« Another Council Vote - Attendance Needed | Main | Kudos to Pyle, Jussen for Almaden success »
April 30, 2008
If the Don says it, it must be true
The Mercury News recently asked that before a soccer stadium be built, questions on the long term viability of MLS be answered. Setting aside for a moment whether such questions were asked of other sports leagues as they built stadium after stadium, arena after arena, and ballpark after ballpark with direct tax payer subsidies, let's consider the question.
Undoubtedly such questions were valid 10 years ago when in the Fraser v. MLS antitrust lawsuit there was testimony, from MLS, that it lost $250M in the first five or so years of operation. Now the lawyers among us might understand a context and basis for such testimony - that it may have been expert opinion testimony using darn lies and statistics to show that there cannot be anticompetitive practices if you are anticompetitive - i.e. losing money. Nonetheless, it was spoken, under oath. With three league owners (Anschutz, Hunt, and Kraft), 10 teams, and no stadiums, MLS was not stable if you don't consider the collective wealth of those three owners.
Fast forward 10 years. There are 14 owners with 11 added since 2003. Currently 14 teams, the league will be at sixteen teams in two years. Nine of the current 14 teams play or soon will be playing in soccer specific stadiums. (It can't come soon in enough in Harrison, NJ.) And no discussion on MLS' viability can be complete without mentioning Golden Balls. That his Galaxy (boo!) jersey was the most purchased jersey in any sport in the world at least assures that overstated franchise unmatched worldwide publicity.
And so it was without exaggeration or strained credibility that this week MLS Commissioner Don Garber told the AP that the question is not, "Will MLS Survive?" but "Where will MLS land in the sports landscape?" Since we here in San Jose understand Garber when he talks about the new America, we are confident it will land close to the top of the heap. The hope is that our community, collectively, wants to be a part of that in a deal that on current economic reports not only does not harm the City's general fund, but helps it to the tune of $1.5M - $2M a year on conservative estimates.
Sounds like a win-win to us. Oh, and if you click on the supporters group audio link to the left you can hear the Don give us some love, after mentioning some group called the Sons of John Adams.
Posted by Colin at April 30, 2008 08:47 AM