Decline and fall
Posted on January 21, 2013 12:12 am
When the referee blows his whistle to start the opening game of this year’s Major League Soccer season, MLS will officially become older than the North American Soccer League ever got. The NASL lasted 17 seasons, and the 2013 season will be MLS’ 18th. So this seems an appropriate time to recount the decline of the NASL from the heights that it enjoyed in the late 1970s to its demise in 1985, a decline that MLS has avoided.
I said in a post last summer that I think the main cause of the NASL’s demise was its over-expansion in 1978, but pinpointing when the decline began is difficult. The first signs of it may have appeared in 1980, when ABC cut back its television coverage of the NASL from a game of the week to just the Soccer Bowl, although average attendance did hit an NASL high of 14,997 that season. In 1981, attendance was still strong, at 14,674, but the bellwether New York Cosmos, whose average had topped off at 50,842 in 1978, were seriously sliding, down to 36,717 in 1981.
The indications that the NASL was losing ground became unmistakeable in 1982. There were continued cutbacks in TV exposure. The number of teams in the league, which had reached a high of 24 in 1978, now was down to 14, and one of the six who folded before the 1982 season was the Dallas Tornado, the last remaining survivor from among the league’s original 17 teams in 1968. The league’s attendance average dropped in 1982 to 13,436, and the Cosmos, despite winning another championship, fell to 30,153. The results of all this were apparent at the NASL title game, where the festive atmosphere of just a few years before was gone. If the highs of 1977-79 hadn’t been as high as they were, maybe the drop-off wouldn’t have seemed as bad.
The last two seasons of the NASL were ones of increasing desperation. Attendance dropped only a bit more in 1983, to 13,197, but it fell to 10,689 in 1984. The Cosmos were down to 26,614 in 1983 and 12,834 in 1984. In 1983, attempts by the league to run an all American franchise in Washington and to convince FIFA to give the 1986 World Cup to the United States both fell flat.
The NASL played its final season in 1984, but it didn’t intend at the time that 1984 would be the last. At the end of the season on Oct. 3, there still were plans for a 1985 season. There had been nine teams in the NASL in the 1984 season, and four of those, the Cosmos, Toronto Blizzard, Minnesota Strikers and Tampa Bay Rowdies, expressed an interest in playing in 1985. Clive Toye, the man behind the building of the Cosmos in the 1970s, took over as head of the league after NASL president Howard Samuels died of a heart attack on Oct. 26, 1984. Toye hoped to attract a few more franchises to join those four.
New York and Minnesota both played in the Major Indoor Soccer League in its 1984-85 season, and while the Strikers fared well, the Cosmos suffered a flood of both red ink and defeats that caused them to drop out of the MISL in mid-season on Feb. 22, 1985. Two weeks after that, they announced that they had decided not to pay their performance bond for the 1985 NASL season and would attempt to play an independent schedule of friendlies instead. With that announcement, potential team owners that Toye was wooing began to get cold feet, and with only two teams committed to playing in 1985 (Toronto and Minnesota), Toye yielded to the inevitable and announced the folding of the league on March 28, 1985.
The end of the NASL was an event that, by the time it happened, had been seen coming for so long that its immediate impact was somewhat muted. Within a few years, however, American soccer fans began to realize how keenly they felt the gap that the end of the NASL had created, and that feeling certainly was a part of the impetus behind the creation of MLS a decade later.
that march 28, 1985 must have been a extremely sad day for american soccer fans
A little-mentioned aftereffect of the NASL’s demise was a surprising reluctance on the part of a lot of that league’s former fans to embrace MLS.
Among the many and varied miscalculations the new league’s big thinkers made was an unshakable confidence that they had a ready-made customer base made up of 1) immigrant and 1st generation fans of foreign teams who would surely embrace a league playing close to home and 2) former NASL fans.
They were so certain that these guys would show up at the gates waving wads of money that – incredibly – they did very little-to-nothing (depending on the market) to reach out to them. Those fans were a given, a baseline, in the bag. No reason to spend time or money on them.
And as we all know now, both groups stayed away in droves.
In the case of former NASL fans, it’s hard to say whether it was exhaustion or a case of “once bitten” or what, exactly. Personally, I think, in an odd sort of way, they felt they had earned a personal invitation. But MLS was so busy trying to distance themselves from anything and everything that had gone before that stuff like Old Timers Days and using former NASL stars in promotion and advertising and outreach to local clubs never (with a couple rare exceptions) never seems to have occurred to anyone.
The NASL, at least initially, had the same problem of taking ethnic attendance for granted. It forgot that foreign-born fans might continue to care more about clubs from back home than about NASL clubs.
Bill, you pegged New England fans to a tee. Yes, the Revs attracted fairly large crowds in the early days of the MLS..but, ultimately, the “Kraft doesn’t give a Krap” mentality became rumblings that far too many believed and saw first hand.
We forget the problems that Lamar and Joe Robbie were having with the nfl. The lawsuit that the NASL eventually won, but was too late for them.
