The first American Soccer League was formed on July 7, 1921 at the Hotel Astor in New York
It has taken soccer a long time to become a popular sport in the United States. Currently Major League Soccer has 26 teams and will increase to 30 cubs by 2023.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that soccer almost took off in the 1920’s. There was a major surge in the sport’s popularity in the New York City/New Jersey region with the birth of the American Soccer League in 1921. It was the first fully professional soccer league in the United States. The ASL was formed on July 7, 1921 at the Astor Hotel with eight clubs, including the Jersey City Celtics, Todd Shipyards of Brooklyn, Bethlehem Steel, Fall River Marksmen, Harrison Field Club, Holyoke Falcons, New York Field Club, J&P Coats.
The league was an immediate success, drawing greater crowds than any previous circuits.
As the league grew, the ASL drew its teams from big cities and industrial towns (the Boston Wonder Workers, the Brooklyn Wanderers, New York Field Club, the Paterson Silk Sox, the New Bedford Whalers, the Bridgeport Bears).
Businesses sponsored and ran their own teams, So instead of team names such as the Bears or Giants, matches might feature clubs such as Indiana Flooring vs. J&P Coats!
Clubs affiliated with American industry had a significant advantage over those from abroad as business was booming in the United States. The American clubs were able to pay much higher wages than their European counterparts. This was a time when nobody actually made a living exclusively from playing soccer. These US companies were able to offer both the chance to play soccer and a high paying industrial job.
The Brooklyn Wanderers of the American Soccer League
ASL game attendance averaged around 6,000 for games in the New York region and 8,000 to 10,000 for major games in New England.
The original American Soccer League, operating between 1921 and 1933.
The league’s first secretary was Thomas Cahill. ·Cahill is considered one of the founders of soccer in America. He was born in NYC to Irish immigrants and attended college in St. Louis. It was here that he fell in love with soccer. (St. Louis was an early outpost of soccer in the United States). Cahill helped grow the game in the Midwest before moving back east. Cahill established a national governing body for soccer, the US Football Association in 2013. Soon after the US joined FIFA.
Thomas Cahill
Cahill became the first manager of the US national team in 1916 and toured Scandinavia with the team.
As the ASL took off, American teams started luring players from some of the top clubs in Europe. Before long, there were 50 European internationals playing in the American league.
The ASL clubs’ recruitment tactics frequently ran afoul of international contract protocols, provoking an outcry on the far side of the Atlantic. Hart to believe this now, but in 1925, the Scottish Football Association convened a special meeting in Glasgow to grumble over the “American menace.” ASL representatives were made to attend a FIFA hearing in Finland in 1927.. The ASL was told to stop stop ignoring international contracts and stop poaching European players.
The ASL was done in by political infighting and eventually the depression hit and the first American Soccer League collapsed.