The Aztexan

I've been seeing a good deal of "USL vs. MLS" talk lately. Stuff like:

• "How does MLS get away with stealing USL's markets?"


• "If MLS is the top level league, why are they getting their butts kicked in the CONCACAF Champions League while USL teams are cruising through?"


• "How did a lowly USL-1 side like Charleston Battery almost knock off powerhouse DC United in the US Open Cup?"


• "What role did MLS expansion plans play in the demise of the Atlanta Silverbacks?"

If you're looking for answers, you've come to the right place. I'm here to give the definitive solution to the real question that underlies all these:

How should these two American leagues relate to each other?

But first, let's step back and get some perspective. A good place to start is the fine 3-part series PotomacSoccerWire.com ran recently: Thriving in the shadows: The survival, and success, of the United Soccer Leagues. That short introduction includes links to all 3 parts, which are worth reading in full.

Part I: DC United exes find greener pastures in Vancouver

"I think players-wise, there should be more loaning back and forth," [Vancouver Whitecap Jay Nolly] said. "At the end of the season MLS should be looking [at USL] — the USL players have a lot more experience than going and getting a guy out of college. I almost think the USL should be more of a feeder system than a lot of the college system."

... Another common view is that USL players are typically just biding their time before an opportunity to move up to MLS presents itself. But Nolly and Moose offer a striking contrast to that idea as well: both men are happy with the Whitecaps and eager to help the club defend its championship in 2009.

So here are two seemingly contradictory statements: "MLS should be more interested in recruiting experienced USL players" on the one hand, and "some USL players are perfectly content to play at that level indefinitely" on the other. But that's not contradictory, that's perfect. There is (or could be) a path for advancement to higher league play, but there's also an acceptable and satisfying level for those who don't follow that path.

Part II: Season of success cues bullish outlook

"MLS clearly approaches [the Open Cup & Champions League play] differently — 'we'll get by one way or the other,'" adds [USL President Francisco] Marcos. "But guess what? The difference isn't enough for them to be able to take that attitude. We go to those games like our life depends on it — our reputation, our credibility depends on it. The results speak for themselves."

Those results have added lots of fuel to the "USL vs. MLS" fires. But some of the conclusions jumped to don't stand up to scrutiny.

For one, it's the nature of these kinds of competitions, especially the Open Cup, to result in upsets. Look at England's Carling Cup: as of the 5th round, 3 of the 8 teams left are from the 2nd division, and European superpower Chelsea was eliminated by Burnley in the most recent round. But does anyone argue that the Championship rivals the Premiership? Of course not.

Secondly, as in every league in the world, there are disparities between the teams that dominate year after year and those that always seem to languish further down the table. That is, just because the a league's best teams do well, that doesn't necessarily mean the whole league would be competitive at a higher level.

Part III: MLS expansion leaves United Soccer Leagues wary

"They have named five out of seven markets for possible expansion that are our markets, three of which are our clubs themselves," said USL President Francisco Marcos in an interview last week. "Are we flattered by that? Yes. But we can't eat flattery. Are we happy about it? Absolutely not. Can we do a whole lot about it? Not a lot."

..."There's other things that we're going to be demanding because we don't just want to become just simply the feeder, the testers of MLS grounds such as Rochester, which didn't happen. Montreal, which may happen. Vancouver, which may happen. Portland, which may very well happen," he noted. "Places that MLS would have never thought about if we weren't there."

I have a lot of respect for Marcos and all he's done for soccer in the U.S., but I'm afraid he comes off as a bit of a whiner in this piece. He hints that the USL may already be hip to my Grand Theory (coming up here in another thousand words or so), but I wish he wouldn't play the poor victim. Though what do I know? Maybe the USL is indeed the poor victim, and they've been majorly screwed by Major League Soccer. Either way, I couldn't agree more that it isn't fair for MLS to take advantage of USL's work.

Okay, that does it for PotomacSoccer.com's series. Our last exhibit is this piece by Mitch Howard on Major League Soccer Talk, USL Needs to Compete Directly against MLS.

The United Soccer Leagues has been a doormat to the MLS for too long. They have allowed MLS to walk all over them. MLS has taken multiple cities from the USL to put into their league and have not suffered any kind of legal troubles or image issues.

... History shows that the USL should compete directly against MLS. In both the history of football and basketball in the U.S., leagues have merged and absorbed each other.

