The Business of Soccer

I originally set out with this site to write about soccer. All soccer. National Teams. MLS teams. NASL teams. USL teams. NWSL teams.College teams. However, it has taken a much more Indy Eleven-centric turn to it, mostly because I only have so many hours in the day and this is nowhere close to being the thing where I need to put my main time and focus. Yet if you're a fan of soccer in America, this past week has been filled with, seemingly, a lot more lows than highs and so I thought I would write down some of my thoughts.

 A week ago, the United States Men's National Team went down to Trinidad and Tobago and needed to get a win to advance to next year's World Cup, but would have likely moved on with a draw. No game is a given and the USMNT isn't exactly a top 10 world team (sitting at 28 at the time of the game), but there's no reason they couldn't get a positive result against the 99th ranked team in the world, playing some of their young guys with the team having already been eliminated from the World Cup. My thoughts on the game were summarized perfectly by Landon Donovan in an interview on the Dan Patrick Show:

"The most disturbing part for me was the lack of urgency displayed," Donovan said. "We all know sports anything can happen, you can lose games, that's all part of it, but the lack of urgency to really understand what was at stake was really disheartening for me, and, candidly, it was really hard to watch."

Unfortunately for me, that's a similar reaction I've had to the Indy Eleven this year. What I saw from the USMNT hit too close to home. The team is full of guys with a significant number of caps, including a starting XI with an average of 56.6 caps. Those are guys that know, or should know, what was at stake and how to approach a game of that magnitude. Not qualifying because of some of the other results in the HEX can be understood, but not qualifying because you don't get a positive result against Trinidad and Tobago is inexcusable.

Which leads us to Bruce Arena. Arena was brought on to get the team qualified for the World Cup after the U.S. lost Mexico in Colombus (we'll get to that topic in a minute) and then Costa Rica by a combined 6-1 score. He didn't get it done and I'm only moderately surprised he didn't stay on as head coach through the year until a permanent replacement was found. Let's get something straight though. This failure should put a tiny chink in his legacy, but Bruce Arena is still a legend in the United States. His teams have won 5 MLS Cups, 3 Supporter's Shields, an Open Cup, and he was MLS Coach of the Year three times. His teams, MLS & USMNT, achieved positive results 71% of the time. For me, the loss to T&T isn't on Arena. It's on the guys who didn't play with any urgency when they needed it most.

As long as I'm talking about U.S. Soccer, how many more lawsuits can it handle? The U.S. Women's National Team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation to be able to get equitable pay. That should never have had to happen. One team has won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals. Regardless of what you think about men's versus women's soccer and how much more advanced the U.S. is in regards to women's soccer compared to other countries, success should be rewarded and the discrepancy in pay and benefits was embarrassing. It shouldn't have taken a lawsuit to resolve that issue.

Now we have the North American Soccer League suing for, well, I'm still a little unsure on that one. Monopoly practices I guess. Personally, I think the lawsuit is a Hail Mary from the NASL to try and save a failing league. To be honest, I appreciate the business model of the NASL over the MLS/USL, but at some point, you have to realize that it's not a successful business. Teams come and go routinely and the stability of the league is continually in question. At some point, regardless of how much fans love their clubs, a failed business venture is a failed business venture. That doesn't mean, however, that some of the teams in the league are failures. Though, based on attendance numbers, even some of the "successful" teams can't possibly be profitable businesses. All of that turmoil has led the league to its current place in the U.S. soccer landscape; a hot mess. A hot mess that I don't expect to be part of the U.S. soccer landscape next year. Though that's just based on my gut feeling and no inside knowledge of anything.

