MLS SuperDraft the perfect illustration of American problem

The MLS SuperDraft took place on Friday. The Americanised event is the perfect illustration of the problem the MLS faces. Does it want to be an American sport or a global sport?

Major League Soccer is unlike any other league in major American sports. Basketball and baseball and football are insular. There are very few leagues throughout the world. There is almost no interaction between those leagues. The sporting industry works in and of itself.

But football is not like that. The American league is not the elite league in the world, transfers can take place between leagues, this being the primary way of acquiring players, and the Americanisms of other U.S. sports do not apply in the same way.

There are squad rules that every team must abide by, for instance. But those rules are not nearly as extensive as the roster designations and limitations that MLS teams must abide by. There are no cap restrictions, there is no allocation money, teams are free to act as they please when it comes to the transfers they make.

More from MLS Multiplex

• Javier Milei Elected in Argentina: Potential Impacts on MLS and Signings of Argentine Players
• Orlando City and New York City FC in the Battle for Matías Arezo; Grêmio Enters Negotiations! Who Will Come Out on Top?
• USA, Honduras, Panama, and Canada Close in on a Spot in the 2024 Copa America
• De Gea Turns Down Al-Nassr’s Lucrative Offer: Speculation Points to Possible Reunion with Messi at Inter Miami
• Messi’s Magnetic Impact in the United States

But MLS wants to advertise itself to an American audience. And a global audience. And sometimes, it cannot choose which it wants to sell itself to. As we have seen time and time again with many of the organisational decisions that have been made by MLS, it has tried to sell itself as a league that blends both the globalised nature of football and the intricacies and details of American sport.

That, though, does not really work. It is confusing for international fans and distracting for U.S. fans. The attempts to balance both sides of the sporting supporting world often leave the league lurching between the two, never quite satisfying either.

There is not a better illustration of these issues than the MLS SuperDraft. The draft is a very American entity. It hardly exists in non-American sports. Even the fact that young players come through the college system and then transfer to the professional league is alien to many international fans. But for the American fan, it would be catastrophic to not have a draft.

The primary issue with the SuperDraft is that it doesn’t really matter. With the growing nature and quality of the league, the young talent that is going to make a substantial difference at the senior level does not go to college. They come through the clubs’ academies or are signed internationally.

No disrespect to the young kids that are being selected by MLS teams as I write this, but 99% of them will not be good enough to ever play regularly in the league. Most of these picks are teams aiming for a back-up role and depth. Does the SuperDraft really have an impact on MLS? Probably not. And yet it persists because of the MLS’ need to be attractive to American fans.

MLS’ problem is that it does not have a clear identity of what it wants to be. It swings between an American sport and a global sport and often falls between the two. The SuperDraft is the perfect illustration of that.