This is an expanded version of the Soccer America Q&A with Thom Meredith found on page 12 of the Nov. 6, 2000 issue of Soccer America Magazine. Thom Meredith left his job as director of event operations for U.S. Soccer in September to become the vice president for operations for the Women’s United Soccer Association. His involvement in soccer dates back to the NASL, where he began in public relations with the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 1974. INTERVIEW BY DEAN CAPARAZ SOCCER AMERICA: Why did you leave a steady job at U.S. Soccer for a startup league? THOM MEREDITH: The chance to be part of a new start-up league is always an exciting challenge. I had been at U.S. Soccer for 10 years. I loved doing games. It was very difficult to watch the [U.S.] men’s [World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica] from Columbus and not be there. Watching on TV is much more difficult than being there in person. Also, it was a chance to get back east, as both my wife and I have family back east. My wife’s parents live in Philadelphia, and my parents live in Upstate New York. SA: What does your new job entail? TM: It’s to develop a comprehensive operation. All the operational issues the teams have with the league and at a club level, I’m responsible for working with them on that. I’m involved with the scheduling, working with the various aspects of the operational issues as they grow and as teams add people. I’ll work to some extent with the combine and player drafts. That’s enough right now. From a distance, I’m involved with some insurance situations with teams, the team contracts with where they’re playing. I’m trying to add my expertise of 15 years in soccer business to this league. I’m working with [acting commissioner] Tony DiCicco and [vice president of player relations] Lauren Gregg, finishing some letters to go out to players. Everyone needs a guy who makes sure the trains run on time, and I guess I’m that guy. SA: Does this league have the feel of the North American Soccer League? TM: Not really. When I was in the NASL, my first year was ’74-75, it had already been going through a couple of different transformations. This is a startup. My first startup was with the Tampa Bay Rowdies, then I went to Washington. There are some similarities there. Hopefully, we’re doing, me personally, a better job of a startup. Those days I had no experience as a PR guy. Now I’m in a more expanded role. There’s no magic to it. I’ll borrow a Lamar Hunt saying: Even the Romans sold programs in the Colosseum 2000 years ago. They just happened to be stone tablets. SA: Who was your favorite NASL coach to work with? TM: Obviously, Eddie Firmani was my first one at the Rowdies. They’re not really all coaches. There were some great personalities on that staff. There is some potential camaraderie at the WUSA. It’s the same sort of staff as we had at the Rowdies in my short period there. I was there the November of ’74 through February of ’75 and then left for that one season to work in Washington for the Diplomats. Dennis Viollet, sure. Dennis was the coach of the Washington Diplomats. His daughter was a ranked tennis player. He was one of my favorite coaches to be around. I remember, it was the middle of the season. I was flying my first ever airplane flight professionally, from Washington to the Miami Orange Bowl to play on AstroTurf, on a bumpy July or June day. Dennis was sitting across from me on the aisle. We landed in Miami, and I said, “Dennis I give ’em a 7 or an 8 for the landing.” Dennis in his dry humor said, “If they get you on the ground in one piece, you give ’em a 10.” Dennis was on the amazing side to that Munich air crash — he was one of the Busby Babes who survived. He passed away 18 months ago from brain cancer. SA: What was the atmosphere like with the Washington team? TM: Being in Washington after games was the most fun. We would go out, win or lose, have totties. I would be with one Irish guy and one English guy and one Cockney guy in Washington. They came to my house one time for dinner. Two and a half hours later when they left, my wife said — she understands better now — “What the hell did they say? I didn’t understand one word they said.” SA: If the WUSA season starts April 14, when would the regular season end? TM: That’s the early date. We’re meeting. It’s a good thing, a historic thing. It’s great the WUSA, MLS, U.S. Soccer and CONCACAF will meet for scheduling to discuss those things, to make sure we don’t have three things happening at the same time. Mid-April to mid-August. It needs to be fleshed out. There is the potential of two, three or more teams that might be sharing a summer of dates at professional stadiums. It remains to be seen whether those’ll be doubleheaders, if it’s day-nights. I can tell you we have a great national TV situation. TNT will do over 20 national broadcasts on a Thursday night, much like there is with college football and with professional football games. [Details with] TNT remain to be seen. We have to do the broadcast rights, production rights, kickoff times rights. It’s up to TNT where we fit into with them. I’ve not been in the meetings but will be eventually. I told our GMs if they think the names and logos process was difficult, wait till it comes to scheduling. I told Mr. [John] Hendricks [WUSA founder and the chairman of the board of governors] that if you have eight teams and five want to play [home games] on July 4, someone’s not going to be happy. SA: How many sponsors does the WUSA have? TM: One now in Hyundai, but there are several more on the pipeline. Now they’re not going to be announced till the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. I was pleasantly surprised before coming here about what the sponsorship potential is. It’s very, very strong and very positive in terms of the future of this league, certainly in the first year. We can go into the first year, potentially, without [sponsor] linchpins with sports teams, soft drink and beer sponsors for example. There are a whole other multitude of other categories out there. That’s not a negative but a positive. They haven’t missed a pay period yet. We’re going to send out player requests for our combine [Dec. 4-11 in Boca Raton, Fla.] with an overnight courier, not regular 33-cent stamps. We want to do it for professional reasons. It looks good, gets there faster. I’ve been to Boca Raton and seen the hotels we’re going to. SA: How close are you to naming stadiums? TM: We’re very close. We have major announcement dates here, shortly. Stadiums, names, all those things. If startups were easy, there’d be more of them. This has a tremendously great chance to succeed. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. I’ve put my professional career in soccer — if you want to call national teams professional situations, and I think you should — on the line. In our case, we want to do it right. So when potential detractors say “no announcements in two months,” they make giant leaps of misfaith when they talk about MLS doing X and Y means Z, and that means the WUSA won’t launch on April 14, 2001. Just because we haven’t met someone’s preconceived deadline, doesn’t make you not do it right. Should we [make announcements] during a New York subway [World] Series? I don’t think that would be a good idea. SA: Is the league behind schedule? TM: I think we’re on schedule. If on schedule means we’ll be ready to kick off in mid-April 2001, yes. (Dean Caparaz is an associate editor at Soccer America.)