Major League Soccer was born 28 years ago in cavernous NFL stadiums. Three seasons later, the league was averaging 14,312 fans a game in venues built to house five times that many.

At most games it was so quiet you could hear each team’s profits drop.

So with the league on the verge of bankruptcy in 2002, clubs began building their own soccer-specific stadiums with smaller grandstands, wider fields and a much better atmosphere. Less than a decade later, more than half the teams played in soccer-specific homes, most with fewer than 26,000 seats. And thanks to that change, MLS not only survived, but began to thrive.

Now, however, with soccer exploding in popularity across the U.S., is the league beginning to outgrow those humble surroundings?

“We don’t think so,” said Camilo Durana, the executive vice-president for properties and events at MLS.

The numbers tell a different story. On Thursday, when the Galaxy and LAFC renew their rivalry at the Rose Bowl, the game could draw as many as 75,000 people, the second-largest crowd in league history behind only the 82,110 the two teams drew at the Rose Bowl last July. That’s more than three times the number of fans they can fit into their soccer-specific stadiums, yet it’s just the crest of a very big attendance wave sweeping through MLS.

A little more than halfway through the season, the league is stretching at the seams, having already drawn more than 6.73 million fans, a jump of more than 7% from this time last year. Twenty-five of the 29 teams are drawing larger crowds than they did last season, while nine teams, including LAFC, are playing to 100% of their stadium’s capacity. Five matches have drawn more than 65,000 people.

Yet while the attendance growth has been impressive, Duran said it’s important to look at more than just the numbers.

“The soccer-specific stadiums provide a lot more than just capacity,” he said. “It’s better sight lines. The camera angles provide a much better broadcast experience. Our clubs can actually own the facility and dictate the schedule. All that delivers a much better experience.

“They can also make decisions on the type of seating available to fans. Standing sections have been wildly successful. That has helped us in the last 24 months to drive attendance up.”

The cozy confines also drive up demand for tickets. The listed attendance for BMO Stadium, where LAFC plays, is 22,000 but the team, which has a season-ticket base of 18,000 and a long waiting list, regularly draws more than that, creating an intimidating atmosphere for visiting teams.

As a result, no team has a better record at home than LAFC since it entered the league in 2018.

Soccer specific doesn’t have to mean small, however, nor does it mean giving up things like safe-standing sections.

When Nashville SC owner John R. Ingram prepared for his team’s entrance into MLS in 2020, he predicted that soccer attendance would swell and wanted to marry the need for bigger venues with the ambiance of a small building.

“His view was, ‘I want to build this for to where the game’s going, not where it is.’” Ian Ayre, the club’s chief executive officer, related.

The result was Geodis Park, which opened in 2022 with a capacity of 30,000, making it the largest soccer-specific stadium in the league. Two seasons later, Nashville’s average attendance of 28,605 in fifth-best in MLS, trailing four teams that play in NFL stadiums.

“We have 24,000 season-ticket holders and we’ve been sold out of premium [seating] since Day 1,” Ayre said. “So I think we made the right decision. Maybe we need to be bigger.”

Teams with a more modest season-ticket base have chosen to take high-demand games to nearby football stadiums. The San José Earthquakes, who play in PayPal Park, with 18,000 seats, the smallest stadium in the league, have drawn more than double that by playing LAFC at Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium and the Galaxy at Stanford Stadium. And Sporting Kansas City attracted 72,610, the third-largest crowd in MLS history, in April when it moved its game with Lionel Messi and Inter Miami — who have combined to drive much of the attendance increase — from tiny Children’s Mercy Park (18,467) to Arrowhead Stadium.

“It does speak to the growth of soccer, the growth of our league and how special it is to be able to do that,” said Galaxy president Tom Braun, who has been instrumental in putting together the two Rose Bowl games.

Still, Durana said MLS isn’t ready to move away from the stadium experience that drove the league to this point.

“The experience for fans is much more than just where they’re seated,” he said. “It’s the food options, what they’re seeing coming into the stadium, rituals that are built into the facility. So a move to a larger venue has a much greater impact on the fan experience.”

It can also be expensive. In most cases, because the MLS teams do not own the larger stadiums, they have to pay rent, give up concession, sponsorship and parking revenue and relocate season-ticket holders. Merchandise stores are different, if they exist at all, as are the food and beverage offerings.

“It’s impossible to co-exist in someone else’s venue,” said Ayre, whose team played its first two seasons in Nissan Stadium, the 69,000-seat home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.

If the soccer-specific stadium feels like an old shoe for loyal supporters, the bigger venue may feel foreign and uncomfortable. The same can be said for the players, who have a strange locker room, a different field and a less-intimate atmosphere to get used to. Rarely does the home-field advantage carry over.

