The Great Blanco Hope

(page 2 of 2)

Related Items

Story Tools

Perhaps most important was the inauguration of the Superliga tournament this year—a competition between top Mexican and MLS teams. To make the tournament meaningful, the MLS offered $1 million to the winning team. Pachuca, a Mexican club, won over the Los Angeles Galaxy, and TV ratings among Hispanic viewers in the U.S. hit the roof. Univision, the largest Spanish-language TV network in the U.S., averaged 637,000 households during the tournament, compared with 435,000 households for top Mexican League matches. "That tournament did wonders for MLS," says David Downs, president of Univision Sports.

The league has gained a long list of big-name sponsors. They include Adidas (ADSG), Anheuser-Busch (BUD), Gatorade (PEP), Honda Motor (HMC), and Kraft Foods (KFT). "The MLS has helped us communicate with our Hispanic customers and show them the value of our products," says Ken Hefley, senior vice- president for marketing at power-tool maker Makita USA (MKTAY), another sponsor. "It's just been tremendous for us."

Over-Hyping Beckham

Investor interest has been on the rise, too, despite the surge in franchise prices. Ten new owners have bought into the league in the past three years, either acquiring new franchises or existing ones, and more are on the way. Lewis Wolff, who heads MLB's Oakland Athletics, is leading the group buying a new San Jose (Calif.) team, the Earthquakes, for next season. The group of investors backing the new Seattle franchise includes billionaire Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen and comedian Drew Carey.

The league still faces challenges. Many teams are not making money. Brazilian soccer legend Pelé recently criticized the league for over-hyping Beckham and said the MLS needs to spend more money on more top foreign players to bring up the quality of play. Meanwhile, many U.S. players' salaries are modest and growing more slowly than the 20%-a-year rate across the rest of the soccer world.

Beckham also got off to a rough start. He was injured shortly after arriving in the U.S. and couldn't help lift his team, the Los Angeles Galaxy, into the league's playoffs. Still, when he did play, he thrilled fans around the country. Perhaps even more important, league sponsor Adidas has sold more than 250,000 David Beckham Galaxy jerseys, making it the best-selling soccer jersey in the world.

Beckham and Blanco. Garber needs both if MLS is to realize his goal of becoming the league for the New America.

Holmes is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Seattle bureau .