Despite being named one of the top 10 soccer leagues in the world by Opta in 2024, the MLS hasn’t always been the successful profitable business it is today.
Things got so bad for a small number of now defunct MLS teams that they had to fold completely, ceasing to exist and leaving their fans without a club.
It has been a long time since it happened, but the handful of MLS franchises that had to close down all had a similar story: they weren’t financially viable and couldn’t attract a strong enough following.
This is the story of the MLS franchises that didn’t make it.
Tampa Bay Mutiny: 1996-2001
It’s a real shame Tampa Bay Mutiny are no more, because they had one of the coolest names in the league.
As a founder member when MLS was formed in 1996, they started very well. They won their conference and were the best performing team overall in the regular season. This earned them the Supporter’s Shield, although it was presented retrospectively since it wasn’t established until 1999. They never won the MLS Cup but they reached the semi-finals in the first year and the quarter-finals 4 times after that.
The franchise was never privately owned. In fact, it is the only club in MLS history to have been owned by the league for its entire existence, and this was one of the reasons behind its downfall. Since MLS owned the club, the financial burden of running it fell to them rather than investors. The issues started when they were forced to leave their home, Tampa Stadium, in 1999. They had to sign a new and very costly lease agreement with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to use their newly built Raymond James Stadium – this was before soccer specific stadiums were really a thing.
They made very little money from match day ticket sales as a result, an issue which was compounded when the team fell into terrible form, winning just 4 games in their final season, which was 2001. This led to fans abandoning the team, which of course increased the financial pressure.
With no interest from investors to take the franchise on, MLS decided to close Tampa Bay Mutiny down. The league had lost $250 million in six years, so it wasn’t exactly thriving, and they had to reduce from 12 teams to 10. Tampa was an obvious choice for the chop.
An interesting stat is that during their 6 seasons in the league, Tampa won 83 games, lost 98, but only 6 ended in a draw, and two of those were in their final season.
Miami Fusion: 1998-2001
In the same year as Tampa Bay Mutiny, MLS also lost Miami Fusion.
They were a later addition to the league, joining MLS as one of its first two expansion teams in 1998. Since they were also contracted in 2001, this means they lasted just 4 years. The franchise owner, Ken Horrowitz, cited a lack of local interest as well as a lack of sponsorship as the main reasons.
Like Tampa, Miami Fusion had a strong start to their inaugural season, attracting plenty of fans to their soccer specific stadium, the Lockhart. This level of support did not continue however, dropping by 50% by the end of 1998. They ultimately finished 3rd in their conference. By the end of their final season, they had the lowest season ticket sales in the league, as well as the lowest amount of corporate sponsorship.
This was another big issue for Miami Fusion. They reportedly lost $15 million during their short existence, attempting to exist on a very tight budget and even asking MLS to cover some of their expenses towards the end. MLS was haemorrhaging money too, so this was a huge red flag for them, probably leading to their decisions to cut Miami from the league.
It was unfortunate timing because Fusion had their best ever season in 2002. Under new manager, Ray Hudson, Miami finished first in their conference and also had the best overall regular season record in the league, bagging them the Supporters Shield. Attendances were improving too, so things could have been different if they had another year or so, but it wasn’t to be.
The club were contracted, and their players redistributed during the draft for the 2002 season.
Chivas USA: 2005-2014
The most recent MLS club to fall on such hard times they had to close down was Chivas USA.
Although their first season in the league was anything but successful, finishing with the worst record in the whole league, things soon improved.
The 2006 season was much better and in 2007 they won their conference with the 2nd best regular season record across the whole MLS. 2008 was another promising season, although they couldn’t live up to their 2007 performance, but in 2009 Chivas were showing worrying signs on the pitch. They finished 4th in their conference and 6th overall, but worse was to come.
In 2010 the club hit really hard times. They finished last in their conference 3 years out of 5, never doing better than 7th place, and did not qualify for the play offs once. On top of this, their average attendance had dropped every year from 2008, and by the time the club was shut down, it was just 7,063 – a league record low. As if they needed another headache, they were also subject to a discrimination lawsuit and several key backroom staff left.
The man who owned Chivas was called Jorge Vergara, and in 2014 MLS agreed to buy the club from him in order to save it. However, the only way they could do that was to basically start again. A group of investors including the owner of Cardiff City, a British team in the Premier League at that time, agreed to buy Chivas for more than $100 million. The deal was structured in such a way that Chivas USA would fold and a new LA based club would be formed in its place.
That team was LAFC.