Howard is taking the dramatic viewpoint here, casting MLS as the villain and USL tied to the tracks, feebly crying for help. Yet despite this difference in power, his proposed solution is a merger similar to those of the American Football League and the American Basketball Association.

The first argument (and the only one needed, really) against the head-to-head league idea is that FIFA prohibits it. FIFA countries are simply not allowed to have competing first division leagues. It's as true today as it was in 1967, when the NPSL and USA merged to become the NASL.

But even apart from that, the arguments against such a competition are legion. Soccer is an international sport, while American football and basketball aren't (and were even less in the 1960s). Once upon a time, those sports could get away with competing leagues, for a while at least. They could tweak the rules, snipe players from each other, etc., and it was all in a kind of U.S.-only vacuum. With our modern soccer leagues already dying to woo fans of "real" soccer abroad, such tactics are unthinkable.

The other side of this international coin is that the U.S., in both national team competitions and the club-level transfer market, would be held back by such domestic squabbling and rivalry.

Which brings us, at long last, to the big answer to the big question: 42. No, wait, that's a different story. This big answer is: admit to and formalize USL's role as the minor league.

First, the admitting. For all the giant-killing USL teams have done this year, and for all the markets that MLS has stolen or wants to steal after being built up by the USL, it's clear that the USL is the minor league. Exhibit A in this claim is the recent crumpling of the Atlanta Silverbacks USL-1 team, as previously discussed. This is simply not the kind of thing that happens in major leagues. Teams may have financial trouble sometimes, but when do they ever simply pack up their ball and go home? And this isn't an isolated incident. There's been steady turmoil in the USL for years: the Richmond Kickers dropping from USL-1 to USL-2 in 2005; the Virginia Beach Mariners folding after the 2006 season; the California Victory's one and only season in 2007.

Exhibit B: compare and contrast the league final games in USL-1 and MLS. As I wrote at the time, the meeting of the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Puerto Rico Islanders in the USL-1 final was quite an understated affair. I couldn't even find a way to follow the game live, and I was actively looking for it.

Meanwhile we have the MLS Cup game tomorrow. It may not be the Super Bowl or the World Series, but it will be on network TV (ABC), it's covered in mainstream media outlets like USA Today, and their national sponsor, Volkswagen, has produced VW Road to MLS Cup, a series of event-specific commercials (which are pretty funny, imho). At the very least, the league has a dedicated section of their website for the match.

So, USL is the minor league. But despite what the word "minor" might do to one's ego, there is not a single thing wrong with that. In fact, it's an essential role in the American soccer ecosystem. Without USL, there are a lot of players who wouldn't be able to play league ball (i.e., with crowds and fans and everything). Without USL, MLS would have only colleges to draw from for young soccer talent in this country. And most importantly to me personally: without USL, Austin would never have a pro soccer team.

The next step is to formalize this situation, and eliminate the unfairness and friction that exist today. Both leagues benefit from the existence of the other far more than they threaten each other. That needs to be acknowledged and agreed to more explicitly. There are lots of ways that this could work; here are just a few ideas off the top of my head.

• MLS should augment its reserve and youth systems with USL teams


• Even if MLS teams don't directly partner with USL teams, their reserves or youth should compete with them
  


• MLS and USL should promote each other's games. Most Aztex fans I know also support either Houston Dynamo or FC Dallas. Why on earth don't all three teams' marketing departments leverage that?


• There should be, as Marcos mentioned, fair compensation to USL when MLS expands into one of their cities. If MLS cherry-picks the USL's best markets and drives USL out of business, it's going to hurt them, too.


• Movement of players between the leagues, such as the DC players in the PotomacSoccer.com article or the Red Bulls acquiring Mac Kandji from the Silverbacks, should be as easy. (In fact, this could be a lucrative deal for USL by itself)

Whew, okay, this post got a lot longer than I thought it would (congratulations on making it this far). I better wrap it up; here comes my inspirational conclusion.

Despite the perennial naysayers and their circa-1985 anti-soccer jibes, soccer is here to stay. It's not yet on the same level as baseball or basketball, and there are missteps and mistakes sometimes, but it's not going to disappear in a puff of smoke, either. There's still a lot of unrealized potential in the American sport, both within our borders, and on the world stage. The sooner Major League Soccer and the United Soccer Leagues acknowledge the realities and start working in concert, the better for everyone.

Labels: deep thoughts, media, MLS, USL-1