seems sound, and, at least in the new markets, they are creating fan bases and integrating the local community. The problem is that’s all their discussing.
Ethos and atmosphere are great. They MUST be grounded in something tangible. The soccer needs to be better and more entertaining. Every game doesn’t need to be five-four but there need to be players with better technique. Right now, no one in that league can run with the ball or “break someone’s ankles” on the dribble. No one.
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I believe the new NASL has a chance. America is a nostalgic society and the team names from that league still sell.
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The only thing I know about the NASL is that most of the teams had craptastic logos and even worse names (Minnesota Kickers? Seriously?). And the league folded. It seems like the TOA guys might be a little more nostalgic than the actual fans, at least this 25 year old fan.
However, my Chicago Sting t-shirt IS pretty sweet.
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I think you are dead wrong.
NASL is being run by MUCH MORE soccer savvy people than MLS or USL.
Traffic, Jeff Cooper, Saputo, Leonarduzzi, etc. All people who know the world game well and will not shut themselves off with stupid rules and insular thinking.
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Tyduffy, I do not think they have a sound business model. Eventually single entity and the failure to allow players their very basic rights will blow up in the face of the league. It is only a matter of time.
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The league was unparalleled as a success when compared to any other league we have had in this country.
Keep in mind their was ZERO interest in soccer when NASL began unlike MLS who started play right after we had a hosted a World Cup which came here largely because of the NASL legacy.
We had a team in NY average over 45,000 fans three years in a row in NASL. We had a team in Florida average over 25,000 fans four years in a row. MLS has failed in New York and has abandoned Florida.
We had the best players in the world flock here and kids in the streets of Munich and Rio playing as the NY Cosmos. Today nobody in the streets of those cites plays as the LA Galaxy or Real Salt Lake.
The NASL eventually folded because we did not have the infrastructure or appreciation of this sport yet to support such a massive league. We did not have many American players at the time- they were being developed because youth soccer took off in the 1970s thanks to the NASL. MLS, USL and NCAA Soccer have all been beneficiaries of the NASL legacy.
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The NASL folded because despite the successes in the Pacific Northwest, NYC and Miami every other team’s marketing and business models were an absolute joke. Many communities at USL-2 levels of attendance.
Forget the nostalgia, look at the facts.
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You should get your own facts straight first before saying that. There was no NASL success in Miami. NASL failed in Miami twice. There was NASL success in Ft. Lauderdale. There was HUGE NASL success in Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay Rowdies outlasted the NASL itself by almost a decade, whereas the Pacific Northwest teams either folded before NASL did (Portland, Seattle) or did not survive the death of the NASL (Vancouver).
There were quite a few successful NASL franchises; anyone who thinks it was only the Pacific Northwest and the Cosmos simply does not know his facts. San Jose was successful. Tulsa was successful. Chicago and Toronto were successful (more towards the end of the NASL era than in the 1970s). Minnesota was very successful during its brief run in the 70s. The Philadelphia Atoms were successful until foreign (Mexican) owners stepped in and ruined the franchise. Ft. Lauderdale was successful. Tampa Bay Rowdies were HUGE and it wasn’t a short-term 70’s fad, it lasted from 1975 to the very end of NASL, and the Rowdies carried the torch for professional soccer through the 1980’s and early 90’s when most of the others had given up.
Yes there were lots of fly-by-night operations in the NASL, but there was a solid core of well-run clubs that could have saved the league if their examples had been followed. Excessive spending spurred on by the Cosmos, competition with MISL driving up player salaries, the economic recession of 1983-84, feckless owners who refused to think or plan for the long term, and the complete anarchy that was NASL headquarters, all helped to kill the league. The anarchic structure of the NASL also made any kind of long term planning impossible and kept NASL from learning from its mistakes.
We like to point out the flaws of MLS Single Entity, but at least MLS is stable enough to make long term plans and to learn from its own mistakes. That’s about the one positive thing MLS has gotten right by learning from the NASL experience.
Nevertheless, the NASL had a lot more success than most people realize, and did a lot to build the sport in this country which young people and people lacking in historical perspective simply don’t or won’t recognize.
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Hey, there, hotshot; before you get all opinion-y about names and logos, maybe you should get your facts right. It was the Minnesota Kicks, not the Kickers. And who the heck are you, anyway, to say what is or is not a good name? USL has the Richmond Kickers. There are several German clubs called “Kickers” that were around long before the NASL existed. It’s an old and well established soccer club name. Sorry, but over a century of soccer tradition beats your 25-year old ignorant opinion, hands down.
This is what I hate about juvenile know-nothing soccer blog commentary: if they aren’t calling something “craptastic” because it isn’t exactly like what they are already used to seeing, they are calling it “poser” because it IS exactly like something they are already used to seeing.
The NASL had lots of awesome names and logos. The NASL had some awful names and logos. On the whole the NASL didn’t do any worse than MLS has done in the names and logos department.
Just because something isn’t around anymore doesn’t make it a failure or give you the right to dismiss it out of hand. The NASL laid the groundwork for what we have today; without the NASL there would have been no 1994 USA World Cup, and no MLS. When the NASL arrived, there was almost no soccer in this country. When the NASL folded, soccer was everywhere in this country. I lived through it; I know this from personal experience: soccer simply didn’t exist in Tampa in 1974; by 1975 when the Rowdies arrived, soccer was everywhere. The NASL performed a miracle in seeding the ground for soccer in this country, but because the league folded the NASL gets dissed by 20-somethings whose historical perspective barely stretches back to the 1994 World Cup, if that.
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The NASL never averaged more than 14,444 fans per match.
The “successful” Miami-Ft Lauderdale club average a league low of 2112 fans in 1972
Only in 8 of the 15 years did the league high attendence club average more than 20,000 fans. 6 of those were NY, 1 Seattle, 1 Vancouver
Only in 1979 and 1984 did the league low club average more than 5000 fans
10 of 14 cities that had both MLS and NASL teams had the MLS team with a higher average attendence
Most of the clubs you list as successes (I’m speaking as a business) had USL-1 average attendences.
And you are right, I was generous calling South Florida an NASL success. It only was because so much of the rest of the league was just plan bad.
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Dave Clark-
Wrong. Tampa Bay averaged over 25,000 fans three times. South Florida, is comprised by Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The NASL was a flop in Miami but wildly successful in Fort Lauderdale. Between 1978 and 1982 the Strikers never had an average attendance as bad as the Fusion did even in its best attendance year.
Until the end the Cosmos attendance was never as bad as the Metrostars/Red Bulls and did not have the benefit of doubleheader games.
Minnesota, a non MLS market that generally gets 5k in USL-1 used to average as many as 25k in NASL.
So many MLS people want to trash the legacy of the NASL for whatever reason. Some don’t undersdtand it, while others I believe have an inferiority complex with a league that they know got more TV viewers and more mainstream press coverage than MLS despite playing in an era when we didn’t get soccer.
That’s why so many trash the NASL.
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Your Tampa and Minnesota numbers directly contradict numbers I have seen. Seperating Miami and Ft Lauderdale makes as much sense as seperating Foxboro and Boston, or Anaheim and LA, or Arlington and Dallas.
And to put out TV number and media coverage is to ignore a world that once had 4 tv stations and now has 200+ and to ignore the very medium upon which we communicate.
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I fear you are looking at the numbers from NASL’s Indoor Seasons.
In 1979 Tampa averaged 27,650 fans for the OUTDOOR SEASON. In 1980, 28,435. In 1981, 23,532. So I was wrong- it was 3 years in a row OVER 23,000 not 25,000. Close enough. That’s not USL-2 attendance, that top tier MLS atteandance. that would be second in the league each of the past three seasons!
Thanks for playing Dave Clark. come back when you get your facts straight.
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Larry, I have one question. Where did I say that Tampa did not do that?
I can’t find it. Your claim of my words does not match my actual words.
Tampa did not have the league high attendence in those years, and so was not part of my stated facts and position.
Misinterpretting my writing does not make you correct, in fact it does quite the opposite.
My facts as I presented are 100% correct.
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I would love to see some features here on the original NASL. It could be ultimate argument settler or starter.
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My understanding of this article is that club soccer in North America is at a crossroads and I agree with that. Just as the USL finds itself at a crossroads, so does the MLS.
I’d like to think that the MLS and USL are suffering growing pains. Both have been successful to a point, but are these models capable of being more successful? Better ratings, bigger fan base, more solid teams.
That’s what I see as happening right now. Very critical is the new players agreement. Again, my understanding from the reporting I’ve heard is that in the MLS, you have a big gap in salary with no mid range players. It’s even better for American Players to avoid playing in MLS because they can’t make a living and can make more money overseas than here. That kind of trend is bad for American soccer because players should be able to make a living here and play at home. The Concacaf Champions league is a great way to build club soccer. I love following any MLS or USL team in this tournament. Don Garber wants more success, well, then the bench needs to be lengthened.
As I said, I look at these issues as a product of success, but if they’re not resolved with an eye to the future and sustaining club soccer, club soccer could be stunted as a sport and not realize its potential. By potential I mean having a league to rival other leagues.
So the question for us the fans is, what do we do? What should we do to keep club soccer from stunting and possibly atrophying? Or do we want a small mom and pop feeder league?
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Well Dave, my hat was delicious. Thank you. They were the Minnesota Kicks, not kickers. And it looks like the actual fans might be a bit more nostalgic than this 25 year old fan. Fair enough. I still think Kicks is craptastic name for a proper club, though.
Marketing arguments aside, I’d love to see the NASL’s vision of the American Footy landscape, and where they fit 20 years from now. Not only that, where do they see USL and MLS?
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NASL wins. Rochester has joined the league! http://www.rhinossoccer.com/news.phpid=1233 This is one of the biggest and best run clubs in the USL and the last non-MLS team to win the U.S. Open Cup. This more than makes up for questions in Minn. and reports of Atlanta not comming until 2011. The USL now seems to be the one in Crisis!
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beckem ohhhhhh u rock man
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