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8. The 1960's: The Birth of the American Soccer Renaissance
The sport of soccer has always had a strong base among ethnic communities
throughout the 20th century, but mainstream America largely ignored
the sport. It continued to toil along through regional semi-pro leagues,
and the low-key American Soccer League II. By 1960' drastic changes
had taken place throughout American society with the expansion of
travel and communications. Spectator sports were rising in popularity
and the advent of television attracted people to the sports as never
before, and with the rise of cities outside of the Northeast there
were increasing clamors for major league sports throughout the country.
In 1960, Bill Cox, a major promoter saw the potential for Soccer
to join the bandwagon, and envisioned a truly top level professional
soccer league, and set out to create one. His league, the second International
Soccer League was unique in that it consisted of existing foreign
clubs, who played during their offseason as members of the ISL. This
approach had positive and negative aspects. Because the clubs were
basically playing off-season exhibition tours, they tended not to
take the league very seriously, and often sent mostly reserve players
as a way of keeping them in shape. On the other hand, some fairly
significant teams participated, including Red Star Belgrade, Bayern
Munich, Sporting Lisbon, Dukla Prague, and Shamrock Rovers. This was
also a unique opportunity to see a truly international collection
of teams on a regular basis. One encouraging note was the surprisingly
successful performance of the US club, which was basically a collection
of ASL all-stars. The league played for six seasons, offering reasonably
good soccer, although the league was largely ignored outside of the
US. The league was able to avoid direct competition with the locally
oriented American Soccer League which continued its fairly low-key
approach based on established franchises, with a new focus on developing
quality American players. The ASL made its first move at the local
level, reaching an agreement with the semi-pro German American Soccer
League to play a combined season between the two leagues in 1964-65.
When that failed, they expanded outward, increasing their presence
outside of their Northeast Corridor footprint, to include teams in
New England and later out to the Midwest.
The World Cup in England in 1966 attracted quite a bit of attention
among sports promoters and soccer enthusiasts, due to surprisingly
high television ratings in the US. This was enough to inspire several
groups of businessmen to try and cash in on this interest through
establishment of a major 1st division soccer league. As is typically
for US ventures, there was a great lack of agreement, and infighting
which resulted in the creation of two rival leagues of which only
one received FIFA sanction. These leagues were inspired partially
by the great growth in popularity of pro spectator sports throughout
the country which had come about partially as a result of increased
ease of transportation, improvements in communication , growth of
TV and satellite transmissions, and most importantly, the general
trend of prosperity the US had enjoyed since the early 1950's. A real
cultural change was taking place with people having more disposable
income, leisure time, and the country was rapidly turning into a nation
of sports addicts. Participation in youth sports was up as well.
NFL (and AFL) football was simply exploding in popularity, the Super
Bowl had just been inaugurated and the AFL-NFL merger had just taken
place. Basketball was on the edge of a great wave of expansion nationwide.
Baseball was enjoying a rapid climb in attendance with new teams,
the major leagues had spread across the country in the late 1950's,
and the NHL had just doubled in size. So it was natural that people
would see Soccer as a potential for further expansion. The ethnic
soccer communities thrives, mainstream American youths were starting
to take soccer as an alternative to other more expensive and violent
participation sports, and the youth advertising market was just beginning
to be recognized.
Into this picture came the United Soccer Association and the National
Professional Soccer League, the first modern attempts to create truly
national, 1st division soccer in the US. Although the original American
Soccer League of the 1920's was one of the stronger leagues in the
world in its day, it was still a regional league, never extending
out of the Northeastern US. The United Soccer Association was sanctioned
by FIFA, and established themselves in 12 major US cities spanning
the country. The NPSL, started by a rival group, was not sanctioned,
and did not abide by FIFA player transfer rules. So the stage was
set for a contentious and not very productive debut for the game.
Both leagues almost went bankrupt. Fan interest, although initially
high, quickly faded. TV ratings were terrible. Attendance was not
bad for first-year leagues, but many owners were not prepared to keep
the talent level up with their limited resources. In desperation,
the leagues merged in 1968 becoming the North American Soccer League
(but only retaining 17 of the original teams), but the second year
was disastrous, with low attendance, no television contract, and massive
financial losses by all teams. Only five teams survived to see a third
season.
