When people ask Garber why stadiums are necessary, he asks people if they think basketball would be successful in the Houston Astrodome. It's a building, and isn't that all you need? Unfortunately, it takes more than a building, it takes a building of optimum size. For soccer, that's about 20,000 to 25,000 seats.

The bottom line is Major League Soccer isn't the NFL, there isn't a large enough fan base to expect 75,000 fans per game. It's more realistic to expect 20,000 fans. Therefore, when over 20,000 fans show up for an MLS game, but there's over 50,000 empty seats, no matter how intense the game is, the stadium looks cavernous, which takes away from the game.

The average attendance in MLS games in 2004 was 15,559.

"There just isn't a professional sport in this country that doesn't work without its own venue," said Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts, who is hoping to build just such a soccer-specific stadium in Utah in the future.

The Galaxy are a prime example. Playing in the 100,000 seat Rose Bowl, the team averaged decent crowds, but Los Angeles didn't begin turning a profit at the turnstiles until it begin playing in the 27,000-seat Home Depot Center.

At the end of the day, it's all about the game according to Garber.

"We call Major League Soccer a league for a new America, a country that increasingly diverse, that's a part of a global community," said Garber. "I think you'll find that we're going to be living in an environment where soccer is a language that everyone will speak, even at times if English isn't their first language."

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com