MLS reaps the rewards of a quiet footballing revolution

Let's start by stating the obvious: Major League Soccer is not Premiership standard. Judged solely on footballing quality, a typical MLS side is more mid-table Championship level, and perhaps slightly better than the average Scottish Premier League team.

MLS does not boast a raft of star names. Juan Pablo Angel at Red Bull New York is one of the 2007 season's stars so far, with six goals in five games. High-profile club captains include RBNY's Claudio Reyna, 33, DC United's Jaime Moreno (age 33, he made 25 starts for Middlesbrough in the mid-90s), and Toronto's Jim Brennan, age 30, once of Nottingham Forest and Norwich City.

Fellow journeymen familiar to British fans include Danny Dichio, 32, and Carl Robinson, 30 (both at Toronto), Shaka Hislop, 38 (at FC Dallas), Abel Xavier, 34 (at LA Galaxy, awaiting David Beckham's arrival), Carlos Marinelli, 25 (another former Boro boy, at Kansas City Wizards), and Stefani Miglioranzi, 29, once of Swindon and now a hit with Columbus Crew. The list goes on. But not much.

Dollar talk cannot add lustre. According to the Wall Street Journal, the MLS's 12 franchises in 2006 - there are 13 for 2007 - had a total combined income of around $150m (£76.3m). This equates roughly to the annual turnover of Tottenham Hotspur.

Neither are there many big-bucks earners, aside from a handful of Beckham-esque marquee players. The combined salary bill for all 321 MLS players in 2006 was £17m, or £53,000 on average. Chivas USA's Juan Francisco Palencia, a Mexican striker, now departed, was top dog, earning £692,000, followed by LA Galaxy's Landon Donovan (£458,000).

Anyone can find ammunition to dismiss MLS as a tin-pot set-up with marginal appeal. And if you want to poke fun at the wacky venue names then Dick's Sporting Goods Park and Pizza Hut Park are begging to be ridiculed.

The flip side? The MLS is comfortable in its own skin, ambitious (a red rag to cynical bulls, especially British ones), determined to grow from its niche in the shadow of NFL, MLB and NBA, and, errrm, quite stable and successful, actually.

Indicators? After 11 completed seasons, average gates were 15,509 in 2006, which was higher than at any point in the history of its forerunner, the NASL, where the average was 3,163 in 1971. NASL gates peaked at 14,201 in 1980, and that despite the star-spangled, capacity-pulling antics of the Cosmos. Current MLS gates are only a few thousand behind England's Championship, which has just registered a 50-year high of 18,221 people per game.

Two of the MLS's biggest league crowds in recent years were for Chivas USA versus New England Revolution last year (92,650), and for Chivas versus Galaxy in 2005 (88,816). These figures were massively inflated because the games were part of double-headers where the other match each time featured a glamourous touring side, Guadalajara of Mexico. But that in itself underlines another dynamic in US sport that gives the MLS hope: America now has a Hispanic population of 42m and growing, and they love football.

This has helped to drive landmark television deals. Incredibly, the MLS had never been paid by a television broadcaster before this season to screen games. Rather, the MLS paid the channels to carry games.

Now, there are big-hitters on board, including ESPN, the Fox Soccer Channel, the influential Spanish-language Univision and the high definition network, HDNet. Together they have signed deals to 2014 worth £100m. Small fry in England, but rather good from zilch last year. And now the TV folk have a vested interest, promotion should create a virtuous circle.

Investors demonstrably see potential, among them billionaire Stan Kroenke, owner of the Colorado Rapids and suitor of Arsenal. In the past two years alone, he and his fellow owners have invested £500m in the MLS, much of it in facilities. Ten franchises already play in or are building dedicated "soccer-specific stadiums", seen as pivotal "roots" for growth.

The MLS, seeking to cast off football's tag in America as "the perpetual sport of the future", plans to expand to 15 teams by the 2008 season and 16 by 2010. It neither expects nor dreams of challenging the "big three" of American football, baseball and basketball, but could certainly challenge ice hockey in the not too distant future.

Jeff L'Hote is a New York-based American expert in US soccer, and a director of FMM International, a global football consultancy. He recently co-authored a report, Soccer in North America: The Commercial Opportunities that weighs up the positives and negatives of the MLS, and concludes there are more of the former.

"There is clearly room for improvement - standard of play, attendance, converting the millions of children who play soccer in the US into supporters," he said yesterday. "But MLS has never been in a more solid position.

"While Beckham has already made a positive impact, the underpinnings of the sport in the US were in place well before his signing. His success or failure, while impactful, will not make or break the game here.

"On its face, the signing of Beckham has caused some people to compare MLS to the old NASL. The leagues have little in common. MLS has a carefully constructed business plan, committed ownership and sound strategy for growth. It is also primarily a league for the American player. To be sure, MLS is the beneficiary of the youth soccer explosion spawned by the NASL. In fact, without the lessons learned from the NASL experience, MLS may have never survived."

MLS successes...

* JUAN PABLO ANGEL

The former Aston Villa striker, 31, has hit six goals in five games as Red Bull New York have blazed an impressive trail to be top of the MLS table so far in 2007. He was voted MLS player of the month for May.

* DANNY DICHIO

Journeyman striker, 32, released by Preston in April, has shone with three goals in five games for Toronto FC, two of them MLS goals of the week.

* SHAKA HISLOP

Former West Ham goalkeeper, 38, is supposedly back-up at Dallas FC but is the regular No1 this season as his side top the Western Conference.

* TERRY COOKE

One-time "Fergie babe" alongside Becks and Co, now 30 and an ever-present in a Colorado Rapids side who are doing well in the Western Conference.

...and the jury still out

* CARL ROBINSON

The Welsh international, 30, left Norwich City in January, but is getting mixed reviews at Toronto for his salary of $315,000.

* PAUL DALGLISH

Kenny's son, 30, alumnus of eight clubs in England and Scotland, had a starring cameo as Houston won the 2006 MLS Cup, but is now fighting for his place.