“There’s a bit of a gamble,” Braun admitted.

Galaxy fans cheer during a match against LAFC at the Rose Bowl on July 4, 2023.

(Alex Gallardo / For The Times)

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In the case of LAFC-Galaxy, moving the game from Dignity Health Sports Park to a larger venue is probably a bet worth taking, though. Not only is the crosstown El Tráfico annually the most passionate rivalry in MLS, but this week there is more that just bragging rights on the line.

The Galaxy (11-3-7) and LAFC (12-4-4) come in tied for the top spot in the Western Conference standings. And while the Galaxy have lost just one of their last 11 matches dating to April, LAFC hasn’t lost in its last nine games, the longest unbeaten streak in the league.

Maybe this game will eventually need a stadium even bigger than the Rose Bowl.

“Dignity Health Sports Park is a special stadium and it’s the best experience in MLS,” Braun said, but “taking the game to the Rose Bowl is a special moment for the league. And it’s just representative of where our league started and where our league is going.

“I can’t say that necessarily big stadiums are the answer. At some point, maybe.”

You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

PHOENIX — Caitlin Clark was on the bench, for once, clapping as the final seconds ticked here Sunday. The Indiana Fever rookie celebrated an 88-82 win over the Phoenix Mercury with teammates, and then she was surrounded by television cameras and photographers. As she spoke to an ESPN reporter, Diana Taurasi walked past 20 feet away, headed for the home locker room.

This contest was big for the Fever, its first victory over a winning team in 20 tries, but it also presented a before-and-after picture that was impossible to ignore. Clark, 22, is the hotshot rookie, the future of the WNBA. Phoenix’s Taurasi, 42, is the league’s career scoring leader, someone who has a street named after her outside the arena.

In front of a sold-out crowd at Footprint Center, Clark was steady over 39 minutes. Although she shot 4 of 14, she finished just shy of her first professional triple-double with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 12 assists. “My gosh … she’s just an incredible passer,” Indiana coach Christie Sides said. “She just finds the plays that need to happen.”

Taurasi posted 19 points, 3 assists and 3 rebounds in 32 minutes. Two nights earlier, in a home win over the Los Angeles Sparks, Taurasi had buried five 3-pointers. Against the Fever, she shot 2 of 10 from deep, never finding an offensive rhythm.

a near triple-double from Caitlin Clark in today’s win over Phoenix 😈 pic.twitter.com/KSJriLAb3l

— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) June 30, 2024

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Aside from the courtside interview, during which she praised her team’s resilience, Clark didn’t talk to reporters after the game. Sides said the guard did not feel well and needed to meet with the trainer. It’s also a fair bet Clark didn’t want to be put into position to answer questions about beating Taurasi, the rising star toppling a legend. In some ways, this has been a challenge for the entire Indiana franchise.

This weekend Sides twice was asked to assess Clark’s performance. Twice she focused her answer more on the Fever’s youth and their collective growth. After Indiana’s loss to the Seattle Storm on Thursday, Clark met with reporters alongside teammate Aliyah Boston. After reporters directed a fifth straight question to Clark, Clark waved her hand and said, “Ask Aliyah a question.”

If anyone can relate, it’s probably Taurasi, but this comes with an asterisk. Twenty years ago, she was in a similar situation. Like Clark at Iowa, Taurasi had finished her college career at Connecticut as the best player in the sport. She was the No. 1 pick of the WNBA Draft and was expected to elevate the league. The difference was media attention. Since joining the league, Clark has been the focus of countless debates — some on basketball, others on race. She has learned that anything she says can become a national headline or conversation.

Perhaps that explains her reaction Saturday when asked about the WNBA All-Star Game, which takes place July 20 in Phoenix. Even though Clark ranked second in recent fan voting, she didn’t want any part of the conversation. “I don’t know if I’ll be there,’’ she said after practice at Arizona State University. “I’m not going to talk in hypotheticals. My focus is on playing basketball. All that takes care of itself.”

In the same media session, Clark was asked for her first memory of Taurasi, a difficult task considering she was only 2 when Taurasi first joined the WNBA. But after thinking a second, Clark said Taurasi was always someone she associated with women’s professional basketball. She appreciated the intensity and fire in which Taurasi played, and called Sunday’s game a chance to compete against the best, “a dream come true.”

“That’s somebody I grew up idolizing and looking up to and wanting to be like one day,’’ Clark said. “I  don’t know if there’s going to be many people to be able to do it like her.”

