Intro: Nameless and faceless just three months ago, the Dallas Burn is the third MLS team to announce its head coach.
As yet another soccer neophyte who has jumped into the MLS breach, Dallas general manager Billy Hicks is practically devoid of personal experience with the world’s most popular sport.
Hicks, a former business manager of the Dallas Cowboys, did spend three years with the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football, selling a foreign sport to a soccer-mad populace. Since taking the Dallas job in September, he’s been probing a Cowboy-crazed market for its soccer niches.
So when faced with the job of finding a head coach, Hicks turned to what passes for a proven commodity in the recent history of American soccer.
On Nov. 27, the Burn announced the selection of David Dir, who won a pair of championships with the Colorado Foxes of the APSL (now the A-League) and jumped ship in 1994 to join Major League Soccer as its head scout.
Dir denied rumors that as part of his MLS deal, he had been assured a head coaching job, and Hicks said the league had no direct input as to the selection — other than to circulate a list of about 60 candidates to all the clubs.
“I can say I didn’t know that many names of soccer coaches in America, or across the globe,” said Hicks. “The league left me completely alone to do this, which meant my learning curve was probably a little longer.
“I wanted someone who was a proven winner, and someone who wouldn’t drop back all 11 players. Part of the way we want to portray the game is to play attacking soccer. I think offense sells, scoring sells, and it makes my job that much easier if we play an exciting brand of soccer.”
Dir won back-to-back titles with the Foxes in 1992 and 1993, yet left the A-League entirely the following spring to take the job of MLS player development. After compiling a 40-16 record in two seasons, Dir felt he didn’t want to take the same path the Colorado franchise had chosen.
“I wasn’t happy there anymore,” said Dir. “There were people there trying to get more involved, and I didn’t feel they were soccer-knowledgeable. When you have successes, everybody wants the credit. When you’re struggling or when times are tough, it’s always your fault.
“I thought they were stagnant, and I wanted to keep moving forward. I’ve always been proud of [Foxes owner] Martin Nixdorf and what he’s accomplished, but to hire a football guy [ex-Broncos kicker Rich Karlis] who has no experience and have him start making soccer decisions, I wouldn’t call that moving forward.”
Hicks, of course, is a football guy. “The difference is,” said Dir, “this gentlemen I have respect for. He’s not someone who’ll say one thing to your face and something else out the other side of his mouth. I had my fill of those kinds of people.”
Selling soccer in Cowboy country
Hicks, 34, was named general manager in mid-September. He doesn’t know much about soccer, but he does know Dallas, despite his decision to present his head coach on the same day Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer holds his regular weekly press conference.
That might not seem a smart strategy, until one considers Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had his press conference slated for the following day, and the rest of the week is taken up by MLS marketing meetings in Los Angeles. “I know better than to go up against Jerry Jones,” said Hicks.
Dallas does have pro basketball, pro hockey and the CISL Sidekicks. But high school football championship games are played in the same stadium used by the Cowboys, and will probably outdraw the Burn for a few seasons at least. He projects an average attendance of 10,000 to 12,000 in the Cotton Bowl.
“Both are minority sports in their countries, especially if you look at Texas as a country,” he said. “I was promoting a heathen sport on the hallowed turf of Wembley, and here I’m in a stadium that’s known as the birthplace of the Dallas Cowboys.
“In many ways, the challenge is greater here. Although there’s a hardcore audience and certainly some great numbers for participation, this market still belongs to the Dallas Cowboys. One of our biggest challenges is to get people to pay attention.”
World Cup ’94 officials admitted Dallas proved to be the hardest sell of the nine World Cup venues, and attendances at the Cotton Bowl for the 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup were dismal. The Sidekicks led the CISL with an average attendance of 8,838 last season, which may be good news, but the Burn has sold only 150 season tickets. Ticket prices range from $8 to $19, and there will be discounts for youths.
MLS failed to attract local investors for the Burn, so it will be one of three league-run teams during the inaugural season. Hicks says he envisions a staff of about 20 people, including coaches, and has filled about two-thirds of the positions.
His soccer ignorance, he believes, is counterweighted somewhat by his starting the Monarchs from scratch. In their first season, the Monarchs averaged 41,000 fans and won the WLAF championship.
While stationed in London, Hicks couldn’t help but notice some American players were doing rather well.
“There’s so much soccer over there, you pick it up almost by osmosis,” he said. “The World Cup was not only the most successful World Cup financially, but far and away the best showing by the Americans on the field. My eyes were opened to some of the possibilities when I lived overseas. I was impressed by the number of Americans making it in England, in Europe and in Mexico.”
Early jump into broadcasting
One area the Burn has approached earlier than most of the other teams is its radio and television packages. Hicks is seeking English and Spanish broadcasts in both mediums, and also plans to hire two media directors to handle the English and Hispanic press.
“If you get these pieces in place, you absolutely have something to offer when you pitch sponsors,” said Hicks of the broadcasting packages. “And it helps [to] get your product out there and promoted. It’s important to get as much as done broadcasting-wise right out of the gate.”
He’s also aware of a large Hispanic population (between 750,000 and 1 million in the Metroplex area), but simply tossing Hugo Sanchez onto the field won’t guarantee large gates. Dir says he welcomes the chance to coach a player who’s opinion of himself is matched only by his zeal to coach Mexico or Real Madrid.
And Hicks has taken the team’s Nike-generated nickname in stride (“The summer just got hotter”), and is playing off Los Angeles Times soccer writer Grahame Jones’ remark that the Burn logo looks like a horse with bad breath.
“Our corporate hospitality suite will be called the Horse’s Breath Inn,” he said. “Somebody mentioned it at a meeting, we all laughed, then decided, ‘Why not?'”
On the more serious subject of servicing the Dallas soccer community as an outsider, Hicks sees sharp contrasts — not only between soccer fans and sports fans in general, but within the soccer bloc itself.
“There’s an interesting polarization there,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen as passionate a core audience as there is for soccer in any sport. By the same token, there seems to be, for those who are not yet converts, there’s no fire under their pants to become converts.
“And within the soccer community, I’ve found it to be quite polarized, as well. Part of that comes from that passion. But whether people are under the umbrella of the Federation, or indoor fans, or the pick-up Hispanic leagues playing in the park on Sundays, everybody shares the desire to see soccer succeed at the highest level.
“We have to harness that energy.”
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney