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| Thursday, March 21, 2002 15:02 EST |
Teams more competitive as 2002 MLS season kicks off
[Associated Press]
Major League Soccer players, coaches and officials have spent
the last two months trying to convince themselves that subtraction
is positive.
They'll start to learn if that's true on Saturday, when the
leaner league starts its seventh season. There will be only 10
teams instead of 12 following the elimination of teams in Tampa Bay
and Miami.
"They say that was going to make the league stronger," D.C.
United midfielder Richie Williams said. "And the purpose of that
was to not lose as much money and then add more teams in the future
that have a better situation.
"We hope that that's the truth behind it all, and that's what
they're trying to do. The next two years are crucial."
From a competitive standpoint, at least, 10 is indeed better
than 12. The players from the Mutiny and Fusion were dispersed
throughout the league, making every team stronger. As many as six
of the 10 teams could be considered picks to win the title.
"We've never had a team this deep at every position," said
goalkeeper Tim Howard of the New York-New Jersey MetroStars, who
added Miami forward Diego Serna.
The New England Revolution really did have a revolution in the
dispersal draft. They selected league MVP Alex Pineda Chacon,
All-Stars Mamadou Diallo and Carlos Llamosa, and also Steve
Ralston, the league's career leader in minutes played. In Chacon
and Diallo, they have the league's leading goal-scorers each of the
last two seasons.
Kansas City welcomes back Preki Radosavljevic, who helped the
Wizards win the 2000 MLS Cup before going to Miami. Dallas also got
significantly stronger, and Chicago and Los Angeles remain
formidable. To keep up, reigning champion San Jose pulled a
surprise trade by swapping forwards with the Burn: Ronald Cerritos
went to Dallas for Ariel Graziani.
`You can't leave it status quo and think you're going to be
OK," Earthquakes defender Jeff Agoos said.
Many top stars will be missing for at least a month when they
join national teams for the World Cup, which starts May 31 and runs
through June 30.
But talk about tactics, trades and titles has taken a back seat
to discussions about the league's viability.
"One of our owners just put $100 million into bricks and
mortar," commissioner Don Garber said. "We have a five-year
commitment to the league on TV. It is inconceivable to think that
we aren't here for the long haul. At times we will go through
difficult times, but we are here for the long haul."
The league is putting its longterm faith into two fronts:
soccer-specific stadiums and television ratings. It's no
coincidence that Columbus, the only franchise with its own stadium,
was also the only team to turn a profit last year.
The Los Angeles Galaxy broke ground last month for a new
stadium, but no one else is much beyond the drawing board. A plan
to build a stadium for the Burn in a Dallas suburb fell through
recently. Chicago is playing in a small suburban football stadium
this year because Soldier Field is being renovated.
But the really big money in American sports comes from
television, and the league gets relatively little.
MLS hopes to build its ratings this year with a regular "Soccer
Saturday" time slot for nationally televised games on ESPN2 --
emulating the BBC's long-successful "Match of the Day" in
Britain. With a five-year contract, the league figures it has time
to build ratings points so that the next TV deal will a bigger
commodity.
The league also desperately needs new investors. With
contraction, the league no longer is operating any of the teams
directly, but it still relies on the soccer passion of three
deep-pocketed investors -- Philip Anschutz, Lamar Hunt and Bob Kraft
-- to keep the league afloat.
Anschutz is now an investor in six teams of the 10 teams, with
San Jose his latest acquisition. For MLS' sake, he had better not
lose his passion for soccer anytime soon.
"If he wakes up tomorrow and pulls out, it's over," Williams
said.
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