The debacle of the Metrodome stadium with nfl and mlb teams extremely jealous of the Minnesota Kicks who drew very well. There used to be a story about that very fight on the internet for years. Now, I can’t find it and no search brings me satisfaction in that the Kicks were pushed out by said leagues.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist..but the entire NASL v nfl law suit, which can be found on the web, details many of the problems that fringe nfl franchises were having with Lamar and Joe investing in a league that was competing and at one point succeeding against the nfl.
As soon as the NASL died..the nfl exploded and grew like nothing in sport.
So aside from the NASL’s own imploding with Ponzi like over-expansion and being a “retirement” home for aging and lazy stars..our own culture problems with the sport came to a head in its demise.
Bill:
Not an argument, just a question: Why would MLS expect NASL fans to embrace the league? They had basically evaporated.
I agree that they shouldn’t have distanced themselves too far from NASL. Why not a Rowdies or a Cosmos? Certainly not a Metro—what the hell does this f-ing mean—Stars!
I think that MLS did itself a huge disservice with all of the awful initial team branding: The Clash, Mutiny, Metrostars, Wiz etc. And what color were the uniforms of the Clash (teal, yellow, white, black, red) and the LA Galaxy (teal, yellow, white, black, red).
Change of subject: Can somebody tell me the individual who designed the Clash and the Mutiny logos? I know for certain that it is the same person.
Back to point: America was on the verge of embracing soccer and here we got American Gladiator uniforms, but worse. Roller Derby maybe.
I agree 100%. It felt like at the start MLS was just some mid 90′s marketing firms wet dream. I generally thought they saw the MLS as a fresh canvas where they could try and create Generation X in a league. It looked like one giant Mountain Dew commercial.
There was no attempt to link to the past or the greater world of international football. Now they are doing a better job of tying the league into the global world but I agree would be great to have some old time days. With the exception of the Cosmos I can’t see it being difficult to gain the rights to the names and uniforms of these now defunct teams. There is little value in them now and having and if anything these events would only increase the value.
(and if we ever get a MLS team in San Diego it better be called the Sockers, I know it’s cheesy but got to be done)
these former NASL fans had been 12 years without ”top class” soccer
Many of the histories of the NASL were written when the league had 24 teams. I’m too young to remember NASL I. However, when I was a kid, most of us would wonder, what happened to the Cosmos and the other NASL clubs?
I grew up with the NASL and remember the expansion well. While I try hard to forget the Colorado Carribou and their unforms with buck-fringe on them, I did very much like seeing guys like Cryuff and Beckenbauer and Mueller and Moore play.
When the MLS open their doors I was one of the first to buy season tix. Many NASL fans I knew did the same. I do agree that the I think the MLS set too high expectations that the immigrant masses would drive popularity rather than the suburban soccer-moms and their families.
“If the highs of 1977-79 hadn’t been as high as they were, maybe the drop-off wouldn’t have seemed as bad.”
In addition to signing a few big names, I think there were a few economic factors that contributed to the rise of the NASL in the late 70′s. Namely the stock market crash and the oil crisis of ’73 and ’74. Anyone else remember lining up for gas on odd and even days? My dad could afford to take me to a lot more NASL games than MLB or NFL.
To Bill Archer’s point, there were a few of us old NASL fans that understood the value of supporting the sport at the local level and signed up to buy MLS tickets, but I agree MLS made not attempt to reach out to any former NASL fans.
I am very glad that MLS will not be indulging its appetite for further expansion fees this season in which it will exceed NASL’s life span…seems an appropriate tribute and evidence that something has been learned.
Perhaps some former NASL fans were expecting a return to expensive, flashy stars. Of course, MLS’s conservative approach is part of why it is still here.
Always enjoy your pieces of history Roger.
“A little-mentioned aftereffect of the NASL’s demise was a surprising reluctance on the part of a lot of that league’s former fans to embrace MLS.”
Well, as one of them, that’s probably a fair assessment.
But some context is also in order. Those of us now in our (very) late 40s and early 50s were pretty young when the NASL expired. I was a college freshman when the Kicks died. By 1985, I had just gotten married and started law school when the league finally keeled over, which was far less traumatic because like so many Kicks fans I had never really taken to the Strikers anyway. By the time MLS rolled around, I had a job, a wife, three kids and a mortgage — and no MLS team in my town.
I assure you, I wasn’t waiting for an invitation, but I also didn’t find it worth what little time I had. My team was long dead, and it wasn’t coming back in MLS.
I watched MLS some on and off, but it really wasn’t until the run-up to the 2006 World Cup that I thought I really needed to do more to support our domestic league. So I buy the stuff, drive down to Chicago from the Twin Cities for the occasional Fire game and post on Big Soccer.
