Major Soccer League Teams Want Places to Call Home

The Los Angeles Times ^ | October 21, 2001 | GRAHAME L. JONES

[Illbay]

If there is anything that brings a scowl to Don Garber's face it's short-sightedness, especially the inability or unwillingness of city governments and municipal sports authorities to look beyond the present, to see tomorrow instead of today.

Garber is Major League Soccer's commissioner and, as such, he is a firm believer in the future of the sport in this country. That future, however, depends on MLS teams each having their own stadiums and being in control of their own playing dates, training facilities, concession, parking revenues and the like.

[Illbay]

The above is only an excerpt. Click the "Source" for the full article. Note that it is quoted on the BuildingTeam.Com website, so the LAT won't think it's getting hits from FR and hit us with another lawsuit.

Two points:

1. As if we didn't have enough problems with pro football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams wanting their own exclusive facilities--not to mention urban colleges that want THEIR own cribs--now we have to add MLS into the mix. This means potentially BIG bucks from the taxpayers into sports owners' pockets.

2. I have to admit that he's probably right about soccer being the "game of the future" in the U.S. Look around. Hardly ANY kids play baseball anymore, except in organized teams, pushed by parents. When they're on the school playground--where you and I used to play touch football and pick-up baseball/softball--they get up a game of SOCCER. I've seen this with my own eyes, and it ain't just the "ethnic kids," either.

I know this will send the Buchanan simps up the wall, but you better get ready for this bit of multiculturalism to hit you where you live!

Oh, and one last thing: Why is it that this BuildingTeam.Com website can copy articles from LAT, and we can't?

[futurepotus]

Soccer IS the sport of the future, and cities should be willing to work with teams to build stadiums. I myself have gone from thinking soccer is just terribly boring to thinking soccer is actually kind of enjoyable. Granted, part of that is due to the fact that my best friend is a soccer player and I've watched many of his games. But still! Soccer should get more respect.

[good_ash]

The problem is soccer will always be the sport of the future. That is its curse.

Soccer was the popular sport when I was growing up, and for quite awhile before that. Supposedly all those kids playing soccer would grow up to be to favor soccer above all else.

Hasn't happened yet. Probably won't happen in my lifetime. The kids who played soccer 20 years ago are watching football now. Otherwise they watch baseball (if they can stay awake through it). Haven't heard any clamor to see professional soccer on network broadcasts, even though 'my generation' is supposedly the target audience.

[danielobvt]

One of the mitigating factors for this is that the soccer fields being proposed are much smaller than American Football fields. The target size for these fields will be between 15-25,000 seat stadiums.
I am a DC United fan, and being in RFK with an average crowd, it just feels to empty. Hopefully there will be a good sized crowd for the charity game they are playing on Nov 3 against NY Metrostars. We get to have some of my favorite players back for DC for that game(Go Agoos! Harkes! Miss ya guys!).
I keep on hoping that we pick up more fans as we go, as I really hate going to US National Soccer matches and having half the crowd root for another countries team.

[1rudeboy]

As a big-time Chicago Fire fanatic, I hope that the team figures out a way to stay downtown. Too many teams are hearing the siren song of the suburbs, and sadly, there are more soccer players out there than here.

In any case, in what other sport (other than Minor League baseball) are the tickets to the match less than 25% of your alcohol expense for the evening?

[1rudeboy]

. . . I really hate going to US National Soccer matches and having half the crowd root for another countries team.

Come to the dark side . . . be a hooligan.

[danielobvt]

But Soccer is starting to show up on the networks. ESPN and ABC(I always get them mixed up) both show it(as opposed to just showing up on spanish TV as it did before). 15,000 people are showing up on average to the games, and these numbers have stabilized/are growing a little(whats the average attendance of a hockey game? Not too much different from what I hear). Everything has to start somewhere, and after a few false starts, it seems to have at least managed to keep itself going finally.

[danielobvt]

Come to the dark side . . . be a hooligan.
I almost did at the last game, when some Jamaican fan blew off his airhorn 6 inches from my ear. And at 6 feet, 250 pounds(and I spend a couple of hours a week pumping iron + I had 2 of my brothers in the same shape with me) we dont want that happening.

