MLS seeks managed growth
Of the 30 or so journalists gathered Aug. 16 in the Cypress Room of the Century Park Hotel, four were Anglo. Of the three players on the dais, all were Hispanic.
That’s the reality of launching Major League Soccer in Los Angeles. Yes, the big news was the announcement of Mexican striker Hugo Sanchez joining MLS, but many of the English newspapers in the Los Angeles area that had covered soccer extensively during the World Cup chose not to send reporters. Only the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News and the Long Beach Press Telegram were represented.
And, as an MLS executive admitted to the Anglo journalists after the press conference, “If we had signed Cobi Jones, only you four guys would have been here.”
Jones has, for the time being, turned down an MLS contract, choosing to pursue options in Europe and Mexico. He apparently wanted more money than the league is paying Alexi Lalas, and as one MLS operator-investor said in a meeting, “For this league, Lalas is [Michael] Jordan. No one else comes close.”
Several of their American teammates will work in Mexico this winter under loan deals from MLS, and Sanchez may not be the only Mexican marksman to play on both sides of the border in the next 15 months.
Cruz Azul striker Carlos Hermosillo, the Mexican League’s top scorer last season with 37 goals, is talking with MLS. Jorge Campos might prefer to play striker for his new employers in Los Angeles — which in light of some of his recent goalkeeping gaffes makes sense.
Sanchez played for the San Diego Sockers of the North American Soccer League in 1979, before he embarked on a glorious run of goals and celebratory flips in Spain with Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and later Rayo Vallecano. Sixteen years later, he has decided to return to American soccer. He’ll play at least one more season with Atlante of the Mexican First Division, and however many MLS seasons his legs — now 37-years-old — can carry him.
But he will not play in Los Angeles, not at first, despite his obvious appeal to the adoring crowds he has entertained at the Los Angeles Coliseum in friendly matches for more than a decade. His likely destination is Dallas, although a slight possibility exists he could play for San Jose.
At the press conference, clad in a purple jacket and a tie that actually matched, he fielded questions in English, only occasionally turning to an interpreter for assistance — most unlike a former U.S. national team coach of recent vintage.
“I hope to teach many young players about soccer,” Sanchez said. “I hope I can help this league continue forever.”
In a Fellini-like twist, the other two players presented to the media, both of whom grew up in Southern California, spoke Spanish. Jorge Flores, 18, was the playmaker on the U.S. team that reached the quarterfinals of the 1993 U-17 World Cup, and Felipe Rodriguez, 20, starred at El Monte High School.
As of Aug. 28, the league had announced the signing of 28 players. Brian McBride (St. Louis University and German club Wolfsburg), Roy Lassiter (N.C. State and an array of Costa Rican teams) and Englishman Richard Sharpe (Florida Tech and the Cocoa Expos) came on board three days after the Sanchez press conference. Most of the U.S. national team players have had preliminary discussions with the league.
MLS is negotiating with Colombian internationals Carlos Valderrama, Rene Higuita and Leonel Alvarez, and has also met with former Nigerian international Stephen Keshi, now residing in the United States.
Rothenberg says MLS will target the Hispanic audience, not just in L.A., but in several league cities.
“If you take the years that NASL looked like it was going to prosper,” said Rothenberg, who once owned the Los Angeles Aztecs, “there’s a lot of difference between 1975 to 1980, and now.
“The youth thing was just starting to explode, and the Hispanic population was just starting to explode. You have a whole generation now of people who know and understand the game. You also have large Hispanic populations in many of our cities, huge compared to what they were 15 years ago.”
L.A. Soccer Partners president Marc Rappaport admits the ideal head coach for Los Angeles is an Anglo who speaks fluent Spanish, and the perfect choice would have been Steve Sampson. He’s also doubtful of obtaining English-language radio broadcasts of L.A. games the first season, but expresses confidence a Spanish-language deal can be reached.
The stadium shuffle
Choosing a stadium is also influenced by the L.A. ethnic mix. The Los Angeles Coliseum, without a primary tenant since the Oakland Raiders returned home, is no longer a certainty.
The rationale for choosing the Rose Bowl, site of eight World Cup games including the final, over the L.A. Coliseum is callously simple.
If sufficient Hispanic talent is signed and the product is good, enough of those ethnic fans will make the trek to Pasadena. But luring Anglos to the Coliseum is a much tougher sell, whereas the Rose Bowl doesn’t have a history of beer-throwing and fans scuffling with security guards.
A decision on where the L.A. team will play is expected to be announced by the end of September.
The New York/New Jersey franchise is still dickering with the New Jersey Sports Authority, operator of Giants Stadiums, and the NFL’s Giants and Jets regarding the permanent installation of grass in the Meadowlands.
