North America is known for having the largest collection of professional sports leagues in the world. Within this sea of big fish you are bound to find some minnows struggling to compete for space; Major League Soccer (MLS) is one of these minnows. Although this is a unique league in North America it continues to struggle for exposure not only amongst the other leagues in the continent but those all over the world. Even with constant improvements in varying areas MLS will continue to struggle and will ultimately be doomed as an afterthought to the powerhouse leagues in Europe that dominate the sport.
Major League Soccer has existed in some form since December, 1993. Although there have been a lot of changes throughout the last 15 years of play, both in teams, rules, and format; the league has persisted on with an increasing fan base. In truth MLS has never been stronger and this is largely due to the massive exposure and viewership of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups. All of these tournaments have something in common: the United States National Team. There has been a distinct correlation between the success of the national team and the success of MLS. As one improves so does the other. Franchises continue to be added, more marquis players are joining teams, the talent pool has increased and improved, and it has successfully expanded into Canada. It would almost seem prophetic to say that the sky is the limit for Don Garber (Commissioner of MLS) and his growth plan for the league. Despite MLS’ rising star there are still a number of concerns and factors that come into play ensuring that they will never rise to the level that many executives, owners, and fans in the league would like to see.
One of the major impediments to MLS is their salary cap system. It is difficult for the league to compete for talent when there are limits to spending. Clubs in other leagues (most notably in Europe) can spend amounts on single players that MLS clubs are expected to spend on their entire roster. MLS has attempted to respond to this by creating the Designated Player system. Teams in MLS are allowed to designate three players on their roster to whom the salary cap does not apply and thereby can be paid any amount of money. This is the reason the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York Red Bulls were able to attract the likes of David Beckham and Thierry Henry respectively. Unfortunately these are players who are past their footballing prime and are not viable to build a team around for the long term. Failing to attract young international players through this system has ultimately led to the talent pool of MLS being greatly diluted by those players whom are stuck under the blanket of the cap. Some teams have been able to be very successful even with these restrictions but if you pit the recent MLS champion Colorado Rapids against a third or fourth tier English league team…I’d be tempted to place my bets on the English team.
Continuing on the theme of soccer talent, another detriment to MLS is their lack of an established academy system. Academies are the factories that larger teams in the world use to train and crank out talent from within. Manchester United and Arsenal of the English Premier League are among the most famous clubs for spotting talent in players as young as 10 or 11 years old and bringing them into their clubs to train. Although it is only a small amount of players who will make it to the big stage with these teams, the fact that the clubs spot them out and take them in at such an early age shows a certain amount of dedication to success. MLS is stuck in a traditional North American approach to player development. Much like its counterparts, Major League Soccer drafts its players with the majority of them coming out of the NCAA system. These players have learned their trade while attending college and then become professional players afterwards. It is very near impossible to compare the training systems of any school in the NCAA to the major European football clubs. Although many of these players do develop very well and go on to have successful careers in MLS, much of that is owed to natural talent as it does to development. Ultimately this leads to a significantly lower quality of players that are entering the league. Some teams, most notably Toronto FC, have begun to establish and focus on player academies, however; until this becomes a priority for all franchises supported by the league itself it can never gain the stature of the football factories in Europe.
With the least amount of offense to MLS and its players as possible it doesn’t take a genius to know that the overall level of talent is just not comparable to major international leagues. So, to avoid beating a dead horse let’s move on to a different area of concern: league structure. One of the largest differences between MLS and other soccer leagues is in scheduling. The MLS season runs from March until October ever year with the play-offs occurring into November. This is almost the exact opposite of most other leagues in the world that run from August to May and take a break in the summer. Understandably this difference has a lot to do with weather. With areas in the U.S. and Canada receiving much larger amounts of snow in the winter months compared to European leagues it becomes impossible to play during this time. This has actually played an advantage for MLS. Since most other domestic sports leagues in North America are finished their seasons in the summer, MLS has much more exposure and the ability to grow a fan base from people needing a sports fix. This has allowed MLS to grow in a lot of cities where you might not think soccer would pick up. Unfortunately, the summer is also the time of the year in which international friendlies and high profile tournaments occur. When the most talented players in MLS (mainly members of the U.S. National Team) are called upon to represent their countries, the franchises they play for end up losing their services for at least one or two games. This is a crucial time in the MLS season and the fact that teams will lose their best players when trying to make a push for a play-off position is almost comical. Even more ironic, the major international tournament for CONCACAF (the governing body of soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean) is held in the summer which directly conflicts with all of the league seasons in its fold. For national team players it just makes more sense to play in a league that does not conflict with these crucial tournaments.
The existence of a promotion and relegation system within most soccer leagues ensures that every team will always have something to fight for throughout the course of a season. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, most countries have multiple levels of leagues in which the top teams at the end of the season will be promoted to the next best league and the worst teams will be relegated to the next worst one. The creates a Cinderella system in which the smallest team in a country has the potential to work its way up to the top flight of the sport. North America does not have this system. MLS exists as an all encompassing league in which the teams are consistent on an annual basis. There are leagues that are considered lower in the “pyramid” of quality but no teams at the bottom of the table will leave the top flight at the end of a season. In fact, they are actually rewarded for playing very poorly all year by acquiring the top talent in the subsequent draft. This is vastly different from the punishment of relegation that teams receive at the hands of leagues in other countries. Soccer currently cannot compete at a grassroots level in order to bring the game to a wider audience in North America. It’s easy for a country like England to have multiple levels of the game because there are a plethora of players available with different talent levels the country over. Until people take up the sport on this side of the pond more readily the viability of having even three or four lower leagues in order for a promotion system to exist is slim. This results in teams resigning at some point in the season to not making the play-offs and can play out the rest of the season knowing there’s always next year. Even worse, if they’re at the bottom of the table teams might even be inclined to play poorly down the stretch to ensure they receive a top pick in the draft. In other leagues, even if you are out of any cup competitions and are sitting in the middle of the table you need to continue playing your absolute best to ensure that you don’t slip into the relegation zone. It’s constant motivation to play top quality soccer and makes games between any club enjoyable and not just those between the best. The lack of this system in MLS makes for boring matches down the stretch and ultimately a loss in appeal from fans of those poorer teams.
I don’t want this article to seem like MLS cannot go anywhere from here. It is quite admirable to compare the league’s humble roots with its current position in the continent. The sport has never been more popular in North America and the league is actually quite entertaining (just ask the crazed fans in most cities and they’ll tell you how intense games can get.) As the campaign for youth to play the game grows: the talent pool will improve, the quality of the league will improve, the competitiveness of the national teams will improve and it will be able to compete for attention in an area dominated by big industry sports. It is however futile for MLS to attempt to compare or compete with the top international clubs. The sport has been ingrained in these areas for so long and when you compare the history, level of competition, and amounts of money available it makes sense for any player wanted by these clubs to go. There are many factors hampering MLS’ ability to compete at these levels but I would resign myself to the fact that they are always going to play second fiddle. With continued expansion into Canada and around the United States I am very excited to see where this league is going to go and what continued structure improvements Don Garber will make to fine tune it. There might come a day when MLS will be able to compete on an international scale, until then let’s just enjoy the increasing popularity of the beautiful game.
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