MLS trophy snubs league founder Alan Rothenberg

   

Poor Alan Rothenberg.

In the race to please the money men who commendably pump their millions of dollars into Major League Soccer, the league has seen fit to abandon its history and, at the same time, snub its founder.

Since its inception in 1996, the league has had two bits of championship silverware.

The first, a rather gaudy looking thing, was the Doug Logan Trophy, named after the league's first commissioner. It was won by D.C. United in 1996 and 1997 and then was scrapped. In 1998, along came the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy, a perfectly acceptable bit of hardware that correctly honored the man who, perhaps more than any other, brought MLS into being.

But the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy is now no more.

In its place, MLS has unveiled the not especially attractive Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, which will be presented to the winner of the Nov. 23 MLS Cup at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

The league described it in flowery hyperbole as follows: "The trophy features fluid and dynamic handles that include 11 facets on the front and back, symbolizing the 22 players that participate in a soccer match. The gold star represents the championship club, which often incorporates a star into its own team crest for each MLS Cup title it wins. The new trophy inherits select design elements from the previous two trophies, thereby honoring the league's history while moving forward. The bottom of the Philip F. Anschutz trophy features a map of North America, with a star identifying the location of each MLS market."

All very well and good, but why the new name?

That Anschutz kept the league afloat in its troubled early years is without question. That he should be recognized for doing so is commendable. But why did it have to be at the expense of Rothenberg? Why should the former president of U.S. Soccer and the man who oversaw the soccer tournament of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the man who brought the 1994 World Cup to the U.S. have been the fall guy in this marketing move?

In annoucing the new trophy, MLS failed utterly to even mention Rothenberg by name. Perhaps he has slipped into the shadows and no longer commands the soccer stage as he once did, but that is no reason to snub a figure without whom the league would not even exist.

Not a proud moment, MLS. Not at all.

-- Grahame L. Jones

Top photo: In that first MLS season in 1996, the Galaxy went up against DC United for the MLS Cup. In this shot from an earlier game that season, the Galaxy's Cobi Jones jumps over D.C. United's Jeff Agoos as they compete for the ball. Joe Marquette / Associated Press

Photo inset at left: MLS Commissioner Don Garber holds the new trophy. Standing with him is five-time-MLS Cup winner Jeff Agoos. Credit: Major League Soccer

Photo inset at right: Alan I. Rothenberg in 2007. Credit: Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Angel]

You found the league only once, but it might need to be saved several times. Deep inside each fan that follows the league, there is an immense gratitude. Come to think of it, the policy initially hurt more than help, when they try to americanized the game. That was a step back at it foundation. They try to reinvent the game, with shootouts, clock issue, shirts colors and teams names, etc. Real fans got frustrated. The fundamentals of the game got changed. "Uncle Phil" saved it, and the league as a whole still needs to evolve.
There are 7 cities ready to bid on an expansion. Should they look for another 3 or 5 or 7, and at the original prize that the others pay when they founded the league create an MLS second division, and let the quality of one of these join the upper division league, year after year until they total the league's magic number? Granted they can't go on forever expanding. And after the last team has reached that final 20 or 24 teams in, start the promotion-relegation, with a "golden parachute" for the team that is going down, payed by the team that is going up. A team coming from a better level should bounce right back. Now that is what the real fans wants. Owners don't want that? Tough luck, it is part of the game, survival of the fittest. Otherwise, the championship is only on the upper up, for a prize, but it must be also in the bottom, the fans know how it works. Most of American won't understand the concept, won't accept the idea because they only love winners. The concept might take a couple of years, but when they grasp the idea they will accept it as natural, because it's part of the game. The league will not to be saved again. Then it will be time to retire "Uncle Phil's" Cup, and go corporate "Barclay Major League Soccer Cup", and none will talk about how the league once or twice needed to be saved.

[Joseph D'Hippolito]

Well and truly said, Grahame.