Well-Organized Zodiac Ready to Go
The refrain “wait till next year” began about halfway through last season for the Zodiac soccer team. Though its team was in the middle of the A-League playoff hunt, Zodiac front office staff wanted fans to know things would be much different next year.
Well, this is next year. Are things much different?
It’s a little early to tell. The Zodiac doesn’t begin its third season until Friday night at home against the San Diego Flash. But defender Peter Lak, who played at Ocean View High and Cal State Fullerton, said he now understands what everybody was so excited about last year.
“It felt organized from Day 1 this year, and you couldn’t say that last year,” Lak said. “Last year, you really couldn’t tell where we were going. It didn’t seem too structured. You thought it might go the way of the Salsa,” he said, referring to the outdoor team that played at Cal State Fullerton and folded in 1995.
It easily could have. The Zodiac lost hundreds of thousands of dollars its first two seasons, even though the team reached the playoffs last year with a third-place finish in the Pacific Division. But owner John Frankhouse and team president Richard Brown appear to have things going in the right direction.
Brown, who worked in marketing for Disney before being hired at the end of last season, has signed a $1.2-million marketing deal with Pepsi, the largest such arrangement in A-League history, and season-ticket sales have exceeded 300. Last year, only six were sold.
Some ticket sales can be attributed to buyers receiving admission to a four-day youth soccer camp with tickets to all 15 home games. A premier season ticket is priced at $140 and the soccer camp is valued at $110.
Brown’s season-ticket sales goal is 2,000, and per game walk-up goal is 4,000. Even if the Zodiac doesn’t reach those goals, it appears the team will far surpass last year’s average paid attendance of about 150 at UC Irvine and even exceed the 1997 average announced attendance of 1,200 at Santa Ana Stadium.
After a year in South County, the Zodiac is returning to Santa Ana Stadium, which has a capacity of 8,500.
“I think the atmosphere will be better for us in Santa Ana,” Lak said. “I believe we’ll have people flocking to the games.”
Brown also has signed a number of marketing agreements. Those deals have helped put the franchise in the black for the first time and have helped pave the way for player raises and incentive clauses in each player’s contract.
Lak said he was given a substantial raise over last season.
“I took a pay cut the previous year when things weren’t going well,” Lak said. “At the time, they told me they’d be able to compensate me the next year. When I went to them this off-season and reminded them what they said, they were very generous.”
Lak believes that generosity helped the team land Rivers Guthrie, a 26-year-old midfielder who played last year with the A-League’s Charleston, S.C., team.
“The salary increases made it easier for the core guys to stay here and attracted players from the outside,” said Lak, who turns 26 in two weeks. “It lets people know we’re not some fly-by-night organization. If you have a similar offer from another team, it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to play professional soccer in Southern California.”
The addition of Guthrie should make the Zodiac a more dangerous offensive team, according to Lak.
“We didn’t have a consistent scoring threat on the left side of the wing,” Lak said. “We overloaded the right side so much last year, we kind of got predictable.”
Guthrie should open up the field for the Zodiac’s top four scorers--forwards Steve Patterson, Eddie Soto, P.J. Powloski and midfielder Brad Wilson. Goalkeeper Mike Littman, who led the team in minutes played last year, is back and backup goalkeeper Dan Abdalla returns after a brief stint as the team’s public relations director.
Tuesday, the Zodiac also announced the signing of Jose Vasquez, a former Zodiac player who also starred at Rancho Santiago College and Santa Ana High. Vasquez, who played in 23 games for the Galaxy last season, was waived last week.
Last year’s coach, Mike Gartlan, did not return. He was replaced by his assistant, Erik Kirsch, who played at UC Irvine and professionally in Germany from 1993 to 1997. Kirsch figures to change the Zodiac’s style of play.
“He wants a more attacking style,” said Lak, who scored only one goal as a marking back last year. “We’ll only have three [as opposed to four] in the back this year and he’s given the defenders more freedom to get forward.”
Co-coach Ricardo Minaya, also the team’s director of soccer operations, isn’t promising a championship, but he does predict a drastic improvement from last year’s 16-12 record (46 points) and first-round playoff exit.
“I can see us winning 22 to 24 games,” Minaya said. “You can see just from watching practice how the level of intensity has picked up.”
Minaya also sees a new comfort level among his players.
“All they have to think about is playing and winning now,” Minaya. “We hope all the off-field distractions are gone. We’re now about as professional as this league is going to get. They can actually go to a locker room and see their name on their locker and see their jersey hanging in it. The players feel more comfortable and we’re becoming a family.”
Can they win games and draw fans? “You can do all these things and still just fall on your face,” Brown said. “But at least we’re trying. If things don’t work out, it won’t be for lack of effort.”
