Sockers’ New Owners Face Many Problems : Indoor soccer: Team must sign players, negotiate with coach and secure a place to play.

It’s happening again.

Not even four years ago, Ron Fowler was introduced as the new managing general partner of the San Diego Sockers. He spoke of being prepared to absorb losses of “six figures” for a year or two, after which the team and league would be on footing solid enough that profits would be possible.

That was in 1987. On Monday, Oscar Ancira and his father Oscar Ancira Sr., part of the new Socker ownership approved Friday by the Major Soccer League, stepped up to the same podium.

“We expect losses at the start,” said the younger Ancira, who will act as the group’s spokesman. “But after the first two years, we think we can turn this thing around.”

One of Ancira’s first chores will be negotiations. He has plenty ahead of him.

The Sockers have no players signed for the upcoming season. They have no TV deal, no English radio package, no Spanish radio.

They have no dates confirmed at the Sports Arena. They don’t even have a lease, although an agreement in principle has been reached.

The new ownership--which also includes VAMSA, a Mexican investment company, and a group with ties to both Mexico’s Televisa network and the Mexican indoor soccer federation--still must buy rights to the name “Sockers” from Fowler.

The team still needs a coach. This apparently has taken precedence.

Ron Newman, whose two-year contract expired after he won his ninth championship in the past 10 seasons in late May, and his agent, Daniel S. Mitrovich, met with Ancira for 4 1/2 hours Sunday.

Another meeting is scheduled today.

Mitrovich said he is seeking a three-year deal for Newman “comparable to what (MSL) coaches had in the past.”

Newman’s salary has been a target of budget-cutting measures during the past four years as teams--the Sockers included--tried to negate falling revenue by slashing costs.

“But I’m not crying about it,” Newman said. “The lads have been underpaid for a long time too, but we also kept on winning championships and I know there are other franchises out there looking for coaches.”

Added Mitrovich, “Let’s put it this way--Ron is always getting calls. I just want to get a contract that he deserves. He’s done so much here. You pay a lot of money for PR people, and Ron has been the best one in the league.”

It is unlikely that Newman will leave the Sockers for greener bank accounts, not after he spent the past month paddling madly to keep the franchise from sinking.

Ancira said he expects no problems.

“The three of us will sit down and get it done,” he said.

And there are other matters.

Ancira also must sit down with Executive Vice President Randy Bernstein and come up with a marketing plan that will put people in the seats.

“I don’t know what happened to past owners to keep them from being successful,” Ancira said. “All I have is my ideas and all I can do is work with them.”

Ancira may have more than ideas, though. His enthusiasm, Sockers employees say, appears to be infectious.

“He made the employees feel at ease right away,” Bernstein said. “I think you now have a front office that will be given a lot of respect and a lot of autonomy to achieve their goals. The people are going to have a lot of help and support and they understand that and perceive a lot of excitement and rejuvenation.

“When Ron Fowler came in, I think people felt a little nervous about things. But now, looking back, they had no reason to because Ron Cady (team president under Fowler) and Ron Fowler were extremely professional people. They ran things very professionally.”

Socker Notes

Forward Paul Wright, one of the most promising young players in the league, was picked off the waiver wire by the Baltimore Blast. The Cleveland Crunch also put a claim on Wright but was lower in the pecking order because it finished with a better record than Baltimore. Socker Coach Ron Newman has not given up hope that Commissioner Earl Foreman will intervene on the Sockers’ behalf considering Wright was lost during a transfer of ownership. Failing that, Newman has suggested a round of golf between Blast Coach Kenny Cooper and new Socker part-owner Oscar Ancira, Jr., the winner of which would get Wright’s contract.