The following are comments from today’s’ teleconference with MLS Commissioner Doug Logan and Deputy Commissioner Sunil Gulati: Logan on attendance during MLS’ third season: “Last Sunday we finished the first season where the playoff participants were determined a week early, and despite that we had some interesting games and decent attendances on the final weekend … We finished with an attendance average of 14,312, just a few hundred fans below where we finished the 1997 season (14,616) … In terms of absolute attendance, 2,747,897 million people bought a ticket to an MLS game this year … this is very healthy, whether we’re 5th, 6th or 7th in the world … All attendances get skewed by single events like beanie-baby nights that draw huge numbers … We had 31 games draw over 20,000 fans … We didn’t have any events that got 90,000, but we can do better … The fact that we played through the World Cup, which many thought would spell doom and gloom for the league and did these numbers, I’m pretty satisfied.” Logan on the overall level of play and the league’s new players: “We’re also very pleased with the level of on-field play … concerns that expansion would dilute the talent base have been alleviated by the best crop of young players in our short history … We’ve seen players such as Ben Olsen, Josh Wolff, Clint Mathis and Mike Petke, just to name a few, who have jumped into meaningful roles and contributed to the success of their teams … Another first-year player, Stern John, lit it up as a newcomer, while Chad Deering came home and played phenomenally for Dallas.” Gulati on why Jorge Campos decided to leave now, rather than wait until the end of the season: “The first thing is that Jorge wants to play … He talked with (Fire Head Coach Bob) Bradley and (Fire General Manager Peter) Wilt and us here at the league a few weeks ago regarding his playing situation … Pumas had requested for Campos to return earlier than scheduled due to their dire injury situation. “His leaving is the result of a unique situation where an international star returned to the team and could not get into the starting 11 in front of Zach Thornton, a strong candidate for the Pepsi Goalkeeper of the Year … It was a unique set of circumstances because Jorge arrived on the scene for only one game before the World Cup … While he was gone, they won 11 in a row.” Gulati on Campos’ future with MLS for the 1999 season: “We expect him to return next season as a member of a Fire … He cannot come back this season once he plays in a Mexican league game, due to FIFA rules … The Fire would like him back next year … whether that changes between now and next April, depending on what deals come along, who knows? … Especially with the emergence of Josh Wolff, they ran out of room for Campos to play in the field … Jorge wants to come back to Chicago, but he also wants to play every day.” Gulati on what Campos means to MLS: “Jorge has been an extraordinary catalyst for the development of this league … His willingness to come here and be a pioneer and play for both our teams and his Mexican League teams has been unbelievable … Yes, it’s a tricky situation for Bob Bradley, but he’s handled it extremely well and with great professionalism.” Gulati on perceived Mexican player adjustment issues in MLS: “The adjustment problem for guys like Campos and Carlos Hermosillo and Damian and Francisco Uribe is not cultural, they just need a longer time to get acclimated because they are the only players playing in two leagues simultaneously … Campos had his trouble because the Mexican national team decided to train in Europe for five weeks and then came back when his team had won 11 straight with a 24-year-old keeper … Damian had a great first year and now he’s trying to overcome injury problems.” Logan on television ratings and the league’s broadcast situation: “We are near the end of the first year of our broadcast television package with ABC … Right now, we’re at a 0.9 rating, which is about one-tenth of a point below where we want to be, but we do have three games remaining where we should have around a 1.0 rating … However, we are delivering the key male 18-34 demographic that our partners are looking for … As far as our DirecTV satellite subscriptions go, we have doubled that number from 2,000 last season to 4,000 this year. Logan on the Tampa Bay Mutiny’s lease situation at Raymond James Stadium: “We are still evaluating the Tampa Bay situation … We have not yet signed a lease at the Buccaneers’ new stadium, but we are in constant communication with the powers-that-be in that community and by the time MLS Cup ’98 rolls around, we should know where the Mutiny will play its games next season.” Logan on potential attendance numbers for MLS Cup ’98 at the Rose Bowl: “Right now, we have 23,996 tickets sold for MLS Cup ’98, as of the end of the day yesterday (September 28) … Those numbers reflect the best pre-sell we’ve ever had for one of our Cup games … With the game just less than one month away, I would say that the anticipated attendance of 35,000-plus without the Galaxy is likely, while we expect that number to be a record-setting crowd