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| Friday, September 14, 2001 24:14 EST |
Team cuts or not, MLS will survive
By Jeff Bradley
[ESPN The Magazine]
Everything is going to be fine.
Major League Soccer is not going to disband any
teams, or move any (yet). The 2001 season will get
under way with the SuperDraft in
February at Fort Lauderdale, and it will be business as usual for the
12-team league. For better or worse. For now.
Does everybody feel better now?
Of course, it's nothing more than an opinion. But here
is what it's based on:
About a week ago at Billy Walsh's annual backyard
tournament, someone whispered in my ear that the
league was talking seriously about cutting the Miami
Fusion and San Jose Earthquakes and playing with 10
teams this season. "This is real," he said. "But you
didn't hear it from me." On my way home, my cell phone
rang. It was another one of my regular sources calling
to tell me the same thing, adding, "Hardly anyone
knows."
It's funny how soccer news gets deciphered these days,
because by the time I got home, there was a discussion
already started on the topic of "MLS Contraction" on
the BigSoccer boards. I couldn't help but laugh. I
mean, here is this supposeedly "super privileged"
information being discussed by a bunch of screen
names. Oh well.
For me, the story started gaining legitimacy when no
one would comment. No one.
Finally, it was confirmed by several sources that the
league's board of directors was discussing
consolidation at their annual meetings, and that those
discussions were ongoing.
So, last Thursday, I decided to write about those
discussions. Phone calls were placed and the "no
comments" started coming in rapid succession. For me,
nothing says, "This is serious" like "no comment."
It's like the old, "I can't confirm or deny" line. You
hear that come out of someone's mouth and you just
know something is up.
When the story moved on ESPN.com, and soon thereafter
on CNNSI.com, it was like our little cult of
internet-dependant soccer fans had been fire-bombed.
Really, panic set in. It was as if I wrote that the
league was going to fold, even though I tried to make
it clear that these were "discussions" and that
"nothing had been decided."
In my own mind, I was thinking, maybe cutting back is
a smart move. I've always been a proponent of MLS
finding the 10 best soccer markets before expanding
and, even though this was a backward way of achieving
that goal, I didn't see it as the end of the world.
I heard a lot about the "negative image" it would send
to the sporting world, and I couldn't help but think,
in my office, at a magazine where we seldom talk about
anything but sports, there may be two people on our
staff other than myself who could tell you there are
currently 12 teams in MLS. The rest have no clue.
I know it sounds harsh, but the tarnished image would
have been little more than our little cult sulking for
a few days. It would have been bad for those people
who support the San Jose Clash/Earthquakes and the
Miami Fusion and for those people who work for those
teams, but lest anyone think "MLS Shame" would have
been plastered across any front pages, it's time for a
reality check. It would have been "Sports Briefs" as
usual.
Of course, we members of the cult have every right to
take MLS seriously, to lose sleep over every sub-10,000 crowd, to get worked up over the fact that
every team in the league wears red, blue or black (or
at least it seems that way), to e-mail each other back
and forth, wondering when teams are going to start
making some moves for next season. We love this stuff,
and we desperately want the league to succeed, if only
for selfish reasons.
I'm usually the positive guy, and I try to focus on
the game, the teams and the players. There are enough
people out there on the internet filling your brain
with "Will MLS Survive?" stories. But I've got to
admit, this offseason it has been difficult. You talk
to normally upbeat people and their tone has become so
somber. Maybe it's because of the lawsuit and the
disclosure that MLS is losing tons of money. Maybe
it's because I talk mostly to GMs, coaches and players,
and the whole system has been put on hold while the
board of directors tries to decide on budgets. Really,
it's been hard to write happy.
We want to hear something -- anything -- positive. That
a new stadium is really going to be built, not just
that a new stadium is being talked about. That players
are signing.
Some things we want to hear, but get the feeling we're
not going to be hearing any time soon. For example, we
want to hear someone from the Miami group come forward
and say, with their name attached to the quote, "The
Fusion will be here beyond 2001, I guarantee it." We
want to hear that San Jose and Dallas and Tampa Bay
and D.C. United have been sold to super-wealthy
investors who want to help MLS move along.
But more than anything, I think we just want to hear
that everything is going to be fine.
So, that's what I'm saying today. I got a call late on
Friday afternoon from an MLS official, who left a
voice message, another polite "no comment." He went on
to wish me a Happy New Year and then added, "You
didn't hear this from me ... but that stuff you've been
writing about ... I don't think any of it's going to
happen."
So there you have it.
I've been told that commissioner Don Garber will be
addressing all this stuff next week, and it's anyone's
guess what the spin will be. I predict he'll say, "We
discuss these types of things every year. It's just
the nature of these meetings. No teams are being cut.
There is no need for anyone to be concerned."
So I ask again, does everybody feel better now?
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