By Graig Carbino - ALBANY, NY (Dec 5, 2008) USSoccerPlayers -- We are always looking for a good comparison. Someone like someone, something that sort of works with something else, like for like, etc. In sports we like to compare teams from this age to dynasties from the past. We argue that a player today is better than a player from 30 years ago or vice-versa.
In US soccer circles folks love to look at MLS and attempt to put it on par with another league around the world. Does MLS compare well with the English Championship? Would DC United or the Houston Dynamo survive relegation if they were somehow magically thrown into the Coca-Cola-ship? What MLS players could start in the Premiership?
Let’s stick to the comparison theme and pose a few questions. Which American sports league formed in the mid 90’s has had fluctuating levels of both expansion and contraction during its existence? I think more specificity is needed so here is a hint: The league in question has lost millions of dollars since its inaugural season. Not sure yet? How about this one… this league recently signed a long term TV deal with ESPN that will actually pay the league rights fees to broadcast its games.
If you guessed Major League Soccer as the answer to the above query you would be correct. Pretty easy, right? This is a soccer web site after all. If you have been following along here for a while you should have gotten that one without the help of any lifelines. We wouldn’t have much fun with this whole thing though unless there was a twist. Remember, comparison is the theme of the day.
If you decided to answer with the WNBA you would also have been correct.
Shocked looks all around, but dig a little bit and you will see that these two leagues have considerably more in common than you would think. Start with the obvious one: Mainstream media and the majority of sports fans in this country don’t pay much attention to either association. Harsh yes, but unfortunately still true.
Look, I wouldn’t watch an entire WNBA game if it was being played in my driveway. I’m sure the product is fine, but it just isn’t something where I even manage to feign interest. Don’t kid yourself though. There are tons of WNBA fans/journalists/diehards that feel the same way about MLS and soccer in general. Not altogether surprising when you realize that these two leagues have been around for 13 (MLS) and 12 (WNBA) years respectively.
You might be wondering to yourself how we drummed up a comparison like this one. A colleague tipped me off to a story from a few days ago about the demise of the WNBA’s Houston Comets. It was posted over at SI.com and written by Kelli Anderson.
In her article 'Game not over for WNBA, even as Houston Comets shut down' Anderson lays out the factors that contributed to the downfall of one of the leagues proudest franchises. You could almost put the early success of the Comets (four straight championships from 1997-2000) side by side with that of DC United in MLS.
Crowds of 13,000 used to come out to watch Houston dismantle other WNBA franchises. There are plenty of MLS clubs that would love that number to pass through their turnstiles each game, no matter what attendance they report on the official score sheet. Houston started losing in 2004 and the fans stopped showing up. Moving the team from one small arena to the next didn’t help, and when new owners could not be found the league decided to close up shop. Sound familiar?
League commissioner Donna Orender wouldn’t blame the demise of this once proud franchise on the struggling economy, but more so on the “recent history” of the Comets franchise. Good for her. Lord knows Major League Soccer and it’s franchise fees aren’t wilting to the economy either.
Beyond that point Anderson notes that the failure in Houston is “not an indication that the league as a whole is in trouble.” She points out that “the WNBA has a lot of reasons to be optimistic, even in the current climate.” According to the league, TV ratings, attendance, merchandise sales, web site traffic and sponsorships were all up last year. Anderson also reports “individual team revenue was up in 10 (of now 13) markets this past season and that next season will be the start of a new TV deal with ESPN that will pay the league rights fees for the first time.”
If that doesn’t sound like something Don Garber would say almost word for word then I must be crazy.
The main point here isn’t that MLS and the WNBA are like brother and sister. There are obvious differences between the two leagues. Still, on some level it does make sense to compare two fledgling groups that are trying to make their place amongst Americas sporting giants.
Soccer and women’s basketball aren’t football, baseball or men’s pro hoops. Truth be told, they probably never will be. That said, what MLS and the WNBA lack in revenue they’ve gained in perseverance and experience. It seems like both are prepared for the long haul and aren’t about to bow to any factors that may take away from where they are trying to go.
Like Orender said, “we all have to dig in and work hard. For the WNBA that's nothing new. That's business as usual.” The same thing goes for Major League Soccer.