Both NFL teams and the stadium operator refuse to convert to grass permanently, so it appears a compromise will be reached: Grass for most of the MLS season, then artificial turf when the NFL starts up in late August.
“Half a loaf is better than none,” says Rothenberg. “We’d love to have the whole loaf, but if that’s what they decide, it’s better than nothing.
“I think it’s inevitable they’ll switch [permanently], everybody else is. It’s a question of when they do it.”
For the Parmalat Cup, switching from turf to grass cost the Empire Soccer Club, which operates the New York/New Jersey MLS team, approximately $500,000.
Playing catch-up
Latecomers to the fold are Dallas and Denver. The former won a narrow decision over Chicago as a league-run team, and the latter came aboard when billionaire Philip Anschutz telephoned from a plane to declare his commitment while a critical MLS meeting was underway.
Kansas City chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who with his son Clark and the family-owned Unity Hunt Resources, Inc. owns 51 percent of the MLS teams in Columbus and Kansas City, is heading efforts to seek a partnership group in Dallas.
MLS is interviewing candidates to fill the Dallas general manager position while anxiously awaiting a decision from potential investors. If the group declines, Dallas will be run by the league, as will Tampa and San Jose.
Denver has hired Rich Levine, senior vice president and general manager of marketing for World Cup 1994, as its general manager. Team operations will be run by Bob Sanderman, a senior executive with Anschutz Properties.
“Dallas is probably the one furthest behind — that has to play the most catch-up,” said Rothenberg. “We’ve held off getting that team staffed, because we told the possible investors we’d give them until mid-September to decide.
“Denver is brand-new, and they’re also a teeny bit behind, but the ownership is so solid.”
The nickname game
MLS had hoped to make a splash across front pages and sports broadcasts around the country with a mega-unveiling of team nicknames, logos and uniforms, but it is instead swimming against a dribble of leaks as it plans a October announcement.
Many of the proposed nicknames have appeared in newspaper stories, and some are still being juggled among different teams. Los Angeles has dropped Beat, Groove and Traffic in favor of Galaxy. Several other teams bear monikers of social upheaval: San Jose Clash, New England Revolution, Tampa Mutiny. (I suppose L.A. Riots was in bad taste.)
Fury and Express are among the names being considered for Dallas. Kansas City is considering Outlaws, Express and Bandits; however, there’s also sentiment for Wiz, or Wizards. The Hunts’ other team, Columbus, is rumored to be called the Crew.
Washington is staging a “survey” for fans to declare their preference for proposed names Force, Justice, and Spies, or suggest one of their own. It is not an actual vote, since the team nickname has already been chosen, although it won’t be revealed until the unveiling in October.
The Denver team is considering calling itself Colorado, with Rapids as its likely nickname. This reference to the state’s natural beauty is a tour de force compared to what befell another sports franchise in the same area.
Several months ago, word leaked out that the new NHL team in Denver had chosen Extreme (extreme what?) as its nickname, and the ensuing storm of ridicule forced a hasty revision to Avalanche.
New York/New Jersey had been pondering several versions of Metro_____, as in MetroStars, due to owner John Kluge’s long reign over multimedia conglomerate MetroMedia. But any such name could only be shortened to Mets, and not even a lawyer-laden group like Major League Soccer wants to take on Major League Baseball.
The name Empire has recently surfaced, which could open blockbuster Star Wars-type marketing opportunities if Force is picked for Washington.
“Once team names are out there, you’ll see a big marketing push,” says Rothenberg. “They’ll have a name, a uniform, and hopefully each team will have a player or two. The GMs will have built enough of a staff to manage a ticket campaign.
“That’s when we’ll start to surface in each community, starting in October.”
‘Be patient’
MLS is predicting slow, steady growth from an initial year of average attendances in the range of 10,000 to 12,000. The initial capitalization of $75 million is designed to cover operating losses in the first several years, which Rothenberg believes is a cushion that other leagues, such as the NASL and the Major Indoor Soccer League, seldom enjoyed.
“They spent the offseason trying to stay alive,” says Rothenberg. “We can plan for the long haul. The time to market is the offseason, not during the season.”
Don’t expect any huge rush of MLS merchandise once the logos and uniforms are displayed, however.
“This is not going to happen,” says Messing, one of three MLS vice presidents. “We’re looking for managed growth. We want attendances to increase steadily: 12,000 to 14,000 to 16,000 to 18,000. If we start at 20,000, then drop to 6,000 the next year, we’re in trouble.”
Says Rothenberg, “It’s a different era, people want instant gratification … but be patient. We’re much better off building it around a solid base of U.S. players, with a handful of international players, slowly and surely. Kids need heroes, and they’ll have those players to watch, but it takes a few years to do it.”
by Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney