There’s no question that the MLS has improved massively over the last few years. The constant expansion of the league and the support of the fans have been an integral part of its growth but there’s still a lot of work to be done if they want to reach their goal of being one of the top leagues in the world by 2020.
There’s no question that the infrastructure and the resources are clearly there. Most MLS teams own their own venues and each one is more spectacular than the next – only four of them, in fact, have a capacity below 20,000. Some of the venues might get bigger in the near future but there’s no question that the MLS is one of the leagues with the most beautiful and most up-to-date venues.
Fans have been a great component as well. The league averaged an all-time record of 21,574 fans per contest in 2015, well above the 19,147 mark for 2014. The Seattle Sounders led the way with an average attendance of 44.247 fans per match and that shouldn’t surprise anyone since they have one of the deepest rosters in the league.
Rosters are, however, an area where the league reaches some sort of breaking point: the quality of the players simply isn’t good enough to put the MLS in the upper echelon of world-class leagues.
In simple words, the MLS lacks top-tier talent to become a powerhouse league in the world. While there’s no secret that there are more and more important players who are choosing to play in the States and doing so while they still are productive (such as Robbie Keane, Ignacio Piatti, David Villa and Sebastian Giovinco) the majority of the important players that are signed either have no space in Europe or are looking for a slower, not-so-intense league to spend their final years like Kaka, Steven Gerrard and Andrea Pirlo.
The MLS has been rumored to be looked as a potential destination by many players but it’s simply an utopia to think the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Andres Iniesta – just to name a few that have been linked with a possible transfer – will play Stateside while still in their primes. We might see some of them in the MLS but not before they turn 35 or 36 years of age.
Some of the biggest international names in the league include Giovinco, Villa, Andoni Iraola, Robbie Keane, Kaká, Gerrard, Pirlo, Kei Kamara, Frank Lampard, and Giovani dos Santos. Out of this list, some like Giovinco and Gio could still be playing at a decent level in Europe but the rest are either old or simply not good enough to be in a top-level club.
The top American players aren’t exactly setting the world on fire either. Michael Bradley wasn’t able to adjust to the Serie A and moved back to Toronto FC, Jozy Altidore bounced around Europe before signing with the New York Red Bulls and Jermaine Jones was no longer wanted overseas so he chose to go back home.
Analyzing things deeper it seems as if the league’s top players have that status simply because they appear to be not good enough to play elsewhere? Or can you really imagine a team like Tottenham Hotspur making Michael Bradley their top signing after he struggled to become a regular in AS Roma? Would an important team like Bayer Leverkusen think, to put another example, about signing an unproven striker like Kei Kamara as their biggest attraction? And what about Obafemi Martins in a team like Sampdoria where he’s even struggling to cope with the pace and physicality of the American defenders?
We could go on and on about players that are huge hits in the MLS but were not capable of thriving in more competitive environments. Pedro Morales has been a star for the Vancouver Whitecaps but he failed to impress in both Dinamo Zagreb and Malaga. Mauro Diaz and Federico Higuain were below-average players in Argentina before arriving to the MLS. Even former Lanus player Diego Valeri signed with the Portland Timbers because he failed to adjust to the Portuguese league.
Truth is: the MLS certainly has decent players in their own right but they are a few steps below when compared to the usual suspects we see on a weekly basis in the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga or the Italian Serie A.
There’s also the factor of how the league works. While the absence of a relegation system gives the owners a huge sense of financial stability, some players surely look at that fact as a strange one since the MLS must be one of the few leagues in the world where relegation isn’t even discussed. It also hurts the overall quality of the league as teams that have no chance to make the playoffs don’t have enough incentives to perform at a competitive level anymore.
The infrastructure and the fans will always be there and while they remain an integral part of the league, the MLS won’t get bigger unless they start to attract better players. It seems that the league won’t be able to take another step forward unless some major changes are made.
We must look at this with a positive stance, however, as the league is no longer the laughing stock in the world like it was 20 years ago (seriously, does anyone remember the time when games were decided by shootouts just like in the NHL? Or when the clock ran backwards contrary to what happened in all the other countries?).
Respectability and credibility among the top players in the world it’s still far away. But at least the MLS in on the right track and the future continues to be incredibly bright. It’s on Commissioner Dan Garber’s hands to take the next step before it’s too late.