Soccer & Society Vol. 13, No. 4, July 2012, 510–535 Everywhere and nowhere: the forgotten past and clouded future of American professional soccer from the perspective of Massachusetts Steven Apostolov* Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, USA Professional soccer in the USA enjoyed several moments of popularity through- out the twentieth century. Professional soccer leagues were founded, some as early as the 1890s. In spite of that, the sport has never caught fire at the profes- sional level. Soccer leagues have not only been in the shadow of baseball, foot- ball, basketball and, most recently, ice hockey, but with the exception of Major League Soccer, a newcomer on the mainstream sporting scene, all of them have folded within a couple of decades. This essay provides insight as to why profes- sional soccer has failed to attain the status of a major American sport. It also analyses the development of professional soccer in the USA through the scope of immigration and from the perspective of Massachusetts. Introduction US soccer is not a common topic among historians. It is not a common topic among soccer fans, either. If you ask any admirer of sports to name the world’s fin- est nations in soccer, the list will be long. Depending on their nationality, different soccer lovers will provide different answers. The Dutch would only grudgingly con- cede the Spaniards played better in the 2010 World Cup final, and Brazilians still believe they had the ability to capture a sixth World Cup title in South Africa. It would never occur to a soccer fan, however, to include the USA among the world’s leading powers of the game. Soccer would seem to be almost un-American, as some writers have implied. Americans have their own sports – baseball, football, basketball and ice hockey; what do they know about soccer, anyway? Until Downloaded by [Dr Steven Apostolov] at 22:45 25 July 2012 recently, many national teams, even mediocre ones, would be happy to face the maladroit Yanks and expect to win. Soccer is even presented as un-American in the very few movies that Hollywood has dedicated to the game.1 Despite Hollywood stereotypes, popular beliefs and authors presenting soccer as un-American, the game became professional in 1894, shortly after it had become professional in England and long before, it went pro in some soccer-mad countries such as Argentina and Brazil. American soccer enjoyed several moments of popu- larity throughout the twentieth century, notably in the 1920s, during the existence of the American Soccer League (ASL). The North American Soccer League (NASL) became the financial Mecca of professional soccer during the 1970s with the arrival of Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and George Best, just to name *Email: [email protected] ISSN 1466-0970 print/ISSN 1743-9590 online Ó 2012 Taylor & Francis http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2012.677226 http://www.tandfonline.com Soccer & Society 511 a few stars, to the USA. The impact of these stars on the NASL is skillfully described in the documentary Once in a Lifetime.2 In fact, there were so many Brit- ish players in the NASL that anyone arriving at Heathrow Airport in the summer months of the late 1970s ran the risk of tripping over a Football League player with his bags packed and tagged for anywhere from California to Connecticut.3 Shortly after the departure of many of these internationally renowned players, the NASL folded. Professional soccer was born again in 1996, but even David Beckham – the world’s most famous athlete – has so far struggled to popularize soccer in the USA. Why have several professional soccer leagues failed in the USA? And despite this breakdown, how does soccer manage to survive on American soil? Why has it always come back, even after several collapses? First, this essay will deal chronologically with the history of professional soccer in the USA. This is a necessary step, as very few scholars have done so adequately. Second, it will examine the major problems of Andrei Markovits’s exceptionalist theory. Third, it will focus on the inconsistent explanations of other scholars who have argued that American nativism was at the origin of the failure of soccer. Finally, from the perspective of Massachusetts and through the scope of immigra- tion, the study will analyse the eclipse of several professional soccer leagues and provide explanations for their quick decline or struggle to survive. A short history of US professional soccer Once the game was codified in London in 1863, soccer started to develop at almost the same pace in America as in England. As a result, the first attempt to establish a professional league in the USA was made before the turn of the century. In June 1894, owners of baseball franchises in six large northeastern cities founded the American League of Professional Football Clubs (ALPFC). The officials made agreements on