MLS Has Grown Soccer in This Country SO Much. And I’m Going to Prove It to You!

When the idea for this article popped into my head, I grabbed my laptop and started typing furiously. Mostly out of anger. I had seen a few tweets giving MLS credit for things that I felt like they just weren’t responsible for.

But then I paused and tried to recalculate. And I started to dig into the (often ignored) history of American soccer. And I found some really amazing stuff.

There is no possible way that I can address every topic that popped into my head as I wrote this. I can’t even tell you how many times I caught myself going off on tangents. There are so many things to say!

And while I’m well aware that a whole slew of metrics can be used to draw a whole slew of conclusions about the growth and popularity of soccer in the United States… I feel like it’s important to zero on just a few.

So, I’ve chosen some specific examples to help illustrate the points throughout this piece.

Is it perfect? No. Is it thought-provoking? Absolutely.

Ready for it? Alright, let’s go.

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Growing the Game. Or Not.

In 1996, LA Galaxy hosted NY/NJ MetroStars at the famous Rose Bowl in front of a crowd of 69,250 fans. LA Galaxy won their inaugural MLS home opener 2-1 while also setting a high bar for what would be the largest regular season single-game MLS crowd for many years to come.

Twenty-one years later, the MLS regular season single-game attendance record was broken by Atlanta United in a 3-3 draw against Orlando City in front of a crowd of 70,425 fans at the brand new Mercedes Benz Stadium.

So far, I’ve cited two games as examples of MLS growing the popularity of the game in this country.

In 1996 ~ 69,000 attendance.
In 2017 ~ 70,000 attendance.

These two examples have more in common than you think. Here were the criteria I used for choosing them:

1. The game must be between two American teams.
2. The game must be between two teams competing in the same domestic league.
3. The game must be a regular season game.
4. The game must have some sort of big significance to the league or team(s).
5. The game must have been televised.

Okay, so here is a snapshot of those two games and through the lens of that criteria.

NY/NJ MetroStars at LA Galaxy

This was the first-ever MLS regular season home game for LA Galaxy and first-ever MLS match between these two teams that represent two of the largest metropolitan markets in the United States. This was a significant moment for MLS as a league and LA Galaxy as a franchise. The game was televised to a national audience with the now familiar voice of Tommy Smyth giving his analysis throughout. This game set the MLS single game regular season attendance record that would last until 2017.

Alright, let’s fast forward 21 years.

Atlanta United F.C. vs.  Orlando City S.C.

This game was the first home game Atlanta United played in their new stadium. It was also Atlanta United’s first ever season in MLS. So, this debut of the new stadium was quite significant. It was a regular season MLS game. And the game was televised to a national audience.

Alright… so what’s my point?

To clearly illustrate how popular soccer has been in this country, we need to travel back in time. Let’s go back… like… forty years or so. And let’s apply the same criteria as above to a game from the 1970’s and see if this supports the argument that MLS has grown the popularity of soccer in this country by a massive factor.

Fort Lauderdale Strikers at NY Cosmos

On April 22, 1979, Giants Stadium filled up with a reported crowd of 72,342 fans for a regular season soccer game between these two NASL teams. The NY Cosmos won their home opener against Ft. Lauderdale Strikers 3-2. The significance of this game was it being the home opener for that season. The game was also nationally televised.

Alright, so we’ve looked at three significant regular-season games between teams competing in the same domestic leagues that were nationally televised. Here is what we came up with.

In 1979 ~ 72,000.
In 1996 ~ 69,000.
In 2017 ~ 70,000.

A massive increase in popularity over a 40-year span? No. Not really.

Folks, the math just doesn’t add up. This narrative that the game of soccer has gained so much popularity since MLS started in 1996 is criminally misleading.

Soccer existed and was insanely popular in the United States well before MLS played its first game.

On Sunday, April 22, 1979, NY Cosmos drew more fans for their regular season home opener at Giants Stadium than the first-ever MLS game at the Rose Bowl in 1996 – AND – the first ever MLS home game at Mercedes Benz Stadium in 2017.

Oh, and that NY Cosmos game… it was also nationally televised… in the 1970’s!

I mention that because of the importance that is placed on the success of the “business of soccer” by people like Sunil Gulati, Don Garber, and Kathy Carter who claim they have done so much for the sport by bringing it to the masses via their work with Soccer United Marketing. The TV deals are frequently referenced when arguing that MLS has grown the popularity of the sport of soccer. But there are a ton of fun facts that show MLS has struggled to grow its own audience over the course of 20+ years, let alone the popularity of the entire sport in America.

