Power of Caring
  presented by CIGNA

MLS owners, open your wallets

New boss Garber must have the bullets to go to war

Click here for more on this story

Posted: Friday August 06, 1999 05:45 PM

After all is said and done, it keeps coming down to the same thing for any company in the global marketplace -- its product.

You can do all the marketing and public relations in the world, but if you don't have the product, then you can't sell it.

The same thing goes for sports, where the players will determine the quality of the product.

That's the dilemma facing Major League Soccer and new commissioner Don Garber in a venture that is as international as any other business on this planet.

In the wake of this week's firing of Doug Logan because of stagnant game attendance and TV ratings, how can another so-called soccer outsider -- Garber has some 15 years of experience in the NFL -- expect to wave a magic wand and make things better without spending more money, and lots of it.

Garber's regime must begin with improving the product on the field. You get what you pay for. The league is averaging a tad over 15,000 a game. The quality of play is OK, but nothing to get excited about. If the owners want higher numbers, they better be prepared to dig deeper into their wallets, especially for the international players.

The initial foreign class of MLS -- 1996 -- was exceptional. Perhaps it was too exceptional that we all got spoiled expecting more every season. That first group included Carlos Valderrama, Roberto Donadoni, Jorge Campos and Marco Etcheverry -- giving the league instant credibility and putting it on the map. They didn't come cheap. Name an international signing since then that comes close. Carlos Hermosillo? OK -- I'll give you that.

And . . .

And . . .

You get the point.

Since then, the next three years of viable foreign bodies has fallen considerably short. Stern John (Trinidad & Tobago), who was discovered in the A-League, has been a big boost to the Columbus Crew.

Ronald Cerritos (El Salvador) has been a consistent force offensively for the San Jose Clash. And the heads-up play of Jorge Dely Valdes (Panama) has played a key role for the first-place Colorado Rapids. While expensive, Ariel Graziani (Ecuador/Argentina) is still very much an unknown in New England.

They're good players, very good players, but are they name players? Do these players excite the fans enough? Can they bend steel in their bare feet? Can they put fannies in the seats?

A winning team should do that, but you need on-field personalities to get the casual soccer fan and general sports fan interested.

It keeps coming down to money, doesn't it? Compared with the rest of the soccer world, MLS can't spend that much. Now, this isn't to denigrate what the team owners, investors and operators have spent over the first four seasons -- they have lost at least 20 million a year -- it's just a fact of life.

New Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber poses after a news conference. AP

Let's put it into perspective. The league's entire player salary budget of $20.4 million doesn't come close to the transfer fee of $35.7 million paid for Nicolas Anelka, the 20-year-old French international who on Thursday moved from Arsenal (England) to Real Madrid (Spain). Anelka, whose transfer was the second highest ever worldwide and a record for Spain, agreed to a seven-year deal worth $3.9 million a season.

In more than two decades of reporting soccer, I have seen this same vicious cycle affect teams: In the first year the money is fresh and you can spend and do a lot of things. In the second year, the money starts to get tight because you lost more than you had planned in the first year. By the third year, many teams are in trouble financially and some actually go out of business, while others are sold.

In MLS, these men are millionaires and billionaires and have some money to burn. They have given their commitment to the league through 2003. But given their losses, they may become wary of spending and losing even more.

Waiting for the American stars

Waiting for many American players to mature into a marquee role will take some time. With but a handful of true American impact players around -- just check out how few U.S. players are the creative force or the main striker of their MLS teams, which is fodder for another column -- it's the marquee foreigner with a playing personality who is the driving force of the teams and who has the true potential to increase interest.

American players have improved, and the quality of players coming out of college -- the Dallas Burn's Jason Kreis and D.C. United's Ben Olsen, for example -- are turning heads. That's heartening for the future of the game. And it should be noted that four of the top five scorers in the league at present are American.

But just remember that it's evolution, and not revolution. Until an American version of Michael Owen comes along, we will have to be patient with the development, which sometimes seemingly crawls at a snail's pace.

I'm not saying load up on high-priced players, because the league can't afford their salaries, let alone transfer fees.

Here's one solution to get fans excited and to fill empty seats: Each MLS team should be allowed to have one franchise player, a marquee player, if you will, to build around. That player could receive as much as $1 million a season (killing the $1.7 million salary cap). The three other foreigners on the club would be of the same quality as of today's supporting cast.

United already has its franchise player in Etcheverry. The Tampa Bay Mutiny has another in Valderrama. Donadoni filled the bill with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars in 1996-97.

Of course, this is much easier said than done with transfer prices on the international market skyrocketing every day.

I realize it is easy to spend other people's money. But sometimes you have to spend money to make money, or in this case, not to lose as much money.

The bottom line is that you will have an even better product to market.

If the owners don't go out and upgrade their product, then the hiring of Garber to take full advantage of his abilities and strengths will go for naught. He will be saddled with the same limitations as Logan.

The owners have voted to oust Logan and bring in Garber. Now it's time for them to vote again -- with their wallets, for the survival of Major League Soccer.

Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of Soccer Magazine.

To submit a question or comment to Michael Lewis, click here.

 

Related information
Stories
CNN/SI's Michael Lewis: Metros' woes CNN/SI's Michael Lewis: Missed opportunity for U.S. soccer CNN/SI's Michael Lewis: Fiorentina rules Gotham
Multimedia
Click here for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.