News about the Arena Football League (AFL) not playing its 2009 season is unsettling and a surprise to many (at this time, statements from the league website are still evolving).  The league appeared to be in good shape.  Evidence suggested that the league was stabilizing.  For 8 home games, each of the 17 teams in 2008 (its 22nd season) averaged more than 12,000 people in attendance and ESPN shared a national platform with the league in its marketing efforts to attract new fans.

The league has benefited from American football’s fans thirst for more football.  Play is inventive, dynamic and intense according to many of its thousands of avid fans.  The AFL’s niche has been its ability to adapt an indoor playing surface the size of basketball and hockey arenas with the fever of American football fans.

The past season seemed to be a season to build upon for the AFL.  The news of the league having to take a year to reorganize in order to reestablish itself as more financially solvent (among other things) is disturbing.

The relevance of the news to MLS is how connected the 2 leagues are in what they are trying to attain and where they are positioned when it comes to the public’s taste for team spectator sports.  Neither is a mainstream league for American sports fans. They are peripheral leagues at best.

MLS, though, seems to have much more going for it as a potential mainstream American spectator sport than does the AFL.  Firstly, the AFL directly competes with the NFL due to the fact that many fans already get enough football excitement.  But most importantly, soccer is the beautiful game with its own strategies and skills that no other sport can come close to imitating.

MLS should pay close attention to what is happening with the AFL to learn from their mistakes.  The AFL has survived mostly due to its entertainment value, but it is failing according to expectations because it has already peaked.  The AFL says that its version of the minor leagues, AFL2 will continue its operations for 2009.  The AFL should accept the fact that it will always be a peripheral sport and never a mainstream one, and then maybe it will be able to turn a profit.

MLS must look at soccer’s entertainment value and decide what needs to be done to take it beyond the periphery and into mainstream. Taking over the 4th slot from hockey is a reasonable goal, but enhancements and changes in MLS must occur and they must get done quickly.

Players in the AFL agreed on pay cuts in order to try and save their league.  It shouldn’t have to get to this level. 

It will take planning and innovation by MLS league executives and officials to carry the league forward to reach the mainstream.  They must know their sport and they must know the expectations of sports fans.

The United Soccer Leagues has been a doormat to the MLS for too long.  They have allowed MLS to walk all over them.  MLS has taken multiple cities from the USL to put into their league and have not suffered any kind of legal troubles or image issues. 

This has been a coup for MLS.  They have done the deed without having to put forth the effort normally associated with bringing along brand new franchises. 

But, without any formal partnership, who is really at fault? 

The USL has a flawed business model, and the future for its First Division franchises are all in jeopardy.  Anytime a First Division franchise shows promise, its immediate goal becomes how to make MLS.  Even as new franchises come on board with USL, such as the Austin Aztex or others, it is easily apparent that with the right moves, MLS is not too far away. 

History shows that the USL should compete directly against MLS.  In both the history of football and basketball in the U.S., leagues have merged and absorbed each other. 

In football, the American Football League (AFL), consisting of teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets, and Oakland Raiders, merged with teams from the NFL, which consisted of teams such as the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers.  In basketball, teams from the American Basketball Association were absorbed by the NBA after an agreement of merger. 

Perhaps the USL’s future will be to be bought up by MLS to be a ‘minor leagues’ of sort.  But, the USL should consider that MLS is susceptible and it is possible that the USL could be the dominant league at some point in time in the future. 

As the USL sets its course for its future, with foundation at the youth and community levels as its bases, it should be more bold with its professional teams and not take for granted that MLS must be the ‘dominant’ league and the USL only a ‘funnel’ league.

The USL should approach an outsider cable television station like VERSUS to broadcast games on a regularly marketed basis.  It needs to bring its league closer to the American audience so that it can promote its Second Division teams sooner and form a more broad First Division.  A team in Charleston or Rochester is impressive with its own kind of marketing potential.  A league with many teams from cities or areas of 300,000- 500,000 or more people can also provide tons of soccer excitement.