MISL Review : Force, Never a Champion, Is a Model of Management, Money-Making
A group of Sockers was recently discussing the financial problems of the Major Indoor Soccer League when midfielder Brian Quinn asked:
“Why doesn’t everyone copy Cleveland if they’re the only ones making money? “
The only MISL club in the black last season was the Cleveland Force, which made approximately $600,000 and expects to earn between $300,000 and $400,000 this season, according to a Force spokesman.
Cleveland and the St. Louis Steamers in the early 1980s are the only clubs in the history of the league to turn a profit.
Is it a coincidence that Force President Bert Wolstein spent a lot of time studying the Steamers under former chief operating officer Ben Kerner during the heyday of indoor soccer in St. Louis?
Is it a coincidence that both Cleveland and Kerner’s St. Louis teams have emphasized having native Americans on their team?
“Cleveland has progressed at a more rapid pace in Americanizing the game,” Socker President Ron Cady said. “That’s something that has to be done.”
The Force, very successful on the field the past five years but never a championship team, led the league in attendance for the past three seasons. Last season, they drew an average of 14,111 fans for 26 regular-season games.
The club generates a considerable amount of income from the rental of its six soccer centers throughout the Northeastern Ohio area, which attracted an estimated 30,000 participants last year.
The Wolstein family put a great deal of emphasis on marketing, gaining sponsorships and setting up programs with local youngsters. The Force Summer Soccer Camp program attracted almost 2,000 last summer. B&W; Products, a merchandise branch, had revenues of around $200,000 last year. What is the magic with the Force?
“There is no secret,” said Wolstein, an outspoken owner who was named MISL executive of the year last season. “It’s just hard work from the owners. My son (team executive vice president Scott) and I are right in the middle, making things happen. We devote a tremendous amount of time to the team.”
Representatives from the Dallas Sidekicks and Minnesota Strikers and prospective owners from Greensboro, N.C., have spent time in Cleveland observing how the Force operates, but Wolstein is surprised that more teams haven’t gone that route.
“We’ve offered everything to the other teams,” Wolstein said. “Income and expense reports. Ideas. They don’t come, they don’t care. Everybody thinks they know everything.
“The problem is the owners. They’re jealous. They think we’re only interested in ourselves. Until you get owners who think collectively, you can’t get it going.”
Cady said he has Socker vice president Randy Bernstein keep in close touch with Force vice president Paul Garofolo to see exactly what the Force is doing.
“What might work in Cleveland might not work in San Diego, and what might be a problem in San Diego might not be problem in Cleveland,” Cady said. “But I think there’s a lot to be learned from Cleveland. They work very hard. They have commitment and run it like a business.”
Wolstein, a successful real estate developer, doesn’t believe MISL teams need to hire expensive executives. Rather, he has hired young people who he says are given constant instruction and motivation.
“You don’t get big shots who don’t do anything,” Wolstein said.
Wolstein said he has been on the negative end of seven key league votes in recent years. Socker fans may be interested to know that Wolstein opposed bringing in all four North American Soccer League clubs (San Diego, Chicago, Minnesota, the defunct Cosmos) before the 1984-85 season.
He opposed having the league office in New York, and the league recently said it will move at the end of the season. Wolstein opposed voting the expansion New York Express into the league at the start of last season, and the Express folded at midseason.
“I don’t think you have to go after big markets,” Wolstein said. “Go after markets who are interested in us. We don’t need sarcastic media people in big cities. We get lost in big cities.”
Wolstein also has some choice comments about the league office.
“The league office seems to be there just to handle complaints,” Wolstein said. “My recommendation is we need to end up with a stronger league office with people working on workshops rather than just talking.”
What a weekend! Shortly after 11 last Sunday night, members of the Socker Auto Trader reserve team--still wearing their sweat suits--made a quick getaway from Pride Pavilion in Phoenix to the airport. The players arrived at the Phoenix airport at 12:02 a.m., left their rental cars in front of the terminal and barely made their 12:09 flight back to San Diego.
“We had to hurry up the ceremonies, and there was no showering,” said Coach Guy Newman, a former Socker defender and son of Coach Ron Newman.
The trip home was a joyous culmination of a hectic weekend for the team, which went 5-0-1 and won the Mitre Cup National Indoor Amateur championship with a 4-1 victory over a club from Kansas City.
“It was adventuresome,” Newman said.
The Sockers’ reserve team arrived in Phoenix Friday. On Saturday, the 20-team round-robin tournament got under way with first-round games consisting of two 18-minute halves.
The Sockers defeated a team from Chicago, 8-1, and a club from Plano, Tex., 6-1.
Then came Sunday’s marathon of four games in 12 hours.
In the morning, the Sockers came back from a two-goal deficit to tie the Tacoma Star reserve team, 3-3, in the final first-round game. That game ended at 1:20. At 4:30, the Sockers were back on the floor to begin second-round action, with each game consisting of two 20-minute halves.
The Sockers beat a team from Dallas, 6-1. At 6:30, the Sockers played the host Phoenix team, made up of many former MISL and NASL players. A crowd of approximately 1,500 saw the Sockers win, 4-2.
At 9:45, the Sockers faced Kansas City in the championship game, which consisted of four 12-minute quarters.
“It was scary because we knew we had a midnight flight,” Newman said. “We couldn’t go into overtime.”
They didn’t. The Sockers won, 4-1.
Socker forward Rene Ortiz, from Southwest High, scored eight goals in six games and was named the MVP. Defender Hormoz Tabrizi also was named to the all-tournament team, and Fahmi El Shami scored seven goals. Both Tabrizi and Shami recently filled in with the regular Sockers.
Newman, completing his second year as coach of the reserve team, feels those three young players, along with Paul Wright from Grossmont High and Manny Neves (currently signed to a 10-day contract with the Sockers), have a bright future in indoor soccer.
“Ortiz has an unbelievably bright future,” Newman said. “He has a left foot just like Hugo (Perez) and a great attitude. . . . Paul Wright is Mr. Excitement. He’s quick, he’s all over the place.”
Wright, Ortiz and Neves receive expense stipends, but most of the players do not get paid and have second and third jobs to earn money while they train with the reserve team.
“These guys had to make a lot of sacrifices,” Newman said.
Newman said he gets “paid a little” for coaching the reserve team, but he also coaches youth teams and sells soccer uniforms.
The Sockers, Stars and Los Angeles Lazers have reserve teams, but the system is still developing as a minor league for MISL teams.
“We’re a lot more organized this year than we were last,” Newman said. “We’re more of a team. . . . I think the reserve team will be a success if every three, four years, we (the regular Sockers) get two or three players out of the reserve team.”
