Coliseum Makes It Clear It Will Protect Its Turf
Those who gaze deeper into the Galaxy’s crystal ball than simply the next Major League Soccer season will find a club with ambitions extending far beyond MLS.
Phillip Anschutz, whose MLS properties include not only the Galaxy but also the Chicago Fire and the Colorado Rapids, sees the sport continuing to grow in the United States and Anschutz Entertainment playing an increasingly large role in that growth.
Anschutz has soccer-specific stadiums planned in Los Angeles and Chicago, and it is not inconceivable that before long he will become involved in the promotion of international games, bringing in teams from Europe, Mexico, Central and South America and even Asia.
Locally, the Galaxy’s proposed stadium in Carson will be the scene of many of those games because Anschutz isn’t building a $50-million venue to see it used only for MLS matches.
But there are international games--and possibly even some MLS games--that will attract more than the Carson stadium’s planned capacity. In that case, Anschutz might turn to the Coliseum for help.
And it’s very possible he will be rebuffed.
“Why would we help out somebody who is going to become a competitor down the road?” asked Pat Lynch, Coliseum general manager, when questioned about the Galaxy’s suggestion that it might move from the Rose Bowl to the Coliseum for the next two seasons.
“If they’re going to build a 25,000- or 30,000-seat venue, that’s the attendance level of most of our games. So now we have a new kid on the block, we have another competitor for [staging] soccer games.
“If that’s going to be the case, then financially we’re certainly not going to bend over backward to [help] a competitor. It doesn’t make any sense.”
In other words, the Coliseum is willing to listen to the Galaxy’s proposal for a two-year lease, it applauds the Galaxy’s initiative in wanting to build its own stadium, but it is going to fight to protect its own right to promote and stage games.
“We’re very interested in soccer,” Lynch said. “We feel it’s our future, and we’re going to do what’s best for us.
“We understand what they’re doing, but it does make them a competitor, like it or not, and we have to look out for ourselves.
“I’ve got direct instructions from the Coliseum Commission to be as aggressive as I can in that endeavor.”
MONOPOLY MONEY
Nothing gets the Coliseum folk hotter under the collar than the power that U.S. Soccer wields--especially when it comes to taking its financial cut from all international games played in the United States.
“We feel, and we have always felt, that the control of the game by U.S. Soccer is something that we can’t agree with,” Lynch said. “We understand their mission, we understand what they’re trying to do, we believe in what they’re trying to do in terms of developing the U.S. into an international soccer power. We love it.
“But, on the other hand, to have unilateral control over the scheduling of dates and approving or denying matches--we have a hard time with that.
“The fact that [if] there’s a Galaxy game in the Rose Bowl on a Saturday, we can’t do Korea versus Australia on Sunday to us is crazy. It’s apples and oranges.”
The financial cut is the unkindest of all.
“To pay 20% of the gross proceeds to U.S. Soccer for games that we stage and they have no risk whatsoever in those games, it’s unheard of,” Lynch said. “I have yet to hear a good argument as to why that makes sense.”
It’s not quite as bad as it sounds. The percentage is actually 15% of the first $200,000 and 20% of the amount over $200,000, and it goes not only to U.S. Soccer but also to CONCACAF and to the state soccer association.
In other words, it is a way of using soccer to help fund soccer, but that doesn’t mean it rankles Lynch any less.
“These guys have monopolistic powers,” he said. “They admit it, and we think that it’s wrong.”
UNSAFE? NO WAY
One reason, some suggest, the Galaxy might be hesitant to abandon the Arroyo Seco in favor of the Coliseum is that fans might not feel as secure in the USC neighborhood as they do in Pasadena.
“That’s a very dated perception,” Lynch said, pointing out that the area’s demographics have radically changed and that the Coliseum’s large crowds--for instance, 61,072 for the USA-Mexico match on Oct. 25--are proof that people feel perfectly safe.
Lynch said that the Dec. 20 Mexico-Argentina match will offer further proof, with a sellout crowd quite possible.
“Soccer games, Latin dances, Latin religious events, that’s the core of our business right now,” he said. “We are doing more of those events than ever, and the folks are comfortable coming here.”
Should the Galaxy decide on a temporary move--something Lynch considers unlikely--it “would automatically increase the fan base,” he predicted.
The Galaxy, meanwhile, has yet to decide. The league released its 2001 regular-season schedule on Thursday and the Galaxy took pains to mention its home games without stating where they would be played.
FAN BASE
The Galaxy, with an average attendance of about 20,000 for its first five seasons, has proved again that youth leagues such as AYSO produce players, not fans.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, Lynch said.
“We feel and we’ve always felt that the soccer base in the Los Angeles area is predominantly ethnic---whether that’s Latino or Iranian or whatever--those are the core fans,” he said.
“I think MLS has now reached that same conclusion and has targeted those audiences for the first time. To me, it was interesting that it took so long to get there.”
QUICK PASSES
To get under the salary cap for 2001, the Galaxy might well have to give up a starter. Two former UCLA Bruins, Cobi Jones and Greg Vanney, are in contract negotiations with MLS, and if Jones gets anywhere near what he is seeking it will make keeping Vanney even more difficult. But not as difficult as finding a replacement for Vanney at left back. . . . Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid is at the NCAA finals in Charlotte, N.C., this weekend and went out on a limb, predicting Creighton would win the title. . . . The Dallas Burn has narrowed its field of coaching candidates to four: SMU Coach Schellas Hyndman, Chicago Fire assistant Mike Jeffries, Colorado Rapid assistant Rene Miramontes and Burn assistant Ed Puskarich. . . . The Galaxy will play Puebla of Mexico’s first division in a charity fund-raising match Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium . . . . U.S. women’s national team captain Carla Overbeck, an Olympic gold medalist in 1996 and silver medalist in 2000 and a world champion in 1991 and 1999, will play her 168th and final international match Dec. 17, when the U.S. faces Japan in Phoenix. The game will be televised live on ESPN2.
