North American Soccer League In 1967, two professional soccer leagues started in the United States: the
FIFA-sanctioned
United Soccer Association, which consisted of entire European and South American teams brought to the U.S. and given local names, and the unsanctioned
National Professional Soccer League. The National Professional Soccer League had a national television contract in the U.S. with the
CBS television network (which signed a two-year contract to broadcast a game every Sunday afternoon live and in color). The NPSL kicked off on Sunday, April 16 with a full slate of five matches. However, the ratings for matches were unacceptable even by weekend daytime standards and the arrangement was terminated.
Bill MacPhail, head of
CBS Sports, attributed NASL's lack of TV appeal to empty stadiums with few fans, and to undistinguished foreign players who were unfamiliar to American soccer fans. The leagues merged in 1968 to form the
North American Soccer League (NASL). It has been suggested that the timing of the merge was related to the huge amount of attention given throughout the
English-speaking world to the victory by
England in the
1966 FIFA World Cup and the resulting
documentary film,
Goal. While the
USSF and
FIFA refused to recognize the NPSL, the television contract with
CBS guaranteed some element of financial stability. In
1974, although the
Los Angeles Aztecs had a league-best record and points total, and rightly should have hosted the championship final,
CBS intervened and strongly influenced the NASL's decision to play the match in
Miami. CBS was under contract to air the game live and was unwilling to black-out the large
Southern California viewing audience. At the time it was the standard in many U.S.-based sports for the host market not to broadcast games locally unless they were sold out. At the time, the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum had a capacity of 94,500 and, even in a best-case scenario, an Aztecs sell-out was unlikely. Moreover, in an effort by CBS to capture more viewers during the peak East Coast time slot, a Los Angeles-hosted game would have begun at 12:30 (
PDT) local time. The league recognized that both these factors would be detrimental to ticket sales and agreed to move the game to the
Miami Orange Bowl with a 3:30 (
EDT) local start. CBS had also stepped in the previous week and forced the Toros to play their semifinal match at the much-smaller Tamiami Stadium in
Tamiami Park. This was done so that if Miami did win, CBS's production crews would have a full week for set-up in the Orange Bowl stadium.
1974 FIFA World Cup By 1970, the NASL was struggling, and had lost its TV contract with CBS. As a result, they didn't provide any network TV coverage of the
1970 World Cup.
1974's coverage contained week-old filmed highlights on
CBS Sports Spectacular. For the Final, CBS used
BBC's feed with announcer
David Coleman.
Major Indoor Soccer League The
MISL made inroads on national television in
1982–83. While the spring would see the end of the league's two-year deal with the
USA Network, CBS would broadcast a playoff game live from Cleveland on May 7 that drew an estimated four million viewers. One game during the
1983–84 season was televised on CBS (Game 3 of the championship series on June 2) as well.
1984–85 would be the final year the MISL would have games aired on network television, CBS broadcast Game 4 of the championship series live on May 25. CBS used
Gary Bender and
Kyle Rote Jr. on commentary.
NCAA Men's Soccer Championship By 1990, CBS would televise the final of the
NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament between
UCLA Bruins and
Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Mike Joy and
Seamus Malin provided commentary, with
Jim Gray serving as the sideline reporter. ==CBS Sports Golazo Network==