Major League Soccer begins its 13th season Saturday, with an all-time high of 14 teams and a highest-ever average player salary of $115,000.
Meanwhile, England's Premier League is approaching the end of its 16th season. It has 20 teams and its players earned an average of $1.35 million a year in 2006.
The goal of MLS, according to Ivan Gazidis, the league's deputy commissioner, is to follow the Premier League's lead, but slowly and carefully enough so that the transition doesn't bring the entire edifice tumbling to the ground.
When the Premier League was founded in 1992, it had the 104-year history of the 92-team English league to build upon. Breaking the top tier of clubs free, investing heavily in new stadiums and bringing the world's top players to England was a logical step and has been hugely successful.
On a global scale, the Premier League is behind only the NFL, Major League Baseball and the NBA in terms of financial success. In terms of worldwide visibility and popularity, it far outdistances those three leagues. "I think what we've seen in England is a dramatic development from a game that was really in the doldrums in the 1980s and now is the world's dominant sports league," Gazidis said.
Part of the Premier League's success is precisely because it is global in scope. Players from 89 countries have participated in the league and this season 64 nationalities are represented among its 20 clubs. The result is some of the best soccer played in the world.
It could be decades, if ever, before MLS attains a similar level, but it is going about it in the correct manner. Expansion is in progress. The league will have 16 teams by 2010 and 18 not long thereafter. Soccer-specific stadiums are being built. New investors have come on board.
The emphasis now has shifted to the quality of MLS play.
"As we look forward to the next five to 10 years in our development, nothing will be more important than how the game progresses on the field," Gazidis said. "Our owners have taken a very strategic look at our business and have said that we are placing that at the very center of everything that we do. The goal as we go through this period of expansion is not just to keep our level of play where it is today but to continue to take it forward and raise it so that the league a decade from now is substantially stronger than it is today."
