By Ben Nicholson
July 30 – The MLS All-Star game is a peculiarity of the US soccer calendar that is unique in world football. This years opponents for the MLS side were Premier League Tottenham Hotspur who lost 2-1 to goals by two of the older player on the pitch – Kaká and David Villa.
Absent from the All-Star team were Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Robie Keane, Sebastian Giovinco and Obafemi Martins – all injured. And this perhaps tells a wider story about the development of the MLS and soccer in the US.
As many of Europe’s clubs are returning to their motherlands from the growingly popular pre-season destination that the US has become, increasingly more veteran Europeans are choosing the MLS as a more permanent location.
The past months have seen club icons Gerrard, Andrea Pirlo, Lampard and, of course, the mighty Shaun Wright-Phillips, who joins his equally mighty brother Bradley Wright-Phillips at NY Red Bulls, make the cross-continental switch.
And there is incessant chatter of who will be the next explorer to land upon the bounteous shores of North America.
Didier Drogba is widely expected to join the likes of Keane and Kaká as elder stars in the league. Further down the line, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, David Luiz and Joey Barton (he would be a spicy addition to the MLS) are on record either expressing an interest in ending their careers in the MLS or, at least, just refusing to rule out a move there.
(And apparently Jose Mourinho has also expressed openness to managing in the league one day.)
Resultantly, one would be forgiven for thinking Major League Soccer is transforming into Master’s League Soccer – an over-30s sanctuary tailored for those seeking a peaceful retirement.
However, the MLS has made some headway in attracting a more youthful audience too. In the last year, Sebastian Giovinco, at the ripe age of 28, quit Juventus for Canada based Toronto FC, and Giovani Dos Santos, who is perpetually yet to ripen at the age of 26, departed Spain for the California shores around LA Galaxy.
Such moves are a rarity though, and it will be troubling to Don Garber, MLS Commissioner, who has set the target for the MLS to be among the world’s best leagues by 2022, that players’ common perception of the MLS is that it is a cash cow and that common foreign fans’ perception of the league is that it is a retirement home for the elderly.
Yet these short-term means just may get the MLS to its long-term end.
The MLS is more visible than it ever has been before and the quality of the league is also better than ever. The foreign imports, be they young or old, have improved the playing standards.
This is indicated through the goal scoring charts, where four of the five leaders fit within the aforementioned category: Giovinco, David Villa, Keane and Kaká. And the foreign impact on the MLS looks only to strengthen, as indicated by Gerrard scoring and Pirlo contributing to two goals on their respective MLS debuts.
Perhaps it is in recognition of the added quality that spending big can bring that Pirlo entered the pitch amidst chants of ‘We want Pirlo’. Contrast that to eight years ago when Beckham had just joined LA Galaxy and was subjected to abuse from his home fans, who expended considerable energy enthusiastically requesting Beckham make himself scarce.
MLS fans now endorse the league’s vintage collection, and for good reason in light of its quality.
What remains to be seen is how the finances fare from the enterprise. What can be immediately gleaned is that the league is liberally spending on salaries.
The MLS Players’ Union released their annual salary figures earlier this month. This data shows over $60 million per year being spent on just 14 players (Dos Santos, Gerrard, Keane, Jermaine Jones, Lampard, Pirlo, Villa, Kaká, Clint Dempsey, Martins, Giovinco, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore).
It is to be noted that salary expenditure per capita drops off when accounting for non-designated players. In 2014, seven players accounted for a third of the entire salary expenditure.
Regardless, the question remains whether there is a net commercial benefit for this lavish investment.
Earlier in the year Stefan Szymanski induced panic by writing in his blog, “MLS starts to sound like a pyramid scheme. You can fund a loss-making enterprise from the entrance fees of new buyers for a while, but without making money, the only reason for doing this would be glory, not profits. Americans constantly tell me that owners of sport franchises in the US will insist on making money. If that really is the case, then I predict that MLS will collapse, and probably sooner rather than later.”
Though Syzmanki’s source and figures underpinning his statement have been attacked and his arguments ravaged, Don Garber’s admittance in December of 2014 to ESPN that “the losses of MLS and our teams are in excess of $100 million” preserves a concerning ring.
Whilst the theory may follow that bringing in big players will increase popularity, thus increasing commercial and retail value of the MLS and teams within, thus resulting in revenue and, with a bit of luck, some profit too, this has not historically proven to be the case.
North America has seen this very approach fail before. Pele, who was even better than Shaun Wright-Phillips, signed a $4.7 million contract with NY Cosmos in 1975, who played in the North American Soccer League. The NASL also housed world superstars George Best, Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Moore.
But within a decade the league was no more.
There are differences between then and now though: the popularity of soccer in the region is at a different level, the players are disproportionately more commercial than before, TV sales are more lucrative and the experience of past mistakes allows for an improved attack plan this time around.
For the time being, though, as guarded are the MLS accounts, we are left squinting to see if the foreign imports are dusty residue from a passing plane or a valuable care package bringing grass to once barren land.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734803515labto1734803515ofdlr1734803515owedi1734803515sni@n1734803515osloh1734803515cin.n1734803515eb1734803515