The story of MLS is definitely an amazing one. It went from tons of promise at its inception in the mid 90s to nearly folding just 5 or so years later, and then coming back from the dead with a vengeance and more than doubling the number of teams in the league in less than a decade.
There are a number of factors at work here as to why MLS has grown significantly in popularity over the past 5-6 years... for one thing nearly all the clubs that have been brought into the league since the mid 00s have been either existing franchises from the old NASL days with established fan bases (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Montreal etc), or built from the ground up via grassroots fan support for a franchise in their area (Real Salt Lake, Philadelphia). MLS stopped trying to simply plant a flag in the largest markets w/out a franchise just because, although they are wading into that territory again with NYCFC and pushing for Beckham's Miami franchise to be the next one to join the league.
On top of that, many other factors such as changing demographics, the continued popularity of the sport among the youth in this country, the almost hipster-like support that many of the clubs in MLS enjoy thanks to the college crowd and 20 somethings jumping on the soccer supporter culture bandwagon, not to mention the fact that you can get great seats and treat a family to an MLS game for a fraction of what it costs to attend any of the big 4 sports in most major markets these days.
The quality of play has also improved tremendously in recent years... a decade ago many MLS matches were almost unwatchable for purists of the sport, but today the league has cracked the top 10 in terms of quality of play and popularity. Mark my words... by the end of the next decade MLS will be in the top 5 leagues world wide.
On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.
