Dan Counce, 45, joined the Colorado Rapids in January. A Hermann Award winner with St. Louis University, Counce played in the NASL and MISL and served as general manager with the MSL’s St. Louis Steamers, Baltimore Blast and St. Louis Storm before founding Global Link Marketing in 1991. SOCCER AMERICA: Tell us a little about your playing career. You grew up in St. Louis … DAN COUNCE: I started playing soccer kind of late ù about 10 or 11. Saint Louis University had a good team at the time. They’d play in the public park and whenever they played their games, they’d put a big tarp around the field, so it was a like a pay-game, a big deal. I always wanted to play inside that tarp. I aspired to go to Saint Louis University and I played there. Then the pro league started in the late 1960s and I saw those games. I was pretty good at the sport, had lots of success at the college level. I got drafted into the NASL, played on the national team and just followed the process through. When the NASL started to slide, I was playing indoor in the winter and outdoor in the summer. Indoor was on the way up at the time and the seasons were beginning to overlap, so I made the jump indoors and played there for six or seven years as well. Through all this I was making an OK living and I told myself that if I wasn’t playing, I’d quit. When I got to be about 28 or 29, I realized I wasn’t going to be Pele [laughs], but I was proud of what I’d done. I started to look more at the business side of things, so I went to graduate school at Western Illinois, studying athletic administration. SA: What was it about the business side you liked, as opposed to coaching? DC: I liked business, money and making the decisions, but coaching would have appealed to me, too. At that time, the coaching system was new and very basic. Back then, I could have gotten an “A” license immediately by doing a one-weekend course. And there were the same problems as a player ù what would I be doing in the offseason? To make more money, you wear more than one hat. On teams where I played a lot, I’d be community relations director and a player. Later, I was a player and an assistant coach. I experienced just about everything you could on the playing and the business side. SA: Do you feel any envy toward players today? DC: When I look at some of the contracts, I wish I was playing today! [laughs] But I’m not envious in a negative sense. I’m in soccer because I left it for a while and because of what happened last year. When I left soccer, the top level was owned by groups of doctors, lawyers and attorneys. None of them had the resources to own a team outright by themselves. [MLS has] guys that have the financial strength to own NFL, NHL and NBA teams ù some of them do. It was a high level of management, being able to have the financial resources to make it work. The timing is appropriate to make it work. Prior to that, you couldn’t have a game where the ethnic community and the suburbs would mix. Now, post-World Cup, you can. All those combinations give soccer a chance. Over the years, I’ve had opportunities to go into the NBA and other big sports. Soccer appeals to me because I feel at home. I view my role to support what Mooch [Glenn Myernick] needs. I probably have more ability to get involved on the playing side than other general managers and I’d say I probably do it a lot less. SA: He was hired before you were. What did you see coming on board? DC: Mooch would have been my choice, anyway. We were contemporaries as players and I knew his work ethic. My biggest concern was: One, selecting a good coach; and two, that we had some baggage in the marketplace that was going to be difficult to overcome. SA: Such as? DC: Having season-ticket holders that were upset with us. The team playing a style that wasn’t attractive. Playing in a big stadium that we had real, real little crowds in, so we didn’t have an opportunity to create any kind of atmosphere. Everybody had a real sour taste of soccer in their mouths. I was concerned to show Denver and the public that we were committed to Denver and to earn back the credibility that we had lost in the first year. Surprisingly, we’ve accomplished a lot of those goals in a short period of time. The community wanted us to do well. Last year, they were on our side. I quickly reassembled the staff and made some changes. We went back to basics. We can’t sell this product without enthusiasm. If people aren’t enthusiastic, they may be the greatest thing, but I’m not interested. When I went to the St. Louis Storm, we led the MSL in attendance. It was a real fun year and got people excited about soccer again. I told people there, we’d sell out the arena in two months and we did. They became believers as well. We had 36,000 for the Fourth of July this year. I know there were fireworks and everything, but I said when I came, I wanted 40,000. Half the staff thought I was crazy, but it was a fantastic night for us. From ending a season with 3,000 people to this, we had some life. If we’ve got good ideas, a good direction and a good plan and whatever the resources are to make that happen, we’re going to get there. We’re not in a situation where someone wants you to do a $1 million job on a $100,000 budget. We’ve got tremendous financial credibility with [owner] Phil Anschutz. This year, we’re selling more the product and it’s entertainment value as opposed to price. We do gimmicky promotions and we’re as commercial as they come. We do a lot of things to get the crowd to participate in the game and the fans respond. They help bridge some of the lulls that we might experience during games. When we had T-shirt night, we had fans wave them in the air at a certain point. But as the game picked up, they did it spontaneously. This year, there was no benefit available for season-ticket holders. That was done before I arrived, so we have to work on that for next season. Last year, we played a lot of Sunday afternoon games in July and August and the fans were just baking. This year we have Saturday night games instead. SA: What are you doing to woo Hispanic fans? DC: We have Spanish radio coverage, bilingual announcements on the PA and a bilingual receptionist in the front office. We have 30 ticket outlets in the Hispanic community. We made a commitment to sell tickets at every outlet for the season, not pulling them after two or three games. Now, we sell about 400 tickets a game ù about 25 in each outlet. We did a Spanish brochure, and we do Spanish advertising. We strengthened our relationship with Univision, which gave us 2 1/2- minute slots for the 6 and 10 o’clock news for two weeks leading up to the Chivas game. And we did a highlight show for both English and Spanish for Cinco de Mayo. We’re making progress in baby steps. SA: Is there room in this market for all these teams? DC: Oh yeah. The [NHL] Avalanche hurt us a lot. But I think there’s a niche market for us. An economic and a family niche for us. Whichever one of the Nuggets, the Avs and the Rockies isn’t winning a lot, is going to suffer and we’ll gain. Next year, we need a franchise-type player to really make this team draw. We’re hopeful that we’ll identify that player and acquire him. At our stage of development, I’d rather pay $4 million for [Juergen] Klinsmann than $2 million for the next Klinsmann, just to draw fans. SA: Where would you like the Rapids to be in five years’ time? DC: In a new stadium, averaging 25-30,000 per game, going for our second straight championship, and MLS being on firm ground. SA: And Dan Counce? DC: Right here. by Soccer America Senior Editor Duncan Irving