Steve Davis’ weekly column, drilling down on five hot topics in American soccer
1. Futsal is fun! But getting a league started … Ooof!
We hear so much lately about two emerging soccer leagues. Pay attention here, because there are important lessons – and American soccer can never, ever afford to dismiss an important lesson. (Somewhere, Freddy Adu is nodding his head in assured agreement.)
(There is even a bonus to this lesson. This also offers an important reminder about Major League Soccer and its accomplishments in the face of highly stacked odds.)
One of these emerging soccer leagues isn’t exactly a soccer league. Rather, it is soccer’s close cousin futsal, the 5-a-side indoor version played on a court, with a slightly heavier ball. It’s a more technical game and a great teacher for its parent sport. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gotten involved, which has given the fledgling Professional Futsal League a needed shot of PR adrenalin.
It really is a brilliant marketing move; a bunch of radio and TV guys who wouldn’t know a futsal ball from a coconut (not that they should) are suddenly talking about the 5-a-side game because it gives them a chance to interact with Cuban, among the current U.S. sports pacesetters. Cuban’s interest, certainly tied to the fact that longtime Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson is co-owner of the league, provides the operation with some valuable cachet and opens potential sponsor doors.
The PFL is unlikely to subtract any money, marketing opportunities, fans or TV slots from Major League Soccer, so it’s not “competition,” per se. Honestly, there’s plenty of competition already out there for dollars and attention in soccer here – or haven’t you noticed the array of games available for viewing each weekend from Mexico, England, Germany, etc.? There’s enough interest in the sport to go around.
So good luck to ‘em! More soccer, more fun, I say. That stated … it’ll be a tough haul. I tell people all the time: It is SO HARD to begin a professional sports league. Any professional sports league. Can we talk about the failed WUSA (spectacular overreach on that one). None of the lower tier U.S. soccer leagues have ever been pictures of stability. Everyone who knows anything of soccer’s history in States knows about the old NASL.
But it’s not just soccer. Football is king around here, but the XFL came and went, as did the USFL. There are plenty more. The point is, the economics of professional sports are tough, tough stuff. Establishing genuine history is a tough go. Playing as a tenant in someone else’s building, surviving without big TV money, gaining attention without an ample supply of big name stars – these are all high hurdles in the race to survival. So, good luck to the PFL; they’ll certainly need it.
The Chinese Super League is the other league of the moment. We talked briefly about it two weeks ago (Item No. 3 here). And now, sure enough, it seems to have snatched one of our own!
Keep reading …
