In a sense, Philadelphia - and Chester - got lucky.
When Major League Soccer first kicked around possible sites for franchises, Philadelphia was on the original short list. But until now, this city never had a suitable place to play or a deep-pocketed ownership group.
This market - which, according to several sources, will officially be awarded a franchise at a press conference Thursday near the site of the future MLS stadium along the Chester waterfront - missed a lot of growing pains.
After the league began in 1996, after two original MLS franchises folded, a couple of billionaire owners kept the league afloat. At one point, two ownership groups, headed by Philip Anschutz and Lamar Hunt, owned nine of the 10 MLS franchises.
League officials say too many franchises were tenants in NFL stadiums, making it impossible to turn a profit. MLS games were televised, but the league paid for that to happen.
Yes, MLS will never be the NFL or the English Premier League or Italy's SerieA. But MLS has diversified its ownership, and network television partners in two languages now pay small rights fees. Last season, every MLS game was televised nationally or regionally. By the time the Philadelphia franchise begins play in the spring of 2010, MLS hopes to have 10 to 12 of the 16 franchises playing in soccer-specific stadiums like the 18,500-seat park planned in Chester.
That's a significant threshold for the league that had an average attendance of 16,770 in 2007, second highest in league history, after its inaugural 1996 season.
"It provides top-level intimate atmosphere," MLS president Mark Abbott said this week of the soccer-specific stadiums. He was not willing to confirm the Chester announcement
"Secondly, the ancillary revenues you are able to generate are a key component," Abbott said.
But the real progress has been made on the field. Signing the world's most famous player, David Beckham, was a powerful symbol even if Beckham showed up injured and has been covered more by The E! Network than ESPN. But that signing and several others represent a departure in how the league does business.
Although MLS has little intention of reprising the old free-spending North American Soccer League, franchises are allowed to go over league-imposed salary limits for "designated players." Just as important, the franchises are allowed to identify those players themselves instead of having the league allocate its stars, the way it had when it first began play.
