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16. From World Cup to Major League Soccer (1995-1996)
By 1995, there were major changes occurring throughout all aspects
of US Soccer. The National team had sent out upon a program of building
on the world cup success and preparing for the next step. Major League
Soccer set about the task of securing owner investors, sponsors and
television contracts and signing players. The APSL, now retitled the
A-league won recognition from FIFA as the United States' Division
2 league, and the USISL won designation as the third division league.
With Major League Soccer recognized as the 1st division league, the
USA finally had a working divisional system for the professional game.
More importantly, the leagues finally decided to work together and
cooperate in maintaining this system. The A-League and USISL worked
out an agreement to act as a farm system for the MLS, and the MLS
reached an agreement with the indoor NPSL regarding scheduling seasons
and sharing of players. Avoiding the future women's basketball disaster,
players were allowed to compete in both outdoor and indoor seasons.
For once, the different major soccer powers were not fighting and
trying to undercut each other. Only the two year indoor Continental
Indoor Soccer League (CISL) was on its own, but it kept largely to
itself and did not try to interfere with the overall cooperation.
The A-League was a small, unwieldy league with 7 teams spread across
the entire country and Canada, but the USISL, which had committed
itself to the bottom-up grassroots development strategy now had 85
teams in small to medium sized cities nationwide, and had split itself
into professional and amateur divisions. The amateur division is known
among fans as an unofficial "4th division".
The College game had been growing steadily, and was one of the largest
college varsity sports. This was most evident in the rapid and sudden
growth of women's college soccer. The women's game was really starting
to come into its own both at the collegiate level and with the women's
team (despite the disappointing 1995 World Cup final loss to Norway).
This resulted in the USISL establishing a national women's league,
which rapidly grew to over thirty teams, eventually splitting into
elite and amateur divisions.
Major League Soccer established a unique single entity corporate
structure with teams managed by Investors, existing as separate franchises,
but with all player signings and salaries managed by the central league
office who also handled player allocations and approved trades. This
proved critical in the formative stages as the league ensured parity
in the initial team lineup. The owner investors invested to the tune
of $75,000,000 which was designed to cover expected operating losses
for the first five seasons of the league. Ten corporate sponsors were
signed up, and television contracts were signed with ABC, ESPN, ESPN2
and Univision. To promote the development of American players, the
teams had a limit of five foreigners per team, and 15 Americans. In
addition, there was a salary cap of $1,250,000 per team and a maximum
player salary of $175,000 (excepting sponsorship deals with 4 allocated
marquee players per team). This ensured Americans would have adequate
playing time to develop their talent and avoid the mistakes of the
NASL with regard to spiraling salaries for foreigners with Americans
warming the bench. The MLS signed marquee players and held tryouts
for others, establishing a signee list of over 250 players when the
February 1996 draft took place. This player pool was a mixture of
foreign stars, US National team players (The USSF Training program
was shut down, to be replaced by MLS), US stars playing abroad and
in the A-League, as well as other A-League players, USISL players,
a few amateurs, and some indoor veterans from the NPSL and CISL. In
addition, a collegiate draft was held as well as a supplemental free-agent
draft after the draft from the Player Pool. Overall, the quality of
players signed was better than many had expected, with a surprising
majority of national team members signed to the league. This included
many who had been able to land playing positions overseas as a result
of their reputation and World Cup performances.
The National Team played a series of exhibitions, before having an
amazing performance during the summer, winning the US Cup against
very strong opponents, and then stunning the world by making it to
the semifinals in the Copa America, defeating Argentina 3-1, Mexico
1-0, and nearly tying World Cup champion Brazil (who ultimately won
1-0). Argentina had foolishly rested some of their starters, expecting
the US game to be a cakewalk. This upset showed the world the Americans
were to be taken seriously. This triumph led to Steve Sampson being
named permanent coach, and he had turned in the best performance ever
for an American born coach, putting to rest the myth than Americans
were incapable of bringing coaching success to the national level.
The Internet became a major factor in American Soccer at this time.
netizens took to the internet early and congregated in newsgroups,
email lists, and web pages sharing information, collecting statistics
and creating informational forums to counteract the dearth of soccer
coverage in the media. This year also saw the birth of the first supporters
club for the national team. The idea actually took root during the
1994 world cup when three fans at the 1994 world cup were accidentally
introduced when Mark Wheeler, a doctoral student at Carnegie-Mellon,
spilled his soda on Marc Spacone, a coach at SUNY-Buffalo, who was
with his friend John Wright. The three of them got to talking and
bemoaned the fact that even on their home turf, the team had to face
stadium crowds that were mostly rooting for their opposition, an effect
of the still strong ethnic component of the game in the US. They hatched
the idea of a club whose members would go to all national team home
games, sit together with logo shirts, drums, instruments, songs and
cheers, and work to develop a strong tradition of American fans wildly
supporting the American team in the European tradition (minus the
hooliganism and poor sportsmanship). The club was conceptualized,
organized and promoted on the soccer internet groups, and Sam's Army
was born. Their first game, the beginning of the US Cup 1995 was a
resounding success, and Sam's Army has appeared at every game since,
with crowds ranging as high as 900 for a game. Sam's Army now has
over 5,000 members nationwide, and even overseas.
Other historic segments:
- Origins,
1609-1862
- The
College Era, and Rules Consolidation, 1862-1875
- The
Working-Class and Immigrant Eras, 1875-1894
- The
Doldrums, 1895-1913
- The
First Dynasties, 1913-1921
- The
Golden Era, 1921-1933
- The
Ethnic Period, 1933-1960
- The
Birth of the American Soccer Renaissance The 1960's
- Outdoor
soccer reaches a low: 1985
- The
Hope for a World Cup Mid 1980's
- A
Change in Fortunes, 1988
- The
Rebirth of Outdoor Soccer, 1988-1994
- The
Indoor Soccer Wars, 1990-1992
- The
Road to the World Cup 1989-1994
- The
World Cup comes to America 1994
- From
World Cup to Major League Soccer 1995-1996
- The
Here and Now, 1996-present
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