Fowler Makes Offer to Buy Sockers, Keep Them Here
Ron Fowler, the Sockers’ managing general partner, has filed a bid of $700,000 with a federal bankruptcy court to buy the franchise, making it likely that the team will remain in San Diego.
Fowler’s intentions were announced Friday morning at the San Diego Sports Arena by Socker President Ron Cady.
Fowler, managing general partner of Sockers Management Inc. since Oct. 14, is acting as an individual in the bid announced Friday. The 13 limited partners who joined him in taking over the franchise from Bob Bell have declined to remain involved. Fowler currently has a 25% interest in the team.
“At this point in time, a 100% offer is being made by a new entity formed by Ron Fowler,” Cady said. “This new entity is just completely Ron Fowler at this time. It’s a completely different role.”
Fowler could not be reached for comment Friday.
Peter Bowie, a federal bankruptcy judge, will be asked to rule on Fowler’s offer June 29, the day the Sockers are next scheduled to appear in bankruptcy court. But before then, other investors could make higher offers to buy the team.
The Sockers, who filed for Chapter 11 protection in bankruptcy court April 25, have debts of $1.5 million. To operate next season, the club would also have to come up with a $400,000 letter of credit for the Major Indoor Soccer League by July 1 and approximately $350,000 in operating costs.
“What will be presented to the bankruptcy judge is an offer from this new group,” said Charles Christopher, the Sockers’ bankruptcy attorney. “The group is in the form of a limited partnership. Mr. Fowler . . . has no other members of his group, as we call it, but we would like to hope that at some time in the future, if he’s going to succeed in this venture, he will . . . attract someone to invest along with.”
Christopher said chances are that Bowie will rule in favor of Fowler’s bid, thereby keeping the team in San Diego. If Bowie rules against Fowler or delays his ruling, Christopher said, the Sockers will fold. A delay would hurt because of the deadline for presenting the league with the letter of credit.
“It’s very difficult to predict (what the judge will decide),” Christopher said. “The judge will, of course, listen to the views of everyone who has an interest, the creditors, the community, the team, individual players, and make a decision as to whether or not he thinks that (Fowler’s bid) is appropriate.”
If the offer is rejected, Fowler said, the Sockers will fold and their creditors will receive nothing. He said that if the $700,000 or a better offer is accepted, the creditors as a whole will get back about 45 cents on the dollar, some more and some less.
Creditors, Christopher said, have been informed of Fowler’s intentions and have been encouraged to round up investors who might bid more than Fowler for the franchise.
Fowler will spend the next two weeks trying to recruit other investors who could help him foot the bill. Most of the Sockers’ debts stem from money lost in the early 1980s, when the team played both outdoors and indoors.
“The projections do show that this can be a break-even proposition when you don’t have these prior debts coming forward from the transition from outdoor to indoor,” Cady said. “This is where a lot of our history is. The closet was never swept clean, and there’s just been this historic debt that just continued to flop into the next season and flop into the next season.”
If the court accepts Fowler’s offer, the 1988-89 Sockers would begin with a clean financial slate. Fowler’s offer can still be retracted, however, and Cady said Fowler’s bid may be contingent on how much interest is shown by the community over the next two weeks.
In his statement, Cady said, “The Sockers need more fan and business support in the form of season tickets and advertising sponsorships.”
Cady said the goal is to sell at least 4,000 season tickets for 1988-89; deposits have been received for a little more than 2,300. The most the Sockers have sold was 4,150 for the 1986-87 season; they sold 3,500 last year.
Early next week, the players and staff will gather in the Sockers’ offices for a phone-a-thon in an attempt to find season-ticket buyers. Cady informed his staff and several players of Fowler’s bid before meeting with the media Friday.
“I came to this expecting to hear even more bad news,” said Fernando Clavijo, the team captain. “But this is good news. It’s nice to know Mr. Fowler has come forward, and it’s nice to know that he believes in us. Now it’s just up to the people in the community to show that they want us to stay here.”
Socker Notes
Friday was also the day of the Major Indoor Soccer League draft, and the Sockers made three selections. In the second round, they picked Vilmar Marques, a midfielder who played at Foothill Community College the past two years. Marques helped lead Foothill to one state junior college championship and one runner-up finish. In the third round, the Sockers drafted former San Diego State defender Chris Keenan, who played at Indiana for three years before helping to lead the Aztecs to the NCAA championship game in December. SDSU lost to Clemson, 2-0. The Sockers’ final pick, in the fourth round, was Mick Lyon, a midfielder from Evansville. The Sockers didn’t have a first-round pick, having traded it to Los Angeles last year for defender Gus Mokalis. The No. 1 overall pick was North Carolina State forward Tab Ramos, drafted by the Tacoma Stars.