History.com on the forgotten golden age of American soccer

This part.

 

This is the bit that interested me:

ie...we lured top players here because of the money.

Doesn't the MLS have a salary cap today? I know they have some kind of designated player rule to lure a top player from time to time, but imo, as long as we have a salary cap here and are unwilling to pay as much here as they do in Europe or S. America, we're always going to struggle to get the top players. We're trying to build this sport with one hand tied behind our back.

 

I think what we're really seeing is that a lot of our home grown talent have bolted to the Premier League because of the money and prestige.

 

I wonder where this comes from, because I have been looking for clear evidence of original ASL attendance figures for years. Anecdotally, there certainly were crowds of 10,000 or more on occasion, but I am not in possession of actual proof of this. Perhaps @Roger Allaway can shed some light.

Averaging 10,000 a game (not just with one team, but apparently more than one) during a time when only three National League baseball teams averaged 10,000 a game...well, that would seem to me to be slightly exaggerated or significant.

(First off, it's not "the MLS." "The NBA = The National Basketball Association = The Association. The NFL = The National Football League = The League. The MLS = The Major League Soccer = The Soccer? No.)

Second, yes, MLS does have a salary cap.

As opposed to spending ourselves into oblivion believing that "the top players" will bring a return on investment commensurate with the expense.

The salary cap - which has been raised over time and, as you point out, can be circumvented a bit with the DP - was seen as absolutely essential at startup (and almost certainly was) because of the history of bigger clubs outspending others and the smaller clubs driving themselves into the ground trying to keep up. (That's what actually happened in the old NASL, and we see wage imbalance throughout European leagues.)

Don't know that you've noticed, but we actually have been building this sport, despite the belief of some that we should just be free-wheeling it and spending whatever people who aren't actually in charge of spending the money think we should be spending.

Enormous investment has been made in infrastructure that no American soccer league has ever had - from stadiums to training facilities to academies. Where it has not been spent is on people like Klaus Topmoller. At least not recently, and not stupidly, by clubs who can't afford it.

The cap may be - and probably should be - further relaxed over time. But it's not a question of it being realistic to just get rid of it because someone thinks we can start attracting "the top players" to play in Columbus on a Wednesday night instead of Milan or Paris.

The nerve.

Wouldn't you?

You're not going to breed that out of the American player overnight. Matt Besler and Graham Zusi are two of our home grown talents who just last week spurned offers from overseas. But they're the exception. The lure of European competition (and payoffs) is, absolutely, still going to be a challenge for an American league. But that's just the way of the world. There's no way to get around that for the forseeable future. But Besler and Zusi are nice potential harbingers.

 

Hey, I know it's grammatically incorrect. I don't need you to point this out. And I might put "The" in front of MLS again. I might also write things like "I dunno" and "Gonna". In fact I probably will. And if I do, you don't worry about it.

Who is Ourselves? You an owner?

Or are you one of those who believe that since you go to the matches and buy the merchandise, etc...that you personally built up the league? You own a piece of it coz (there's another grammatically incorrect word) you bought a scarf or a cola or whatever you bought at the stadium and that somehow lured a player to this league?

Now my view:

If MLB can pay players multiple millions per year, the owners of these soccer teams should be able to pony up enough money after years of mediocrity and begin to compete with the Premier League. American owners aren't dirt poor. This country...this league shouldn't be hoping for scraps. If we do, that's all we'll get.

Anyway, when I mentioned pay and (the) salary cap I was referring to the originally posted article and using that to illustrate how the situations have become reversed. Now you are entitled to your view. That's fine. Try not to get your panties in a wad bring it up. New folks cant be expected to go through years of posts here to see if perhaps someone mentioned a salary cap before.

Finally I do know that folks have been trying to build up this sport. 'Folks'...is that an acceptable term? I just want to point out I'm not the first one who has suggested that this league is one where stars have been going to retire.

 

***Sorry folks. I normally wouldn't go off like that since I'm new here. But that guy was picking apart my posts and being a jerk. Sometimes a dog will bite back though. Forgive me.***

 

Comparing MLS to MLB is silly. Tampa Bay drew 1.5 million fans last year and that was the worst attendance in MLB. TB's average of 18,646 per game is higher than all but 15 leagues in the world; the overall MLB average is 5th best in the world. MLB is the 2nd highest revenue league in the world in both total and per team revenue (behind only the NFL).

Could MLS owners spend the money to compete with the EPL for players? Sure, but the league would lose many hundreds of millions of dollars a year and soon fold.

 

Whatever. Yall cant convince me that the best way to attract stellar talent is by NOT spending money.

There's money in this country and MLB is just an example of how owners who wish to win are willing and able to spend. NO one will succeed being a tightwad.

 

And those are great ideas. Develope talent. I csn recall there being discussion about American players being exposed to international players so as to increase abilities, skills, etc. Now these Americans can do this going overseas...or we can bring outstanding international talent here. I'm simply suggesting we do the latter as often as possible. But we'll never get there if we're too cheap to compete with the international teams.

And I'll tell you guys something else. If the league thinks it will spend itself into oblivion...it will never take the next step.

I look at it as an investment in the future because without that investment, MLS will never ever be as strong as the EPL.

 

Colin Jose, in his 1998 book about that league ("American Soccer League, 1921-31") says: "Attendances varied, with league games in New York City drawing around 6,000; however, in the soccer hotspots of New England the average was over 8,000. Certain games, such as the bitterly fought local contests between Fall River and New Bedford always drew in excess of 10,000." So, there were some attendances of over 10,000, but they were the exception, not the rule.

 

I doubt seriously there were teams who averaged 10k for a season. Newspaper clippings in the late 20s rarely mentioned attendance and they were always estimates and round numbers when they were.

 

Cool. I just happened to think of something while watching this match between QPR and Derby County. (Funny how they pronounce it... 'darby').

This will never happen in a million years. But if FIFA were to mandate that all its leagues have the same cap, then it would be fair. So if Arsenal had the same cap as Seattle...it would be fair and these players wod have to be spread more evenly.

Never happen though.