MLS turns 25 and prepares to be a world power
"Ten-year-old American children grew up with soccer-loving parents. This sentence would put an end to this journey through the America of football. If a generation gets into a sport in the United States, that sport has a long life. The reflection is made by Borja de Matías, a journalist from Madrid with a good eye for seeing beyond the football that fans see. From Madrid to Buenos Aires and from there to Alavés de Pellegrino. He is now head of scouting for the Chicago Fire.
A society seduced by football is already reflected in television series. Baseball has remained for the older fans. It is a sport and a religion that is played at a different speed and that has not yet attracted a younger audience. Recent television audiences show that MLB games are not the most watched on American nights. The NFL is the great television giant. The Superbowl is the most watched show in the USA, the next 30 sports contents are also American football games and then the NBA games appear. A fact that has already put American sports fans on alert: the 2019 MLS final between Atlanta and Portland was followed by 73,019 fans at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the city of Coca-Cola, while the Superbowl between Patriots and Rams attracted 70,081 spectators in the same space.
The beginning of "soccer" in the United States dates back to 1993. The U.S. Soccer Federation puts its battered football in order and creates Major League Soccer (MLS). It was the way to tell FIFA that they cared about the sport and that the 1994 World Cup would be a success. In 1996, the first MLS match was played between San Jose Clash and DC United in front of 30,000 fans who were amazed by Eric Wynalda's solitary home goal. It was the seed of football brought to the United States. The land of opportunity took the game from Europe and adapted it to its circumstances. Last season's final between Seattle and Toronto at the North American city's CenturyLink Field brought 70,000 people live and nearly 1.5 million on television in the USA.
Football moves by franchise. A private capital asks MLS to enter the competition by forming a team. The MLS in turn asks you to explain how you will get established in your chosen city. Hobby, advertising, stadium, squad, youth academy... With money you can go far. The fee is about 200 million dollars to sit at the table of Los Angeles Galaxy, D.C United, New York Red Bull or Sporting Kansas City. The money comes from entrepreneurs who want to achieve status outside their businesses. These investors have allied themselves in recent years with former players who are well known. Inter Miami made its MLS debut this year under the sponsorship of David Beckham. The English player arrived in Los Angeles in 2007 and his contract included a clause allowing him to found a football team in the future.
"Investors are seeing that football in the US continues to grow, that it is a sport with more social mass and they see it as a good investment". These are the words of Alfonso Mondelo, sports director of the MLS. He is attending Atalayar in the midst of managing a competition that is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the midst of a tough health crisis for the country. It was the first league in the world to start, and it did so without an audience in the stadiums, with short trips between teams in nearby areas and managing the phases of the championship little by little. A success.
"It is a very big country, with fifty states. There is a lot of capacity for new franchises to continue joining this great project. We want to be a great league at a world level", Mondelo states looking at the future of North American football. The data supports the dream of being a powerhouse. The average attendance in 1996 was 17,000 spectators, in 2000 they had the lowest figure with 13,700 spectators on average. Since 2005 the progression has been increasing, reaching 21,700 last season.
American sport has very marked rules. This is the case in basketball, baseball and football. The salary limit is what makes the teams equal and what prevents millionaire squads from winning championships by system. There are three players per team who can earn more than $1.4 million between their transfer price and their salary, the rest of the squad will always be below.
The format of their competition is very different from that of any European league. "It's a different country. The sports culture is different. It's neither better nor worse," explains Mondelo. MLS's 25-year history supports the sports director in comparing his competition with the rest of the European leagues. "At the beginning of each season the 26 teams believe they have a chance of becoming champions, something that does not happen in other leagues in the world where there are always very strong teams that win and others that fight to stay in the category. In 25 years of MLS we have had 16 champions.
The United States has strengthened the quarry. They know it is the best way to root football and teams in the cities where they belong. On the website of each franchise, the home-grown player is highlighted in order to highlight him. There are hardly any transfers of players from their own country. The team that has a good footballer takes care of him and puts him to work to grow. Free players arrive from outside, bouncing Europeans who want minutes and prominence, Latin players, Asians... they have their own NBA-style draft to give way in the franchises to young graduates.
The MLS youth academy is on the rise. The Bundesliga saw the growth clearly and signed a partnership agreement in 2007 to also exchange knowledge on stadium construction and financing. This relationship has led to a player like Alphonso Davis going from Vancouver to win the Champions League with Bayern Munich for 10 million euros.
