Management: U.S. Soccer Reboots

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The second big piece of MLS's strategy has been to become the North American leader in promoting and managing the sport. "We want to be the portal for soccer in the U.S.," says Ivan Gazidis, deputy commissioner of MLS. An MLS division called Soccer United Marketing (SUM) won the rights to promote Mexico's team as well as the U.S. national team. So MLS brings Los Tri to Los Angeles, Miami and other Hispanic hot spots, while the U.S. team works the entire country. Both teams conduct doubleheaders with MLS squads. "We're doing a great job for them," says Gazidis of the Mexican program. It's sort of like running the Yankees and the Red Sox at the same time. SUM also runs tournaments featuring South American teams and brings in famous foreign teams such as Real Madrid and Chelsea, some of sport's global brand names. The logic is that the higher the profile that soccer has in general, the greater the MLS benefits.

And soccer's profile continues to rise. Perhaps more than the bigger sports leagues, MLS has also been helped by the digital age. Today an American who is a fan of the Columbus Crew as well as England's champion, Chelsea, can watch both teams on any of three soccer-only channels plus ESPN/ABC or catch highlights on any of a dozen websites. The global exposure has whetted the U.S. appetite. Demographically, migration from Mexico and other Hispanic countries gives soccer (and baseball) a boost.

For all the scoring in the boardroom, though, MLS still has some problems on the pitch. Although the level of play has risen dramatically, it's no match for élite European leagues--and Americans clearly expect the best. The way the league is managed, each MLS team has a $2 million salary cap. You can't buy a star with that kind of money. So the league is planning to allow each team to sign one marquee player, a designated star, who won't count against the salary cap. "Our long-term goal is to be one of the world's best leagues. We can't do that without investing in stars," says Gazidis.

Soccer has forever been the game of the future in the U.S. No one realized in the 1970s, when the North American Soccer League (NASL) was a momentary sensation with the famed New York Cosmos, how far away that future would be. "The NASL generation is now reaching positions of power," notes Gazidis, referring to such people as ESPN programming boss John Skipper, who recently committed $100 million for World Cup English-language rights for the U.S. through 2014. "We're in the sweet spot."

The league will soon announce expansion, with a new franchise going to Toronto. Garber expects to have 16 teams by 2010. He is more than aware that soccer in the U.S. has been more promise than delivery. But the global game in one of the most globalized countries now makes sense. "The people who don't believe never will," he says. "The people who believe always will. Now we're converting people who were on the fence."