American soccer’s next goal? Turning a profit

Fifteen years ago, Major League Soccer was a struggling 12-team enterprise clawing its way back from a serious bankruptcy scare. Most teams were renting cavernous football stadiums where they played in front of sparse crowds. The league was distinctly scrappy, and buy-in prices for new owners were comically low: Before that season, an ownership group in Utah paid the pocket-change sum of $7.5 million for the right to start an expansion team.

This spring, in its 25th season, the MLS will field 26 clubs...