Paul Daugherty: Major League Soccer will be great. FC Cincinnati ownership banking on it.

Perhaps I’m missing something.

On this side of the table: A wildly successful United Soccer League franchise, both at the gate and on the field. A fine, old dowager stadium in a cozy setting near a fashionable neighborhood of bars and restaurants. Team owners collectively worth billions of dollars.

On that side of the table: A purported major soccer league, MLS, with a miniature TV contract, whose ratings are no better here than those of the Mexican Liga MX. More people watch English Premier League games on Saturday mornings than prime time MLS games.

It’s a league with lots of teams that don’t turn a profit. A league relying heavily on ticket sales when ticket prices are relatively low.

Major League Soccer: Ponzi scheme or smart investment for Cincinnati?

And we’re the ones doing the pursuing here?

Turns out, I am missing something. A huge something.

Ever heard of SUM? Soccer United Marketing? It is described as the “marketing wing’’ of MLS. It’s a bit more than that. SUM negotiates TV deals. SUM currently gets a cut from every – Every with a capital E – televised soccer game played in the United States. Amateur games, professional games, World Cup qualifiers. You name it. If a soccer match is on TV and is being played in America, SUM is getting paid a rights fee.

Guess who owns SUM?

Every MLS owner has a stake, shared evenly.

Who is the CEO of Soccer United Marketing?

Why it’s Don Garber, the MLS commissioner.

That’s why Major League Soccer can charge a $150 million expansion fee, and not be seen as ridiculous. That’s why the Lindners and Scott Farmer are so willing to pay it. The expansion fee is a horrible deal for those buying in. But the fee and an equity stake in SUM is a very good deal.

You didn’t really think FC Cincinnati ownership was in this just for the civic benevolence, did you?

They’re betting that the TV market for MLS will grow. It increased 16 percent in 2017, a fantastic showing when compared with the rest of sports on TV. More, they’re betting that soccer’s popularity in the U.S. will continue its impressive rise at all levels, more soccer will be televised and Soccer United Marketing’s piece of the pie will grow apace.

As a writer for the website SBNation put it, “MLS ... owners have figured out how to make money off a soccer audience who never engages with its core-owned-and-operated product."

It’s a bit of a legacy investment for FC Cincinnati ownership. It’s a nest egg for their grandkids. They’ll lose money for a few years. At least on the surface. In 2012, SUM was worth an estimated $600 million. Five years later, it’s worth close to $2 billion. Every MLS owner has an equal chunk of that.

Allow Forbes magazine to explain:

“Providence (a global asset management firm) bought a 25 percent stake of SUM in 2012 for $150 million, valuing the property at $600 million. The recent sale of Providence’s remaining 20 percent stake – its holding had been diluted by the league’s expansion – was for a little over $400 million, valuing SUM at more than $2 billion, or a nearly 25 percent increase over the last five years."

Think of it like the Reds and Bengals: Their big money isn’t in their yearly profits. It’s in the values of their franchises, which have skyrocketed in the past two decades. Bob Castellini paid $270 million 13 years ago, for his majority share of the Reds. Forbes estimates the team to be worth close to $1 billion today.

Now compare the declining interest in MLB with the surging interest in soccer.

It’s just possible that MLS’s seemingly endless delay in awarding its next expansion franchise means Garber and friends are simply waiting for Cincinnati to get its house wholly in order. Meaning: Get yourself a stadium site, Cincy, and you’re in.

This would be a great happening in our town. Didn’t Amazon tell us a reason it didn’t choose us for its 50,000 jobs was our lack of tech-minded young adults? A major league futbol team could help change that.

Regardless, given we’re not paying for anything but some infrastructure, an MLS team seems a great deal for the town. And of course, a decent gamble for the team owners. Wealthy people don’t get that way by accident.

That’s the SUM of it. All hail Soccer United Marketing.