After the league began in 1996, after two original MLS franchises folded, a couple of billionaire owners kept the league afloat. At one point, two ownership groups, headed by Philip Anschutz and Lamar Hunt, owned nine of the 10 MLS franchises.

League officials say too many franchises were tenants in NFL stadiums, making it impossible to turn a profit. MLS games were televised, but the league paid for that to happen.

Yes, MLS will never be the NFL or the English Premier League or Italy's SerieA. But MLS has diversified its ownership, and network television partners in two languages now pay small rights fees. Last season, every MLS game was televised nationally or regionally. By the time the Philadelphia franchise begins play in the spring of 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 a significant threshold for the league that had an average attendance of 16,770 in 2007, second highest in league history, after its inaugural 1996 season.

"It provides top-level intimate atmosphere," MLS president Mark Abbott said this week of the soccer-specific stadiums. He was not willing to confirm the Chester announcement

"Secondly, the ancillary revenues you are able to generate are a key component," Abbott said.

But the real progress has been made on the field. 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. But that signing and several others represent a departure in how the league does business.

Although MLS has little intention of reprising the old free-spending North American Soccer League, franchises are allowed to go over league-imposed salary limits for "designated players." Just as important, the franchises are allowed to 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 by any opponent all over the field. He said the domestic league is 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 its domestic competition.

"After that, there's a dropoff, 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 nows 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 in 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 No. 1 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."