The good news for the New York Cosmos is that the storied soccer team's move to Brooklyn has paid dividends, with attendance perking up by nearly 30% this season, to 4,855 per game. Trouble is, that's only about a fifth as much as local rivals NYCFC and the Red Bulls draw. And the Cosmos' dream of playing on equal footing with those franchises suffered a big hit when the nation's soccer overlords threatened to relegate the team's entire league to a lower division.

Last week the U.S. Soccer Federation denied the New York–based North American Soccer League second-division status for the 2018 season. The move to a lower division could be the death blow for the struggling NASL, which has seen teams defect to Major League Soccer, the sport's leading professional league in the country. Relegation would also damage efforts by charismatic owner Rocco Commisso to make the Cosmos relevant again—and maybe kill the team altogether.