Soccer-Specific = Success
If you were to look back at the American sports landscape 17 years ago, I don’t think many people would foresee a domestic soccer league gaining enough ground to build twelve soccer-specific stadiums and have the third-highest attendance between U.S.-based leagues in 2013. Yet Major League Soccer has proved nearly everyone wrong since its inception in 1996, and the league shows no signs of slowing its expansion.
The MLS currently has 19 franchises spread across the US and Canada (MLS).
In addition to welcoming the Montreal Impact last season and considering franchises in New York City and Miami, the MLS is pushing for all of its team to play in soccer-specific stadiums. These facilities are perhaps the best indicator of the organization’s success—teams no longer have to play games in cavernous football stadiums or under-sized college fields. Soccer-specific stadiums usually seat 18, 000 - 30, 000 fans, a perfect range for the average MLS crowd, and allow fields to conform to FIFA’s suggested dimensions. Most importantly, perhaps, is the opportunity for team owners to collect much more revenue as the sole proprietors of these facilities. Rather than paying an ownership group to play games in a non-soccer facility, teams can control their finances to a much greater extent—in a developing league like the MLS, this is a crucial boost for both individual teams and the entire organization.
The Houston Dynamo's new soccer-specific facility, BBVA Compass Stadium (MLS).
The New York Red Bulls have a new soccer-specific facility as well: Red Bulls Arena (Aren't corporate sponsorships great?).
Unfortunately, there are still a handful of teams who don’t have their own soccer-specific stadiums. While these franchises aren’t necessarily in the red because of where they play, there’s a lot of pressure to keep up with the rest of the league and build on the MLS’s growth. Currently, the New England Revolution, Vancouver Whitecaps, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders—who play in a stadium built for both football/soccer—and my own D.C. United are the only MLS teams that don’t play in soccer-specific stadiums. However, the Earthquakes are already committed to a new soccer facility while the Revolution and D.C. United have new stadium plans in the works.
Here in D.C., I’ve been following the debate and controversy surrounding a new soccer-specific stadium for the city’s most successful pro sports franchise (I had to throw that in there). Even after last season’s success and playoff run, United will still have trouble attracting fans to the less-than-ideal RFK Stadium. In a competitive market, having a first-rate, permanent home for soccer will go a long way towards driving up attendance, increasing revenue, and securing TV and media deals with the city’s best providers. My own trips to RFK for United games—14 and counting—have been good experiences, but the facility is extremely run-down and not even close to its NFL, MLB, or NBA counterparts. Besides, I’m not the family of four that United really wants to attract for matches—what will a mom from Bethesda think about the shabby facilities and lack of amenities?
Still, D.C. United’s push for a new stadium may finally pay off. The club is currently targeting an area of the District called Buzzard Point, which isn’t far from brand-new Nationals Park. While they’ve been attempting to negotiate a deal with the city council for several years—which turned into the possibility of moving the club to Baltimore at one tense point—the club has new financial and legal muscle as they look to build a soccer-specific stadium that will accommodate 20, 000 – 24, 000 fans. The Washington Post has the full story on stadium developments here.
Here's the proposed site of D.C. United's future soccer-specific facility--fingers crossed! (Capital Business).
All of these negotiations show the importance of soccer-specific stadiums in the MLS, especially for a storied club like D.C. United. I have no doubts that American soccer will continue to grow at a tremendous rate, and I think that these new stadiums will play a key part in carving out soccer’s identity in the landscape of American sports.
Besides, anyone who doubts the pull of soccer-specific stadiums should watch this video of the atmosphere at the Portland Timbers’ Jeld-Wen Field. As much as it hurts to say it, the buzz created in this facility could never be replicated in a stadium like RFK--the celebrations in the video below are unbelievable!