The State of Major League Soccer in 2022

History

Major League Soccer ("MLS") has come a long way since its first match in 1996. Its creation coincided with the World Cup set to be played in the United States. While the sport has seen success in the country, notably in the 1970s during the NASL days, MLS started slow, without high profile names to draw large crowds. There have been many dark days, such as the implementation of the "run up penalty" or whatever name can be attributed to such an atrocity. Soccer Specific Stadiums ("SSS") were few, and as a result, teams often played in stadiums designed for hosting other sports. For example, D.C. United played in RFK Stadium, which was built for baseball and American football for 21 years. The New York/New Jersey MetroStars (now the Red Bulls) played at the NFL's Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ for the first 13 years of its existence. The New England Revolution have played in the home of the NFL's New England Patriots for their entire existence (26 years at the time of writing). Even decorated franchises such as the Los Angeles Galaxy began their existence in unideal stadiums build for different sports.

Even though there were ripe markets and ample seating, MLS could not attract major talent or fill up seats until the invention of the Designated Player and the first signing under its rule: David Beckham. While this did not open a floodgate of stars relocating to the United States, it did open the door to the gradual progression into the league we know today, graced by names such as Thierry Henry, David Villa, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Javier Hernández, Andrea Pirlo, Kaká, Tim Cahill, Nani, Maximiliano Moralez, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Gonzalo Higuaín, and most recently, Xherdan Shaqiri and Lorenzo Insigne. These players fared very differently during their time in the States. For example, Ibrahimović lit the league ablaze and Villa tore up defenses. Kaká, however, saw injury continue to play a negative role in his once historic career and Higuaín has produced a toothless first two years, missing the playoffs both times. Most of these names are from recent years with many still playing, which makes the future exciting.

Attendance

Attendance has greatly expanded since MLS' inception. In 1997, average attendance throughout the league was as low as 14,984. This stayed relatively constant until 2007 (the year of Beckham's arrival) saw the average increase to 16,977. This led to a ten-year period of growth, topping out at an average of 22,106 in 2017. This was mostly due in part to the league's expansion into large new markets such as Seattle, Atlanta, and New York City. The top 4 teams in average franchise attendance (1996 - 2018) have all been expansion teams and are the only ones clearly above the league average of 21,181:

• New York City FC (first season in 2015): 25,400
• Orlando City SC (first season in 2015): 28,266
• Seattle Sounders (first season in 2009): 40,798
• Atlanta United: (first season in 2017): 50,601

Although NYCFC, Orlando, and Atlanta have a limited dataset, it is important to recognize that Atlanta continues to draw the largest crowds. Atlanta ranked in 10th in the world when averaging attendance from 2013 - 2018 (1st went to Borussia Dortmund in Germany with an average of 80,230).

For comparison, below were the average attendances for the top leagues in the United States (using 2019 data to account for Covid-19):

1. NFL: 66,479
2. MLB: 28,317
3. MLS: 21,310
4. NBA: 17,857
5. NHL: 17,456

Around the world, the top drawing association football leagues in 2019 were:

1. Bundesliga: 43,450
2. Premier League: 38,170
3. La Liga: 26,810
4. Serie A: 25,240
5. Chinese Super League: 23,990
6. Ligue 1: 22,800
7. MLS: 21,310
8. J1 League: 20,510
9. Scottish Professional Football League: 16,020

The System

It is no secret that the quality of MLS is well behind the likes of nearly all six leagues above them in attendance. Although this has been slowly improving, it is important to note the differences. While nearly every successful nation within the sport has some sort of youth and development system, the United States has maintained the system used in all of its other sports: college programs leading to an eventual draft. This is the primary method of development used in the NFL and NBA especially, though it is possible to transition straight from high school. While MLS teams have had youth teams and affiliated teams in lower divisions, the lack of structure and appeal of the traditional college experience led to a fractured system. Also compounding the problem is that colleges spend a disproportionate amount of money on American football and basketball, with top programs spending in the millions. The NCAA as a whole (comprising 1,100 schools across three divisions) spent over $18 billion in 2018.

This is hopefully changing at the MLS level with the introduction of MLS Next Pro - a new lower division that will have all MLS-affiliated teams participating by 2023. This league is intended to bridge the gap between the youth and professional levels. Even now, the United States is seeing the greatest influence in its history, proving to be a rich source of exports.

