The Emergence of MLS

For generations, fathers have taught their sons and daughters about America's pastime: baseball. While passing by a community park on a saturday afternoon, you are very likely to see teenagers playing a pick-up game of basketball. On Sunday afternoons throughout the fall and winter, most active sports fan tune in to watch at least a portion of a televised football game. So where does soccer fit in?

Although soccer is well-known to be the most popular sport in the world, for some time now it has lagged behind baseball, basketball, football, and even hockey in American sports fans' minds. Starting in 1996, Major League Soccer (MLS) had struggled to attract a widespread fan base over the years, but it has recently sprouted in popularity. New teams with large fan bases such as the Seattle Sounders and New York Red Bulls have had recent financial success, in part due to bringing in internationally accomplished soccer athletes such as Clint Dempsey and Thierry Henry.

MLS has multi-million dollar TV contracts with ESPN, NBC Sports and Univision, which are all set to expire at the end of 2014. These facts all show promise for MLS to move in the positive direction, but does it have the potential to eventually be in the same conversation as top European soccer leagues such as the English Premier League, Spain's La Liga, or Germany's Bundesliga?

I would say no, due to the immense cultural and financial gaps American soccer faces compared to European soccer. Like I implicitly stated before, soccer has always been the top sport for European sport fans. Lets compare an English club to an MLS club for a moment. English club Manchester United was created in the late 1800's while the L.A Galaxy, a founding MLS club, originated in 1996. While "Man U" has had generations of excellence, the Galaxy, who is the MLS' most successful franchise with four cup titles, is cheered on by relatively new, American soccer fans.

From a financial standpoint, Manchester United's player budget is much higher than the Galaxy's, due to the English club receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from TV, advertising, and ticket sales revenue each year. Manchester United home games are consistently sellouts with over 75,000 people attending each game, while the L.A Galaxy's average attendance is approximately 22,000, in a 27,000 seated stadium. There is clearly a huge gap between American and European clubs.

However, there are many signs for MLS' imminent growth. Newly established teams such as the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers have passionate, local fan bases that prove to be as energetic as European ones (If you don't believe me, check out the video below). Portland sells close to full capacity with over 20,000 fans attending on average each game, while the Sounders, who play in the same stadium as the Seahawks, sell on average approximately 41,000 tickets per game.

hat is about the same amount of tickets that English powerhouse Chelsea sells for its games. According to Nielsen statistics, in 2012, a regular season match on ESPN between the Sounders and Timbers had 888,000 viewers, while the UEFA Champions League Final match between Bayern Munich and Chelsea had 1,979,000 viewers. The number of views for the Sounders-Timbers game was especially impressive relative to the Bayern-Chelsea game, considering the former was simply a regular season rivalry game while the latter was a championship final.

With new opportunities to grow in markets such as New York City, Miami and Orlando, as well as larger TV contracts and passionate fan bases, MLS has a huge growth upside. On whether it will become a world-renowned league, only time will tell.