Soccer in a greenhouse sees rise in popularity, too

Being a closet soccer fan, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I checked out a Legends indoor game. When I heard the Mexico Toros, Sunday's opponent at Orleans Arena, had signed Cesar Romero, that sealed it.

The original Joker, playing soccer, indoors, in a hockey rink?

No, not exactly.

That Cesar Romero had a white face and green hair and died in 1994. This Cesar Romero plays for Chivas USA in Major League Soccer. He has dark hair and facial features.

Supposedly still smarting from a 13-3 defeat to the Legends in their first Professional Arena Soccer League meeting, recruiting an MLS ringer showed the Mexicans were hell bent on revenge. At least that's what the press release suggested.

This Cesar Romero scored two goals, neither of which set off a cloud of poisonous gas.

The Legends still won, 16-9.

Perhaps next time the Toros will sign Julie Newmar to keep goal.

The real reason I went to the Legends game was to determine, or at least make a guess, whether this latest incarnation of soccer played in a greenhouse can make it in Las Vegas.

Maybe it can, for a little while.

For if ever there was an ideal time to start up a no-frills pro soccer franchise in a dubious town for live sports, this would appear to be the time.

MLS set another attendance record in 2012, and with an average attendance of 17,872 has surpassed the NBA and NHL. The Seattle Sounders averaged 38,496; the Seattle Mariners, 21,258. The Pacific Northwest loves its soccer, and fondly remembers A-Rod and Lou Piniella.

Soccer-only stadiums are going up on this side of the pond like hotels on Mediterranean Avenue in Monopoly.

A few weeks ago while channel surfing, I stumbled onto a soccer game where confetti was flying, and fans were beating drums and chanting "Ole, Ole, Ole," and every seat in the stadium would have had a backside in it, if everybody in the stadium wasn't standing.

Liverpool vs. Manchester United? Barcelona vs. Real Madrid? No. Portland Timbers vs. Sporting Kansas City (I think), in Portland, Ore. The Timbers' record this season was 8-16-10. They finished eighth among nine teams in the MLS' Western Conference.

With ESPN televising the World Cup, you can't turn on "SportsCenter" without seeing a soccer goal as one of the Plays of the Day. Usually they're by Lionel Messi, and I've seen them as high as No. 3 or 4.

NBC recently bid $85 million annually to televise the English Premier League. That was about four times more than Fox paid for its EPL rights. So it won't be long before The Peacock starts showing Leo Messi goals, too.

Even people in Las Vegas are getting kicks in large numbers. In August, the "friendly" pitting Real Madrid of Spain against Club Santos Laguna of the Mexican league drew 29,152 to Sam Boyd Stadium. It wasn't quite a sellout. It might have been, had Juventus of Italy not pulled out, or had tickets been cheaper than $71.

Because I'm lousy at guessing attendance, it's hard to say how many people were on hand for Sunday's indoor game between the Legends and the Cesar Romeros.

The girl at the press table said I would have no trouble picking out Meir Cohen, the Legends' president and general manager, because he was wearing all black with a huge peace symbol on the back of his jacket, and also because the crowd wasn't too big. But enough people were there that I couldn't pick out Cohen, large peace symbol notwithstanding.

If I had to guess, I'd say the crowd was around 1,000. And though soccer played in a greenhouse is not nearly as interesting as soccer played on a regulation pitch, this was soccer well presented, with requisite rock music and cheerleaders sporting bare midriffs and perhaps a bit too much eye makeup.

The game started 20 minutes late, but that was mostly because the Mexican national anthem lasted for like 17:30. But when the game started, only two guys faked injuries. And so it was mostly fun, especially when No. 10 on the Legends possessed the gold soccer ball.

No. 10 on the Legends is Ricardo Sobreira, who scored three goals and is light on his feet. He is light on his feet because he weighs just 130 pounds - and also because he is from Sao Paulo, where young men dance around the 18-yard box like Fred Astaire.

And I even heard a couple of vuvuzelas, and a couple of guys behind the net were beating on drums.

So one day, when we build a stadium here, and we are granted an MLS expansion franchise, and the expansion franchise signs Leo Messi, when he's like 44 - and the franchise does well, at least until the novelty wears off - perhaps there will be more vuvuzelas, more beating drums. And then people who were there will say it sounded like the Legends game at the Orleans in 2012, when that Mexican side brought in Cesar Romero and still lost by a touchdown.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.