Los Angeles Is a Major League Soccer City : Franchises: Six other areas are named, but there are still many key questions unanswered.

CHICAGO — Greater Los Angeles, which has already seen the Wolves, Toros, Surf, Sunshine, Aztecs, Lazers, Skyhawks and Heat come and go, is getting yet another professional soccer franchise.

The city was one of seven named Wednesday as charter members in Major League Soccer, the United States’ planned new professional soccer league due to begin operations next spring.

The L.A. team, which like the rest has yet to be named, will play its home games at the Coliseum. In addition to Los Angeles, the other cities or regions awarded charter membership in the league are Boston, Columbus (Ohio), New York, New Jersey, San Jose and Washington.

Eleven additional cities remain in the running for the final five league positions. They are Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Sacramento, Seattle, Tampa and Tulsa.

MLS is envisioned as a 12-team league acting, in effect, as an American first division. It is scheduled to begin play next April.

Wednesday’s news conference in the sauna-like atmosphere of the World Cup press tent outside Soldier Field produced far more questions than answers.

--Does the league have any sponsors?

“We have just started to talk to the various prospective sponsors,” said Alan Rothenberg, who wears three hats as head of World Cup USA ‘94, U.S. Soccer and MLS. “We will have a major conference with them in Los Angeles during the final week (of the World Cup). We’ll be announcing sponsors later in the summer and into the fall. The responses so far are very encouraging.”

--Does the league have the $100 million in capital it needs to get off the ground?

“We are in the process of raising the necessary capital, and I expect we will be able to make specific announcements later in the summer,” Rothenberg said. “The business plan is flexible. We can go with as little as $50 million or as much as $100 million.”

--When will the rest of the cities be named?

“There’s not a specific timetable,” Rothenberg said. “We are targeting Aug. 1 as the deadline date for making the decisions, but it’s conceivable we might announce them one at a time earlier than that.”

--What about potential conflicts with American Professional Soccer League (APSL) and United States Inter-Regional Soccer League teams in cities MLS has targeted?

“The APSL has been certified by the U.S. Soccer Federation as one of its second-division leagues and I hope that it will continue to survive and thrive,” Rothenberg said. “If our presence causes it to work harder and do better, then that’s great. The USISL has known from the beginning that we would be looking at all markets in this country, including the 74 USISL communities.”

--Will MLS teams be able to afford the salaries necessary to prevent U.S. national team players from going to clubs overseas?

“The money that will come in will be adequate to compensate our best U.S. players,” Rothenberg said. “There is no reason why any of them need to sign anywhere else in the world from a financial standpoint. The money will be there to compete for our players worldwide.”

--Will Giants Stadium be used if it does not convert permanently to a grass field as has been done for the World Cup?

“We’ll deal with that if and when that happens,” Rothenberg said. “I think when everybody goes out there now and touches and sees and feels the grass at the Meadowlands, I can’t see them not going forward with plans (to return completely to a grass surface).”

In addition to the Coliseum and Giants Stadium in New Jersey, other facilities to be used in the inaugural season are Foxboro Stadium near Boston, Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Hofstra Stadium on Long Island, Spartan Stadium in San Jose and RFK Stadium in Washington.