Wednesday, October 11, 2017

An Open Letter to US Soccer fans

Wake up, America.


As ridiculous and tragicomic as our failure to qualify for the World Cup may be (getting knocked out by a nation no larger than the city of Dallas) there is a potential silver lining to this otherwise coal-black cloud: we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to effect real, systemic change in American Soccer, the change we desperately need to spare our children and grandchildren from ever suffering this indignity again.


Much has been written already about needed change, from the modest and obvious (new coaches, new players) to the more strategic (new US Soccer leadership, a different developmental approach), but at the head of the stream of all these issues is the Mother of Them All, looming so large that many American sports fans can’t even see it: we’re the only major soccer nation on earth without promotion and relegation.

That’s nuts, you may say. What does a league system have to do with our current woes? Let me break it down for you:


  • Because we don’t have pro/rel (and instead have a closed, contrived oligopoly in MLS and USL), the game does not attract the sponsorship and TV rights to draw in more fans and, crucially, more TV dollars from the US and abroad.
  • Because we don’t have pro/rel, we don’t have the competitive pressures or the money necessary to attract the world’s best players. Without those players, we cannot hope to compete at the international level because American players aren’t playing alongside them and improving themselves. There simply is no substitute for the pressure of pushing to send your team up to the next level, or that of fighting to keep from going to the next league down.
  • Because we don’t have pro/rel (with its pressures or its money), lower division teams, deprived of the chance of league advancement, cannot afford to build out robust, competitive programs for youth and player development to develop local talent across our huge nation, so our oft-touted size is largely unleveraged. Leicester City, recent English Premier League Champions, is dwarfed by my own city of Chattanooga in size, yet without the opportunity to advance, teams in lower levels cannot attract the capital and the engagement to grow and expand. Academies attached to healthy second and third division teams (beyond the closed ranks of MLS’ handful of developmental programs in a few selected markets) would produce and identify thousands of talented American players.
  • And because the lack of pro/rel means we’re essentially out of sync with the rest of the world, the US remains a reputational backwater of international soccer, where the sport is permanently relegated to lower-class status, failing to attract our best player talent, our best management talent, and the full corporate support it deserves.


Why, then, you may ask, isn’t this obvious to everyone? Why haven’t I heard more about it? Why is there no outcry to change it? Frankly, because American Soccer has been controlled by an incestuous, second-rate plutocracy comprised of people whose interest in American soccer is primarily in enriching themselves, not in what’s best for the American game.


Unlike the rest of the world, the US has closed, for-profit leagues (MLS and USL), built primarily to benefit the league owners, not to produce great soccer talent (and for what it’s worth, these leagues are now officially a worldwide joke by virtue of this colossal failure). When this closed system was contrived, the excuse given was that it was necessary to build a “greenhouse” system to nurture a fledgling league. If this was ever really the case, that day has certainly long since passed. As the prominent soccer economist Stefan Szymanski reminds us, the economics of “real” soccer in the rest of the world are this: all but the slimmest profits get competed away in the pursuit of better players. In MLS’ closed, single-entity world, however, all players work for the league and are leased to the teams, with salary caps, so that the whole entity can (theoretically) be more profitable. The free market cannot function effectively in this system, and it will never be able to, as the world player market keeps chugging right along even as MLS persists in keeping its head buried in the sand. As for the second-division USL, it’s poorly-designed franchise saddles teams with crippling franchise fees, hampering growth and preventing them from paying more for the best players they could otherwise afford. American players are therefore not exposed to the world’s best, and we languish in mediocrity.


As for why it’s not more widely discussed, it’s a poorly-guarded secret that the Major League Soccer/Soccer United Marketing/US Soccer oligarchy (all three have common leadership and are functionally a cabal) have had a running PR war on media discussion of promotion and relegation in this country. As unbelievable as this may seen, it is absolutely true. Because they effectively control the vast majority of soccer broadcast rights in the US- and thus American soccer media- this is quite easy for them to do.  I have witnessed multiple examples of American soccer’s sports personalities threatened, demoted, and even fired for attempting to express their views on the subject. Their silence is purchased relatively cheaply by their attornies with Releases and Non-Disclosure Agreements (just like Donald Trump’s and Harvey Weinstein’s) so we very rarely hear pro/rel openly discussed- much less advocated- in the media.


So why is MLS- whose billionaire owners are the real issue here- so afraid of pro/rel? As always, one simply needs to follow the money: because it would make doing business much more expensive for them. They’d have to compete on the open, world market for player talent, and their cost of capital would rise considerably as the possibility of being relegated down to a lower league would drive up the risk of lending money to them (because of the presumed lower sponsorship, TV, and ticket revenues there), and would lower the paper value of their teams, overnight. But what they’re missing is that the incredible double-edged drama of promotion and relegation- multiplied by the number of leagues in this country participating in such a system- would very likely dramatically increase the appeal of the sport and the engagement level of the fans, and the money in the new pro/rel system would likely soon dwarf that generated in the old, closed system. Would they still be able to get $250MM for the privilege of owning an MLS team, though? Nope, and too bad. American Soccer has suffered enough for their greed already.


