After coaching exclusively indoors since 1985, English native Ron Newman is returning outdoors to coach the MLS’s Kansas City Wiz.
“You can’t ignore [youth soccer], but I’ve seen many clubs put enormous energies into that part and get almost nothing out of it.”
SOCCER AMERICA: How did you get involved with MLS?
RON NEWMAN: About two years ago, I heard I was on the shortlist for the MLS and I was always arranging my contract with the Sockers at the time. When MLS delayed a year, I went to Phoenix.
I was a little surprised that I had a call from Lamar Hunt … Lamar’s followed my career for years — he still sends me Christmas cakes. He thought it was a good idea to bring me back to outdoor coaching.
Your first impressions of MLS?
It’s going to be first class. We’re talking full-time contracts for players. This enables you to work with players, get players in the community. You couldn’t do this a lot of the time in the past because the contracts were all seasonal — players took off the moment the season ended. Now they’ll be totally committed to an MLS club, and we can get them out to the public.
What does MLS need to do to succeed?
First of all we have to act and behave major league. For example, they wanted to do a local tryout camp here, but we needed three fields in close proximity to each other.
I couldn’t see enough quality fields. I said I’d rather not do it if it looked shoddy. Then I looked over the fence at the Kansas City Chiefs’ training facility. I’d heard it was like gold. I whispered to Lamar that I’d like to use it, and he thought it was a great idea. When Lamar asks someone — and he always asks — it always comes through. So now I’ve got a premier training facility and anyone who shows up will be impressed.
That’s the first step — no half-assed stuff. It’s got to be top quality from the word go.
What’s impressed me already, is there aren’t any Astroturf fields, there aren’t any football markings, there aren’t any humps on the center circle, and there’s no baseball diamonds. That’s the first step. We don’t want to look like we’re borrowing somebody’s trousers.
Your first signing is Mike Sorber. Your thoughts about him as a player?
I’m delighted we got him. He’s a real coach’s player. Unfortunately, we’ve had no international players allocated yet. I’ve met with Sunil Gulati and he’s gathering players, but it’s not as if he’s got a bunch of them sitting in his back pocket. Still, there’s no big rush.
MLS has stated that the main focus on player personnel will be U.S. national team players. A good idea?
I think so. I think it’s vital that we persuade them to stay in this country. It’s great that [Alexi] Lalas, [Tab] Ramos and [John] Harkes are all coming home to play. It’s not easy for them to give up their pedigree just like that — in a couple of years they just won’t be able to get the same money if they went back. Other players will follow suit in the next couple of years. Obviously, it’s difficult to get recognized players — Juergen Klinsmann, for example would cost an enormous amount of money. We’ve got to find good South American players and Africans ourselves, but the marquee players will be American.
But Dallas and Los Angeles announced that their first-choice players are Mexican internationals Hugo Sanchez and Jorge Campos, respectively…
I’ve mixed feelings. Years ago, when the [NASL’s] Los Angeles Aztecs played, most Mexican teams could show up with a bunch of Swedes and Norwegians in the lineup and the fans would still show up in droves. It’s the team that’s important. If you just put a bunch of Mexicans into a team lineup, [the Hispanic community] won’t come. The Campos and Sanchez things are good because it does attract them to the team, but they’re not going to come and be loyal to that team just because those guys are there.
With the Aztecs, they’d draw 17-18,000 in exhibitions against these Mexican teams that came up. Then they’d start the season and they were down to 5,000.
In some ways, it’s worth doing, so you can get the publicity into that market, so they don’t feel that you’ve shunned them.
Likewise, how much do you lean towards youth soccer? You can’t ignore it, but I’ve seen many clubs put enormous energies into that part and get almost nothing out of it. Mum and Dad and the kids are soccered out come Saturday night — they don’t want to see another soccer ball, for chrissakes. They’ve just been to four games!
What’s your season-ticket goal at the moment?
We’re aiming at 13,000 but I think we’d be happy with 10,000 to start with. The configuration of the stadium will create a very nice atmosphere.
As a veteran of several defunct leagues, what does MLS have to avoid?
I think these guys have committed to five years, but five years will be sensible only if there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The NASL was off and running after that length of time. It made it. Why it didn’t stay made is the difficult question. I think the big problem was the TV contract never really materialized. Then the ownership couldn’t see a reason to do it any more — which started the house-of-cards effect.
With the players, you have to start building their pedigree. Look at these boys on the national team. They started off in camp, now they’re household names. We’ve got to try and replicate that within our communities. That takes a year or two for that to happen and I don’t know that we can get them right now. We’ll have to struggle for the first year or two — that’s why you need a big-name national team player to be the focal point of your team.
It’s good to see that MLS has got some handle on expenses. That’s what brought the NASL down. Balancing the books is hard to do — the MISL got into trouble when they tried to impose a salary cap. The moment they did that, they started fighting with the players’ union.
And sponsors?
What we’ve got to do is not just collect their money but to make sure they advertise soccer with their product. When they advertise, they have to put our logos on their products, put our players there, so we’re part of them. Players on cereal packets, things like that … Face it, if people who make rubbers wanted to advertise with us, I’d put them on the front of our shirts!
The naming of the Wiz has caused quite a stir, with local sportscasters orchestrating campaigns to Flush the Wiz …
I love it. Any type of controversy is not bad for us. But if you think about it, is there really a worse name than the Sockers? I hated that name, but no one thinks anything about that now. It’s accepted. And in terms of logos, we’re not as badly off as some.
Like Washington D.C. United?
Yeah. When I saw that first logo I thought, “Oh Christ, it’s the Third Reich!” I was ducking my head in case they started bombing us again. But my daughter didn’t see it at all — I suppose it’s an age thing.
I’m glad they changed it, it looks a lot better.
After three decades involved with the sport, what’s been your greatest source of pleasure.
Everywhere you look is a soccer field. You never saw that back then. Now they know what soccer is. They know what it’s all about and they play it. Back in the old days, they thought the black and white ball were like whiffleballs. They thought the black on a ball’s design were holes.
But there’s a long way to go. We used to say when kids grew up and became decision-makers in the corporate world, or working as athletic directors or sports editors — all of a sudden, they’d say, “Soccer? I had a lot of fun with that. It’s time to get involved.” Right now, they’re still a bit too young to be in that position.
by Soccer America Senior Editor Duncan Irving