MLS Commissioner Doug Logan said he is "tired of
hearing critics say" that while the league is averaging
14,616 per game, up 200 per game over '97, that figure is
nearly 3,000 below the league's first-year mark, according
to Craig Merz of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. Logan: "What no one
in the media talks about is that this league, after only
three years, has the fifth-highest attendance in the world.
Only Italy, England, Germany and Spain are ahead of us. We
draw more on average than World Cup champion France and our
friends in Central and South America." Logan, on the
league's decision to play through the World Cup: "We made
the right decision. We were fearful there would be a drop
in attendance, interest and media attention. We have an
ever-growing fan base we need to nurture." Logan said that
two recent developments have given the league "reason for
optimism," including the Crews' plan to build a soccer-
specific stadium in '99, and the sale of the Clash to Alan
Rothenberg (Craig Merz, COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 8/1).
THE EVOLUTION: In N.Y., Alex Yannis wrote that while
MLS "continues to stay within its long-term strategy by
maintaining fiscal sanity," the league "is becoming more
firmly established and is starting to please soccer
aficionados with an improved level of play." MLS lost $30M
in its first two years and will lose money again this
season, but losses for the first three years "will be below
the original projections." Logan: "We're in excellent shape
financially. We're blessed with having investors who view
this as a long-term investment." Yannis added that one of
the league's concerns is the "rather low attendance" for the
MetroStars at the Meadowlands (N.Y. TIMES, 8/2). In Fort
Lauderdale, Dave Brousseau wrote, "There have been positives
and negatives," throughout MLS' first three seasons, but
"too many stadiums remain vacant." Rothenberg: "We have
done well to keep our mistakes at a minimum. It's cost a
bit more than we planned, but the overall quality of the
league has improved" (SUN-SENTINEL, 8/1). In DC, Steven Goff
wrote that MLS' third season "has been difficult to define,"
as "no one is ecstatic about soccer's American evolution --
but no one seems discouraged either" (WASHINGTON POST, 8/1).
