American revolution kicks off

This Saturday, almost two years after the last penalty was missed in the 1994 World Cup, the United States of America launches a professional, nationwide soccer league. It has been a long wait: when Fifa, the sport's world governing body, awarded the World Cup to the USA in 1990 it was on the understanding that the tournament would act as a catalyst for the establishment of a national league.

Why has it taken so long, and will it be worth the wait? The first question is easier to answer than the second: it has taken the United States Soccer Federation several years to assemble sufficient investors of the right calibre. Major League Soccer, the competition's official name, might have had a better chance of long-term popularity if it had launched in the wake of USA '94 but, as its chairman, Alan Rothenberg, admitted: "We just weren't ready."

Then, MLS could have jumped on the soccer bandwagon boosted by the World Cup media blitz, and taken advantage of the gap in the nation's sporting calendar caused by the baseball strike. Now, MLS will have to compete with a full baseball season, the NBA and NHL play-offs - and the Atlanta Olympic Games.

However, kicking off MLS without the right funding would have been too risky. The USSF was determined to avoid the mistakes made by the North American Soccer League, which started in 1968 and was big business in the mid-70s but died a slow death in 1984, brought down by ever-dwindling crowds and ever-overspending owners.

Investors such as the oil baron Lamar Hunt (Columbus Crew and Kansas City Wiz) and the publisher John Kluge (New York/New Jersey MetroStars) operate one or more teams - but do not own them. MLS, which describes itself as a "single-entity" league, owns all player contracts, operates a salary cap ($1.13m [pounds 750,000] for each club's squad of 18 players) and has assigned four top players to each of the 10 clubs and organised a draft to distribute the rest of the players.

The more revenue a team brings in, the greater the return for its investors - but they will not be allowed to spend excessively in order to bludgeon rivals out of business. The salary cap means that most of the players have come from the colleges or are third-world journeymen pros signed up at the minimum salary of just under $30,000 (pounds 20,000). For the elite few, though, the rewards are far greater - with more than a little help from the sponsors.

"It's six figures for the stars, and that's not including endorsements," Ron Newman, the Kansas City Wiz coach, said. "They're making millions: big, powerful money."

Unfortunately for the viewing public, the stars are not that bright. Roberto Donadoni, once of Milan and Italy but now the main man with NY/NJ MetroStars, is probably the most prestigious capture MLS has made. Other World Cup performers include Jorge Campos, the flamboyant Mexican goalkeeper, at Los Angeles Galaxy, Colombia's Carlos Valderrama at Tampa Bay Mutiny and America's own Alexi Lalas at New England Revolution.

Some have come from England: Frank Yallop, the Canadian full-back, has joined Tampa Bay after many years with Ipswich while Ian Butterworth, the former Norwich defender, and the much-travelled Roy Wegerle have joined Colorado Rapids. The Serbian midfielder Predrag Radosavljevic, once of Everton and Portsmouth, has turned up at Kansas City Wiz. Among the coaches are Ireland's Frank Stapleton at New England and Eddie Firmani, once the manager of Charlton, at NY/NJ MetroStars.

The season starts on Saturday when Washington DC United travel to San Jose Clash (who are coached by Laurie Calloway, a former Rochdale full- back) and concludes with a championship game on 20 October. Before then, the teams (five in the Western Conference and five in the Eastern) will play 32 games each. Many of the stadiums will be familiar from USA '94 but, to avoid embarrassing pictures of blocks of empty seats, will have sections closed and screened off. Giants Stadium, once filled by the Cosmos, can hold 77,000 but its MLS capacity is under 27,000.

Fifa rejected a request from MLS to allow it to use bigger goals to stimulate scoring, but the league will still decide drawn games by staging shoot- outs: players running in from 35 yards and trying to beat the goalkeeper inside five seconds.

It remains to be seen if the whole package can tempt the great American public away from their baseball matches on television and into the stadiums. Soccer is the nation's No 2 participation sport, behind only basketball, but turning all those youngsters who play the game on college fields into spectators is a big challenge.

It has been tried before, and it has only worked at big events like the World Cup and the Los Angeles Olympics. This - trying to persuade punters to turn out on a Thursday night at Columbus Crew or Dallas Burn - is a very different ball game.