The franchises of the MLS have had many opponents to their way of running things from numerous people around the football and business environment. We have a glimpse at the MLS and the franchises as a business structure and talk about different Low Cost Franchise that create the structure of the league over recent times. In spite of what your opinion is of the current league structure it has been quite productive over the past several seasons and is still continuing to grow each year with many Low Cost Franchise being allocated the option to join the league. The league was formed in 1993 as the main component for the subsequent years football world cup finals, this was a promise that was made to the governing body FIFA if the United States was given the football world cup finals. It was thought that the sport of football would increase gradually as it has a great deal of competition from more recognised sports in the USA market like basketball and baseball, but this league would provide it with a firm foundation of where to begin. All the teams began as Franchise For Sale that was offered to several cities in the United States, large investment was given by people and sponsors across the world to buy and get the Low Cost Franchise underway and to expand a Home Based Franchise for every major city or town.

The first match begun in 1996 when the league included just ten small Home Based Franchise that were bought by businesses and sponsors as Franchise For Sale opportunities. The turnout for the matches were greater than expected and the overall outlook was looking decent. But, at the very start, the league never in reality became successful, the team and players abilities were rather weak, this together with the teams not having enough depth to be competitive with each other gradually destroyed crowd statistics. A Home Based Franchise had found it tough with the huge distances travelled and expenses that the league had at the opening, so the Low Cost Franchise endured over this initial start up time.

Following the 2002 football world cup finals where the United States squad reached the quarter-final stages, there was a an improvement in the attraction of the football league and football across the whole of America. There was a new principal in power of expanding the league into a business sports leader in the United States sports field for the Low Cost Franchise and under this new management the MLS began to bring in better quality of players from across the countries.

The players abilities on the field still remain less compared to that found at a European football league but the quantity of top players that are working and playing in the league, whether it be for the massive money deals or the lifestyle changes, is improving. Franchise For Sale in Toronto, Canada is now available and set up and this improved the leagues appeal to Canada, where football is more known.

We now glimpse at the Columbus Crew team and how the team has developed into one of the most known Low Cost Franchise in the MLS, with huge investment.

The Columbus Crew were given their name in a ‘name the franchise’ contest. In fact, from the franchise website "Columbus, OH resident Luis Orozco was the only applicant in a month long contest to suggest that the franchise be named The Columbus Crew". This name, and the franchise emblem, invokes images of hard-working Middle America - steel plants, auto manufacturing and the like. In fact, the teams semi-official nickname is 'The Hardest Working Squad in America'. The Columbus Crew stadium was the first of the recent of wave of club-owned soccer-specific stadiums which are steadily introducing to alter the financial picture of the sport in the United States. Virtually all teams in the past have played in enormous NFL stadiums that dwarfed even generous crowds.