As a Phoenix rookie in 2004, Taurasi instantly became the face of the franchise. Her first home game drew 10,493 fans, the most for an opener in three years. Before many road games that season, Taurasi met pregame and talked with a select group of 50 fans. Former Phoenix general manager Seth Sulka told reporters at the time that the attention was unlike anything he had seen in the WNBA.

“I loved it,” Taurasi said when asked about this Sunday. “I just loved to play basketball. I didn’t care too much about outside noise or what people thought of me. I enjoyed every minute. Being a rookie was cool, man. It was fun. You could do whatever you want, you didn’t know any better. Being in Sports Illustrated, Slam … ESPN the Magazine.”

Taurasi glanced at a young reporter in the room.

“You’re too young. You don’t know what I’m talking about,” she said.

Like Clark, Taurasi still had to deal with physical play, with veterans trying to put her in her place. Opponents respected her talent, but they made her earn their respect. On April 5, while providing TV commentary during the women’s Final Four, Taurasi recalled a “Welcome to the WNBA” moment and how an intimidating defender named DeLisha Milton-Jones twice elbowed her in the face. It set up a rivalry of sorts.

During a recent phone conversation, Milton-Jones, the coach of the women’s program at Old Dominion, laughed. She had seen Taurasi’s comments on social media. “I’m like, ‘Invite me on your show so I can tell them the other side,”’ she said.

Milton-Jones was aware of Taurasi’s skill. In the WNBA, she saw it up close. How Taurasi manipulated the game with her vision. How she understood spacing and timing. How she applied a point guard’s touch to multiple positions. But what impressed Milton-Jones most was how Taurasi arrived with tricks that took most rookies a season or two to learn.

Milton-Jones said that when she elevated for a jump shot, Taurasi would poke her in the stomach, just hard enough to make her flinch and throw off her shot. On offense, Taurasi would come off a pindown and try to jam Milton-Jones to try to create space.

“She would literally punch me in the stomach,’’ Milton-Jones said. “Then she would blast off wide open. My coach is yelling at me like, ‘You need to be guarding her!’ And I’m like, ‘She just punched me in the stomach!’ She was feisty and crafty and she had this vet savvy-esque play to her game.”

(Responded Taurasi outside the media room Sunday: “I think it was my upbringing. Italian Argentines, we’re sneaky. We’re always trying to find an advantage somehow. In the game of basketball, there’s games within the game. And when you’re not physically gifted as much as other people, you have to find little ways to get that edge.”)

Carrie Graf, who coached Taurasi her first two pro seasons, said Taurasi’s biggest flaw was with the referees. She was too harsh. Instead of yelling in their faces, she told Taurasi to use her charisma. To remember that officials are people. But there was no questioning her readiness.

“I can picture this shot like it’s a photograph,’’ Graf said on the phone from Australia. “She’d get in the lane and she’d be up against the tall timbers. She’s on the right side and she extended her right arm out like it was an elevated hook shot. And then with her left hand, the shot blocker is coming in, and while she’s in the air, she goes up and grabs the shot blocker’s arm to clear some space so she could put the ball on the rim. Women just weren’t doing that stuff back then.”

Clark has this quality as well, but instead of hanging in the air, it’s pulling up from the logo, a trademark move that has made her famous within the sport. She did this twice Sunday, igniting the crowd. Even in Phoenix, the “Clark” jerseys outnumbered Phoenix players’ in many sections of the arena.

Caitlin Clark showing off her deep range with another logo three 🎯 pic.twitter.com/IX8wnVb3g4

— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) June 30, 2024

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Clark is still navigating this transition. Like she has all season, she forced too many passes Sunday, resulting in 6 turnovers. She tried a behind-the-back pass that had little chance. She misfired on a lead pass in transition. She lost the ball and fell to the court.

Before the game (Clark meets with reporters before every contest), she had said her biggest adjustment had simply been the pace of everything. After losing to South Carolina in the NCAA national championship, Clark returned to Iowa City for a day and “then my life kind of changed,” she said.

After the draft, Clark moved to Indianapolis. May 3, she played her first preseason game. She hasn’t slowed since, playing 20 games for the 8-12 Fever.  The exciting part is she knows she has room to grow, mastering details that can elevate her game. The frustrating part is she hasn’t had much practice time to do so.

“I had to learn game to game,” Clark said. “That’s kind of been the biggest adjustment.”

Taurasi predicted as much. She didn’t mean it as a shot at Clark and the league’s talented rookies. Only that this transition often takes time. In a Phoenix radio interview, Taurasi compared it to a college quarterback adjusting to the NFL. After Sunday’s loss, she expressed how much she respects how Clark has handled it.