Worst of all, the greed and stubbornness of the old guard owners in hanging onto their fake, closed system for fear of relegation has now collectively relegated all of us, as Americans, to the basement of world soccer for at least the next four years. If we can’t see that now, and don’t have the courage and fortitude to rise up and change it, then that’s where we belong to stay.

Wake up, America. It’s like being in The Matrix: once you see the truth, it isn’t complicated. Just walk out and demand the simple reality of promotion and relegation that the rest of the world already enjoys. If that happens, the US will soon be on a path back to becoming one of the World’s greatest soccer nations.  If it doesn’t, all this suffering will have been for nothing.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

An Open Letter to Don Garber



The letter has moved to the Chattanooga FC website- click to read











Dear Mr. Garber:


First, thank you for participating in Blazercon and helping make it such a stellar event. Your presence certainly enhanced it.


That said, I was the lone Chattanoogan in the crowd on Saturday morning when you called out my fair city in your argument against promotion and relegation, as though it were some hellish backwater where the likes of Kansas City might be forced to play if they were to suffer the indignity of being sent down. I almost choked on my breakfast pie. Let me set the record straight:


1) Neither our stadium nor our surface is "sh*tty". In fact, it was good enough for US Soccer to host the USWNT after their World Cup victory. And we sold it out in record time. Yes, it's turf- just like the Sounders and the Revs' fields- but ours is brand new and state-of-the-art.


2) Chattanooga FC, competing in the NPSL, averaged nearly 5000 fans over the course of 15 games last season, and drew 18,227 to our final. And those are not numbers fluffed-up by including sponsors and comps; those are butts in seats. We were the first-ever NPSL side to beat a USL side in US Open Cup competition, and we won the the Hank Steinbrecher Cup (USASA Championship) last year, shattering the attendance record for that event. Mr. Steinbrecher was here in Chattanooga to present the Cup that bears his name; ask him what he thinks of our fans, our facilities, and our city.


3) Our fans are some of the most loyal, dedicated, and respected in the United States. You probably realize this by now from reading your social media feed. If Kansas City ever does come to Chattanooga to play, I can assure you that the Chattahooligans will make sure it's a memorable experience.


2015 NPSL Final, Finley Stadium, Chattanooga- photo by Eddie Mercato
I'm sure you can understand why people in Chattanooga were upset about your statement. In fact, it seems, people all over the U.S. were upset by it, perhaps because they see Chattanooga as a stand-in for all the markets in the US without an MLS team. The good news for soccer is that the enthusiasm of fans outside the largest markets in the US is very real, Mr. Garber. The bad news for MLS is that this enthusiasm seems to be very much attached to the places where these people actually live. A strong sense of place is essential to what makes Chattanooga FC special.

Your opposition to promotion and relegation is understandable, however, and my fellow board members and I at Chattanooga FC have never really banged the gong for it. We understand MLS owners have made billions in investments, and what businessman does not want to protect his investments? Introducing promotion and relegation would damage the financial health of your teams, and not just the ones in danger of being sent down. The mere threat of relegation would lower a MLS team's valuation and raise its borrowing costs. So, as a businessman, I understand your stance. But as a soccer fan, I must remind you of the list of teams currently playing in the English Premiership with populations smaller than the Chattanooga MSA: Manchester (both), Stoke, Newcastle, Southampton, Bournemouth, Norwich, Swansea, Sunderland, Watford, and West Bromwich. As fate would have it, I heard the Chairman of Bournemouth's talk just after yours, and you'll be glad to know that he's now dead set against promotion and relegation too!


But here's the bottom line, Mr. Garber: it's a wall that must eventually fall. The United States is the most hopeful nation in the world; it is a nation built on hope itself. So to organize the world's greatest game in America in a way that deprives smaller markets the hope of glory is both ironic and unsustainable. Joe Roth said in defense of the current system that Americans love a winner; that much is true. But we love one thing even more: the underdog. Surely it's not lost on you that the Green Bay Packers are the NFL's most prolific franchise. The fan bases in places like Chattanooga (and Tulsa, and Wichita, and Madison, and Sacramento, and Rochester) are too organized and too dedicated to their cities and their sense of place to just sing along to a contrived tune from distant, larger markets. The American soccer pyramid, if it is going to achieve its full potential, has to find a way to incorporate and integrate.


Since I began this letter, you have apologized for your comments, which we greatly appreciate. In fact, I've come to realize that we should be flattered by your comments. After all, we draw very good crowds, in a place half the size of your smallest market, with a modest staff and minimal overhead. And we actually have a sustainable business model that allows us to invest and grow each year. Perhaps that's a little spooky to you; it probably makes your job a lot harder when pitching owners on how much more money they need to spend to be successful. So let me apologize to you for that. We certainly don't mean to make your life more difficult.


We just really love soccer in Chattanooga, and we want to see it continue to thrive and grow in the United States. For that to happen, America needs both the MLS and markets like Chattanooga. So hopefully you can see that we're on the same team, ultimately. We'd be honored to bring you here to Chattanooga next season to see for yourself. I'm sure you'll find it worthy of hosting Kansas City some day!



Tim Kelly

Director
Chattanooga FC