Insider: Harrison/McKinney Could be the Models

By Jeff Bradley
ESPN The Magazine

Here is what I understand about McKinney, Texas, having never actually been there. It is an up and coming - some might say, "trendy" - bedroom community about 40 minutes from downtown Dallas.

Here is what I know about Harrison, New Jersey, having spent a good many nights during my teen years playing at JFK Stadium, and a good many mornings of my adult years passing it on a train. Sitting in the shadows of Newark's modest skyline, it is a small town in need of a pick-me-up.

Here is what I think about these two places.

As different as they are on the surface, McKinney and Harrison could represent the future of Major League Soccer. What I mean is, "these types of places" and what they have in common -- mainly that they are not smack in the middle of major U.S. cities-- and that they seem to want soccer attached to their names.

Start with McKinney. From what I gather, this could be any soccer-mad suburb in America that is in need of better facilities to serve its vast youth problems. Practice fields, locker rooms, etc. If (actually it sounds more like "when") it becomes a reality, the Burn's proposed stadium would be the centerpiece of that facility. So, you'd have a place where kids and families that participate in soccer would be visiting regularly -- a place where kids who play soccer could dream of playing when they became an adult.

The key to a place like this will be its accessibility to youth soccer players. In my mind, I can envision the Burn holding open-to-the-public practices that coincide with youth programs, so coaches can bring their teams out to watch a little of the pros before they take the field themselves. I envision cooperative programs between the Burn and the McKinney teams. And I picture those massive youth tournaments -- the ones I see every Labor Day and Memorial Day weekend in and around Central New Jersey -- with thousands of kids and hundreds of teams, with title games being played in the stadium.

And then I think of Harrison and the tradition of soccer in that city and in its neighboring cities, Kearny and Newark. Everyone knows about the '94 U.S. national team, with three starters, Tab Ramos, John Harkes and Tony Meola,
who all grew up in Kearny. And you've probably heard about the famous "courts" in Harrison where they grew up playing small-sided games. Some of you probably even know about club teams like The Thistle and the Scots.

If you ever kicked a ball beyond grade school in New Jersey, this stuff is all legendary. The love is already there, and has been there for many, many years. But as long as great soccer has been played in those towns, the kids have always lacked good facilities. JFK Stadium was beloved in my youth because it had lights and lights meant crowds. For that, you were willing to overlook the fact that there was hardly any grass on the field and you were running over a pitcher's mound at one end.

To put something special in a town like Harrison would be phenomenal. You can just imagine what a great meeting place a stadium would be on Saturday nights for not only the kids who play, but their parents (and in this part of the country, even the grandparents) who live and breathe the game.

And I say McKinney and Harrison could represent the future of MLS because I'm certain there are more places like this across the country. Suburbs where the game has boomed in the last 10 years and towns on the outskirts of cities where the game was brought over many years ago.

Go where you are wanted, not where you have to prove yourself.

No, this isn't the traditional way that professional sports have developed in America. But, at this point, I think most of us realize soccer has to blaze its own trails. It has to do things a little bit differently.

According to the Star-Telegram article written by Tobias Xavier Lopez, people came to the McKinney City Council Meeting on Monday with signs that read "Build It and We Will Come."

I believe them. And I believe if these stadiums get built, more will follow. More will come.

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. His Boot Room columns appear on Thursday afternoon (most of the time) on ESPNMag.com, in addition to his work with MLSnet. Bradley's views and opinions are not necessarily those of Major League Soccer.

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