With LAFC on the verge of taking over LA, parking lot fiasco a metaphor for league's growing pains

“We’re out here in LA!” proclaims the caption on Twitter as an impressive giant replica of the MLS Cup trophy beckons with the Santa Monica pier in the distance.

“Santa Monica is not LA,” said the first comment, followed by a string of parking jokes. 

El Trafico: It’s the rivalry that’s always giving back.

“LAFC is here, like the Galaxy, and in a market that really is about stars, and it’s a sophisticated soccer market, and it’s one that needs to break through the clutter of many other professional sports teams,” Commissioner Don Garber remarked during Thursday’s State of the League address. “As you all know, what’s going on with both the Galaxy and LAFC is really remarkable, and it’s something that’s captured all the excitement of people here in the community.”

Saturday’s 2022 MLS Cup matchup will very likely mark a turning point in El Trafico. Though the Galaxy has a long head start and more championships overall, LAFC has unquestionably been the more successful club in Los Angeles over the past five seasons with two Supporters' Shields and a resume of attractive free-flowing football to their name, but the battle for relevance has see-sawed back and forth from Carson and downtown LA.

A victory for the Black and Gold on Saturday would make LAFC the team by default. LA Galaxy was perilously close to losing the city back in 2018 when Bob Bradley’s group coasted to a three-goal lead in the original El Trafico, but a living soccer god in Zlatan Ibrahimovic rescued the Galaxy as the Blue, White and Gold stormed back to win 4-3 that day.

Winning an MLS Cup changes everything for a squad with just two remaining members from that humiliation, Carlos Vela and Latif Blessing.

Championships matter. In some places, they’re the only thing that matters. Bringing home that oversized trophy was the one achievement the original LA club had over their rivals, and that too appears to be slipping away. With LAFC set to come back arguably even stronger next season, an MLS Cup would surely have plenty of Angelinos jumping on the bandwagon, many of whom would likely flock to the Rose Bowl for next season’s MLS opening match.

Speaking of venues with terrible parking … a scheduling conflict has threatened to put a damper on LAFC hosting their first MLS Cup. The Unversity of Southern California’s homecoming game is taking place on Saturday, and people learned on Tuesday that every last parking spot in Exposition Park, where both the Banc and Coliseum are, is accounted for. In other words, there's no parking for MLS Cup. 

Fans have been asked to take the Metro or head to Dodger Stadium where shuttles will bus folks to the Banc. As Eric Vieria emphatically argued on the Corner of the Galaxy podcast, if you have to go to Chavez Ravine to escape a bad parking situation, something’s gone horribly wrong. 

Additionally, the grassy tailgating area known as Christmas Tree Lane has been commandeered by USC, so no tailgating and no Fan Fest. Ticket prices are through the roof. To add insult to injury, the wires required to utilize a skycam forced the club to shut down the pregame Ollie flight. All of these changes have left supporters feeling like outsiders in their own home.

Is this problematic for the league? Not really, no. Of course, it’s a bad look, but it’s also a one-time thing, as inconvenient as the changes may be for everyone myself included. (No joke, I might have to take a scooter over there)

Hosting the final at a neutral venue may alleviate the issue of a potential scheduling conflict, but that might rob the top seed of the home-field advantage they worked so hard to earn during the regular season. Te season has taken on added importance thanks to the cutthroat single-game elimination format of the playoffs — which included LAFC eliminating the Galaxy.

The commissioner was upbeat during his State of the League address, and with good reason. MLS is hoping to select the latest expansion franchise in the first half of 2023 with San Diego and Las Vegas as the favorites. Nashville’s Geodis Park is the 26th soccer stadium and another addition to the league’s stadium boom. Attendance records were set with over 75,000 in Charlotte breaking the single-game record and over 10 million fans attending matches MLS-wide over the whole season. During the January transfer window, MLS was a top-five league in investment and transfer fees both in what they spent and earned.

And then there's the 10-year Apple TV deal with coverage set to launch next year. 

“As you have heard, we will eliminate blackouts,” Garber beamed. “Every MLS game, almost 500 of them, along with exclusive content from our clubs promoting our teams and our players will be distributed to anyone around the world, anywhere, any club and any match."

It's no secret the league has traditionally has poor ratings on TV and streaming networks, which is what intrigues us about the promised content. If MLS takes a page from F1 and creates compelling content that markets the league to viewers, it could potentially take the next step in ratings. The sky's the limit, actually. 

“All games will be produced with a very consistent look and feel, with an improved production quality, we think along the best that’s ever been produced, with advanced data, with pregames and postgames, and that’s just in the first year. There’s a lot of excitement to come in our relationship with Apple, so stay tuned.”

And the first match on that platform could be the defending MLS champions at the Rose Bowl against their rivals.