Center Line Soccer

MLS has seen a world of changes since these programs were handed out at the league's first match on April 6, 1996. Photo by Jay Hipps, centerlinesoccer.com.

2011 was a watershed year for Major League Soccer.  Questions of the league’s continued viability are a thing of the past. The designated player rule has come into its own and finally proven to be a useful tool in assembling a championship team. More teams than ever before are playing in their own stadiums and more are on the way, including one here in San Jose.

So why, you might ask, is my disposition anything but sunny?

I’ve been asking myself the same thing. With questions over the league’s long-term viability washed away in the emergence of an ever-stronger soccer culture in this country, the question is no longer, “Will MLS survive?,” but now becomes, “What kind of a league will MLS be?” And that’s what has me concerned.

I’ve been watching and reporting on this league for a long time. I was there at the first game in 1996, when Eric Wynalda nutmegged Jeff Agoos to score the first goal in MLS history as the San Jose Clash beat DC United. I was fortunate enough to later see Agoos, as captain of the re-named San Jose Earthquakes, twice lift MLS Cup in celebration. As one of the founders of Soccer Silicon Valley, I fought to keep the Earthquakes in San Jose and failed, only to see the team immediately win two more trophies in Houston. As a journalist, I’ve been critical of the league when it deserved it and as a fan, I’ve taken great joy from the performances of my team, knowing that in some small way I had made my own contribution to the effort with a song or a chant. My goal in whatever capacity has been to help the league grow. But part of the narrative that has been with MLS since the beginning has been broken, and a new story is starting to emerge.

Let me explain. Throughout these early years of MLS, supporters shared certain goals. When it became clear that the league had no intention of honoring the team with the best record each season — a side that would be crowned champion in most other  leagues around the world — a group of us got together via NAS, the North American Soccer e-mail list that sprang up on the nascent Internet before MLS even existed, and organized a fundraising drive to create a trophy. Sam Pierron, who now works for Sporting Kansas City, did all the heavy lifting, but I recall writing a rousing e-mail promising $100 to the effort and challenging other list members to make their own contributions. We succeeded, the trophy was made,  and the league eventually embraced it, granting a CONCACAF Champions League berth to the winner in 2006.

While the Shield was inspired by European leagues, to me it stood for something more than just copying a more-established soccer culture. A single table and balanced schedule provide a beautiful symmetry to a match itself. Just as a lack of concentration for a moment can cost a team a goal and thus a game, so can a team be tripped up by taking one match on their schedule too lightly, as both Manchester teams showed this weekend by falling to unheralded opponents. What makes the format so delicious is that every match has meaning, even if the story of a season takes longer to unfold. Points dropped in January can cost you a title.

Many American soccer fans awaited the day when MLS had enough teams to make a balanced schedule work, and we finally saw this reality unfold in 2011. Each team played every other team twice, home and away. As much as it annoys me as an Earthquakes supporter, there is no disputing the fact that the Los Angeles Galaxy was the best team in the league this season — their record shows it and, as San Jose head coach Frank Yallop is fond of saying, “The table doesn’t lie.” The decision to admit 10 teams the MLS Cup playoffs may have diluted the importance of each match, but it still felt as though the league had reached a milestone.

That doesn’t appear to be where things are headed, however, as the unbalanced schedule returns to MLS in 2012. It’s odd — we finally reached a destination that many of us had anticipated for well over a decade, and then we kept going without stopping to enjoy it for very long.

So, where is the league headed? No one is saying but I think I know.

It’s important to remember that Commissioner Don Garber, however deep and sincere his current appreciation for soccer now, spent 16 years working for the NFL. His experience with American football provides clues as to the future direction of football in America.

There’s a big push right now to bring in one more expansion team — the league prefers it to be in New York — and it is widely assumed that the 20th side in MLS will be its last. That’s not an assumption I share, however.  With an unconventional, unbalanced schedule — and the league has already demonstrated its commitment to that format — it’s possible to use the NFL as a model for MLS: 32 teams in two conferences, with an emphasis on geographic and traditional rivalries. An increased number of teams would provide the league with a bigger footprint in the U.S. and Canada — a key to increasing television revenues — and, with a $100 million price tag on the next expansion team, an additional 12 teams could bring well over $1 billion into the league’s coffers. (Yes, it’s unconventional and may raise a few eyebrows, but if this is the direction MLS wants to go, don’t expect FIFA to raise any objections. If there’s anything Sepp Blatter and company understand, it’s a ten-digit number preceded by a dollar sign.)

All this goes to explaining why I’m so ambivalent about MLS these days. Rather than being a bold, unconventional newcomer to the U.S. sports scene, the league is starting to look more and more like just another American league with a bloated, largely meaningless regular season and a few weeks of excitement at the end to determine a champion. There are bright spots in the picture — I’m thrilled that teams are devoting more resources to youth and developmental sides, for example — but the headline product doesn’t capture my imagination the way it used to.

Oh, and as Steve Jobs used to say, there’s one other thing. I’ve always been pleased with the accessibility and commitment of MLS players. When veteran sportswriters complained in the 90’s that money had taken all the joy out of the big American leagues they covered, I always thought they should check out MLS, where so many played for the love of the game. I remember Jimmy Conrad driving what I will charitably call a “vintage” pick-up as a rookie with San Jose, thrilled just to be playing pro ball and, more than that, thankful for the support that the fans gave because he knew they were, indirectly, responsible for paying his salary.

Jimmy’s still like that, as are many MLS players, but something very interesting happened in November at MLS Cup. After the match, at a time when fans would be most interested in hearing their champions’ perspectives, the Galaxy broke league rules and kept the press out of the locker room. The only reason we heard anything from Frankie Hejduk, for example, a man who is one of the best interviews in MLS, is because Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America ran into him on his way out of the stadium after the match.

It’s funny, in a way. I recall many conversations over the years with people like Colin McCarthy and Mike Turco during our Soccer Silicon Valley days or former CyberSoccerNews colleague Dan Loney in which we considered the ultimate irony of our efforts to increase the sport’s popularity. “If we succeed,” we surmised, “we may end up with something so big it destroys the things we like most about it.” We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer.

• • •

There is something related to soccer that I’m quite excited about. After three years at the helm of Center Line Soccer, I’m handing over the reins as managing editor to Robert Jonas. Rob is dedicated, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable, and I’m eager to see what he’ll do with the site. You’re not rid of me yet, though — I will continue to make contributions here when I feel the need to make my voice heard.