That's not to say that U.S. soccer's top-tier league hasn't had its own issues this past week. Today's announcement from the owner of the Columbus Crew, in essence, said that without a new stadium the team would likely be relocated to Austin, Texas, a city with which he has been in discussion. U.S. soccer fans, naturally, have been in a tizzy all day about this and in a general uproar against Columbus Crew owner Anthony Precourt. Soccer fans have always felt like they play second or third fiddle to the other major sports in the country; NFL, MLB, & NBA. MLS can't compete with the attendance nor salaries of those leagues. The USMNT has averaged in the low- to mid-30,000 attendance since 2007 and the USWNT has only broken the 20,000 mark twice since 1994 (both World Cup winning years). The soccer-specific stadiums around the country are routinely sized for the 20,000 to 25,000 range. Most Division 1 university football stadiums are twice that size. The Indy Eleven have averaged 8,000 people in a mess of a stadium in a mess of a league based only on the fervor of its fanbase, but I'm convinced that better stadium amenities could raise the attendance level. Regardless of the fact that Mapfre Stadium was the first soccer-specific stadium in the country, the success of the national teams in the stadium through the years, and it's general place in the history of soccer in this country, it's still just an aging stadium that can't compete with the other soccer stadiums throughout the country and Precourt knows this. Precourt may or may not be all the things that people have called him today, but he's also a businessman, the Columbus Crew is a business, and his tactic is not unprecedented.

This type of strong-arm tactics aren't going to help U.S. soccer fan's inferior complex and general attitude of not being respected. I say, welcome to the big leagues. The only way that an owner can make this kind of threat is if an owner thinks there's a chance. I know others will, and probably have, argued that Precourt is moving the team regardless. That may be true, but if he did, he would join a long line of major professional teams that have relocated (below is just a small sample).

• The Cubs recently played the Washington Nationals in Major League Baseball's National League Divisional Series. The Nationals used to be the Montreal Expos until 2005. 
• In my lifetime, in the National Basketball Association, the Buffalo Braves moved to San Diego and became the San Diego Clippers, which you now know as the Los Angeles Clippers. The Vancouver Grizzles are now the Memphis Grizzles. The Seattle Supersonics are now Oklahoma Thunder. 
• The National Football League is full of teams that used to be somewhere else. The Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles in 1946, then moved to St. Louis in 1995, and are now back in Los Angeles. The Oakland Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982, then back to Oakland in 1995, and are now headed to Las Vegas. The Baltimore Colts became the Indianapolis Colts in the dead of night.
• In the National Hockey League, the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993. What you know as the Colorado Avalanche used to be Quebec Nordiques prior to 1995 and the Phoenix Coyotes used to be the Winnipeg Jets.
• Pro soccer isn't immune either. The Houston Dynamo? Used to be the San Jose Earthquakes. This year's National Women's Soccer League's North Carolina Courage were known as the Western New York Flash as recently as last year.

If there's one thing I've learned writing about soccer in America, it's that there is a very distinct difference between the love of the sport and the business of the sport. At its core, professional soccer, like other professional sports, is a business with hundreds of thousands of people employed directly or indirectly by it. However, there are 22 MLS teams, 30 USL teams, 8 NASL teams, and 10 NWSL teams with owners that desire to make a profit from their business and have the ultimate say in what they do with their teams. 

Is that always in the best interest of the fans? No. 

Is that always in the best interest of growing the sport in the country? No.

Is that their prerogative? Yes.

That's the business of soccer.

Two x Division 2

Two days ago, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) made the decision to not get sued by a lower division soccer league and announced that both the North American Soccer League (NASL) and the United Soccer League (USL) would be designated as provisional Division 2 leagues. Like most writers, I had intended to provide my thoughts on this decision yesterday, but a migraine delayed this post. As a result, I'm probably not going to say anything that you haven't read or heard from others, but I still want to write down what I think this decision means.

In the near term, as Greg Rakestraw stated on Soccer Saturday, it means that "the business of soccer can get back to the business of soccer." Players can be signed in earnest, schedules can be created, and fans can rest assured that they are going to have soccer to watch come April. More specifically for Indy Eleven fans, it means that we'll likely get word this week of what players are returning from last year's Championship match squad. Again, per Soccer Saturday, John Koluder indicated that it will be around 10 - 12 players returning. With a season ending roster of 23 (22 with the retirement of Janicki), that's quite a few players who won't be initially returning. Some of those players could find their way back onto the roster, but some of your favorite Indy Eleven players may have found what they are hope are greener pastures. Coach Hankinson has already told us that Mares, Franco, Ring, Keller, and Lacroix were all free agents and that the team hoped to retain all of them, but that some of them have received other offers from teams. "Interesting offers." "Interesting offers" are usually hard to turn down unless a competing "more interesting offer" is provided. Given that it sounds like the league, and by extension, the other owners of the teams may be the temporary owners of the Jacksonville Armada, Mr. Ozdemir isn't likely to get into a bidding war for players this year.

In the interim term, by the end of the year, we will need to have this same conversation. The USSF awarded both the NASL and the USL "provisional" Division 2 status. By its very definition, provisional is something that is "arranged or existing for the present, possibly to be changed later." There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the USSF does not WANT two leagues holding Division 2 status. While it may not seem like it, this was a way to protect soccer in the United States. The more successful soccer organizations there are in the country, the better for all. So the USSF gave both leagues another year to figure out how to move forward.

Which leads me to the long term. Who the hell knows how this is going to play out? Other than to say that there will be a Division 1 league (MLS), a Division 2 league, a Division 3 league, and a Division 4 league(s), I don't have the slightest idea how things will fall. Given that USL has a third of their teams that don't meet Division 2 status and are not independently run from their MLS affiliates (i.e. reserve teams), one would anticipate that they are going to be a major part of whatever decision is made. The reserve teams are likely the main thing that prevented the USL from achieving Division 2 on its own, without the provisional label. Though a league full of reserve teams where their main goal is not about wins or losses, but rather player development, isn't likely to achieve its own Division 3 status. So do any of the independent USL teams move over to NASL? Is there a merger between two leagues that already separated once before?

My guess, and that's all that I can go on because I don't have any #Sources, is that the NASL finds a few more new teams to keep them at Division 2 status, the USL drastically retracts due to their plethora of reserve teams that get (maybe at least temporarily) relegated down to Division 3, and the remaining independent USL teams join the NASL teams to form some new conglomerate. Whether it retains the NASL name or the USL name will be semantics at that point, but there will be some aspect of both when they join. Hopefully that happens more towards October or November of this year, rather than in January of next year. Given how this year has gone, I'm not overly optimistic, but as Peter Wilt stated on Soccer Saturday (this week's was highly informative as usual), maybe this whole fiasco will solidify a direction by both leagues.

This month of guessing is also not going to do any favors for the Indy Eleven's attempt to get state assistance in funding a new stadium. The legislative session is now underway and it would be hard to believe that the legislators aren't aware by now of what's going on with the team's league. Regardless of all of this mess, even legitimate MLS hopefuls, and I no longer consider Indy to be one of those locations, are gaining no traction in public-funded stadiums. We're just not in an economic environment that is conducive to that type of funding mechanism. Indy was going to be a tough nut to crack this year during the best of times, but being in a provisional league during the legislative year is as good a death knell as anything. The best case is that the legislature provides a similar offer as last year and the team and IUPUI has evaluated all possibilities to use that $20M in money to upgrade Carroll Stadium to make it a much more friendly soccer-specific stadium. Or that Ozdemir finds a way to fund it on his own...

The good news is that Indy still has a team and a league in which they will play. I would like to think that they would be the favorites going into the year to make it back to the Championship game. However, with so many teams in flux this off-season, who knows what the rosters of the NASL teams are going to look like come April? Rayo released their roster, the Cosmos released their roster, and both of those teams had players that will definitely find new teams. Teams like Miami and Puerto Rico. Teams like the Indy Eleven. Which is why this week's roster announcements (assuming they come this week) aren't going to include all 22 players from last year's Championship run team. Again, I don't have any #Sources, but don't be surprised if you see a few players from those teams wearing the checkers this year.

Two Division 2 leagues isn't ideal, but at least we still have soccer in Indy. For that I'm grateful. When people ask "who's your club?," I only have one response. Indy Eleven. I don't have a stake in any MLS teams. No stake in Liga MX. No stake in La Liga. No stake in the English Premier League. I started writing for the Indy Eleven three years ago and luckily, thanks to the decision of the USSF on Friday night, I get to continue doing so this year.