Category Archives: MLS

Know Your History, MLS

The Test of Time

Records are made to be broken.

Of course, the author of that saying assumes the team or league remains viable into the future.

Anyone who’s followed the struggle of professional soccer to gain a lasting foothold in America knows that you can fill a dustbin with all the acronyms–USA, NASL, MISL, ASL to name a few–that would rise and fall in the past 50 years.

And when a league and its members are laid to rest, the personalities adapt and move on. The records, however, remain behind. Never to be matched or overtaken. However, those records, those standards, can still provide a valuable service.

MLS Cup 2009
Seattle broke a longstanding US Open Cup attendance record in 2010 with a ‘below-average’ crowd (Courtesy US Soccer)

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MLS

Sad, sad story and hopefully a silver lining

It’s an unimaginable scene playing out at Chivas USA.

Here is MLS, seemingly at the height of its off-field success and soon heading into its 20th season, with franchise fees of $100 million, cities queuing up to join and a huge new TV contract.

Yet the franchise that signaled the start of spring growth following two failures in Florida–that club is bound for the scrap heap come season’s end. And that’s difficult to comprehend, let alone witness.

It’s not easy to watch, this writhing carcass of Chivas USA. Where more than 19,000 once watched the Goats at StubHub Center, only a scattering of diehards remain.

MLSDefunctIf you’ve followed American soccer beyond, say, 2002, the sight of failing franchises is all too familiar. One NASL offseason saw eight teams  erased. And although MLS terms this two-year (minimum) hiatus a re-brand, it really looks and feels like the Goats are going to slaughter. Whatever form the so-called LA2 takes will bear little resemblance to CUSA. The crest and records will join those of the dusty Fusion and Mutiny archives. StubHub will once again become a single-family dwelling. Continue reading Sad, sad story and hopefully a silver lining →