Soccer league in no rush to fill the field

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Soccer organization's plan calls for slow, steady growth


11:26 PM CST on Friday, November 11, 2005

By STEVE DAVIS / The Dallas Morning News

Say this for Major League Soccer officials: They know their history.

Since MLS' architects launched the league in 1996, they haven't neglected the costly lessons of past pro soccer efforts. Specifically, the North American Soccer League (1968-84), which hastened its demise by overly aggressive expansion.

So the MLS expansion doctrine is etched in three words: slow and steady.

Helping the cause is the flexibility inherent in MLS' single-entity structure, which provides central control but also allows "operator-investors" to run teams autonomously in their own markets.

As the league celebrates the end of its 10th season Sunday with the MLS Cup at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, officials recognize the need to expand their 12-team operation.

But they have maintained strict discipline in an expansion agenda that leans heavily on identifying the right owners and communities.

"We would never expand just for expansion's sake," MLS chief operating officer Mark Abbott said.


"It doesn't mean we don't want to get bigger. It just means we won't make stupid decisions."

MLS kicked off with 10 teams in 1996, expanded to 12 in 1998 with Chicago and Miami, contracted back to 10 in 2002, and since has re-expanded to 12 teams with the addition of Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA, which plays in Los Angeles.


Strategic advance

Toronto appears to be the next expansion site, at a buy-in that league officials say will go higher than the reported $10 million fee for past expansion groups.

The chairman of a group that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs is in Frisco for the championship game, and league officials have hinted that they could announce any day that Canada's largest city is officially aboard for the 2007 season.

Beyond that, MLS commissioner Don Garber won't permit the burden of a timetable. He wants to expand "strategically."

"We're going to continue to expand as long as there is a market for it," Mr. Garber said.

"We haven't said, 'We need to be at 20 teams, and what do we need to do to get there?' We're just going to take it a little bit at a time and be sure that we can manage it on the field and that we can manage it with the right owners in the right markets."


Medium markets

What does MLS covet as its scans the landscape for optimum expansion targets?

Size is a factor, although not to the extent of other pro sports, where gobbling up the big TV markets is paramount.

MLS has two models: One is the big city, the object of TV advertisers' affection. But the medium-size markets have appeal, too. Think of it as the Southwest Airlines approach to pro sports leagues.

Among MLS teams, Columbus and Salt Lake City, the smallest markets, get the best media treatment, relatively speaking.

In Salt Lake City in April, Mr. Abbott was tickled to see fans walking around downtown wearing Real Salt Lake jerseys. That was less than a month after the new team played its first game.

"It was heartening to notice the name recognition that had already developed there," he said.

In its debut season, despite a weak team, Salt Lake City clobbered most of its MLS brothers at the gate. Its average attendance of 18,027 was second only to the Los Angeles Galaxy (24,204). And Real Salt Lake's average crowd was nearly 3,000 more than the league average (15,108).

So places like Oklahoma City; Portland, Ore.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Milwaukee make sense for the league.


TV rights

In the future, that could change. TV revenue is about to become far more influential to the MLS, thanks to a recently brokered deal for World Cup rights fees with the ABC/ESPN family.

That agreement will soon extend into MLS because it is all bound together through the league's marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing. Mr. Garber says that announcement is expected in 30 to 45 days.

Major League Soccer franchises play in seven of the nation's 10 largest TV markets, according to Nielsen Media Research, including No. 7 Dallas.

No. 4 Philadelphia and No. 10 Houston have long been circles on the big board of expansion possibilities. In fact, the San Jose franchise may be plucked and relocated, with Houston as its most likely landing zone.


Passion

Beyond market size, MLS officials are looking for local entrepreneurs who are passionate about soccer.

Formerly, some soccer owners were interested primarily in filling dates inside stadiums they owned.

FC Dallas owner Lamar Hunt says he saw plenty of that in the old NASL, in which he was one of the original investors. Everyone realizes that was a colossal mistake, he says now, because those owners really weren't completely invested in the sport.

Perhaps most important, MLS decision makers look for communities that have a stadium plan.

They have ample evidence, thanks to soccer stadiums in Columbus, Los Angeles and Dallas, that playing as tenants in NFL or college stadiums makes little economic sense.

Control of the ancillary revenue (parking, concessions, signs, suites, etc.) is the only way to make ends meet.

FC Dallas has never operated at a profit. But with the recently opened Pizza Hut Park, Mr. Hunt says the club, which is controlled by his Hunt Sports Group, has a good shot at doing so in 2006.

That's because the team will have a full season to exploit all the advantages and opportunities inside its new $85 million facility.

MLS officials don't discuss the league's profitability. But their strategy of slow, steady expansion implies confidence.

And they like what they see in a location model that exhibits soccer properly in loud, intimate parks.

"It's important that we present soccer for our fans in a very enticing environment," Mr. Abbott said. "We want our fans to experience the game in a way that's very different from other sports."

[prk166]

After 10 years some of these teams need to start turning a profit. At least one gets the feeling that they're not about to go away. Even the ones that are up in the air aren't going to be folded. If KC and San Jose don't stay in those cities, they'll end up someplace soon.