Well, hate it or love it; CD Chivas USA, and ReAL Salt Lake will commence play next season. Now, I know the names or affiliations aren't the greatest, but the fact is MLS is proving the critics wrong, those who sayed MLS would fold within 10 years are being proven wrong. MLS is here to stay (hopefully), four teams have stadiums set to be built within now to 07' (Dallas, NJ, Chicago, and Colorado) with more teams pushing for soccer specific stadiums to be built as well. MLS maybe losing talents such as Donovan, Guevarra, etc. However the league is rich in young talent, such as homegrown talent like; Eddie Gaven, Eddie Johnson, what's up with the Eddies'?, and of course Freddy Adu. And to match that MLS has young foreign talents like; P. Brenes, J. Ngwenya, and A. Herron. Yes, MLS is looking like a league that will successfully surpass the dark shadow of the NASL. MLS It's Your Game.
NASL's 10th season was 1977. Attendance up 33% to 13,000 per game (including 30,000+ average for Cosmos and Minnesota), 29,000+ for the playoffs. Some attendances from that season: 19 June: Cosmos v. Tampa Bay - 62,394 26 June: Cosmos v. Minnesota - 57,000+ 14 Aug. Cosmos v. Fort Lauderdale (playoff match) - 77,691 Soccer Bowl '77 Cosmos v. Seattle - 35,000+ Cosmos win the title in Pele's final season, sign Franz Beckinbauer during the season. Point being that even the NASL looked like it was on pretty solid ground during its 10th season. Just playing devil's advocate here. Agreed MLS looks like it's in solid shape for further growth. But it can still all go wrong, so we're not out of the woods just yet.
Median attendance is a better indicator of league health than average attendance particularly considering what Cosmos pulled. However, you have a point. NASL was doing pretty good at that point but then they blew it all away with some really stupid stuff. In a way their razzle, dazzle ways that brought them growth were also their downfall. You could call MLS the anti-NASL, they are definitely not razzle-dazzle.
haha, so true! And isn't it funny how NASL era fans take offense to this? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for NY Cosmos coming back, but as you said, MLS isn't razzle-dazzle at this point in its existence.
You are so right, the MLS is taking the correct approach to the league. Be cautious and build from a solid foundation. The NASL was great for what it was, but they turned out to be their own worst enemies. BTW I know that the MISL is still around and it looks like they are seeing a bit of a revival, but I remember them being much more popular as well. What happened to them? BTW, I still miss the Sting. I loved that team.