Is more less?
The A-League kicked off the 2000 season April 8 with 25 teams, down from the record 30 in 19999, but Commissioner Francisco Marcos is exasperated by all the talk about his league’s first reduction in numbers since the merger of teams from the old APSL and USISL three years ago.
Marcos, who founded what is today the United Soccer Leagues out of his Dallas garage in 1986, sticks by his “accordion” theory that the A-League, the top of the USL’s five-league pyramid, will contract and expand until it reaches its optimal size.
Just as important, he preaches patience.
“I keep telling everybody that it took the NFL 50 years to get where they are,” he says. “If people don’t understand that, I’ll spell it out for them – time and patience. That’s all there is to it. It requires fortitude to be able to sustain [a league] over the long haul.”
Out are the Jacksonville Cyclones, Maryland Mania, New Orleans Storm, Lehigh Valley Steam, Staten Island Vipers and Team Sacramento. The Bay Area Seals almost joined them on the compost heap but were saved at the 11th hour, when they were bought by Southern California businessman Steven Peacock. The Montreal Impact, also under new ownership, returns after sitting out a season and playing indoors in the NPSL.
In Marcos’ mind, the perfect number of teams for the A-League is still 32.
“But it’s irrelevant, of course,” he admits, “if one quarter of those or one half of those are pretenders.”
SETTING BAR HIGHER
It’s those pretenders that are the rub for Rochester general manager Chris Economdies, who champions bringing the league down even further to a lean 16 teams.
“There are some well-intentioned people out there,” Economies says, “but there are still some franchises that the league has to take a serious look at. We need to set the bar a little higher.”
One of Economides’ arguments is that by weeding out the weaker franchises, you strengthen the league as a whole, spreading the best players among the remaining teams.
The Rhinos showed they have the players, winning the 1999 U.S. Open Cup after beating four MLS teams.
“But the disparity between MLS and the typical A-League team is still large,” he said. “There shouldn’t be that much discrepancy between the A-League and MLS.”
Rochester, one of the few pro teams in the country that’s making money, tops A-League budgets at over $2 million. At the other end of the scale, some teams are subsisting on shoestring budgets as low as $300,000.
That won’t cut it, according to San Diego Flash president Yan Skwara, who raised funds by putting his team on the public stock exchange.
“A franchise needs a budget of at least [$750,000] to $1 million to be run effectively,” Skwara said. “That’s what it takes to put a good team on the field and market it effectively.”
FOCUS ON FACILITIES
From Day 1, Skwara had a five-year plan to put the Flash into the black. In Year 4, he claims he’s close to meeting that goal. A crucial aspect of his plan is to build a soccer-specific facility by year 2002.
“That’s the key to the league’s success – facilities,” Skwara said. “If the focus is on getting a stadium, every franchise can be successful. As long as you have teams renting or playing in high school stadiums, it will be the same pattern. Teams will come, and teams will go.
“Corporations are not going to write $250,000 [sponsorship] checks unless you have your own facility. Facilities are the big issue.”
Charleston Battery GM Buckley Andrews agrees.
Andrews is effusive in his acclaim for what 5,100-seat Blackbaud Stadium, what Marcos called soccer’s “mini-mecca,” has done for the Battery.
“It has been critical,” Andrews said. “It turned this franchise around.”
Blackbaud has strengthen the Battery’s revenue stream, increasing ticket revenues and sponsorships. The club controls its own parking and concessions and can bring other events into the facility.
“What it’s done for this club is that it’s changed the attitude of the media and the supporters,” Buckley says.
Charleston averaged 3,557 fans a game in 1999 and expects to attract 4,500 a game this season. That’s good in a league where Rochester dominated at 11,551 a game, and only five other teams (Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Hershey, Milwaukee and Minnesota) broke the 3,000 barrier.
“We’re the hottest ticket in town,” Andrews said. “Obviously, we’re not a big market, but we’re creating a perception of value. We’re not giving away tickets. These are legitimate numbers, not fluff numbers. It’s a reflection of the facility, something they can see, touch and feel. It’s real.”
PATIENCE IS NECESSARY
After seeing that’s the case what Blackbaud has done for the Battery, Andrews is wary about pulling the rug out from under other clubs, especially those that are actively working on building their own facilities.
He cites Jacksonville and Raleigh as examples where patience may be the best policy. Both are working on building their own soccer-specific stadiums.
“If you kill them off now, you kill off an opportunity down the road,” Andrews said. “It’s going to take time. It takes years to have a situation like this. I would hate to see teams killed off without giving them a chance.”
Having said that, Andrews, who works with a budget of about $1.5 million, issued a caveat.
“There are some franchises that need to bring their organizations up to standards,” he said. “Some are willing to put a great team on the field, but neglect other aspects. Staten Island is a great example of that. They had a great team but were only getting 200 people in the stands. They played on AstroTurf. It’s not acceptable.”
CLOSER TO THE BLACK
Milwaukee general manager Jim Harwood thinks 24-28 teams “makes sense.”
The Rampage, with a budget of more than $1 million, is still seeing red ink, but Harwood stresses money management and sees a light at the end of the tunnel.
“We’ve worked at lowering player salaries,” he says. “There are too many teams spending too much. We’re not at the level where that can be the biggest expense item. We are being creative in restructuring the salaries. They are not only working for the Rampage, they are working camps – an eight-hour-a-day emphasis. We are getting closer to black ink.”
As clubs work on solving their problems, Marcos still is looking at moving into new markets or returning to old ones.
Jacksonville and New Orleans may return next season, although, Marcos insists, neither has a guarantee. Sacramento, which Marcos calls “a quintessential A-League market,” could also be back if it can find a home stadium.
Despite what he admits was a “fiasco” with the Maryland Mania, Marcos says he would put another team in Baltimore “overnight” if the circumstances were right.
Then there’s Portland, where businessman Marshall Glickman is behind another baseball-soccer venture and has already pledged $250,000 toward an A-League franchise fee.
Other potential franchises Marcos mentioned: Des Moines, where the PDL Menace are building a stadium, D3 Pro League champion Western Massachusetts, St. Louis, Colorado Springs and Calgary.
Marcos’ magical number of 32 creeps back into view. But he backs off on predictions for the future.
“There’s only one thing we can guarantee – the architecture is over,” he says. “There is no more pyramid to invent or reinvent.”
by Soccer America associate editor Poul Swain