Cosmos mount expensive challenge to M.L.S.

For the New York Cosmos, whose rebirth on the field begins this August, the path to relevance is a completely uncharted one.

For now, they won’t be playing in Major League Soccer, the nation’s top league, but in second-division North American Soccer League. Opponents won’t be domestically known commodities like the New York Red Bulls or Los Angeles Galaxy, but clubs like Minnesota United and F.C. Edmonton.

But their grand plans–most notably the parts that involve spending money–indicate that the Cosmos won’t be content to be a good little team. They need, somehow, to be a good big one. And they’re attempting to do this in a country where it still feels at times like the sport of soccer itself is fighting a battle for legitimacy, no matter how many success stories M.L.S. can point to, particularly in northwest markets like Seattle and Portland.

Still, the Cosmos have achieved some things over the past week that begin to make their ambitions seem less ridiculous.

The Cosmos, named after the original North American Soccer League franchise and largely owned by the Saudi Arabian Sela Sport, has brought Emirates Airlines on board as a jersey sponsor. Typically, that’s a sponsor found across the chest of world soccer heavyweights, such as Arsenal, Real Madrid and Paris St. Germain.

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