But as one of the fans who packed the old Met Stadium to watch the Kicks, I confess I’m still protective of their legacy. I enjoy Roger’s analysis (and his books) because I think he’s more balanced in his views. I’ve noted earlier an old SI article that suggested the NASL was spending just over 70% of its revenue on players — UEFA guidelines even now suggest up to 70% is still the high end of “prudent” — so I’ve always thought the narrative that these were all just a bunch of dumb guys spending like drunken sailors to be overdone. The NASL had some very, very sharp operators, including the first Kicks ownership group lead by Jack Crocker, better known as the brilliant CEO of Super Valu.
The simple fact remains selling soccer in the United States is hard. It was hard during the ASL. It was hard during the NASL. It was hard when MLS dropped $350 million in the early years.
And it’s still not for the faint of heart or under-capitalized today.
I’m just glad this time looks to be the charm.
As an old Atoms fan, I’ll admit to not fully embracing MLS in it’s first season–but that was more because the arrival of MLS doomed our local USL franchise, which I’d been supporting for many years (to this day, one of my prized possesions is my Xoggz “STAFF” shirt, as Mrs. KG and I were volunteers–and had a lot of fun with it). Once I went to a few games, I immediately noticed the difference–MLS played at a higher level. That being said, I’d still love to see some “throwback” games with old NASL jerseys. I have many fond memories of the NASL and soccer in that era.
The Atoms were the gateway for my interest in soccer. I was too young to drive or own a car for that matter, and getting to the match required the whole family come along. None of them were interested and the Atoms were dissolved.
I made a few Fury tilts at the Vet notably their last home match before leaving to become the Manic. Made sure I took in the first Union match…..
In addition to needing to do a better job of outreach to former NASL fans, there was also the other half of MLS’s fanbase needing to grow up into adults with disposable incomes.
Those of us in our 20′s and early 30′s never heard of the NASL until we were adults. However, we played youth soccer in larger numbers than ever before because of the influence of the old NASL. My last rec league team before I made the travel team was called the “Cosmos.” My 8 year old self had no idea that it was named after a recently defunct pro team.
I couldn’t watch much MLS in its early years since by the time the Union started I was already well into adulthood and living in Washington, D.C. I tried to watch United on TV since I was roughly halfway between D.C. and New York but refused to root for anything New York but I just didn’t have the dedication to read the TV guide (the internet as we know it was in its infancy and we had dial-up and my dad was always on it downloading crap).
After playing club soccer in college and supporting the varsity squad, I started going to DC United games after graduating from college at UMD. I am now a season ticket holder in a supporters’ group.
I’m not the only one. People in my age range didn’t grow up hostile to soccer. If you never played it or aren’t already a fan, it’s simply another sport rather than being all those braindead negative slurs that old sportswriters call it. That’s a huge departure from older generations where people were bred to loathe it for some strange reason that I’ll never understand.
Also, we had far more people growing up playing the game. That’s a much larger pool of potential fans than had ever existed before.
Where can be as important a factor as when in determining whether a person grows up hostile to soccer. I grew up in a suburban town on Long Island in the 1950s. I went to college in Ohio in the 1960s. My junior high school, my high school and my college all had soccer teams. I wasn’t on those teams, but at all three schools, I was in an atmosphere in which soccer was considered just another sport, one that normal kids played, not some foreign plot. I feel very lucky in the way that my attitudes toward soccer were shaped by having been in the right places.
I agree I think one of the biggest factors in the growth of soccer is to people my age (35) and younger there isn’t this outright hostility to the game. Not liking soccer is a choice based on preference about your sports like not liking basketball, rather than some badge of honor showing that you are an American.
I have read articles in the past that claim during the 50′s there was an overt attempt to link Soccer with Anti-Americanism and pro-communism. I don’t know what specific actions were taken but this may help explain the almost comical hostility towards soccer from certain older Americans.
And I think the NASL was the first step in dispelling this myth.
I remember vague references years ago to soccer as a “communist sport,” particularly from certain benighted sportswriters like Dick Young. I never used to understand the origins of that belief, since communist countries did not have a sparkling record in international play, until I read some stuff about the American Communist Party. It seems that in the 1920s and ’30s, they used soccer as part of an attempt to recruit immigrants, under the idiotic belief that all immigrants must love soccer.
I grew up in S.E. Oklahoma. I had never seen soccer until ABC showed Pele and the Cosmos. Then, the Tulsa Roughnecks came about, and all of a sudden, I LOVED soccer! I begged, and cajoled my granfather to drive me the 90 miles to Tulsa to see a game one Sunday afternoon. He didn’t know soccer from Shinola, but he loved me, and he took me. It was awesome.
I know somone above had referenced the nfl as a reason their team was edged out. I know in Tulsa it wan’t the nfl, but the USFL. The Oklahoma Outlaws came to Tulsa in 1984 and the Roughnecks’ attendance plummeted. The used to draw almost 20,000 , and that year I think they wre lucky to get 6K.
Let’s not forget Jack Kemp, who told Congress in a 1986 speech that “a distinction should be made that football is democratic capitalism, whereas soccer is a European socialist [sport].”
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