Thousands of kids, and their parents, were clad in No. 9 Erling Haaland jerseys as they streamed toward Ohio Stadium hours before Manchester City played Chelsea FC in a practice game Saturday. Oh, there were some Blues jerseys, too – quite a few repping Christian Pulisic, now playing in Italy, and Conor Gallagher, who didn’t make the trip and is the subject of transfer rumors. Ah, the friendly.
It's still preseason over there, but that does not diminish the American appetite for the English Premier League, the finest club league in the world. A pregame thunderstorm did little to dampen enthusiasm. Tickets on the secondary markets were selling for $55-$180 as kickoff approached. Organizers said they were expecting 65,000 and the announced crowd was 71,280. Parking at the Ohio Union was $30 and, the attendant said, "That's the best price you're going to get around here." Ah, the friendly.
Pep Guardiola’s Man City team, the four-time defending EPL champion, was laden with reserves for this friendly. Chelsea had something closer to a representative first team, one that clearly has some things to figure out on the back end. With the gift of two horrific giveaways by Chelsea, Haaland, who happened to be in the starting lineup, scored twice by the end of the fifth minute and wound up with a hat trick. All those kids wearing his jersey, and their parents, will probably never forget it. It was like watching the 1927 Yankees in spring training. Man City won 4-2.
MLS commissioner Don Garber has called America “the ATM of the soccer world.” This summer, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Man City and Chelsea were among the EPL clubs to make deposits here. They draw huge crowds, and it has always been thus. In July 2016, a friendly between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid drew 86,641 to The Shoe. There are soccer fans in America who don’t know where Real Salt Lake is, but they’ll pay 80 bucks to watch the Real McCoy play an exhibition.
This speaks to Garber’s next big issue: Can he continue to grow MLS, which he has done meticulously over his 25-year tenure, and withstand such competition? The question looms.
Garber has a close relationship with Liga MX, and Liga MX has wondered aloud at playing non-exhibition, regular-season games in the United States. Spain’s La Liga has, as well. The EPL has talked about it. ESPN soccer writer Jeff Carlisle has provided an excellent lay of the land, detailing a lawsuit brought by Relevent – a company that wants to bring regular-season games from foreign leagues to the U.S. The defendants are U.S. Soccer and FIFA, which have stood in the way. (FIFA seems to have caved.)
“I don’t think it’s the best thing for the sport,” Garber told ESPN in 2020, after Relevent’s plans for a Spanish La Liga game were scuttled by the Spanish federation.
“I think regular-season games should be played in home markets,” Garber said. “… This isn’t really about what I think is good for our market because I have no role in that. I’m not trying to be cute. It’s whether I think that a fan in a local city should lose a home regular-season game. When you’re only playing x number of them, it is not, in my view, in the best interest of the respective leagues.”
According to Carlisle's and other recent reports, Relevent and U.S. Soccer are attempting to negotiate a settlement. If one cannot be reached, the case will go to court next year.
In a recent conversation with The Dispatch, Garber said he was unaware that owners of the Crew had made plans to move a CONCACAF Champions Cup match 150 miles away, to Cleveland Browns Stadium. He also said he was unaware of a clause in the Crew’s season-ticket renewal agreement stating the team reserves the right to move home games out of Columbus, to Cleveland.
But Garber is a “parallel path” kind of guy. On one hand, he doesn’t believe locals should lose home games. On the other, he probably thinks it’s a fantastic idea, especially for the Crew's owners. In the bigger picture, he will likely be compelled to face what’s coming next: The real possibility that the American market will be home to select games − non-exhibitions that count − played by European sides.
Some argue such a thing will be good for the game, writ large, and healthy for MLS, which – in order to compete – will be forced to spend money to improve its product. Capitalism!
On the other side of the argument are those who wonder about winners and losers. In the EPL, there’s Man City, Arsenal and maybe Liverpool, and then there are the other 17 teams that have no shot. Is that healthy?
An even bigger question: Can MLS withstand such competition and continue to grow?
On to Cleveland.
marace@dispatch.com
