Soccer neophyte has staggering task to rectify what has gone wrong
On the dais facing the press at the New York Intercontinental Hotel were three men, all in suits: one of them crestfallen yet defiant, one of them efficient and cool, one of them edgy but ready.
Early in the proceedings, one of them spoke: “In order to get there, we had to take this step we have taken here today.”
With those words ended Doug Logan’s tenure as commissioner, and began the reign of Don Garber. In that one sentence, uttered in that tableau by Stuart Subotnick, are imbedded clues and harbingers of where those who run the league wish to go.
“There” is a profitable enterprise. “We” are the operator-investors, frustrated by the league’s stagnation. “This step” is the radical removal of a commissioner in midseason. “Here” is New York, home to a sagging franchise which just happens to be the one propped up by Subotnick, and the city whose media and corporate blocs are disdainful or dismissive of pro soccer.
Chucked out is the amiable Logan, whose gray hair and beard bestowed upon him a grandfatherly air. A fine fellow with whom to trade tales and share a joke, forthright and friendly in two languages, but not a heavyweight who can land the killer punch on corporations, politicians or media giants.
Drafted is Don Garber, a sharply cut figure with a neatly trimmed goatee and a quick, piercing gaze. Honed by 15 years of NFL experience ù and 15 years younger than Logan ù Garber, corporate to the core, looks like a man who wouldn’t hesitate to ride his Harley right into a vice president’s office and demand why a deal isn’t done.
The MLS operator-investors have cut to the chase. Of their own bumbling has stemmed their current dilemma, but they can’t fire themselves. They didn’t find Logan ù that task went to a headhunting firm ù but they approved him, gave him a terribly tough job at a salary most executives would laugh at, and then cut him loose.
Subotnick, who crossed swords with former deputy commissioner Sunil Gulati in February, has emerged as the most powerful force in the league ù as befits the chairman of a board of governors saddled with a directionless league.
Garber must prove he can do their bidding, yet confidently and eloquently spread the gospel of a sport he knows nothing about.
Where Logan went wrong
Logan fell out of favor not solely through his bumbling jousts with the press. He was a competent chauffeur, but not a mechanic. He was a dabbler in many areas, but the master of none.
He had no experience in soccer, so those who did know the sport belittled his ignorance. He is no great shakes as a marketer, so how could he motivate those under him in those departments? He had a mediocre track record in business, and had nothing to offer or pique the interest of those on the board of governors who are worth many millions. He set himself out as a high-powered stadium negotiator, which blew up in his face when the neophyte Fusion had to pull out of the Orange Bowl and spend millions to upgrade a high school stadium.
And he angered and alienated the phalanx of Subotnick and Ken Horowitz by incessant public sniping at the management morasses in New York and Miami. He tried to shame and cajole those embarrassing franchises by uttering stinging critiques to the press as he struggled to pull levers in those cities to affect change.
He did incense the local politicos in Tampa sufficiently to broker a new deal in a new stadium. His fluency in Spanish tweaked the Hispanic market, yet their fans’ enthusiasm has slackened since the first year.
Bottom line: He fluffed more chances than he put away.
Late last year, he said “the gloves were coming off” in his battle to spark more national media coverage, particularly on ESPN. The national media giggled and yawned. It was at about this time that Alan Rothenberg, frustrated in his bid to buy the San Jose Clash, began spreading the word on Garber.
Logan’s gaffes piled up. He came out in late spring with the bold statement that “our plate is full” regarding MLS involvement in a women’s league, a rather strange statement since MLS consultant Mark Abbott was drawing up a business plan. Shortly thereafter came word from Philip Anschutz that he thought a women’s league had great merit.
Sounds like someone set up Mr. Logan, eh?
He once joked ironically about being painted as the “patron saint” of the shootout, for that is what the operator-investors had decreed. His own opinion? “The first time I saw it, I cringed, because I knew what the reaction [from the fans] would be,” he said.
The Rothenberg connection
Rothenberg, who has a history of being quick with the trigger, says he first broached the idea to Garber at an NFL meeting in Los Angeles last year.
A sluggish start to the MLS season triggered increased angst among the operator-investors. The seed planted by Rothenberg was nurtured by the Kraft and Hunt factions, whose senior members Robert Kraft and Lamar Hunt sit on the NFL’s International Committee.
Robert’s son Jonathan, who handles most of the family’s MLS operations, is also vice chairman of the board of governors and sits on the league’s marketing committee. Deep concern over poor ratings on ESPN and ABC ratcheted up fears that pending sponsorship deals would not be renewed, and nothing seemed to be happening to improve the league’s chronic television pains.
The Anschutz faction needed no more motivation than the bottom line to join the Garber camp. Two of Philip Anschutz’s three teams are in dire need of stadiums, at a combined cost of approximately $100 million.
MLS is a top that’s top-heavy, because it’s upside-down, and spinning wildly without direction. It’s wide and round and fat at the league office, with dozens of vice presidents and managers and directors and coordinators, so it careens crazily but gets nowhere. At the team level, it teeters on a tiny point trying to keep its equilibrium, but the next bump could send it tumbling over.
Clearout likely at league office
In the next few months, Don Garber will evaluate those who currently occupy those offices. There’s enough dead wood to fuel a fireplace through a long New York winter, but the operator-investors who’ve engineered this clearout at the top have long ignored the bramble underfoot.
Small budgets, inexperienced staffers, and frequent turnover have plagued several teams. Money is sucked up by the league office, and through either penury or mismanagement or both, not enough is generated at the team level.
Advertising budgets vary from approximately $250,000 in Kansas City to the $2 million spent by Chicago last year. Only a few teams generate seven-figure revenues from local sponsorships, although sharp improvement has been attained by Colorado and Tampa Bay.
(MLS does not release figures for local sponsorships. The above examples were gleaned from league and team sources speaking on condition of anonymity.)
In Logan, the operator-investors received the promised goods: A sympathetic ear who wouldn’t cost them a lot of money, someone who could spin the league’s tales in English and Spanish, and an amiable guy who was enough of a lightweight to be jettisoned rather easily in case of rough water.
Well, the water won’t smooth out any time soon. If anything, it looks rougher and deeper heading into the next century. The fiercely competitive world of pro sports has a few other niche pursuits: Auto racing, arena football, and that old standby of grunt-bellow-and-thud, pro wrestling.
Laugh not. ESPN and ESPN2 have several weekly motor-racing shows in addition to a slew of live televised races. The kickoff of the arena football season merited a larger spread in Sports Illustrated than any MLS story has ever garnered. And “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is doing TV commercials, my God.
Not since the first ball was kicked has MLS put a foot right in promoting its TV product, but the current series of ads are especially embarrassing. An empty stadium, a ball nestled near the goal, a disembodied voice says, “I’m Clint Mathis, have you seen me?”
If we had seen you, Clint, how would we know it was you? All we see is a crumpled page torn from a program.
Garber has stated the league must promote its stars, be they American or foreign, in a more aggressive, creative manner. Speaking from a strong marketing and business standpoint, his pronouncements make sense.
But his Harley heritage may come in more handy. He also has a reputation as a butt-kicker, not a butt-kisser. There’s been an ungodly amount of self-indulgent schmoozing at the league level, as though the staffers truly believe all the cotton candy they feed to sponsors and corporations.
It smells great and tastes sweet, but it lacks substance and nourishment. MLS cannot subsist on it.
by Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney