Does Sport of Future Have a Future in United States?

To gaze into professional soccer’s future in the United States, Tim Connolly turns to the past.

He remembers another league that was struggling to make it more than three decades ago. He recalls a team that couldn’t even find a place to hold its first playoff game.

Finally, in desperation, the team settled on a 3,100-seat high school gym. Only 1,900 fans showed up.

The league was the NBA. The team? The Chicago Bulls.

“I love to tell that story to the kids in the office,” Connolly, who rides herd over the Kansas City Wizards and Columbus Crew for owner Lamar Hunt, told the Kansas City Star earlier this month. “They don’t believe it at all.”

No one is suggesting that in the next 30 years Major League Soccer can accomplish what the NBA has done in the last 30, but neither is it an impossible dream.

“It [MLS] will never achieve the popularity of the NBA or the NFL, but it certainly can survive in the sports arena,” Bob Flood, senior vice president and director of national broadcasting at DeWitt Media Inc., said after MLS recently achieved a television coup of sorts.

The league signed a six-year contract with ABC and ESPN that will earn it at least $5 million next season and significantly more in future years, depending on advertising revenue. But the money is far less important than the exposure.

The agreement means that a dozen MLS games will be shown on ABC next season--a network breakthrough for the league--and 35 more on ESPN and ESPN2. The league also is negotiating a new contract with Univision, the Spanish-language network, which already carries an MLS game of the week throughout the season.

The 1998 schedule on ABC will include the league’s opening game in March, the All-Star game from Orlando’s Citrus Bowl on Aug. 2 and MLS Cup ’98 on Oct. 25 from the Rose Bowl.

“If you had said in 1995 that this league would have national network television exposure in our third year, I would have said that you were hopelessly optimistic,” MLS Commissioner Doug Logan said.

The television agreement, combined with the announcement last week that Nike will contribute $120 million to U.S. Soccer in a long-term sponsorship deal, and the 57,000-seat sellout of today’s MLS championship game at RFK Stadium, means that the American soccer season is ending on an extraordinarily high note.

Not that everything is upbeat at MLS headquarters in New York. Attendance remains troublesome.

With the novelty of the inaugural season having worn off and the frequent absence of star players because of national team commitments, average attendance dropped by 16%, from 17,416 in 1996 to 14,616 this season.

Not all clubs fared worse, however. The Colorado Rapids, owned by Philip Anschutz, who also owns the NHL Kings and MLS’ new Chicago team, the Fire, saw attendance increase by 15%. The New England Revolution enjoyed a 12.6% jump and led the league with an average of 21,423 fans a game despite finishing two games below .500.

The Galaxy, which drew a league-high 28,916 in its first season, fell 29% to a second-best 20,626 per game.

Television ratings also were off, falling 16% on ESPN and ESPN2, but the drop-off might have been the result of the more attractive World Cup qualifying games also being televised. The same might be true next season, because, among them, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will carry all 64 World Cup matches from France ’98 between June 10 and July 12.

The TV power brokers are looking at the long haul.

“The audience is extremely attractive,” said Steve Bornstein, president of ABC Sports and president and chief executive officer of ESPN. “The demographic is exceptional.”

Stadiums remain a thorny issue for MLS, however. Not until the league actually owns its own stadiums or has first-class agreements with its preferred partner, the NFL, will MLS be able to put the problem behind it.

Until then, there are always going to be difficulties such as the NFL’s Giants insisting that the New York/New Jersey MetroStars remove their $1-million portable grass field and play instead on Giants Stadium’s plastic surface, as happened this season.

Or investors with deep pockets becoming snared in city and stadium red tape, such as happened to Florida electronics millionaire Ken Horowitz, who splashed out $20 million this summer for a Miami MLS team only to run into problems with the Orange Bowl. Frustrated, he moved the entire operation to Fort Lauderdale’s Lockhart Stadium, which is where the Fusion will begin life next season.

The league’s first attempt to build its own stadium failed when voters in Ohio turned down a half-cent tax increase proposal that would have helped finance a new stadium in Columbus. Undeterred, Crew owner Hunt subsequently signed a letter of intent to personally finance a $30-million stadium in nearby Dublin, thus assuring that the team will remain in the state.

MLS and the NFL are working on joint tenancy in future stadiums. Paul Allen’s new home for the Seahawks in Seattle almost certainly will be shared by an MLS team, and similar discussions are going on elsewhere.

Two weeks ago, Logan was in Pittsburgh helping the Rooney family, owner of the Steelers, lobby on behalf of a Nov. 4 referendum that would increase sales tax by half a percentage point to help finance a $185-million stadium to replace Three Rivers Stadium. The Rooneys would kick in $50 million.

The comments that came out of the meetings reflect a nationwide trend that can only be good for MLS.

“The single biggest demand we have in Pittsburgh for sports facilities, for all ages, is for soccer,” Mayor Mark Murphy said.

“We think soccer is a coming sport,” Steeler Vice President Art Rooney Jr. said. “There is such a thing as ‘soccer dads’ because I’m one. I get up at 9 o’clock in the morning on Sunday mornings and, rather than go to church, go to soccer games these days.

“We think soccer will grow both as a participatory sport and as a spectator sport.”

But the speed of that growth will depend in large part on the United States’ ability to produce top-class players and the league’s commitment, in the interim and even long range, to continue to bring the best foreign stars it can afford to these shores.

There were several negatives on the player front this season, not least of which was the arrest of Washington D.C. United players Raul Diaz Arce of El Salvador and Mario Gori of Argentina at a Columbus hotel for allegedly raping a woman after United’s game on Aug. 16. Both pleaded not guilty and remain free on a $500,000 bond. The trial is set for Nov. 13.

On top of that, the Tampa Bay Mutiny’s Adam Frye was arrested for drunkenness and indecent exposure; the San Jose Clash’s Daniel Guzman walked out on the team after only a few games and returned to Mexico; Jorge Campos was a frequent no-show for the Galaxy, and Branco of 1994 World Cup winner Brazil was thrown out of three of the 10 MLS games in which he played for the MetroStars, the last time for spitting at an opponent. He will not be back.

Two other big names decided to leave the league at season’s end. Italy’s Roberto Donadoni opted to return to AC Milan after two seasons in MLS and Scotland’s Richard Gough flew home to Glasgow to be reunited with Rangers after a single MLS season.

Their departure, combined with the loss last season of Mexico’s Hugo Sanchez and Colombia’s Leonel Alvarez, prompted suggestions that instead of signing well-known foreign stars on the downhill side of their careers, MLS would be better off acquiring young players on the rise.

Sunil Gulati, the league’s deputy commissioner, said a more balanced approach is preferred.

No matter who is brought in from abroad or signed from the college or minor league ranks, Thomas Rongen, coach of the Revolution, believes the 1998 season will be a watershed one for MLS.

“In this market [Boston], fans want to see a hard-working team that’s honest, a little blue-collarish,” Rongen told the Boston Globe. “But for all teams, including ours, I think the honeymoon is over. I think next year you’ll see a direct correlation between the product on the field and the attendance.”

Fans often wonder why MLS, which has billionaire backing from Anschutz, Metromedia’s John Kluge, the Kraft family and the Hunt family, does not open its purse and simply go out and buy the best talent available.

In its first two years, the league has spent $45 million on player transfer fees and salaries, and Gulati said in London this summer that cautious approach would continue. Whether it will pay off, however, remains to be seen.

“We won’t know the answer for five or 10 years,” he said.

MLS had budgeted for a $23-million operating loss in its inaugural season but actually lost $4 million less than that. This season, it expected to lose slightly more than $13 million, which is about what occurred.

Officiating improved somewhat in 1997 after a disastrous 1996, when verbal clashes between officials on one side and players and coaches on the other was frequent. But there still is room for improvement.

Octavio Zambrano, the Galaxy’s interim coach, put the matter in perspective recently when he delivered this comment after being asked about the officiating in a particular game:

“The league recently asked me to vote for the referee of the year,” Zambrano said. “I mailed back a blank piece of paper. That’s all I have to say.”

Despite such misgivings and criticisms, Logan remains convinced the league will succeed in the long run.

“Success, fortunately or unfortunately,” he said, “is whether our grandchildren have a league for their children to attend games 30 years from now. . . . Despite the second-year struggles, the long-term prospects for the league are good.”

But Logan is paid rather well to paint rose-colored pictures. A more objective view might be had from Hunt, who saw the future of the NBA--he still owns 5% of the Bulls--and the NFL and put his money into it, just as he is doing today with MLS.

“I still believe America wants to embrace soccer,” he said.

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MLS at a Glance

LOW FIVES . . .

1. Average attendance dropped 16% to 14,616 per game.

2. Television ratings fell 16%.

3. Veteran players such as Italy’s Roberto Donadoni and Scotland’s Richard Gough returned to Europe.

4. Ohio voters turned down a bond issue that would have helped finance a soccer-only stadium in Columbus.

5. Star players were continually absent while on World Cup duty with their national teams.

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. . . HIGH FIVES

1. U.S. Soccer landed $120 million in long-term sponsorship from Nike, some of which will filter down to MLS level.

2. The league signed a six-year pact with ABC and ESPN that will increase network television coverage.

3. Top young players such as El Salvador’s Ronald Cerritos and Mexico’s Damian Alvarez are making their name in MLS.

4. Lamar Hunt will finance a soccer-only stadium in Dublin, Ohio.

5. Two expansion teams, the Chicago Fire and Miami Fusion, start play next season.

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Attendance Comparison 1996/1997

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Team ’96 avg. ’97 avg. Change Galaxy 28,916 20,626 Down 28.6% N.Y./N.J. MetroStars 23,898 16,899 Down 29.2% New England Revolution 19,025 21,423 Up 12.6% Columbus Crew 18,950 15,043 Down 20.6% San Jose Clash 17,232 13,597 Down 21% Dallas Burn 16,011 9,678 Down 39.5%

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Team ’96 avg. ’97 avg. Change Washington D.C. United 15,281 16,704 Up 9.3% Kansas City Wizards 12,901 9,058 Down 29.7% Tampa Bay Mutiny 11,679 11,333 Down 2.9% Colorado Rapids 10,276 11,806 Up 14.8% Overall 17,416 14,616 Down 16%

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