Yes, MLS never will be the NFL, the English Premier League, or Italy's Serie A. Still, the league that got off to a rocky start in 1996 has diversified its ownership - previously, a couple of billionaire owners kept the league afloat - and network television partners in two languages now pay small rights fees to show their games. The MLS used to pay the networks to show them.

Things are so good that every MLS game was televised nationally or regionally last season.

In the old days, many teams played in NFL stadiums and did not share in stadium revenues. But by the time the Philadelphia franchise begins play in spring 2010, MLS hopes to have 10 to 12 of the 16 franchises playing in soccer-specific stadiums, like the 18,500-seat park planned in Chester.

That's money in the bank and a significant threshold for a league that had an average attendance of 16,770 in 2007, second highest in league history after its inaugural 1996 season.

"It provides a top-level, intimate atmosphere," MLS president Mark Abbott said this week of a soccer-specific stadium. "Secondly, the ancillary revenues you are able to generate are a key component."

Abbott was not willing to confirm the Chester announcement, but a 2 p.m. news conference has been scheduled for today at the future site of the new stadium.

While Philadelphia's ability to provide a suitable place to play and a deep-pocketed ownership group was vital to winning the franchise, real progress has been made on the field by the MLS, too. Signing the world's most famous player, David Beckham, was a powerful symbol even if Beckham showed up injured and has been covered more by The E! Network than ESPN.

That signing and several others represent a departure from the way the league had done business. Although MLS has little intention of reprising the old free-spending North American Soccer League, franchises are now allowed to exceed league-imposed salary limits for "designated players."

Just as important, the franchises identify those players themselves instead of having the league allocate its stars, the way it had when it first began play.

Remembering that first season, "We didn't have a deep player pool of [American] professional players," said Nick Sakiewicz, managing partner of the local MLS ownership group, who has been involved with MLS from the start. "It's amazing to see the change in 13 years."

Peter Vermes, who grew up in Delran, was one of those MLS original players and now is technical director of the league's Kansas City Wizards. Vermes recalled the first year of play as "kind of disorganized" and said the level of play actually dropped in the late '90s, when more Americans began going to Europe.

Vermes started for the U.S. team in the 1990 World Cup and was a pioneer, one of the first Americans to play professionally in Europe. He remembered how, throughout the '90s, the U.S. national team "had to be very strategic" in its play, often settling for ties. Now, he said, the U.S. team is an opponent to be respected. He said the domestic league was largely responsible for this.

American players continue to leave MLS for opportunities in Europe, as do players in Brazil and Argentina. That's the way the soccer market works. Vermes said the proper way to look at MLS and its place in the world is to remember that the top tier of leagues typically have several rich clubs that stand above their domestic competition.

"After that, there's a drop-off, and we easily compete with all those other teams," Vermes said. "We just don't have that Barcelona, that Real Madrid, that Manchester United."

Teenage Americans routinely start in MLS, but the league no longer relies so much on phenoms for publicity. Freddy Adu, then 14 years old, got massive attention when he signed with D.C. United in 2003. He now plays for top Portuguese club Benfica.

While at MLS, Adu didn't necessarily live up to his hype. But Northeast Philadelphia native Bobby Convey understood what was going on. Convey, who plays for Reading in the English Premier League, had been the youngest MLS signee at age 16 in 2000.

"I was 16. I was never, ever going to be as good as anyone said. There were too many unrealistic goals set," Convey said in a recent interview. "If I didn't score eight goals a game and we didn't win the league and I wasn't MVP by the time I was 18, then I was a failure."

Within MLS, the league's "Game First" initiative focuses on competition, looking to draw soccer-connected fans. For MLS, the idea of having a SuperLiga, with MLS and Mexican Primera Division teams competing, is to grow the Latino market and to prove to those hard-core fans that MLS has a representative product.

So while Beckham still gets the lion's share of the publicity - MLS said Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy jersey was the top-selling player jersey in the world in any sport in 2007 - other stars coming in such as Argentine midfielder Marcelo Gallardo at D.C. United are just as important in expanding the fan base while improving the level of play.

MLS may not be getting top international players at the height of their careers, but the league has proven it isn't a retirement home, either.

Vermes praised league officials for understanding they had to spend more money on the world soccer market, that once the soccer-specific stadiums got up and running and more revenue began coming in, MLS couldn't just be in the export business.

"They figured out that they had to push the envelope," Vermes said, adding that this is especially important as the league expands to 16 clubs, adding franchises in places such as Philadelphia. While a league like the NFL basically has a finite talent pool, Vermes said, "in soccer, you have a global bucket to bring in players."

Find more stories about Philadelphia's new MLS franchise at http://go.philly.

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Mike Jensen

at 215-854-4489 or mjensen@phillynews.com.