The need for MLS and U.S. Soccer to be a package deal to lock up TV contracts and make MLS seem more relevant than it is, is probably the most fun fact.

There is also plenty of evidence to prove that soccer in America was popular not only in person but on television long before MLS existed. So much so that ESPN jumped at the opportunity to lock up a contract with MLS in the mid-90’s because they saw the existing soccer market was underserved.

Yes, ESPN saw an opportunity to capitalize on the diehard soccer fans that already existed in the United States.

Another fun fact is that MLS Cup Finals reached their highest television ratings in 1996 and 1997. Since then, the ratings have declined and have struggled to even get close to those initial ratings.

In 2010, 14 years after the league first kicked off, and following the World Cup in South Africa, MLS defied all odds as the MLS Cup Final reached its all-time LOW!

So, I guess we can throw away that other theory that the World Cup helps MLS ratings.

The most popular televised MLS regular season games also don’t show any consistency to support the argument that MLS is responsible for growing the popularity of the sport in the United States by a massive factor since it’s inception in the mid-90’s. If anything, the evidence is that people consistently don’t tune in.

In fact, the highest rated MLS games were actually shown in Spanish on Univision. That fact alone should be a big indicator of what demographic is the hungriest for soccer in this country, but ironically that same demographic is often the most neglected, alienated, and ignored. And even though MLS ratings continue to be at their highest on Spanish stations – those ratings are dwarfed by the ratings of Liga MX games on Spanish stations. Other international games (Premier League, Champions League specifically) that are nationally televised on a number of different networks also dwarf MLS numbers. And this is true on a consistent basis.

So, if we’re looking at TV ratings to support the argument that MLS is responsible for the growth in popularity of soccer in this country, more credit should be given to Liga MX and the Premier League.

Sorry, I went on a bit of a rant there. Let’s jump back to some attendance stuff so I don’t stray too far from the criteria listed before.

I want to point out that MLS didn’t come close to selling out their first game in Los Angeles in 1996. And it took 21 years for a team to beat the number of fans that did show up that day.

Actually, MLS missed max capacity at the Rose Bowl in 1996 by more than 20,000 people. Just two years prior, Brazil and Italy played at the Rose Bowl in front of a reported 94,194 fans. That’s almost 25,000 more than what showed up for MLS’ debut in Los Angeles.

So, if we’re talking about an increase in popularity for the game of soccer, MLS was down ~25% compared to a soccer game two years earlier played in the same exact location. And that game in 1996 still had lower attendance than a regular season NASL game in the 1970’s.

Like I said earlier, a whole slew of metrics can be used to draw a whole slew of conclusions. But for MLS to claim that they have grown the popularity of soccer by some massive factor is incredibly misleading, if not absolutely false. Almost 40 years after NY Cosmos put 72,000 people in Giants Stadium on a Sunday… commercials during MLS games in 2016 were telling us “soccer is here” like it had just arrived.

Throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s, the NY Cosmos consistently filled their home stadium with 60,000+ fans. On five different occasions, the NY Cosmos put more fans in Giants Stadium for games against other NASL teams than the current single game MLS attendance record. Keep in mind, these games were almost forty years ago between two teams that played in the same domestic league. These weren’t friendly games featuring or tied to games with international juggernauts like Real Madrid, Manchester United, or FC Barcelona. But, if you wanted to go that route, there are plenty of examples of large crowds showing up for those types of matches long before MLS existed as well.

A fun argument that people like to use to support MLS’ impact on the increase in popularity of American soccer is that the league has attracted some of the worlds greatest players like David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Thiery Henry, David Villa, and Andrea Pirlo. A few recognizable names took the field in NASL matches during the 1970’s and 80’s, though. Ray Hudson, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, George Best…  just to name a few.

So, we can throw “MLS attracts big names” argument in the trashcan now, too.

Will we stop seeing promotional material that claims that soccer has FINALLY arrived? No, probably not. Will we continue to see articles and videos that make a big deal about averaging 20,000 fans per game? Yeah, probably.

Will MLS continue to claim that it is responsible for soccer’s popularity in this country? Yep.

But if you look at just a few snapshots of American soccer history – all of a sudden what MLS has done to “grow the game” just doesn’t seem all that impressive.

Now you have to ask yourself… if soccer in this country isn’t REALLY growing… what is REALLY holding us back?