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But while providing a large degree of cost certainty MLS was also aware that something else was needed in order to grow awareness and fan support. (In fact a salary cap violates one of the key principles of the European Union and under present laws such a concept has no chance of ever being approved.)Ī salary cap of $2.8M per MLS team is paltry when compared to the likes of the top clubs in Europe (and other US sports) that will spend in excess of $160M a year in salaries.

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Where most other leagues around the world developed on the basis of a free-enterprise system of risk taking and often unfettered spending, MLS adheres to the socialist model that underpins so much of North American professional sport.

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With so many top calibre games available from Europe and South America on TV in North America a common criticism is the standard of play in MLS. Seattle attracts attendance of just a little fewer than 40,000 for every home game and easily enjoys the largest average crowd in MLS.īut there are weak spots with the likes of the New England Revolution, FC Dallas and ironically Columbus Crew struggling at the gate with average attendances of between 12 to 13,000. Toronto FC (2007), Philadelphia Union (2010), Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers (both 2011) have all played in front of sell-out crowds of around 20,000 since inception.

The five teams have achieved varying degrees of on-field success ranging from Toronto FC failing to make the play offs in five seasons to the Seattle Sounders having never failed to participate in post-season play since they launched in 2009. (San Jose Earthquakes also rejoined MLS in 2008 after the original team moved to Houston in 2006). The Impact will look to the success of the other five expansion franchises since 2007. The Montreal Impact becomes the leagues 19 th entrant and the third Canadian team to join MLS. The franchise fee paid by Toronto was estimated at around $10M - five years on and the number has trebled perhaps even quadrupled for the newest member. That number will be added to when the San Jose Earthquakes start to build a new home that is expected to be ready in 2013.Īs MLS grew so has the price of admission to the league. With the completion of a new home for the Houston Dynamo set for late spring 15 of the league's 19 teams will be soon be playing in stadiums constructed with a specific focus on soccer's needs.

Very loud, boisterous, highly visual, often humorous and at times downright feral.įans generate the right mood, players respond, fans react and so a virtuous circle is created - a professional sports' dynamic we have known for a long time but something that soccer proponents in North America chose to ignore for decades. The North American soccer fan now understands the game and more than that they embrace their role as part of the theatre and the spectacle. Thirty and forty years ago it was about educating fans - or potential fans. The stadium Lamar built for his Columbus Crew took into consideration the ticket demand by spectators and operated on a principle that 15,000 people in a 20,000 seat stadium is a success 15,000 in a 100,000 arena is an embarrassment and opens the sport to ridicule.īut just as important was the fact such stadiums were to be built with an understanding of what soccer fans wanted and needed. Over the ensuing years the term soccer-specific has become a bit of a misnomer in relation to exclusivity as team and stadium owners have looked to new revenue streams.īut back in 1999 soccer-specific simply had to meet one overriding principle - it wasn't a stadium used by the NFL or a major university football program.

Back in 1999 the great Lamar Hunt - a veteran of North American soccer leagues from the 60s - built the first stadium in the USA to be labelled as 'soccer-specific'. But in retrospect the seeds of future success had already been sown.

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