MLS has lost Tampa, Miami, and Chivas in 24 years. Currently on the brink is Columbus [[for a variety of reasons not just financial) who will likely relocate. I have traveled to more than a dozen MLS venues and experienced sub 50% seating capacities in Dallas, Chicago, Columbus, and New England [[even with reduced availability due to the stadium situation), and San Jose. Does lack of butts in seats mean a lack of stability? No. But it gives the appearance of a lack of interest or a failure to buy into the program. You might be able to survive this if you are the 124 year old Detroit Tigers, but what if you are the 5ish year old Detroit MLS club, whose shiny new bells and whistles have gone silent, who has failed to make the playoffs or struggles to bring in fans? These dry spells are inevitable for most teams in sports. What makes soccer successful worldwide above other sports is that with only 17-20 home matches a season, the dedicated fanbases, regardless of league/division, put a priority on every single game. This has not exactly been the case with MLS.
The big 4 leagues, in most cases, have fan bases with decades of history and tradition. The MLS fanbases have ranged from rabid passion to ambivalence, but generally fall somewhere in the middle that I would call "stable". Some have struggled to gain traction despite on-the-pitch success in places like Chicago, Columbus [[both cup winners) and Dallas. Hell, Dallas resorted to selling visiting team jerseys in their club shop! My whole point is the places where expansion works best are the places where the passion grows organically like Seattle or Portland [[histories before MLS) or Atlanta who has embraced and survived alongside the NASL Silverbacks, as opposed to "Hey X city. Here is Y club. You will like it we promise. We don't know what your attachment is going to be during our growing pains, but please spend your money here rain or shine."
MLS can absolutely work in Detroit. But a haphazard collection of billionaires [[perceived to be) only coming together because of their prior connection of team ownership and liquid assets, begrudgingly considering retrofit for a 20 year old stadium to meet the bare minimum requests of the league, without supporting the soccer culture that already exists from the youth levels through the top...why wouldn't a serious soccer fan like myself be just a little bit concerned?
As far as NGS...each club is going to develop a culture unique to itself. NGS is a loud, but small portion of the DCFC fanbase. There are 4,000 people attending games that are not affiliated with that group. I don't believe they are the end all be all of Detroit's current soccer culture climate.
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