It was so snowy this week in Utah that Real Salt Lake had to move indoors to practice for Saturday's championship match against Sporting Kansas City. Welcome to the other football. Major League Soccer, now 17 years old, is holding its Cup finale on a weekend when most Americans are thinking about college football conference championships or the NFL. Not everyone, however, spends the fall focused on a ball you carry with your hands.

David Beckham No. 23 of the Los Angeles Galaxy chases after the ball during an MLS match against the Montreal Impact at the Olympic stadium. Getty Images

"This year we had a game that went head to head with BYU and University of Utah football, and we sold out our stadium, so that says a lot," said RSL's head coach, Jason Kreis.

Don't look now, but soccer is achieving some major goals. MLS attendance now outranks the NBA and NHL on a per-game basis, according to numbers put out by the individual leagues. And MLS is expanding, with hopes to reach 24 teams by 2020. "We started in 1996," said Chris Klein, a former player who is now president of the LA Galaxy. "Quite honestly, there were a lot of moments where people who were outside didn't know if our league was going to make it."

Now many teams no longer play in football stadiums, but have their own soccer-specific venues. A few, like the Galaxy, are even making money. "We had 4,500 season ticket holders," said Klein. "We now have well over 9,000, marching toward 10,000."

A major turning point was when David Beckham joined the Galaxy in 2007. This season he left, and the English star's departure had a negative effect on attendance and merchandise sales. "I think we had one of the most popular people in the world leave our team this year, and attendance is down," Klein said. "But it's only down 4 percent, so we feel pretty good about that story." The Galaxy has the second-highest attendance in the league, averaging 22,000 fans a game. The Seattle Sounders are way out in front, with double that number. The Sounders outsell the Seattle Mariners. "I think in particular in markets like Salt Lake City and Portland [Ore.] and Seattle, you have a real niche of a sports fan—people that are just into soccer," said Kreis.