PREACHING TO THE CONVERTED MAY be overstating it slightly, but Manchester United could discover that their supposedly pioneering tour of the United States this summer is not quite the most daring transatlantic expedition since that of the Pilgrim Fathers. These days, Americans are not as ignorant of football as we like to think. Just ask David Beckham, who, on his own promotional tour of the States, has found recognition far easier to come by than, for example, Robbie Williams.
The popular perception of the sport in the US remains that engendered by the ill-fated North American Soccer League (NASL) — of ageing mercenaries, half-empty stadiums and the exaggerated hollering that would greet a long throw-in. The NASL collapsed in 1985, ten years after Pelé joined the New York Cosmos, but football is now enjoying a far deeper-rooted renaissance on the back of the success of the United States in last year’s World Cup.
Football in the US might never infiltrate the mainstream, which is dominated by baseball, basketball and American football, but it is establishing more than a mere cult following. Attendances in Major League Soccer (MLS), the more sensible son of the self-destructive NASL, are rising, while the emergence of many exciting youngsters has been augmented by the launch of Project 40, a programme aimed at developing 40 elite players to form the basis of a World Cup-winning team in 2010.
United’s tour in July, when they will visit four cities and play friendly matches against Celtic, Club América, of Mexico, Juventus and Barcelona, has been predicted in certain quarters as a breakthrough for football, but that view is ignorant of the progress that MLS has already made.
Overlooked by United, whose tour is built around matches against foreign opposition, MLS feels that it does not need the English champions to publicise a product that is already flourishing.
“Soccer is the one sport that grew in participation in America through the 1990s,” Ivan Gazidis, the deputy commissioner of MLS, said. “Attendances have also risen steadily in recent years. We have been helped by the degrees of success we’ve had at World Cups, particularly in 2002 and, of course, the Women’s World Cup in 1999. These things all help, but they’re part of a trend which is happening anyway.
“Manchester United’s tour is a valuable and important thing to be happening to soccer in the United States, but, at the end of the day, it’s a tour, so its value in terms of permanence can be overstated. The main reason that Manchester United and other clubs are now coming to the US to promote their brand is that there is a market which is in place and which they’re hoping to access, which makes a lot of sense.”
Mention of that market — surveys have estimated that there are 70 million “socceraffected” men, women and children nationwide — leads to another misconception that Gazidis is keen to put right. “Demographically, in no way is it restricted to the Hispanic or European populations,” he said. “Those populations are important to us, and both are growing, but so too is the American market, which is probably bigger for us.”
This was not the case when MLS launched in 1996, two years after America hosted what is still, in attendance terms, the most successful World Cup of all time. The Hispanic population in Los Angeles formed the basis of a huge crowd for one of the league’s inaugural matches. “There was this wonderful communal sense of elation in the stadium that here at last was their sport being brought to them,” Gazidis said.
Gazidis smiles now as he recalls that game, a disaster in logistical terms, with demand for tickets severely underestimated, but a total triumph in every other sense. The nascent league, consisting of ten teams across the country, was hailed an instant success.
“We came out of the gates very strong, perhaps too strong,” Gazidis said. “We had some enormous attendances immediately and, understandably, that level of interest was hard to sustain. After the World Cup, there was momentum and interest in soccer, but it was difficult to go from that to getting people to watch New York play New England on a Wednesday night, week-in, week-out, over a period of time.”
Over the next five years, with players such as Carlos Valderrama and Lothar Matthäus recruited, attendances settled around the 13,000 mark. Chicago Fire and Miami Fusion were added to the league, but, with the Florida market proving less than receptive, the latter lasted just four seasons and were followed out of existence by Tampa Bay Mutiny. Support in other cities was also infuriatingly fickle.
The response of the NASL had been to throw more money at the product, in the form of exorbitant salaries for retired Europeans, but MLS took a long-term view, investing in youth development not only at the clubs but nationwide. From the Olympic Development Programme came Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, who both, at the age of 20, would help the United States to reach the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002.
At present, America is producing top-class youngsters at an extraordinary rate. Tim Howard, the New York-New Jersey MetroStars goalkeeper, is to join Manchester United on July 1 and will have Jonathan Spector, a 17-year-old defender from the IMG academy in Florida, for company. Danny Karbassiyoon, another youngster, has signed a contract with Arsenal, while Freddie Adu, a 14-year-old, is attracting a clamour of interest from Europe.
Football in America once relied on fading stars, but these days they make young talents of their own and MLS, with average crowds now approaching 16,000, is reaping the benefits. “The story is very positive,” Gazidis said. “The national team is ranked tenth in the world, the league is growing and, critically, the level of play, in the league and at youth development level, is appreciably getting better year by year.
“We have two major goals at present. To win the World Cup in 2010 and, in the longer term, to become one of the world’s best leagues. Everything we do is aimed at those goals. We have extremely good investment and we are financially viable, which counts for a lot. The trend is happening already and that trend is bigger than any World Cup and bigger than Manchester United.”
