Major League Soccer has been out of balance for the last few years. Yes, there's salary cap and roster restriction-mandated parity, a reality that frustrates some even while it guarantees a majority of the league's teams have a chance to win a championship each and every season. And yes, small or non-existent margins mean that many clubs are hesitant to tip the scales for themselves the one way they can, with the designated player rule.
But in the areas of flash and hype, the attention-grabbing, headline-stealing, PR-directed battle for status and awareness, MLS has been tilted dramatically to the West.
The LA Galaxy are a "flagship" MLS franchise because they inhabit the country's second largest market. They have deep-pocketed owners, a first class stadium, and the will to spend money to "grow their brand". This has manifested itself in the signing of one of the world's most visible players in David Beckham and the resulting firestorm of notoriety that followed. In the contest for headlines and mainstream coverage, the Galaxy are winners by a wide margin. No one else in the league, even those few clubs that have signed designated players like Seattle and New York, come close. Add the small detail that the Galaxy have the league's best American player in Landon Donovan, and Los Angeles has garnered the lion's share of interest from the non-soccer segment of the American sports community, the gossip industry, and observers abroad.
Let's consider it a good thing then, that the New York Red Bulls appear on their way to balancing the situation. Finally out of the crumbling, ill-fitting, club-crippling Giants Stadium and settling into Red Bull Arena, New York has all of the prerequisites for an American club looking to make a name for themselves.
Big market? Check.
Owners with deep pockets? Check.
A first-class venue? Check.
And the willingness to spend doesn't seem to be lacking either, with news coming down last week that the Red Bulls plan to buy a third designated player spot as is now allowed by MLS rules. Since New York currently has just one DP in striker Juan Pablo Angel, it's seems safe to assume that they'll be splashing the cash on big name talent as early as this summer.
Perhaps the signings won't bring the club on-field success, though early returns on the Hans Backe/Eric Stover era are positive. That aforementioned parity can be a bitch, excuse the expression, and it will take more than a few aging European stars to bring the Red Bulls their first championship trophy. That hasn't kept the team from making grand pronouncements on their intentions, claiming they can win it all as soon as next year.
The universe, even the American soccer version, needs balance. Attention in all forms is good for a growing league like MLS, and it doesn't matter that the Galaxy and the Red Bulls dominating the headlines by spending more than anyone else is akin to two Darth Vaders doing battle in a maelstrom of footy evil for rest of the country. Perhaps it's not yin and yang, but it does represent progress; the two cities of Los Angeles and New York are connected to one another throughout the history of American sports, and there's no reason that shouldn't be true in soccer. No club should run ahead unchallenged for profile supremacy, and it's about time New York's club took its rightful place as a leading light in Major League Soccer.
Major League Soccer will be better with a New York team acting like a New York team. It looks like that time has finally come.
Sure, it's distasteful when the richest teams get all the attention and outshine teams that "do it right" or are able to win despite a small-market handicap. But villains grow passion in direct opposition; if people love to hate New York (which some already do) the way so many already love to hate LA, that's a massive victory for MLS.
