MLS Grows Up

Sometimes, there's an unexpected poetry and symmetry in sports. Such is the case with the death of Lamar Hunt and the trade that sent the most famous young man that ever graced Major League Soccer to a new home — two headline-making occurrences that unfolded within the same week.

Hunt, 74, died late Wednesday after a prolonged illness. His contributions to the NFL were legendary, from navigating the treacherous waters of the merger to coining the phrase "Super Bowl." But his most lasting impression on American sports may be with a different kind of football.

He became a founding investor in Major League Soccer before the league began play in 1996, operating both the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards. I remember colleagues chuckling at the time that having owners with multiple teams in their portfolios was a little "Mickey Mouse"; something you'd expect from McDonald's franchises, not those in professional sports.

But Hunt and his contemporaries paid the price, and continued to pay it — in 1999, he helped fund the first soccer-specific stadium (another phrase Hunt coined, by the way) in MLS history for the Crew. For a league that had been playing games swallowed up by NFL-sized stadiums, the energy and friendly confines of these alternative venues would become an obvious panacea for the fledgling venture. There are now four in operation, with another four scheduled to open by 2008.

"There is no doubt that MLS and the sport of soccer in America would not be where it is today without Lamar Hunt's passion, commitment and unrelenting love of the game," said MLS Commissioner Don Garber in a statement. "He dreamed more than 30 years ago that America could someday be a Soccer Nation. And he lived to see that dream come true."

Well, let's not go that far, Donny Boy. There is more passion for the sport from the masses, but America's only a Soccer Nation if we're talking about the millions of imported fans from true Soccer Nations that attend "friendlies" and keep their eyes glued to the World Cup prelims at local sports bars. The bottom line is that American soccer is still searching for its Lake Placid moment on the world stage, while MLS has created a nice niche for itself that is nowhere close to mainstream media acceptance.

But it's getting there, maturing every season. And there's been no greater sign of that maturity than D.C. United trading Freddy Adu to Real Salt Lake this week.

I attended Freddy's first home game back in April 2004, when the media was in frenzy over a 14-year-old becoming a professional athlete. I interviewed several youth soccer coaches and parents at the game who were there for one reason: Freddy. I interviewed a few players who were playing soccer for one reason: Freddy. And when that kid started warming up on the sideline in the second half of the match against San Jose, the 24,603 fans in attendance responded with a new chant in the old stadium: "Fred-dy, Fred-dy!"

He was a sensation, a star, a reason for everyone in America to start paying attention to MLS on a seasonal basis — even if his minutes-played made him the soccer equivalent of Darko Milicic.

But there were moments from that debut that made me feel as though United and MLS were comprising themselves for the sake of Adu: a media darling and, more importantly, a living, breathing Nike product. Did we need to have him surrounded by piles of the soft drink he endorsed as he held court with the media after the match? Did we really need a mountainous security guard intimidating media who dared ask Freddy any off-the-script questions in the locker room? Was there anything more "Mickey Mouse" than having United restrict ticket sales to the lower bowl and the suites, creating an artificial sellout so the newspapers would report a packed house for The Big Debut the next day? Not to mention the fact that MLS basically overrode its own draft format to get Adu playing with United in the first place.

Three years later, the compromising is over. Freddy Adu is no longer a drawing card in Washington, DC. Part of it is United's fault for not playing him, and not playing him in his natural position; part of it is Freddy's fault for not playing well enough to force the issue; and all of it is about unfulfilled potential. On Monday, his time with United ended in a trade to Real Salt Lake.

Taken in context, the Adu trade is exactly what Lamar Hunt one day wished for this league: that it was a free-standing, viable sports organization that didn't need to compromise itself for the sake of flimsy publicity or pathetic grabs at market share (see Bettman, Gary). Even with his diminished stature, Adu is still considered by the mainstream to be a viable commodity and, by some, the future of American soccer.

To trade him for a tangled mess of draft picks, financial compensation and a future international player allotment was still a risky decision from a PR perspective; because you're trading away a "60 Minutes" segment, magazine covers, jersey sales, Nike contracts, endorsement deals and the face of American soccer's future for millions of casual fans. Real Salt Lake CEO Dean Howes hit the nail on the head when he called Freddy "one of the most recognized names in American soccer" before mentioning anything he might do on the field for his new team.

Unlike RSL, United made a soccer decision on Adu, not a marketing decision. His frustration over playing as a wing under Coach Peter Nowak, rather than in the middle, was considerable and potentially damaging to the team. Yet there was zippy chance United was going to move reigning MVP Christian Gomez for Freddy — so it was adieu, Adu.

Perhaps he'll thrive in the middle for Salt Lake, where his lack of breakaway speed might not hinder him as much as on the wing.
Perhaps he'll learn to compete despite his lack of size. Perhaps his growth as a player, which was clearly slowed in D.C., will be re-ignited.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. It's all question marks. That United decided it no longer was willing to wait for the answers — choosing its coach's system and its MVP middle over the unicorn at the circus — speaks volumes about how far some teams in MLS have come, where providing a winning product is now more important than simply providing a product.

Lamar Hunt's dream of America as a Soccer Nation is still unfolding. But his vision of Major League Soccer as a professional sports league has become a reality.

Greg Wyshynski is the Features Editor for SportsFan Magazine in Washington, DC, and the Senior Sports Editor for The Connection Newspapers of Northern Virginia. His book is "Glow Pucks and 10-Cent Beer: The 101 Worst Ideas in Sports History." His columns appear every Saturday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Greg at [email protected].