If crowds are the measure of success then MLS is either stagnant or stable, depending on how you look at it. Attendances have st

If crowds are the measure of success then MLS is either stagnant or stable, depending on how you look at it. Attendances have stayed at around 15,000 over the past decade although some clubs do better than others. The LA Galaxy drew a respectable 21,677 average last season and new arrivals Real Salt Lake were second on 18,037 and Chivas USA fourth with 17,080.

The league is certainly in better financial health than before having jettisoned its lowly-supported teams, moved into new stadia and signed a recent Indian satta $150 million sponsorship deal with Adidas, and will still leap at any opportunity to cash in if European clubs want to sign its players.

Last year the league took the unprecedented step of Pkvrevealing some salary figures, which made interesting reading. Top of the pile was LA’s Landon Donovan on $900,000 but at the other end Chicago's Gonzalo Segares took home a measly $11,700.

Teammate Chris Rolfe, who recently played striker for the US National Team, collected a paltry $16,500 while fellow US international Clint Dempsey, who scored against England last summer and got the winner in the US' recent win over Poland, earned a modest $57,875, some way behind their European colleagues and light years behind the stars of America’s major sports leagues.

The new season sees the first franchise move in the league's history with the San Jose Earthquakes, one of the league's top teams, moving from Northern California to Texas to become the Houston Dynamo.

The Earthquakes had been losing money hand over fist renting a stadium from San Jose State University, and MLS, which still controls the clubs centrally, was not prepared to sustain the losses for another season.

Houston, the nation's fourth largest city with a substantial Hispanic and football-loving population, was an obvious candidate for expansion. But the initial team name of Houston 1836, with its commemoration of Anglo-American victory, offended that very Latin community the league had angled to appeal to, so the name was swiftly and embarrassingly changed to the less offensive Dynamo.

This was par for the course for MLS, which had seen two teams vanish (Miami and Tampa Bay) as well as four name changes in its first ten years.

There have been several such 'seminal' moments since MLS was born in 1996, the question remaining how many of these scattered seeds will truly take root in the long term. At least the days of playing on Astroturf with American Football markings, 35 yard shoot out to settle drawn matches and jazzy stadium announcements during the game are over.

Chicago will also open the nation's fourth professional soccer-specific stadium when they kick off in June at their 20,000 capacity Bridgeview home. Because of construction delays the Fire will oddly play their first nine games away and then have nine in a row at home from late June to mid August.

Five of the league's twelve sides will be playing in their own football-only stadia, which is the key to maximizing revenue and keeping the league going. A further four have stadium plans in place so the days of 15,000 crowds drowning in 80,000 seat NFL bowls should soon be over.

The Kansas City Wizards, owned by Lamar Hunt, founder of NFL's Superbowl, remain in limbo with a number of takeover possibilities after the billionaire passed on building a modest stadium for his team.

The fans are always eager for more teams but given one expansion team (Miami Fusion) folded after four years, the league is extremely   wary and has insisted that only clubs with proper external financial backing and concrete plans for an exclusive stadium will be considered. On this basis, MLS has confirmed that Toronto will join the league in 2007 while several American cities continue to inspire rumours.

The quality of MLS play did not blind us again in 2005 although the MLS All-Star team beat Premiership Fulham convincingly 4-1 at the start of the season, a game US fans will recall for some time.

Reigning champions LA Galaxy are still the team to beat with Landon Donovan their talisman and 1990 World Cup veteran Cobi Jones still on their books.