the schedule, which originally was to last from 1 October to 1 December but was later extended to 1 January. The games were to be played on the baseball fields of New York City, Brooklyn, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston.4 After the opening euphoria died, the league recorded very low attendance fig- ures. Besides the Baltimore Orioles, who drew around 3000 fans to their home games, the Boston Beaneaters, New York Giants, Brooklyn Superbas, Philadelphia Downloaded by [Dr Steven Apostolov] at 22:45 25 July 2012 Quakers and Washington Senators could seldom attract more than a couple of hun- dred spectators per game. The league collapsed because of financial problems a few weeks after its first kickoff. Despite the complete fiasco that the first professional soccer league in America turned out to be, soccer did not disappear. Immigrants were recreating an old-world atmosphere by bringing soccer across the Atlantic. The game was played in many ethnic neighbourhoods and among factory workers. Some industrialists, such as Horace Edgar Lewis and Charles Schwab of the Bethlehem Steel Co., sponsored soccer activities. They believed that soccer would offer workers entertainment and satisfaction; the thinking was that workers kept busy would refrain from strikes and other industrial ‘evils’. As early as 1914, Charles Schwab spent freely on the construction of a soccer stadium and other facilities.5 He sent his team to foreign countries to acquire expe- rience and international recognition. The Bethlehem Globe described in detail the team’s 1919 Scandinavian tour.6 The Fore River Shipyard, an industrial plant also 512 S. Apostolov operated by the Bethlehem Steel Co. and located in Quincy – 15 miles south of Boston – fielded a soccer team as early as 1904. By 1916, many talented footballers and their families had moved to Quincy from their native Scotland. ‘Nobody real- izes today that soccer was played here a long time ago. It was a popular sport at the beginning of the century [in Quincy] … there were many Scottish workers at the shipyard and they were good players’, explained Ann Fleming Jensen. Her father, Tommy Fleming, had moved to Quincy as a teenager and played for Fore River FC.7 The role of Scots in the global diffusion of the game in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century has been noted by David Goldblatt.8 The famous English team Corinthians, which was composed of upper-class gen- tlemen, visited Massachusetts as early as 1904. One of the exhibition games played by the Englishmen matched them against Fore River FC. The kickoff was formally executed by John Fitzgerald, grandfather of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and then mayor of Boston.9 Given that the game was attended by several thousand spec- tators, Honey Fitz, as John Fitzgerald was nicknamed by his fellow Irish-Americans, must have seen a window of opportunity for promoting his political agenda. Similar visits were documented later on when the Pilgrims, an English amateur all-star team toured the USA in 1905 and 1909. The visits of the Pilgrims were particularly benefi- cial for the development of soccer in the Chicago area, where it generated tremen- dous interest and helped soccer teams and leagues to consolidate.10 In a similar fashion as in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the factory officials in Quincy, Massachu- setts, constructed a soccer field – the best in the area – with stands for spectators and a gymnasium (the Club House, which still exists)11 for the players.12 In 1918, almost 15,000 workers got together on Labour Day to watch Fore River FC.13 Massachusetts and other New England states were not an exception. Outside New England, soccer was a very popular sport in the New York City area, Philadel- phia and environs.14 In the Midwest, soccer enjoyed popularity in Saint Louis.15 Gabe Logan skillfully explains in his Ph.D. how English and Scots in particular came to dominate Chicago soccer at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.16 In a similar fashion as in the UK, the amateurs showed the way with a few decades of play, developing a national association the United States Football Association (USFA), which had joined FIFA in 1913, leagues, clubs and, most importantly, a large body of devoted fans. Once the game had become popular (as was the case in many cities, such as Boston, Quincy, Fall River, New Downloaded by [Dr Steven Apostolov] at 22:45 25 July 2012 Bedford, Providence, Brooklyn, New York City, Newark, Bethlehem, Saint Louis and Chicago, just to name a few), amateurs were allowed to be financially rewarded. Some players/workers at semi-professional factory teams earned more money from soccer than from their industrial jobs.17 Finally, compensation and the formation of the USFA led in 1921 to the foundation of the ASL, the second professional league in the USA, which operated until 1931.