“It’s amazing what Caitlin has been able to do,” Taurasi said. “Her short career so far has been nothing short of remarkable. The one thing that I really love about her is she loves the game. You can tell she’s put the work in. And even throughout her short WNBA career, it’s been a lot of pressure, a lot of things thrown at her, she keeps showing up and keeps getting better every single game. Her future is super bright.”

(Top photo: Kate Frese / NBAE via Getty Images)

Alon Day will be driving for more than just a chance at Victory Lane on Saturday as the NASCAR Xfinity Series race heads to Chicago for its street race.

Day, the lone Israeli driver in the NASCAR ranks, will pay homage to those still held captive by Hamas after its Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Day will drive the No. 45 Chevy Camaro for Alpha Prime Racing and Jet Support Services Inc. (JSSI), and Setna iO will serve as two of the sponsors.

The four-time EuroNASCAR champion told Fox News Digital he has five friends who are among the 116 people still believed to be held captive by Hamas.

“I think I’m more motivated than ever. I won four times, the European Championship, and I always did it for my own success,” Day said. “Like all of us, we’re human. We try to be the best we can. We try to win [championships] for ourselves.

“I think this time something a bit [changed] in me – doing that not only for myself but actually for the whole country, for the hostages, obviously for the [Israeli] soldiers, for the Jewish community in general here in the United States – I’m motivated by something else, by the war, by friends that are still hostages. This is what actually wants me to push to do even better.”

It’s the second year the NASCAR Xfinity Series will have the street race in Chicago.

Day, who is from Ashdod, Israel, said he believes the anti-Israel agitators made the streets of Chicago dangerous.

“The pro-Hamas protests on the streets, especially in the streets of Chicago, which is actually getting really dangerous. I was there for a couple of days, like a week ago, and I felt the need to check that I’m not wearing anything that can identify myself as Jewish,” he said. “I mean, this is how bad it is. Sounds like Germany in the ‘30s that I need to hide my Judaism.”

Day’s car will have a JSSI-branded wrap in blue and white – the colors of the Israeli flag. The car will also have the Hebrew word for life on it, חי, in tribute to those being held captive.

Alon Day, center, will drive for more than just a chance at Victory Lane on Saturday. (Goran Kovacic/Pixsell/MB Media/Getty Images/File)

JSSI CEO and Chair Neil Book said it was “shocking” to see students on American campuses express support for Hamas over the last few months.

EX-PATRIOTS STAR JULIAN EDELMAN, WHO IS JEWISH, DISCUSSES ‘HURTFUL’ ANTISEMITISM: ‘SAD MOMENT RIGHT NOW’

“It was shocking to me, not only to see that swell of hate and antisemitism in the United States, it was shocking that it came in response to the worst attack on Israel and the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” he told Fox News Digital. “I feel a little embarrassed from my own naivety. I did not forsee that kind of response from forces within the United States and around the world.”

Day said he hopes to educate those who don’t know what’s actually going on in the region.

“We want to educate a bit more people with what’s actually going on,” he said. “A lot of people don’t really know. They have comments. [But] it’s like me commenting on the United States and Vietnam, like doing something that’s not related to you, and you still have comments when you don’t have any clue [about] what’s going on and [not] even educated enough to have a comment on that.

Day said it was “crazy” to him to see people supporting Hamas, and he compared it to someone showing support for Usama bin Laden after Sept. 11.

He added that unless you were in Israel on Oct. 7 or live in the country in general, then you have no real idea about what’s happening in the region. 

“A lot of the time, I think people are just missing it – education and just following TikTok, social media, that just brainwashed them,” Day explained. “I think the biggest example, in my opinion, is when you start seeing the LGBTQ or Queers for Gaza, for Palestine, whatever, it’s like chicken for KFC. This is how crazy it is.

Alon Day (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images/File)

“They don’t even know the meaning of being homosexual in Palestine. It’s not acceptable. You will be dead. This is just a small, small idea about how uneducated people [are] here.”

Day will be competing against some of the top drivers in the Xfinity Series, which may make it more difficult to see the Winner’s Circle come mid-Saturday.

Book said that having Day in Chicago, given the recent rise of antisemitism he’s seen in the city, and racing with the Israeli flag behind him is an achievement in itself.

“Having Alon just being here, racing with the Israeli flag behind him, I think he’s already wanted to achieve something just for being here,” Book told Fox News Digital. “But I know Alon. The guy’s a competitor. He does not race for second place.

“So, I think if you ask him, anything less than a victory is probably not ideal. But for me, I think just him being here means a lot. I’m thrilled that he’s here. I’m thrilled that he’s racing. And I’m excited to see him mix it up here on Saturday.”

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