Signing Thierry Henry could be a big step in the right direction for the MLS in their effort to improve grassroots football in America, and to catch some of the World Cup fever from the relative success of the United States. So far, attendance for the MLS per game is up by 8.5% from 2009, and is at a 3 year high.
The average attendance is on pace to be the third highest in league history, and the second highest since the first year of 1996. The success of the United States in the Confederations Cup and World Cup has brought new interest to football in the United States, and despite European leagues still having a strong backing, domestic football in the US might be at it’s best standing since the formation of the league in 1996.
One reason has been the opening of new franchises, like in Philadelphia, and new stadiums, like Red Bull Arena in New York. Red Bull Arena replaces Giants Stadium, and has gained a reputation of being possibly the best football stadium in the United States. With a capacity of just over 25,000 it has a better atmosphere than the three-quarters empty Giants Stadium that the New York Red Bulls used to play in. So far, the new stadium has worked, with the Red Bulls experiencing a 43% increase in attendance from last year, when they finished bottom, winning just 5 games. For the team that had been in the playoff final the year before, it was a huge drop, and attendance suffered. For the MLS, it was a problem; for the league to become successful and sustainable, there needed to be a successful franchise in New York, which for those who remember, carried the old NASL at times back in the 1970s.
However, this season, things are looking brighter for the Red Bulls and MLS; a new stadium, and a team that has turned things around to be second in the Eastern Conference under the tutelage of Hans Backe. The question is whether it will be possible for the Red Bulls to sustain this performance.
That’s where Thierry Henry comes in. Despite being 32 and spending the last 12 months sitting on the bench for France and Barcelona he still has the quality and speed to be a major impact for the Red Bulls. He’ll be better for the Red Bulls than David Beckham has been for the LA Galaxy; unlike Beckham, Henry will not clash with more affluent team members like Beckham did with Landon Donovan. Furthermore, unlike Beckham, Henry has decided to not pursue an international career, and so will not need to spend parts of the season playing in Europe. All in all, Henry will be better for the MLS than Beckham did; he is arguably a better player at 32 than David Beckham was, and will be a more team driven player than Beckham was. And with the Red Bulls signing another former Barcelona player, Rafa Marquez, their future looks quite bright, as does the MLS’s future.
Weekend Preview
The MLS season gets back underway this weekend after a break during last week, when the MLS All-Stars were thrashed 5-2 by Manchester United. Chicago Fire, who were conference finalists last year are 6 points out of a playoff spot, but just got Freddie Ljungberg from Seattle in a move to bolster their playoff hopes. Chicago face Bruce Arena managed Los Angeles Galaxy, who despite missing World Cup players Donovan and striker Edson Buddle, are top of the Western Conference and are the best team in the league. The other big story in the league will be Thierry Henry’s first league game for the Red Bulls, as they face the Houston Dynamo, who despite being second bottom in the Western Conference are only 4 points back of a playoff spot (The MLS prides itself on equality, and because of that, teams like Real Salt Lake can go from fairly abject to winning the league).
Article by LArsenal23
Great post man, always interesting to see how the game is progressing over in the states. Hope that the Bulls manage to get Marquez, thought he played brilliantly for Mexico during the world cup. He might be a bit cynical and like a dive but his passing has always been world class. With him and Henry on board do they have a chance of winning the championship?
Excellent first post: this site is really coming alive, very exciting!
One technical question: the Red Bulls obviously have a lot of money, but I thought each club was only allowed one designated player? With Henry as well as Juan Pablo Angel presumably commanding European-level renumeration, how is that compatible with the MLS salary cap? And how can it be possible for them to also sign Rafael Marquez? (Ok, that was three technical questions: please forgive my ignorance.)
M.
savicevic: I think it depends how quickly the team gels together. Henry had a couple of assists yesterday evening, but defensively New York seemed a little naive, and conceded 2 goals they probably shouldn’t have, especially as Houston went down to 10. Rafa Marquez, though, should give them a real upgrade defensively. But to answer your question, I think they do have a fairly good chance of winning; besides Henry, Angel and Marquez they have a some solid midfield with Macoumba Kandji, Seth Stammler, Dane Richards and Joel Lindpere all being solid.
Molefromtheministry: Each team is allowed 2 Designated Player spots; they can sign a third Designated Player for a $250,000 “luxury tax” which is split among the other teams that don’t have a 3rd Designated Player.
For each player, $335,000 is charged to the salary cap and paid by the league (who own and pay all contracts; it’s why if Donovan was to leave for City the league would have to approve), the rest is paid by the owner. So if you have a rich owner, like New York does, you can afford to have these players.
Hope that answers both of your questions.
It does. Thanks. I do find it intriguing that the MLS (and other professional American sports’ leagues) operate under a “socialist” system which would be considered unworkable as well as potentially unlawful in Europe.
Yeah, it is interesting.
I think one reason may be that the players union in the NFL, NBA, and MLS isn’t as strong as the union in MLB, which is the one sport that doesn’t have a salary cap. I think in the MLS, it’s also a case of not trying to overreach, like the NASL did.
Great post, thanks!
I expected Youri Djorkaeff to play the same or similar role for NY Red Bulls (and the MLS) as Henry might play.
However, it seems to me the salary cap is already a constrain for the further developments of the MLS. What do you think?
