MLS investor Ken Horowitz participated in a press conference call hours after the Jan. 8 announcement of the leagueÆs folding his franchise, the Miami Fusion. Here are selected quotes from Horowitz:
Ken Horowitz
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Opening comments: “This decision literally came down to Friday, just a few days ago, and it was a very difficult decision. We continue to remain bullish on soccer in the United States. We plan to continue our investment with MLS. I continue to remain on the MLS Board of Governors and serve on three different committees and we have the option to open another team elsewhere in this country. ôMy investors and I have invested close to $50 million in South Florida Soccer, the entity that operates the Miami Fusion, as well as a massive amount of personal time and emotional commitment. We’ve come to the conclusion that the South Florida market just has too many hurdles that we simply cannot overcome. ôIt is for this reason that we’ve made this reluctant decision to cease operations. The decision unfortunately affects many people in many different ways and we are sorry for the pain this is going to cause our staff, our players, as well as our fans. The reality is that South Florida is a very difficult sports market. ôIn recent years, teams have opened and shut doors within a year. Even the established professional sports teams — the Marlins, the Heat, and the Panthers — are all suffering. The Miami Dolphins routinely need to black out TV games from local broadcasts because they haven’t been able to fill their stadium on a regular basis. The fan base is very diverse down here and many people simply don’t have local ties to the area and have trouble identifying with the local sports teams. They typically identify more with the teams from states or countries they might have come from. “We have other complications and I’m not going to go through everything. But one is the timing of the MLS season in contrast to when youth soccer is played down here. Youth soccer plays at an opposite time from when MLS plays and it makes it difficult for youth coaches and their players to attend Fusion games because they have gone on to another sport. We also have problems with the local heat and rain during the summer. ôThe Marlins have been trying to have a domed stadium built to take care of that problem and it’s been an ongoing problem for us. This year we had the winningest team in MLS. We literally were just one goal away from entering MLS Cup, our staff was nominated for many executive awards and everything started to click. But what really didn’t happen was the market just didn’t step up. Yes we had an increase in attendance but it simply wasn’t enough. We had no increase in corporate sponsorship. I have no doubt in my mind that if we could pick up our players and staff and move them to another market not in South Florida, we would have had a very successful endeavor going forward.”
On why the decision was made at this point: “South Florida loves winning teams and as much as a terrific coach Ray [Hudson] is and the quality of players we have, we certainly could not guarantee that we would have had a winning team again next year. We hoped we would. This year we tried playing two games at the Orange Bowl. We took the team down to Homestead to try to drum up support and frankly, the attendance and the lack of corporate support that we tried to follow up on after those games was just not there.”
Comparing the South Florida market to other MLS markets: “We had the lowest ticket prices in the league. We haven’t changed ticket prices in three years. We didn’t dare touch them. There are things we have frozen while trying to get more fans to come and it just wasn’t happening.”
On other factors that led to the shutting down of the Fusion: “I don’t disagree that we probably made mistakes for the first couple of years. But we’ve been here for four years and for the last couple of years it’s been a whole different team with different management. Doug (Hamilton, GM) has done an outstanding job. Ray (Hudson, head coach) has been an incredible voice. And we’ve had probably the best press in MLS. People knew we were around and they knew our ticket prices. There really wasn’t much more we could do. The other professional teams have spent more money in advertising and it hasn’t delivered more fans for them.”
On the next steps to be taken to dissolve the Fusion: “We plan to continue to operate Lockhart Stadium going forward. That stadium is under a long-term lease, and we haven’t changed any of our plans. With respect to the Fusion staff, we are also providing severance pay. I spoke to the staff personally this morning, and we are arranging for almost every one of them to have a job in either some company I am involved with or companies that some of my investors are involved with.”
On the stadium arrangement at Lockhart: “There are costs to operate that stadium but we are paying to operate the stadium despite the fact that no MLS team will play there. There are two years left on the original lease and three five-year options.”
On his interest in any of the remaining MLS markets without owners: “I’m more interested in the East Coast of the United States. I would like to get involved with a team again, but we’ve limited our search to the East Coast of the United States.”
On what the continued operation of Lockhart Stadium will entail: “We have the contractual rights to hold other events at Lockhart Stadium, whether we choose to bring in international soccer games or the circus. We can use that stadium as a place to hold other events.”
On whether other investors were interested in acquiring the Fusion: “We would have loved to have kept the team here. If there was an offer we would have been for it. I have children who play soccer here. There is nothing that would have made me happier for the staff, players and South Florida than to continue to have a soccer team here.”