Arguably the most promising is Christian Pulisic who is a key player for Chelsea, though he came up through Borussia Dortmund's system. Similarly, Sergiño Dest of Barcelona was brought up through the Ajax system (he was born in the Netherlands but chose to play for his father's nation). Jack Harrison is a rare example of a player from both college and traditional development systems. In his early youth, Jack was in Liverpool's system before spending 2003-2010 in Manchester United's youth system. After moving to the United States, he played for lower division/youth teams Black Rock FC and Manhattan SC before spending a year with the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons. Eventually, Jack was signed by NYCFC before his move to Europe, finding a home with Premier League side Leeds United.

Those who have either played or have been developed within the United States include some of the following:

• Weston McKennie: Juventus (spent most of his youth with FC Dallas before moving to Schalke)
• Zach Steffen: Manchester City (came to prominence with the Columbus Crew from 2016-2019)
• Giovanni Reyna: Borussia Dortmund (came up through NYCFC's youth system from 2015-2019)
• Joseph Scally: Borussia Mönchengladbach (spent his entire youth within the NYCFC system and played with the NYCFC senior squad from 2018-2020)
• Ricardo Pepi: FC Augsburg (spent entire youth with FC Dallas and was with its senior squad from 2019-2022)
• James Sands: Rangers (spent 2015-2017 within NYCFC's youth system and 2017-2022 with its senior squad before his loan to Rangers)

Although this is just a brief sampling, the teams these players represent are some of the most prestigious. It is also notable that most of these players are either nineteen or in their early twenties. Overall, the future finally looks promising, but only time will tell if this positive trend continues. Of course, the end goal is to further develop MLS into a top tier league where talent can be retained after being developed.

Present Day and Looking Ahead

Although the new talent originating from the United States is promising, issues within MLS as a league still remain. One such issue is the entirety of the Professional Referee Organization (PRO). Every fanbase can agree that they have once thought, at one time or another, that MLS referees are either corrupt or incompetent, whether it be against their team or not. One of the most common complaints is the lack of VAR (Video Assistant Referee) use or misinterpretation of the rules of the game. PRO has sometimes admitted its faults, most recently in the controversial game between Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake, stating that "Video Review should have been recommended and a penalty kick awarded . . . the decision not to recommend a review [is] an error by the VAR." Manager and Sporting Director of Sporting Kansas City, Peter Vermes, finally took a stand after this, and went off on the "consistently inconsistent" referees throughout the league before being fined for his comments. Unfortunately, these issues persist, even after post game analyses or admitting fault. You know there is a problem when a phrase exists to describe the atrocities of refereeing decisions in this region: getting CONCACAFed.

Another issue is the lack of adequate stadiums. Soccer Specific Stadiums are essential to build a fanbase and have a "home" for players and staff. The most recent champions, NYCFC, still play home matches at Yankee Stadium. In my opinion, this is still better than some other teams, as NYCFC plays on real grass and in a neighborhood with plenty of bars and restaurants. There is no mistaking that Yankee Stadium is a world class sporting venue. The issues with Yankee Stadium involve the unorthodox sightlines and scheduling conflicts which often see them playing home games away from home. With most franchises utilizing others' stadiums in their infancy, there is still plenty of hope for their own stadium in the future. Another unfortunate stadium situation can be seen in New England, where the Revolution share the New England Patriots' stadium. Because this is an NFL field, it is made of turf, which leads to unnatural ball movement and more injuries, leading some players to sit out those games. Besides this clear flaw, there are often large NFL lines across the field giving the appearance of a high school game, of which players have also derided. Similar issues can also be seen at Soldier Field, as the Chicago Fire interestingly left their Soccer Specific Stadium for a nearly 100-year-old, 60,000+ seat NFL stadium with a marginal chance to fill even 25% of the seats (Chicago posted an all-time attendance low of 12,324 in 2019, with future numbers also unpromising).

Perhaps one of the most discussed hypotheticals is the evolution into a relegation/promotion-based system, as is seen in the world's top leagues. One issue with this is MLS' single entity structure, meaning contracts are owned by the league instead of individual teams. This, along with certain "caps" such as the previously discussed Designated Player Rule, tend to level out the playing field, preventing single team dominations seen in other countries such as Germany with Bayern Munich, who have won 30 championships compared to second place Borussia Dortmund with 5. With this lack of spending by teams with more money, it is harder to attract top talent. On this same note, teams with less money would be left in the dust if a relegation system would be put into place. As such, it would be difficult to financially keep certain organizations afloat in a league still in its infancy and still breaking into the United States market.

Looking at the league in its entirety, two things remain clear: (1) the league has seen immense growth over the years, and (2) certain issues still need to be addressed before the league breaks through to the next level of relevance.

Note that all attendance figures in this article were intentionally limited to exclude 2020 onwards due to the Covid-19 pandemic's effect on public gatherings.