Major League Soccer is the only American pro sports league that came of age after the computer revolution. As such, fans often use the language of software to describe the league's various iterations — MLS 1.0, 2.0, and so forth. Now that the league is considering allowing owner Anthony Precourt to ship the Columbus Crew, one of the league's founding members, off to Austin, Texas, we might be on the verge of another release: MLS 4.0, the one when American soccer fans realize that they've been had.
Any American sports fan is comfortable, if not pleased, with the "franchise" model of pro sports, in which teams occasionally shift around the map. It's part of the professional landscape, in which cities must regularly deliver new stadiums and other inducements to keep franchises from leaving town.
At the beginning of MLS, though, that situation was more or less reversed, with the league trying to figure out a way to establish itself. Most American cities weren't all that interested in hosting a professional soccer team anywhere but in an existing, cavernous football stadium. The "build us a stadium or we'll move" threat would have been laughable.
Columbus, in fact, was the first city to get on board the "soccer-specific stadium" trend, building Crew Stadium for the team in 1999. It was the first time MLS had managed to anchor itself to a local community — not to keep it from drifting to another town, but to keep the ship from floating away entirely.
Two decades later, though, the fears of the early years have dissipated. Columbus' status as the "spiritual home of American soccer" turned out to be less important than the Crew's lowly place in the league revenue rankings. Commissioner Don Garber, asked about the potential move, couldn't help noting that Columbus isn't making a whole lot of money off its old, suburban stadium, which looks rickety and quaint compared to the palatial digs built by other teams.
MLS has long strived for authenticity, trying to build the same kind of local passion and loyalty for its teams that European and South American teams enjoy. Whether giving teams names that aped European dynasties, or promoting "supporter" culture with scarves and flags and fan-focused sections of stadiums, the league has sought to establish itself as a comparable alternative. The same as the Premier League, but with no transcontinental flight required to attend a match.
If Columbus doesn't build a new stadium, Precourt wants to move the team south. If MLS goes, it'll be an important milestone for the league — a reminder that while it wants European-style local team loyalty, it'll move that team, American-style, without a second thought. The league wants your loyalty in a way that's not like any other pro sports league in America. But, like every other league in America, it will never return it.
Short takes
• Norway's soccer governing body announced this week that it will pay women's and men's national team members equally — a worldwide first. It's a reminder that here in the United States, the men's team, which failed to qualify for the World Cup from the world's easiest group, is paid more than the women's team, the reigning World Cup champion.