The thing with Youri Djorkaeff is that he wasn’t as big as an international superstar as Thierry Henry is. I don’t have the numbers on hand, but I’m sure that watching European games has definitely jumped up in the second half of this decade, especially as games became more available.
Re: Salary Cap: While it does hamper signing a bunch of big name players (which is why the Designated Player rule was put in), it’s probably better in the long run, as it forces teams to develop cheap, local talent. The current crop of the US national team, for example, have all come up in the MLS era. The Salary Cap also ensures that owners don’t take too much of a loss, which is important for sustainability.
Well, I’m not following MLS too closely.
But I had an impression, the circumstances have changed – the salary cap was quite reasonable when there was not too much interest for the game, but after several years of development and successes of the national team at international events, it seems the league (and the soccer it self) attracts by far more attention compared to what it was.
I’m not trying to argue your position, but IMO in order not to lose the momentum the league has to deal with 3 issues
- to attract more money and attention from the general public
- to make the league attractive for the acting first class players (while still the league is a kind of Florida retirement for European players)
- to attract college students
With the salary cap regulation it doesn’t seem to be possible to settle the issues mentioned.
I think MLS has a rule on limitation the foreign players by 8 for each team?
Do you think it’s not enough to have the local talents developed?
“I’m not trying to argue your position, but IMO in order not to lose the momentum the league has to deal with 3 issues
- to attract more money and attention from the general public
- to make the league attractive for the acting first class players (while still the league is a kind of Florida retirement for European players)
- to attract college students”
These are three great points. However there is alot to be said about a nation’s history and standing in the game. Could the MLS attract more, talented players from Europe even if they did increase the wage structure? Will the game ever be popular in the US? If the goal is long term progression over 10/20/50 years – occasional marquee signings and developing the national team into a consistant top 10 side then I think they are on their way.
Thanks,
I’m pretty sure there is already some huge interest for the game in the US.
From what I heard, there is a lot of attention given to elementary school and teen aged soccer (which is simply great).
And with the successes of the national team there seems to be some interest from the ordinary sports fans.
Besides, the immigration is high and a lot of people have the heritage of being a soccer fan.
So now IMHO it’s time to feed the fire.
With big names, with scandals, with all the elements of show we used to see in Europe.
MLS is presently ranked even behind WNBA, so how would be the gap between the children soccer and MLS filled without some serious money inflows?
Are there any NCAA soccer programs presently?
I think you make some great points, ILay, and I’ll try and get to all of them. There are college soccer programs, some pretty good ones too. Several players have graduated from the NCAA to the National team, and a lot of players in the MLS come from college soccer.
One difference between development in Europe and development here in the US is that players are usually playing for their high schools, independent travel teams and then college teams before they turn professional, instead of being developed at club’s youth academies. That’s one thing that I think the MLS should change; instead of having players developed at colleges and what they call the Premier Development League, they should all be at the MLS teams. Some teams have PDL teams.
There is a lot more interest for the game now than there has been before, and I think the MLS will start to reap that success soon. A couple of things that may be drawbacks is that the league plays during the summer here, which can be pretty hard to play in (anybody remember the 1994 World Cup?), and could be a drawback for some players. Another problem is that there are many who, while supporting the US national team, and have a big interest in the game, support European teams and don’t follow the MLS.
Still, for a league that is 14 years old, it’s doing fairly well, and expanding. Once it gets to 20 teams, I think they’ll start to look at the possibility of expanding wage caps, and making the MLS a bigger league than it is.
that should be “and I’ll try to get to all of them”
First of all thanks a lot for the great insight.
There is certainly some interest towards MLS in my part of the world – after all we know perfectly well how successful US teams usually are in other sports, so watching the soccer being incubated is of big interest.
I might be wrong, but I always considered the high school and college sports systems in the US to be a huge competitive advantage over the systems existent in Europe. Thus, I was thinking trying to benefit from this (already existing) system should be among the top priority of MLS official.
Therefore i’m somehow surprised to see yourself preferring the European farm-clubbing way.
I’d really appreciate if you could elaborate your viewpoint on that.
Thanks for an interesting discussion.
I think there are arguments for and against the benefits of high school and college sports. It’s good to learn how to be competitive early, but that is a double edged sword; I’m of the opinion that the need to win hampers development because in school teams you usually see the bigger players playing; not always the best, but the bigger. Obviously, maybe that doesn’t change in academy level, but I just feel that a non-pressure learning environment is better for developing players than pressure situations of competitive school sports. I may be wrong, and there are obviously players who come through the system fine, and I’ve seen some good players at high school and college level.
I’m glad to see there is interest in the MLS. I’ll try to keep up to date with new developments.
For example, people have bought the New York Cosmos name and aim to have the Cosmos be a second New York team in the MLS.
There is a diffiulty with this though. The way the MLS is organised each team has an area that is its own, so you can’t have two teams close to each other, ie you can’t have two New York teams. Can’t remember the exact rules now, but from what I gather Cosmos are going to try and buy out the “area” that Red Bulls are currently in, so New York Red Bulls would move somewhere else (and presumably become something else Red Bulls)
Only just found this blog, it’s interesting so far, keep it up all who contribute.
“For example, people have bought the New York Cosmos name and aim to have the Cosmos be a second New York team in the MLS.”
Very interesting, look forward to reading this. Might end up stealing support from the Bulls.
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