[driftless]

Like everywhere else in the country, the schools in my part of the country all have soccer programs. Some of my nephews and nieces have played on teams. But I NEVER see any kids playing soccer around here or hear adults talking about it. There is not one adult I know who could name ONE major soccer league player or even a team. NOBODY cares unless the national team happens to be playing in the Olympics. Pro football is king. Soccer has a longgggggggggggggg way to go to become as popular as football. Right now they had better come up with a way to be as popular as hockey which is the only post-season sport I watch. That and NCAA basketball.

[austinTparty]

Well, just too bad our own teams aren't yet good enough to hit even 1/4 finals in World Cup (hey, I have FAITH!). One of the sporting highlights of my life was seeing the Netherlands/Brazil Semifinal Match in Dallas when the World Cup was here (and I only paid face value). Although the first 1/2 was semi-dull, the 2nd was what soccer is all about... even the memory gives me chills. Next to watching my (college) football team (Hook 'Em, Horns!), World Cup level soccer is the best... (too bad it's only every 4 years).

[1rudeboy]

Violence is the last refuge of scoundrels. You need to be creative. Or stupid, like me . . . I was "detained" for attempting to kiss a mounted policeman's horse.

[danielobvt]

The way my ears were ringing it certainly felt like violence had been performed on me. :(
But I am not a violence prone person, I would probably have to be hit twice(I would have to get over the shock that someone wanted to pick a fight with me) before I could bring myself to respond. I would have rathered be with all US fans, but that sections seats are normally in a crappy position(in the end zone area), and I really like to see the game I paid to watch.

[danielobvt]

I will settle for us not placing DFL like we did last time. That was so awful that I choose not to remember it.
Gotta say that our win in Boston was pretty sweet, with it assuring our spot and all(and either Mexico or Honduras(I think Honduras will be out) has to sit out, which is pretty sweet:).

[austinTparty]

*sigh* I guess I'll settle for that, too. Every victory is sweet, but I live in hope. :^)

[longshadow]

1. As if we didn't have enough problems with pro football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams wanting their own exclusive facilities--not to mention urban colleges that want THEIR own cribs--now we have to add MLS into the mix. This means potentially BIG bucks from the taxpayers into sports owners' pockets.

You seem to have missed the part of the article where it said the deep-pocket owners were willing to fund the stadiums themselves, hence this doesn't pose a burden on taxpayers the way professional football, baseball, basketball, hockey facilities do.

[danielobvt]

He might have overlooked that, because in this country it is hard to imagine a sports team that doesn't feel that it is owed a special subsidy from the public. That and soccer teams don't have a large of enough fanbase for any town to feel threatened by the usual threat to move a team. It's kinda refreshing to see a sports league use a standard business model.

[golder]

The future, women's basketball. I almost blew my cookies watching a, "last minute" scoring ensemble, I believe it was on bi*** TV, sorry, I mean "The Woman's Channel." Bye bye NFL. The future never looked better. Years ago they thought bull fighting was the future, what fools.

[longshadow]

It's kinda refreshing to see a sports league use a standard business model.

Wherein the millionaire owners/investors pay for the stadiums instead of the taxpayers. Major League Soccer ought to be given an award for NOT bilking the taxpayer the way other major league sports so frequently do.

[gogov]

I myself have gone from thinking soccer is just terribly boring to thinking soccer is actually kind of enjoyable.

I have gone from thinking soccer is just terribly boring to knowing that it is. There is a reason there are so many riots in the stadiums - there is darn little else to draw ones attention.

And have you ever seen an after game highlight? It is not of the play leading to the goal but instead of the guy running down the field after the goal. And when the highlights really heat up the guy will be shown with his shirt pulled up over his face and run without being able to see. Folks, if the highlights are about what takes place after the goal what takes place during the game has got to be a loser.

On a warm spring day there is more action on the side of the field where they are not trying to score a goal. At least you can pull up a blanket and have a reasonble good chance at watching the grass grow.

I take that back. When soccer really gets good is when one of the players gets bumped, falls on the ground as if he has just taken the biggest hit NFL Football has to offer, is carried off the field on a stretcher, only to return to the game on the very next play.

I know we are not supposed to make any personal attacks on here, so I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but anyone that thinks soccer is even sort of enjoyable must lead an incredibly boring life.

[scottiewottie]

My life is so boring that sustaining a body core tempertature just five degrees above room temperature is a constant vigil. Coaching, playing, refereeing, and watching soccer has made my life completely empty.