Sockers’ Bell Relinquishing Partial Control of the Team

In a restructuring of the Sockers’ front office, Bob Bell and a corporation controlled by Ron Fowler have agreed to form a co-managing partnership of the Sockers, Bell confirmed Wednesday.

Bell is currently the Sockers’ sole managing general partner, but once the transaction is completed, he will share that title with the corporation headed by Fowler, one of the Socker franchise’s limited partners and the president of Liquid Investments Inc. in San Diego.

Bell will remain in control of marketing and contractual arrangements with the players. Fowler said he and Ron Cady will oversee the Sockers’ finances. Fowler said that Cady, executive vice president of Liquid Investments, has already begun working with the Sockers.

In addition to accepting the formation of a co-managing partnership, the franchise’s 14 limited partners agreed to contribute between $750,000 and $800,000 to the franchise, according to Bell. Fowler made the largest contribution, according to Bell, but neither Bell nor Fowler would say how much.

However, Fowler stressed that the additional funds were not directly tied to the formation of a partnership.

“It wasn’t that we needed to have this (the partnership) or we wouldn’t put money in,” Fowler said. “It was a positive move, not a quid pro quo.”

However, it was a move that further reduced Bell’s control of the team. He owned 95% of the team when he bought out three investors in 1980, but that has gradually been reduced as limited partners were added. In 1986, Bell’s share became 17.5% after a financial restructuring among limited partners.

Bell said he agreed to the partnership because he thought he needed help on the financial administrative end.

Fowler agreed that although Bell’s strong points had been marketing and dealing with players, “there have been some lapses in the past few years” on the financial end.

Bell said the books for this past season are not yet complete, but his best guess is that the Sockers will end up losing about $75,000. He added that if the Sockers had advanced to the championship round of the playoffs, which would have assured them at least two more home dates and possibly three, the team would have turned a profit for the first time in its history. Bell estimates that the Sockers would have grossed about $350,000 for three additional playoff games, based on the income the team had produced in previous championship series.

Despite once again losing money, Bell said that financially, “the club is in the best shape it’s ever been in in the 10 years of the club.”

The Sockers’ back debt is finally paid off, according to Bell. He said the team’s debt totaled about $1 million at the time the outdoor North American Soccer League folded after the 1984 season. Since then, the Sockers, who were dethroned as indoor champions last season after winning five straight titles, have played only the indoor game.

In the past, the Sockers have based their budget plans on advancing to the championship series. Bell said, “Ideally, I’d like to see us reach a break-even point without having to make the playoffs.”

Socker Notes Veteran midfielder Kaz Deyna was released by the Sockers Tuesday. The 39-year-old former world-class star played on the team’s five indoor championship teams. Scott Simpson, Deyna’s agent, said Wednesday that the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the American Indoor Soccer Assn. are interested in Deyna’s becoming a player/coach. Deyna is the team’s fourth-leading all-time scorer with 232 points, but in the past two seasons, he played only sparingly. Last season, he appeared in just 13 games, scoring seven points. In 1985-86, he scored 10 points in 26 games. In international circles, Deyna will be remembered for leading Poland to the gold medal in the 1972 Olympics and to the semifinals of the 1974 World Cup. . . . Contract news: For the umpteenth time since last fall, Bob Bell said he is close to reaching a contract agreement with star forward Branko Segota. Bell said he plans to meet with Segota when Segota returns from vacation in Yugoslavia in about two weeks. Simpson said he met with Bell Tuesday to discuss the contract negotiations of Jean Willrich, Jim Gorsek and Brian Schmetzer. Willrich and Gorsek are entering the option years of their contracts, and Schmetzer becomes a free agent in September. Simpson said Bell wants to offer Willrich a two-year contract, but Willrich wants a three-year deal. “Jean has several clubs that would like to have him,” Simpson said. “They are willing to pay him quite a bit of money.” Bell said he expects to sign Schmetzer, Cha Cha Namdar, George Katakalidis and Jacques Ladouceur to contracts within the next few weeks. Namdar, Katakalidis and Ladouceur are entering the option years of their contracts. . . . Socker defender Kevin Crow was one of seven players from the Major Indoor Soccer League selected to play for the U.S. team in the Pan American Games in Indianapolis. The other players are: Chico Borja and Jim Gabarra of Los Angeles, Paul Krumpe and Frank Klopas of Chicago, Tom Kain of Kansas City and John Stollmeyer of Cleveland.