Soccer’s Magic Kingdom? : Despite Spotty History of Fan Support, O.C. Remains a Beacon for the Sport

From his Crawford Hall office, UC Irvine women’s soccer Coach Marine Cano had a perfect view this week of a Major League Soccer tryout camp taking place on the campus’ soccer fields. Just a couple of freeways away, Anaheim Stadium was hosting matches in the prestigious Gold Cup, the biggest international soccer event in this hemisphere since the 1994 World Cup.

Orange County continues to be a beacon for professional soccer teams, despite its checkered history; three professional outdoor soccer teams have folded in the last 15 years.

Former Olympian and North American Soccer League player Rick Davis plans to have a new professional outdoor team up and running in 1997. The team would most likely be based in South County, where there are ambitious plans to build a 10,000-seat multipurpose stadium at Saddleback College by the turn of the century.

The Splash, an indoor team that moved from the Forum to The Pond of Anaheim two seasons ago, averaged 8,429 fans per game in 1995. That’s 3,000 more than the other Continental Indoor Soccer League teams averaged.

And though the Los Angeles Galaxy, one of 12 MLS teams set to begin play in April, chose the cavernous Rose Bowl over Cal State Fullerton’s 10,000-seat stadium, the league plans to continue its annual tryout camp at UCI, where it has been suggested that the league could find support to build a stadium if things don’t work out in Pasadena.

“Orange County is one of the best soccer markets in the country,” said Davis, who owns the Orange County rights to a team in the Premier Division of the United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues. “It has quality club, youth and semipro leagues in place that provide a wonderful base for a quality professional team to be successful.”

Still, it has been a long way from the penalty box to box office success for the county’s previous professional soccer teams.

The Sunshine, which played in the defunct American Soccer League, called Santa Ana Stadium and Orange Coast College home from 1976-81. During one stretch in the 1977 season, players went unpaid for six weeks and ownership changed hands three times.

The California Surf, which moved here from St. Louis in 1977, played in front of an average of 8,000 to 10,000 fans at Anaheim Stadium. The Surf survived through 1981 in the old North American Soccer League.

The Salsa drew more than 10,000 spectators at Cal State Fullerton on several occasions, but is reported to have lost more than $2 million from 1993-95. It died a slow death last summer after a watered-down version of the team (different players, different league) moved into the Saddleback Valley, playing games at Trabuco Hills and Mission Viejo highs before sparse crowds.

The Splash has approached the break-even point in both of its seasons in Anaheim but has yet to turn a profit.

Mike Hogue was a founder of the defunct Western Soccer League and the former general manager of the defunct Los Angeles Heat of the old American Professional Soccer League, now known as the A League. The Heat, which played its games at West Torrance High, intended to move to Orange County in 1990, but folded instead in an owners’ dispute.

Previous professional soccer teams have failed to gain a stronghold in the Southland, Hogue said, because they marketed themselves as big-time operations and played in large stadiums that cost too much to rent.

For soccer to survive this time around, he continued, it will have to think small.

“What’s wrong with being the sixth- or seventh-best sport in this country?” Hogue said. “Why do we have this No. 1 mentality? If you read the box scores from around the world, you will see that in many places--Holland, Germany--they are drawing attendance figures of 10,000 people per game and that is considered successful.”

In the 1970s, a good attendance figure for the Sunshine was 1,500.

“One Independence Day we had about 6,000 fans at Orange Coast,” said former Sunshine Coach Derek Lawther, currently the boys’ soccer coach at Corona del Mar High. “But most of them didn’t come for the game. They came for the fireworks show.”

The Sunshine was way ahead of its time in providing for fans.

Tim Ryan, general manager of The Pond and the Splash, set up an advisory board of local youth sports organizers and then set out to provide additional entertainment for spectators, such as light shows, music and large-screen videos.

“Outdoor soccer needs to take a look at its overall entertainment package,” Ryan said. “Until the United States adopts soccer, not just as soccer, but as a sport worth watching and going to see, they need to interject some type of entertainment value into their product.”

Of course, the Splash has The Pond, which is a drawing card itself.

“If you look at The Pond, a lot of people go to that place just to go there, as much as they go to see a game,” said Allan Gallop, founder of the Mission Viejo Soccer Foundation, which is spearheading the drive for an outdoor stadium at Saddleback College.

“You want electricity with a full house or a nearly full house,” Gallop said. “It just enhances the content much differently.”

Sunil Gulatti, an executive with MLS, said the new league took a look at Cal State Fullerton’s stadium but decided it was too small. Anaheim Stadium was out of the picture because the Angels play there at the same time the MLS plans to operate. The league also feared a backlash such as the one suffered by the Rams; MLS wants to say its Southern California franchise is from Los Angeles regardless of where it plays.

“It made it difficult to be in L.A. and play in Orange County,” Gulatti said.

Davis, who was the general manager and coach of the Salsa in the final two years of its existence, said any pro team he starts in the county will have a definite Orange County identity and include a minimum of a five-year plan that will appeal to youth soccer groups. He views the expanding Saddleback Valley--a long way from the Rose Bowl and the MLS--as the county’s best area to establish a new team.

“It’s a niche market,” he said. “It’s a wonderful place for a soccer team.”

Cal State Fullerton Coach Al Mistri said any new soccer team has to put its long-term survival into perspective.

“It is absolutely myopic to believe that soccer in the United States is big time,” he said. “You have to be an idiot to believe that. For soccer to get going, it has to grow little by little.”