Skip to content
Sports
Link copied to clipboard

MLS stars belong on own fields

For the second time in 2 years, Major League Soccer awarded its all-star game to a venue that seats well under 30,000.

PPL Park's capacity is likely to be expanded in order to host the MLS All-Star Game. (Ron Cortes/Staff file photo)
PPL Park's capacity is likely to be expanded in order to host the MLS All-Star Game. (Ron Cortes/Staff file photo)Read more

For the second time in 2 years, Major League Soccer awarded its all-star game to a venue that seats well under 30,000.

On Tuesday, MLS commissioner Don Garber announced that PPL Park would host the 2012 match, a year after Red Bull Arena, just 2 hours up the New Jersey Turnpike, did the same last season.

It's not that MLS can't fill major stadiums. In fact, since the league decided its best would take on some of the top clubs from around the world, MLS has seen ravenous numbers in ticket requests for its marquee event. In 2009, nearly 71,000 packed Reliant Stadium in Houston when the All-Stars challenged European soccer giant Manchester United.

The revenue, in not just ticket sales, but in merchandising, advertising and the potential of attracting new major corporate sponsors that comes from selling out giant arenas is vast.

But Garber doesn't care. He feels keeping MLS, still a niche outfit in this country, in the niche arenas that are popping up all the United States and Canada will serve all those purposes in their own way - but over the long term.

"Our owners and public partners have made deep commitments to building stadiums throughout the U.S. and Canada and we have to bring profile to those buildings,"Garber said. "So we've made a commitment to those owners and we are going to bring our big events to them. It's a part of building the game."

For Garber to feel MLS owes its owners who have built these intimate stadiums is refreshing, because in many ways, MLS does.

In 2001, MLS was arguably in shambles. The game lacked fanfare and the numbers who did attend games looked laughable, especially on nationwide broadcasts. That year, MLS saw its average attendance numbers hover around 14,000 with many of its teams playing in arenas that seats over 50,000.

It looked like amateur hour.

Today, MLS clubs boast 14 soccer-specific stadiums, the result of a gutsy idea by Lamar Hunt to build the first for the Columbus Crew and follow up with Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Tex., home of FC Dallas. The latest, Houston Park for the Dynamo, is currently under construction. MLS averaged 17,872 at the end of the 2011 season in large part because a bulk of the league's clubs have their own place.

"It's simple, soccer fans want to see soccer matches in a soccer stadium," said Union CEO and managing partner Nick Sakiewicz. "This is not to slight American football stadiums, but fans don't want to see soccer on a field with lines all over it. It's not authentic."

There are many who believe that soccer will never work in this country. But it's in part to giving this sport a home that it has trumped the NBA in attendance and rivals the NHL. Major League Soccer isn't going away and Garber is right: MLS owes it all to the owners who dug into their own pockets to ensure this wasn't just another fluke.

Training vs. Trial

Many clubs within the English Premier League have taken MLS players to provide roster insurance and a few clubs have now taken players on the Union's roster.

The two that caused the biggest stir are the most recent looks at Union forwards Sebastien Le Toux, who returned from a trial spell with Bolton, and 20-year-old striker Danny Mwanga, who, it was revealed yesterday by sports agent Richard Motzkin, will be training for 10 days with EPL side Aston Villa. Motzkin wrote on his Twitter page on Friday: "Another @MLS player in the UK? Yep. @wmgllc client and @PhilaUnion player Danny Mwanga is training with Aston Villa for the next 10 days." The Union later issued a release that Mwanga was in fact headed to Villa.

The news arrived as shock to many supporters since the Union opens its preseason training at YSC Sports in Wayne this week. The same shock when it was revealed that Le Toux was on trial with Bolton. The same shock when the club announced midfielder Freddy Adu was being sent to Spain to train with La Liga club Rayo Vallecano. And when Michael Farfan was sent to Sunderland.

January is a trying time for clubs all over the soccer world, but primarily in Europe. With a tight transfer window to contend with heading into the second half of their league campaigns, it marks the most crucial time for clubs to make a run at league titles, tournaments and berths into the UEFA Champions and Europa Leagues. Tuesday is the close of this January's window and the pressure is on for clubs to bulk up their rosters and, for many, to do so on a tight budget.

But here's the thing.

Training spells are just that. Training.

Although there is vital need for Euro clubs to bolster their rosters, it doesn't mean that an invite to train even has the possibility to end up with a contract.

Plus, consider this: Mwanga, a Congolese native who doesn't have American citizenship, would probably become the third or fourth striker on a team that features Darren Bent and Gabriel Agbonlahor (this is, of course, assuming Mwanga makes Villa's first-team roster). Consider this news nothing more than an intense training session. If it's a 10-day trial as Motzkin mentioned, then all Mwanga is missing is the week at YSC and he will rejoin his teammates when the Union heads down to Orlando next Sunday.

"We are investing a lot in Danny's future, he's not going anywhere," Union scout Diego Gutierrez told the Daily News on SuperDraft day when it was rumored the Union was entertaining offers from other MLS clubs. "He's our asset."

So relax. Big clubs make moves like these all time. The same way clubs shell out big money for a player and then send that same player on loan (just look at Freddy Adu's former situation with Benfica); players take trips to greener pastures all the time. And in many cases, it might just mean when they come back to your side, they are that much better.

Odds and endlines

The Union announced it struck a deal with Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa, which will encompass player development, training methodology and evaluating practices in building both clubs commercially and financially . . . Perhaps the quote of the week came from Nick Sakiewicz on Tuesday's "Daily News Live" when he was asked about shopping Sebastien Le Toux, widely regarded as the face of the franchise: "Do we want to have a face or do we want to win trophies? We are in this business to win championships and we have to do what is best to accomplish that."