If the Los Angeles Galaxy don't make money this season, then maybe there's just none to be made in professional soccer in the United States.
The Galaxy are moving into one of the best soccer-only stadiums in the world -- the 27,000-seat Home Depot Center, complete with luxury boxes, club seats, training center and a spiffy European-style overhanging roof to hold in the crowd noise.
And, by the way, the Galaxy are the defending Major Soccer League champions -- and they happen to be the host for this year's title game. They've improved their roster and are so loaded that anything but a repeat will be an upset.
``We are going to see some sellouts,'' said general manger Doug Hamilton, a prediction he could never make when his team played in the Rose Bowl. ``There are going to be games when we're turning people away.''
And so the pressure is on. Not just to win games, but to achieve that MLS rarity -- a profit. If this doesn't work, the league will be stagnant at best and doomed at worst.
Small returns
``I think that it's critical that we get a modest profit out of this,'' Hamilton said. ``By modest, I mean anything above `dead-even' qualifies. If this club goes and proves the model, that you can be financially viable, we think there are multiple communities interested in following suit.''
Those who can't wait any longer to see the new stadium will have to. It won't be ready until June 7, forcing the Galaxy to open the season with a league-record eight-game road trip.
Los Angeles kicks off MLS' eighth season next Saturday with a visit to the Columbus Crew, home of the league's only other made-for-soccer stadium. The rest of the 10-team league begins play the following weekend.
The Crew opened their stadium in 1999, and they've turned a profit by using the facility to host other sporting events and concerts. The Columbus-Los Angeles model is the same: If a team can control its own scheduling, parking fees, concessions and ticket revenue rather than playing second-banana in a borrowed American football stadium, then soccer has a chance.
But Columbus is the MLS' smallest market, with only an NHL team to share the local pro spotlight. Los Angeles is something else altogether. The league needs a big presence in big markets in order to grow.
And if it works, soccer stadiums on drawing boards in Dallas, Washington, New Jersey and Kansas City could finally get the go-ahead. And the dozen or so cities that have expressed interest in an expansion team will line up a little faster.
A bigger nationwide presence could lead to something the league really needs for good financial footing -- a big TV contract.
``There is pressure on this organization,'' Hamilton said. ``We're well-suited to meet the challenge, but at the same time the goals are lofty.''
In contrast to the uncertainty off the field, MLS' actual product continues to improve. The rise in quality of play was evident last year at the World Cup, where 12 MLS players led the US to its best showing in 72 years.
This year, MLS welcomes its first French player, Colorado midfielder Gilles Grimandi, who has previously played for Arsenal in the English Premier League. South Korean World Cup hero Hong Myung-bo joins the Galaxy. Longtime US national team forward Earnie Stewart signed with DC United after 14 seasons in the Netherlands. Joe-Max Moore is back in New England after three seasons with England's Everton.
``The league, American players are just getting so much better,'' DC United coach Ray Hudson said. ``You watch a game from last season, and you watch a game from the first year of the league, it's night and day. It's so much more energetic and skillful.''
Setting the scene
It'll be easier to keep track of who plays where this season. Six of the 10 teams kept their key players intact, a strong show of stability compared to last year, when Miami and Tampa Bay were dissolved and their rosters dispersed throughout the league. In addition, six coaches have now been with their teams three years or longer.
There was some movement. Chicago, unloading from salary cap strain for the second straight offseason, sent Josh Wolff to Kansas City.
The biggest trade involved the two teams that didn't make the playoffs -- United and the MetroStars -- with Eddie Pope and Jaime Moreno going to the Meadowlands to join new coach Bob Bradley.
Overall for MLS, any fears that last year's contraction would start an unstoppable downward spiral have subsided for now, especially given the tremendous boost the sport got from the World Cup. Commissioner Don Garber has said the league cut its losses in half last year.
The future, however, remains an unpredictable as a penalty shootout.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but