True. It began when Gretzky was traded to the Los Angles Kings in 1988 (Beckham parallel anyone?) and its high was in 1994 - when the disgraceful Rangers (ending a 50 year drought) won the Cup. One year before Fetisov and Starikov became the first Soviets to come to the NHL (NJ DEVILS!!) without having to defect. (ah - the days of defecting hockey players. Will my boys ever understand that?) It was the fact that they opened the States eyes by getting the Great One to LA and then succeeded in the Media Capital of the world. MLS has succeeded in the important LA market but it's biggest failure has been NYC. Except for maybe the SCC - the power teams are a bit spread out. NCAA hockey had something going for it ... because few schools put a team on the ice - the Conferences are SOLID. If NCAA hockey was forced to stick with football/basketball conferences like soccer is ... it would have never happened. NCAA soccer should go that route. Just because The Big 12 is a great football conference - it shouldn't mean it has to apply to soccer!
No doubt about the NCAA mess. Long ago in a cyberspace far, far, away... prior to Bigsoccer, and at about the time of Soccer America's Graffiti page there was another site, (I apologize for I cannot remember it, it may have even been SA's graffiti) that Dr. Bob Contigguglia (sp?) responded to questions from soccer geeks. I asked Dr. Bob if the USSF had any power to help several elite schools break away into a separate conferences, play by the FIFA rules, and be the equivalent of the NCAA hockey schools. His response was, that we had to get the players out of the school program entirely. I did then and still do consider that attitude unrealistic. Some soccer players, not all - probably a minority - are going to come through the college system. Making that system work better shouldn't be an avenue that the USSF ignores. ---------- Funny thing about hockey. I was a Rangers fan back in the day when the cup was being traded between the Islanders and the Oilers. We used to go to the Garden and I can tell you the hockey economic demographic has changed radically - or maybe that's just the Avalanche. I stopped paying attention when Gretsky went to LA. Did it really have that much effect on the sport? I kind of feel that ESPN made a concerted effort in the 90's to promote the NHL, and it worked - at least for a while.
I wasn't referring just to the players that were able to come without defecting, but to the increasing political and social pressure of Eastern Bloc countries to let their players into the NHL. One such critical events was the 1998 Winter Olympics in Calgary, after which a great number of players defected (including the entire Czech top line). Less than two years later the Eastern Euros began to relax their restrictions, most notably in 1990 when Jagr was allowed to join Pittsburg without defecting. Back to soccer. I disagree that MLS has found success in LA. The Galaxy has won championships, sure. But given the population of LA, attendance at Galaxy and Chivas is still a great failure -- just as it is in NY. Will Beckham spell instant success in this regard? Perhaps. The Galaxy may have just received a massive boost in season ticket sales, and will likely pack the stadium for every home game involving Beckham, but how will Chivas fare in attendance? As for the NCAA, if there's one thing that soccer can learn from hockey it's how to increase the number of total games played. I don't agree with the concept of "super conferences," simply because it provides too many advantages to the bigger schools. But a more flexible non-conference schedule would certainly help, as would the idea of not forcing the season to be played within a single semester. Rather than forcing colleges to begin their soccer seasons in August -- often before classes have even begun -- allow them to begin their seasons in late September or October, and play through the winter. Take the appropriate breaks for finals and holidays, schedule big intra-season tournaments for mid-season (rather than the first week), and have the championships in February or March. There's only one reason such scheduling isn't acceptable to the NCAA: money. I for one agree with the USSF shifting as much focus as possible away from the NCAA.