Amid March Madness and an otherwise busy sports schedule, you might have missed it. But last weekend, the MLS season started again—and New York has a new team. Funded by Manchester City and the New York Yankees, New York City Football Club looks to be a worthy addition to the league.
Logically then, NYCFC could be the perfect club for any Columbia student with a burgeoning interest in soccer to adopt. There are no strings attached with supporting a potential super club with no formal history to this point. But all is not as rosy as it seems for NYCFC and for the MLS at large.
Since the LA Galaxy’s acquisition of British superstar David Beckham in 2007, the league has made monumental strides in achieving international legitimacy. With the seemingly endless addition of expansion clubs, the MLS no longer occupies a lower tier in the American sports hierarchy.
Beckham’s arrival dominated American soccer headlines and prompted numerous foreign (read: aging) stars to descend upon the league, including Thierry Henry, Robbie Keane, Bradley Wright-Phillips, and most recently, Steven Gerrard. But naturally, this retirement home system has led to a plateau with respect to league perception.
In 2013, MLS Commissioner Don Garber addressed the issue, identifying domestic player development—as opposed to international signing—as an integral part of improving the league’s stature. But the recent of signing of David Villa by NYCFC—and Kaká by Orlando City SC—points to a fundamental divide between the commissioner’s office and ownership.
Front offices around the MLS hope that signing past-their-prime superstars to lucrative deals will increase fan interest, and allow the league, in the long run, to compete for talent and fans in the global market.
But this has not necessarily been the case thus far. Although attendance and viewership is up, true super clubs like Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain have only increased their stranglehold at the top. Whether it’s the prestige of European clubs or their overflowing coffers, it is evident that American clubs are nowhere near ready to challenge them on the international stage.
It would then seem prescient on the part of NYCFC and clubs of their ilk to take note of international clubs like Ajax Amsterdam and Sporting Lisbon, known for their elite youth academies, and begin focusing more on their own. Both foreign clubs have made impressive runs in Europe’s two premier competitions—the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League—and boast scores of alumni across soccer’s top flight. But instead, NYCFC is committed to the same shortsightedness plaguing the rest of the MLS. Chelsea legend Frank Lampard is expected to join the club this summer. At the age of 36, he too will lack the longevity necessary for long-term success.
This is not a new indictment against MLS. For years, fans and analysts have been clamoring for a higher level of play on the field. But the success of super teams like the 2011 Galaxy—whose roster boasted Landon Donovan, Keane, and Beckham––has done nothing but create a cyclical problem for the league. As teams with foreign stars continue to win, the desire for them will only increase. But without a strong foundation of developed players, domestic popularity, and increased revenue, the MLS will continue to struggle to gain the legitimacy it so desperately desires.
Yeabsira Tigistu is a Columbia College junior majoring in political science. Yeabhub runs biweekly.