In November of 2001, Major League Soccer owner Lamar Hunt and his two sons, Dan and Clark, sat around a table inside Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City listening intently on a conference call as other owners talked ominously about the state of their fledging league.

MLS had lost $250 million since its inception in 1996. Two of the league's 12 franchises were in such sorry shape that they would need to fold.

By the end of the discouraging 15-minute conference call, the majority of the owners were in agreement: It was time to call the bankruptcy lawyers. The MLS experiment had failed.

Over the next 48 hours, Hunt called each owner to convince them to give the league another shot. Ultimately, three owners - Hunt, Philip Anschutz and Robert Kraft - shelled out the necessary money to take over the remaining 10 teams and keep MLS afloat.

"My dad always thought that MLS could be one of the most successful leagues in America," said Dan Hunt, president of FC Dallas, speaking of his father who died 10 years ago.

"He knew it was going to take time, but he saw a really bright future for the league."

Now, 15 years after it nearly folded, MLS is thriving.