As a survival method they remained low-key and slowly built themselves
up through the early 1970's. Although the league's intentions were
noble, they were simply ahead of their times. They made too big a
splash without the ability to promote the game to an audience that
just wasn't quite there yet. But the low-key approach allowed them
to slowly build the league towards viability which still maintaining
a presence on the US sports scene. With the addition of the New York
Cosmos, and a number of west coast teams Clive Toye felt the time
was right to make a statement when he signed Pele in 1975. Although
a few other major stars had already been signed, this truly was a
shot heard around the world, despite Pele's recent retirement. This
act finally got the media to take notice, the league attendance went
up, media attention both at home and worldwide gave the league a new
air of respectability. The attention snowballed in a positive way
this time, through 1976 and 1977. As attendance climbed and more world
stars were signed, vital media attention drew record numbers of fans,
culminating with 77,691 for a 1977 playoff game between the Cosmos
and the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers at Giants stadium. This was a truly
golden era.
A key development through the 1970's was the rapid growth of soccer
as a youth participation sport. Soccer was relatively inexpensive
as well as democratic -- it did not require specialists, tall players
or behemoths as many of the other sorts did, and youth soccer did
not have the overly competitive stigma and the political mudslinging
that was plaguing Little League baseball and Pop Warner football.
The parallel growth of the NASL, and youth (as well as adult) soccer
really portended a golden era for the sport in the US, which unfortunately
was premature at least from the professional game's point of view.
Once again, the league was a little ahead of its time. Although
large crowds were attracted to many games and several teams, the league
was spending well beyond its means for international stars, who although
skilled, and popular, and bringing much recognition, simply cost too
much to be supported by the existing fan base (in 1977 averaging league-wide
about 13,400 per game). But the league was doomed to fail because
of its inability to control player costs, which simply bankrupted
one team after another until the league's demise in 1984.
The reasons for the failure were many, going beyond the sheer tide
of red ink with forced so many teams under. The NASL had no television
contract (a few teams had local TV and radio), unlike the other major
sports who could count on TV revenue to finance the salaries. The
NASL also was a rogue league, not following FIFA standards, refusing
to honor transfer agreements, play in continental tournaments, instead
simply raiding players from other countries. Unlike other countries,
also, the national team was almost nonexistent, and there was no national
following for that team. Finally, the NASL had no viable minor league
system or college developmental system to supply it with home-grown
talent, and many fans could not have more than a superficial attachment
to teams with mostly international stars who only stayed 1-2 years.
The flood of international stars by some major teams forced the others
to follow suit when they really couldn't afford to. This also had
the effect of marginalizing the US players who were primarily bench
warmers and substitutes, despite a quota system which required an
increasing minimum number of US players on the field at all times,
and a minimum number on the rosters.
On the other hand, the internationalizing effect of having all these
stars was very positive, and exposed Americans to a very high level
of play, showing them what a beautiful sport it is. This really planted
a seed in many people, particularly the youngsters who saw games and
finally had pro stars to root for, and were inspired to continue with
soccer through their college and adult years. Many of the current
US players were introduced to the game through the NASL, many others
are now eager MLS fans, and actively coaching teams while their own
children play in the youth leagues and high school.
This growth of youth, amateur and college soccer was not enough
to save the NASL, which, lacking a major television contract after
the ABC deal of 1979-1980, simply could not generate enough income,
despite high attendance, to cover the cost of the imported players.
From 1980-1984, teams folded each year due to financial losses, and
the league finally expired in early 1985 after only two of the 9 remaining
teams posted a bond for the new season. The long-running ASL II, which
had expanded into the Midwest in the early 1970's, the west coast
in the late 1970's and the south in the early 1980's had called it
quits the previous year, although a few teams formed the nucleus of
the short-lived United Soccer League which played in 1984 and 1985,
shutting down abruptly due to foreclosure halfway through the 1985
season.
After the demise of the second American Soccer League in 1983, the
USL, created from the ashes of the failed American Soccer League II,
barely survived financial losses from their first season, as four
teams bravely continued the fight in 1985. However, the league folded
abruptly in bankruptcy just before the start of a planned second half
of the season. Meanwhile the Western Alliance Challenge Series (Later
the western Soccer League II) began with teams in San Jose, Victoria,
Seattle and Portland, playing an abbreviated 7 game season. Victoria
folded after the season. With three teams remaining in this single
low-level outdoor league, US outdoor professional soccer reached its
nadir. For the first time, the US was in danger of being without a
fully professional outdoor league since 1905. With the indoor game
flourishing and a healthy rivalry developing between the MISL and
the upstart American Indoor Soccer Association, the general consensus
was the future of Soccer in America lay with indoor soccer, rather
than the outdoor game. The US National team reached a humiliating
low as they were pounded out of contention for the 1986 world cup.
The team went almost two years before playing their next game, and
there was little enthusiasm for keeping the team going after this
debacle. Many analysts saw outdoor soccer as being fundamentally an
alien game to the psyches of American sports fans who wanted more
action, and higher scoring. The outdoor game was seen as too strategy-driven,
and not well suited to television broadcasts with the lack of natural
breaks in the action for commercial breaks.
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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