Post-David Beckham — or more pointedly, post-David Beckham’s latest injury — Major League Soccer is in a familiar predicament: it has “a selling job to do,” says the New York Sun’s Paul Gardner, who says the league needs to realize that not only does it have to sell the rest of its players, it also has to convince the American public that soccer is as “attractive, interesting, and exciting” as basketball, football and baseball.
Which is why the days of Marco Etcheverry, Mauricio Cienfuegos and Carlos Valderrama need to be urgently recalled. The Euro-centric approach adopted by many coaches after their departure didn’t supply the flair or flamboyancy needed to make people sit up and take notice. Gardner says too many “prosaic” foreign imports led to games that “were nothing more than dull athletic contests with plenty of running, but not many goals.” Meanwhile, attendances stagnated at around 15,000.
However, that was the past. Attendances are up slightly this year — near 16,000 — but more importantly, sponsorships are up, a real TV deal is in place and six of the league’s 13 teams have their own stadiums. Oh, and goals per game are up, too. And the Latin Americans are returning. In fact, three of them, Juan Pablo Angel, Luciano Emilio and Juan Toja, are on pace to make the short list for MLS MVP. From a selling standpoint, it’s crucial that MLS stay down this road, as the league has “a potentially huge base of Latin American fans,” says Gardner, who adds that signing more Angels, Emilios and Denilsons “will make the job of selling the sport that much easier.”