I'd be guilty of a significant understatement if I was to say that the Seattle Sounders "burst on the MLS scene" in 2009.
I'd also be selling the Sounders and their fans short if I said that they simply "raised the bar" for MLS expansion sides. The reverberations of the Sounders success in their first season will be felt for years, and not only because it seems they'll be challenging their own attendance records for the foreseeable future.
With the bar raised (what's the superlative of "raised"?), the question must be asked if we're headed for supreme disappointment if the next batch of new clubs fail to match Seattle. They won't, of course, match the Sounders for attendance since the stadiums in each place (Philly, Portland, and Vancouver) have smaller capacities than Qwest, but there might be a negative response should any of the three new teams not sell out a significant portion of their home dates.
Perhaps the better question revolves around what exactly it will take for Philly, and subsequently Portland and Vancouver, to be termed "successful". The Sounders blew the doors off of the place, exceeding all expectations and buoying the league during a down economic environment. I don't think it would be unfair to say that neither Philadelphia nor Portland or Vancouver will be doing the same.
Still, and as obvious as it may seem not put too much into a less-than-sold out season in Philly this year, some will seize the opportunity to bag on MLS. League detractors, or people with an ax to grind, will point at the Union and label them a disappointment if they fail to meet some arbitrary standard now heightened because the Sounders did so well in 2009.
All of this comes to mind for me because of something Jeff Cooper said to Peter Wilt in a Q&A posted to Pitch Invasion:
I love to watch what is happening in Seattle. It shows how the game is growing in the US. However, I hope we don’t hold cities like Portland to the same standard going forward or there may be an inappropriate sense of disappointment.
Not that I worry, ultimately. I have a feeling Philly will be fine, and as long as the club averages right around 15k, it should be viewed as a massive success. Philadelphia seems like a harder nut to crack than Seattle, something I base simply on the character of the two cities and their markets.
But worry or not, Cooper's point is a good one; Seattle shot the moon in year one, and while their success represents something good for MLS and American soccer, it shouldn't be viewed as the way things should be moving forward. Soccer is still on a slow and steady path to relevancy in the United States, something we should always be keep in mind.
Philly will be fine, Portland will be fine, Vancouver will be fine, and Montreal will be fine when they're finally announced, as long as the expectations stay reasonable.