Among the Spaniards playing in MLS is Andreu Fontás, a player from Sporting Kansas City. He arrived there in 2018 after playing for Mallorca, Celta and Pep Guardiola's historic Barça, who are champions of everything in Spain and Europe. His presence in the Kansas City franchise goes beyond the pitch. He answers Atalayar's questions as he recovers from his Achilles operation and returns to the calls. "I try to bring what I have experienced in Spain to my colleagues and young people. There is a lot of support for them here and I try to help them," he explains.
Another important player is Alvaro Medran. He started out in the Real Madrid youth system, went on to play for Rayo Vallecano, Valencia and Alavés, but needed more minutes, to feel like a star and he has managed to do so at the Chicago Fire where he is one of the team's most important players.
MLS teams already have three or four players at the Spanish First Division level; two or three at the Second Division level and another three or four at the Second B level. But all with football as a base formation to have room for improvement. Andreu Fontás reveals something that many in Europe do not know, "in the United States I have met physically strong and powerful players. It is a very high level league".
Major League Soccer is working on its particular goal of 2026. The football World Cup that they will organize together with Mexico and Canada is the perfect showcase to show their potential to the world 32 years after that launch in 1994. "Year after year, attendance at the stadiums is increasing and so is television interest. We want to raise the bar to be one of the top leagues and hopefully by 2026 we'll be in a position to attract world-class talent," explains the MLS director of sport. From the inside Fontás sees a "bright future because MLS keeps growing. It's changed a lot in the short time I've been here. De Matias agrees with these views: "MLS will end up being a world football powerhouse because of the professionalization of the competition," he says with the experience he has gained from working at the top level of a LaLiga team.
MLS is the guiding light of football in North America. It is a well-organised, balanced competition with the economic security that has taken a long time to reach the teams in Europe. One step further down the ladder is the United Soccer League (USL). This is a competition where the second teams of the MLS franchises play against other strong teams that are not able to enter the big competition. A kind of Spanish second division, but without the incentive of promotion and relegation.
Louisville City and Orlando City dominate the tournament. As in MLS, new franchises are expected in the coming years. The cost is about 10 million euros to get the project up and running. A good option to make the leap to MLS later and continue competing with the youngsters in the USL.
Queensboro F.C. is the brand new franchise that is preparing to land in 2022 if the setbacks of the pandemic do not delay it. From the Queens Metropolitan District itself, David Villa is sponsoring a project in which he continues to invest many hours and all his experience.
"I lived and played in New York for four years. I know Queens is a very special place. This is how David Villa presents his new professional objective on the franchise's website which, like everything surrounding this new shield, is taking shape. Along with the Asturian is Jonathan Krane, a New York businessman and CEO of the asset management firm Krane Shares. Money, management and sports talent.
For its new adventure Villa has chosen a technical body with little media exposure, but with great experience in world football. Josep Gombau will be the coach and sports director. He trained in Espanyol, Barça and in teams from four continents until he met Villa in the academy that the player has in New York. Luis Gutiérrez is the technical director. An expert in North American football who was part of the historic New York Cosmos where Pelé played or, more recently, Raúl González. The health crisis that is hitting New York has not been enough to make that city lose its motivation, much less the team that is working to get everything ready for the first game to be played in its new York College stadium.
Luis Gutiérrez opens his notebook to Atalayar to reveal what will be Queensboro. "Let the identity we want to give to the club become real. What for now are ideas and concepts in 3 years time will be realised," he says. American sport is for winners. The most revealing example is the Chicago Bulls. The public has turned its back on a team that shone thanks to Michael Jordan. Gutiérrez presupposes something like this in football, "it is a culture that creates winners and where everyone is required to compete to the maximum every day. Football is becoming more and more popular and as a business it will demand much more from managers, coaches and players alike.
Villa is fully involved in the project. The sporting part is the one that will look the best or suffer the most when the ball rolls. The technical director and the 2010 world champion with the Spanish team talk "about anything that has to do with the team, from potential players to sports facilities. He also agrees with other protagonists of this trip to the heart of American football that the future is promising, "now the leagues are much more solid and professional and they try to stabilize that growth and choose which teams join, where and who are in charge of the clubs".
The X-ray of football in the United States leaves us with a competition that is improving exponentially on all sides of professional football. Let nobody think that they want to take the throne away from European football, they are parallel paths. The same sport with a different wrapping that makes it very attractive to the spectator. From time to time media players matter, as David Beckham once did. This way they get attention from the other side of the Atlantic and show them an increasingly powerful product. The year 2026 will be a turning point for MLS. Take a name: Cristiano Ronaldo.
