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In This Issue

• Lessons of a Dancer’s Life
• Fast Times at Our Lady of Mercy Elementary
• Gulati Talks Soccer, Economics, and His Evil Alter Ego Zubil Dubabi
• Bleeding Candy Sweethearts
• 79 Ways To Fix Your Iraq
• 10-Year-Old Reviews IMDb’s Top Ten Movies of All Time
• A Good London Drinker Thinks How to Drink Hers
• Tales of the Inexpressible: Kinematics
• Cupid as a Young Teen
• Unadvised, Advising the Unadvisable
• Tales of the Inexpressible: Bless Your Heart
• On the Web, No One Knows You’re a Scientist
• Go Ask Alice!
• The Big News from the Big Town: Hollywood!
• The BWOG
• Bored at Butler
• THEY Watch

Michael Bredin

Michael Bredin

Michael Bredin

Sarah Levin

Sunil Gulati is the president of the United States Soccer Federation. Hailed as "the single most important person in the development of soccer in this country" by Major League Soccer founder Alan Rothenberg, he's also a professor at Columbia, where he teaches Principles of Economics and Global Economy. The Fed sat down to talk with him about the most beautiful game in America.

    Would you say that soccer in the United States today is more popular than it has ever been?

    Oh yeah, I think the answer to that question is undoubtedly yes. In terms of participation, viewership... in all measures it's more popular than it's ever been. But it's a still a long way from American football and baseball, so it's got a long way to go. Certainly more people watch it on television and in stadiums today.

    Historically, why has soccer never been as big in the United States in the same way it is elsewhere?

    Well, there are a lot of different theories on that. I'm not sure which I follow or believe completely. Some other sports have had a tradition in the U.S. for a long time. There are theories and statistics on how more popular sports are the ones that are more easily measured or played with hand-I don't know which of those theories I buy. I think it's tougher, once those other sports have been established, to try to break in, but within time there's certainly room. Once football, baseball in particular, and basketball become established, along with some of the other forms of entertainment, it becomes harder to break into the landscape of sports, and the American entertainment industry in general. But we're getting there!

    Soccer seems to have the perhaps unfair perception that it's a just a kiddie game or a women's sport, as opposed to grittier masculine sports such as football. Do you think the signing of high profile players such as David Beckham can change that?

    Well, you have to deal with the perception first. The U.S. still has the record of during the 1994 World Cup of having the greater attendance than any World Cup in history, including the World Cups that have followed-a lot of which had more games than the 1994 Cup. The current rights deal for the World Cup has a larger rights fee payment in the United States than any country in the world.

    On any given Saturday or Sunday you can find games from virtually any country in the world on Fox Sports Channel, GOL TV, ESPN 2, Fox Sports en Español, and a whole variety of other TV stations. The primary audience of those is not all kids. What you were referring to is the fact that the participatory base is very much young kids, our women's national team has won the World Cup and our men's one hasn't, and that the league is not the Premier League... yeah. So I think David Beckham coming will raise the profile of Major League Soccer, that's true, but it also brings some attention back to a league that's done pretty well, and raises the profile of what the future may look like for that league. So that looks like it's going to be a plus, it's a good thing. I mean David Beckham is more than a sports icon; he's a cultural icon. So I think he'll raise awareness of the game.

    Beckham's reportedly getting a million dollars a week. The MLS has a salary cap for its players. Will the signing affect this at all?

    Well, two things. The numbers that have been quoted, I'm not going to comment on those, but first of all suffice it to say that what he's being paid by Major League Soccer is very different from what he may earn in overall income in endorsements and all those other sorts of income opportunities. And secondly, David Beckham is the first player under a rule that's been passed by Major League Soccer called the "Designated Player Rule," which essentially allows one player to be outside the salary cap per team. So he clearly doesn't fall under the salary cap rule.

    In terms of developing homegrown talent, what do you see the idea situation in the U.S. being?

    Games like Saturday where the U.S. homegrown talent beat the homegrown talent of Denmark (3-1 on January 20th -Ed). Or February 7th where the homegrown of the U.S. will beat the homegrown talent of Mexico (a comfy 2-0, as it happened). I mean that's the panache the team's all about in developing players. So that's continuing to be the case, and as MLS continues to get better they'll have a higher target to shoot for, higher compensation, more and more players playing professionally and aspiring to that. So that will all be part of the good of the game.

    In April, Toronto FC brings the number of teams in the MLS up to 13. What further expansions to the league can we see in the future?

    There are a number of teams and venues expansion-wise that are being looked at for 2008 and beyond. The commissioner Don Garber has talked about Cleveland being a possibility, Atlanta being a possibility, Philadelphia being a possibility; Rochester, the Bay Area, and San Diego being possibilities.... Those are among the most prominent.

    From a business point of view, what is the state of the MLS?

    Well, it's getting better. The dynamics change pretty dramatically when there's a soccer-specific stadium; there are six at the moment and eight by the end of 2008. There's a new television deal that's in place, and we'll see how David Beckham plays. I think there are a lot of positive things going on, and certainly some of the teams are starting to turn a corner financially. You've got pass up prices that are rising and acquisition transactions that are increasing in value.

    One of the major demographic changes in the U.S. in the future will be the continuing influx of Latin Americans. This can only be beneficial to the sport, right?

    Sure, the Hispanic community has already taken up the sport; it has roots in the game. So it's not a case of getting the Hispanic community to like the game, it's a question of getting them more interested in the MLS or a particular team rather than the sport itself.

    Will the U.S. men's team ever win a World Cup? And if they did, do you think people would care about it in the same way they would in other countries?

    I think the answer to the first question is yes, it's just a question of when. It wouldn't make a lot of sense to continue to keep doing it if you didn't think that someday you were going to win it... you have to dream about that. So I think the answer has to be yes, they will. And will they care? The answer's actually yes to that, too. The U.S. and Americans love winning, and I think they'll rally around it in a big way. How long the impact of that would be and how long an effect it would have on the growth of the game is a tougher thing to predict, but we'll embrace winning the World Cup as a possibility each and every time.

    The eleventh season of the MLS kicks off in April 2007. FIFA currently ranks the U.S. men's team 31st in the world, a drop from last summer's 5th, with the U.S. women's team sitting on a comfortable 2nd.