of more than 50,000 if Los Angeles advances through the playoffs.” Logan on midweek games and their attendance repercussions: “Given the rigor of scheduling 192 games and playing in and around a World Cup and satisfying our national television commitments, we don’t have the luxury of playing all our games on the weekend … We do midweek games for a wide variety of reasons, including trying to make sure we stay in the eyes and minds of everyone, particularly print media … We also have cable television deals at the team and national levels, and those impact our schedule … We know we are losing potential gate by scheduling midweek games, but next year we will have between five and eight games per team in the middle of the week … The hiring of Game Face Marketing will help sell season tickets (currently averaging about 4,000 per team), hopefully we will reach the 5, 6, 7,000 plateau … The true success of any league in this country has been their ability to develop scarcity for its product.” Gulati on potential rules changes for the 1999 season: “We have not yet reached a final decision on number of international players per team (currently at five players) … We have a three-year exemption to use as many as five foreign players per team (instead of the USSF-mandated four) which began last season … There are no anticipated change in rules of play, but we (the competition committee) should make the final decisions in about two weeks.” Logan, Gulati on any changes to roster size: Logan: “The rosters in their present form, with discovery and Project-40 players is more than adequate.” Gulati: “We’ve looked at the minutes played by players 19 and 20 (on a 20-man roster) and cannot see how the quality of play would be improved on a team, since those last two players are seeing so little action … In the long term perhaps, for younger players, it could be a possibility, but with the Project-40 players, coaches still have essentially 22 players at their disposal.” Logan on whether or not the same team winning the championship is bad for MLS: “Absolutely not … Tournaments and playoffs are designed to create a win by the league’s best team … The NFL has had dynasties, too … Is it bad for the NBA if Michael Jordan gets a ring every year? No … Is it bad for baseball that the Yankees field an excellent team every year? No … The Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls, and then there were a few of the same teams that won two or three championships in a span of four or five years … There are matchups in the making which are going to be very interesting in October … The final could be spectacular, and if D.C. wins again, then it will still be spectacular.” Logan on the prospects for an MLS team in the Rochester, New York area: “The challenge that we put forth to the political leaders in Rochester is this: the promise and development of a soccer-stadium that meets our criteria would vault Rochester to the top of the expansion list … We want to reward a community that has demonstrated great support for the sport … The only key that is missing is a stadium where we can play our game and control our own destiny.” Logan on future expansion sites for MLS: “Our next round of expansion should be in the year 2000 … Our ownership will have to vote, but we will recommend going forward with two teams … Among the candidates will be Philadelphia and Houston at the top (both require stadium solutions), with Rochester in the mix … Somewhere down the line we are also looking at an additional team in both the New York and Los Angeles areas, and we are closely watching the San Diego referendum … Portland, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, which has a great grass-roots movement are also in the running … The stadium in Seattle won’t be ready until 2003.” Logan on St. Louis’ future with MLS: “Basically, three criteria determine where to go, since right now we’re not a league that should be in 28 or 30 cities … Sixteen or twenty teams are right for us … The first thing we look at is where the team will play, especially a grass field of proper length and width … Also, a proven core audience for soccer, with a business community that has commercial affiliates that want to help with local exposure and sponsorship … And finally, I know that (NHL Commissioner) Gary Bettman used to sleep with what he called “the bible,” which was a list of the top 30 media markets for television … We know what kind of tune-ins we’re getting in non-MLS market … St. Louis has a wonderful legacy for soccer … You could say that St. Louis is just missing two things: a home-run hitter who went to sit in the sand, and a suitable stadium for soccer.” Logan on MLS teams’ supporter’s clubs: “The relationship between them and the league is unique … They’re not shy, and they all have my private line … Not a day goes by where I don’t hear from them … They’re all uniquely qualified to be commissioner of MLS, because they tell me that every day! … Their involvement is certainly a phenomenon unique to soccer and plays a vital part of our growth … Both Miami and Chicago had supporters’ clubs before they had stadium leases.”