Article by Matt Lichtenstadter
Three of MLS’ inaugural clubs have been in the news recently, in many cases for all the wrong reasons. Both the Colorado Rapids and New England Revolution have fired their coaches after disastrous starts, and the Chicago Fire are treading water as rumors intensify that they are leaving their current home in Bridgeview, IL for downtown Chicago. As MLS so intently focuses on a future with continued rapid expansion, it feels like some of its oldest and more important clubs are being left behind with no hope with staying in touch with the newfound arms race. How has that happened, and how can they keep up?
Not too long ago, these clubs were some of the more successful ones in the league. Colorado nearly made MLS Cup Final in 2016 after an amazingly stout defense carried them to two points away from the Supporter’s Shield. Five years ago, the Revolution were in MLS Cup Final themselves with a good nucleus of young talent on the up. The Fire were an immediate hit when they entered the league and are only two years removed from a good season themselves. But in an era where everything has improved in the league so rapidly, clubs can be caught flat footed, and all three of them have, both on and off the pitch.
Colorado and Chicago both play in soccer specific stadiums, but both are in far flung suburbs far away from the natural fanbase for MLS teams to draw from. The Revs are in still at Gillette Stadium, playing as second fiddle to the Patriots. In ownership, all three have been left behind in many ways too. The Rapids are owned by Stan Kroenke, but he barely pays them any mind and has left control to his son Josh, who hasn’t done much with them either. Robert Kraft owns the Revs, and while he can be forgiven for paying close attention to the six time Super Bowl Champions, it almost feels that at times, he’s forgotten he owns the team. And the Fire have only just gotten new investment from Jon Mansueto after many years of complains from fans about Andrew Hauptman.
While none of these clubs are going to be quite like Atlanta, LAFC or some of the league’s newer breed, there is no reason they can’t be like what DC United, the Red Bulls, or even the Crew have become with committed ownership, a plan and a vision. As the league sets it eyes on growing to 30 teams before too long, these clubs who have been a part of the league since the beginning are in danger of becoming afterthoughts. While all of them are trying to keep up, and making moves to establish that, it feels as if the league needs to be giving these trouble spots more of the focus that is going to expansion instead.
New England has just hired Bruce Arena as manager and technical director. While Arena might not be able to have the same kind of success he had in the past because of how much the league has changed, it is a step in the right direction. The Rapids fired Anthony Hudson and while there is not much to be excited about in the short term, they do have an academy that is producing some talented players who could form the nucleus of something better with a better vision around them. And while moving out of a soccer specific stadium to a stadium in which they’d be a tenant is not the best look, getting out of Bridgeview is important for the Fire to re-establish themselves in a crowded Chicago sports market. But these only feel like first steps, however necessary they are.
If the cliché “you’re only as strong as your weakest link” is true about MLS, then the league shouldn’t be judged by the successes in Atlanta, LA and elsewhere, they should be judged by what isn’t happening in Colorado, New England and Chicago. MLS desperately wants to avoid being a league of haves and have nots like almost every other soccer league in the world has become, but to walk that walk, clubs like these must be given a chance to succeed, and in their current positions, they’re twisting in the wind with no hope of being saved. More committed ownership would be an important step for all three, but to get there, the league needs to give them the attention they deserve.
Shiny new expansion teams cannot and should not take the focus off the concerns in some of these markets that the league must deal with. It needs to be successful in these major markets to be the league it can be, and not a league running off the sugar high of splashy successes elsewhere. Expansion, signings and other headline grabbing moves are good for a temporary look away from those concerns, but in the end, it’s on the league to spearhead the drive to make the changes needed to get these clubs on the right track. The league can only reach its potential when they do.
