Australian football has long been fascinated by Major League Soccer. A 2003 report by the National Soccer League Task Force – an “Australian Soccer Association” brains trust charged with figuring out just what the future A-League should be – featured several pages on the American version of club football.
Around the same time, player-turned-pundit Andy Harper was sent to the US by Football Federation Australia to discover what the Americans were up to first hand. In 2008, another FFA delegation flew across the Pacific to learn more about MLS while, more recently, Mark Falvo – FFA’s head of international affairs and government relations – spoke to the league’s New York City headquarters about how to approach proposed expansion.
Intriguingly, the interest is not mutual. “It’s all been pretty much one-way traffic,” says one New York-based sports executive when asked about US-Australia football relations.
What exactly can the A-League learn from MLS? Despite some market similarities and familiar challenges – relatively youthful leagues, powerful rivals like the NFL and AFL, mainstream media attention, and competition from the Champions League and Premier League – there are stark differences in experience and strategy.
Importantly, FFA executives might note the consistent but measured growth of MLS. Ten teams have joined the league in the past 10 years, with a second Los Angeles team – LAFC – set to compete next season. Cities are lining up to get into MLS and the league could feasibly grow to 40 teams within 15 years without diluting tough criteria. The licence fee alone for the as yet undecided 25th and 26th team is US$150m.
How deep does the game reach into the US sports, business, and entertainment industry? The diverse LAFC ownership group includes Hollywood mogul Peter Guber (a co-owner of NBA’s Golden State Warriors and MLB’s LA Dodgers), basketball hall-of-famer Magic Johnson, comedian Will Ferrell, women’s football great Mia Hamm, YouTube founder Chad Hurley and celebrity businessman Tony Robbins.
Over the same decade, the A-League has added two teams – tellingly in Sydney and Melbourne – and had to rebrand and relocate its New Zealand-based club. MLS’s biggest expansion error in that time was Chivas USA – a misjudged franchise of Mexican club Guadalajara that was put out of its misery in 2014. FFA, meanwhile, oversaw controversial misfires with Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury.
Chivas USA aside, the MLS ownership model has provided security for an evolving league that averaged 22,000 fans per game during the 2016 season (Seattle Sounders boasted an average attendance of almost 43,000 last seasonwhile, at the other end of the table, FC Dallas pulled in 14,000). A key factor of that ownership model is that MLS is sanctioned but neither owned nor managed by the US Soccer Federation.
MLS is effectively a capitalist co-operative run by heavyweight investors (including Anschutz Entertainment Group, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, and former NBA star Steve Nash) who manage and control their respective teams. When David Beckham eventually launches his Miami team he will be buying into the league – not just a team. The success of a team – on and off field – is supposed to benefit the league overall.
FFA’s increasingly tense ownership of the A-League, as well as its team licence system, is seen as a major drawback in attracting serious investment to the competition, according to one American-based executive with experience in both countries.
“The Australian clubs are basically renters with a defined term,” he explains, speaking off the record because his current employer did not want to be seen commenting publicly on MLS. “Why would you invest significantly in the A-League if you can legally be thrown out of the league when your licence is up? In MLS, the owners are the league and this allows for greater and more secure investment. In America, you can sell your licence but it can’t be taken away from you without good reason.”
Another significant difference between the leagues: stadia. A 2001 MLS reboot saw team-owned football-specific stadiums become a priority – rather than teams renting space in NFL venues. In 16 years, MLS teams have built 16 stadiums. More are on the way. It is infrastructure that may seem obvious but is seen as out-of-the-box within the A-League.
“Having our own stadium is fundamental and a key component that our research has taken away from MLS,” says Steve Horvat, a former Socceroo heading Victoria Patriots, a Geelong-based bid for the next round of A-League expansion. “There is no doubt that when a fan has a sense that it is their own home and not one shared by – not only other clubs but other codes – that they can truly feel connected to that club for life. This is a non-negotiable scenario that we will hold firm.”
“The turning point for MLS was having its own stadiums,” agrees the US-based executive. “But Australia is a very crowded market place and it’s an insight into the challenges for A-League owners when the rich and powerful AFL teams share grounds.”
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