Anschutz Has Grand MLS Plans
According to Forbes magazine, Phil Anschutz is the sixth-wealthiest person in the United States and is worth an estimated $18 billion.
So what’s a few million more dollars here or there?
Among his many sports properties, Anschutz owns Major League Soccer’s Galaxy, Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire, meaning he controls one quarter of the five-year-old league.
It’s not enough, apparently. He is about to increase his share to one third by taking charge of three-time champion Washington D.C. United.
That means that Anschutz and Lamar Hunt, who owns the defending champion Kansas City Wizards as well as the Columbus Crew, between them control half the league and all of the league champions.
Observers unfamiliar with the thin ice upon which league soccer skates in this country--hockey comparisons are acceptable because Anschutz is an owner of the Kings and the company that runs the NHL’s San Jose Sharks now runs the San Jose Earthquakes--might see such domination by Anschutz and Hunt as bizarre.
It is, but it’s also what is keeping MLS afloat until fans turn out in sufficient numbers to reverse the tide of red ink that has swept over MLS for five years.
But there is something more to Anschutz’s imminent takeover of league-operated D.C. United than merely bailing out MLS once again.
Anschutz wouldn’t be worth those umpteen millions if he were not a savvy businessman. Nor would he be planning to build soccer stadiums in Los Angeles--OK, Carson--and Chicago if he thought they might become white elephants.
Consider for a moment what would happen if MLS were to go belly up--which it’s not going to do any time soon. Discounting Denver, which is where he lives and owns an MLS team just to give him something to do when he’s not counting all that money, Anschutz would be left with soccer stadiums in Los Angeles, Chicago and, possibly, Washington.
All three cities have large immigrant populations. All three cities have hundreds of thousands of fans who turn out in impressive numbers whenever top-level teams from their former countries come to town.
In other words, once he has all of his jigsaw puzzle pieces in place, Anschutz would be perfectly positioned to bring teams from, say, Mexico or El Salvador or Guatemala, on regular three-city swings though the United States. He can then simply sit back and watch the turnstiles spin straw into gold.
That’s one way, at least, that $18 billion becomes $19 billion.
QUOTE WORTHY
* Craig Merz in the Columbus Dispatch, commenting on the lack of fans at Miami Fusion games: “Attendance wouldn’t crack 8,000 a game if the franchise brought in Elian Gonzalez as ball boy.”
* Cobi Jones, on the fact that the Galaxy probably will have to give up a starter if both he and teammate Greg Vanney agree to new contracts with MLS: “I just think it’s funny that we always seem to have salary cap issues, but there are some other teams that have a lot of high-priced players that never seem to have salary cap problems. It always seems to be our issue.”
AMONG HIS SOUVENIRS
New York/New Jersey MetroStar defender Mike Petke staged a dinner at a New York restaurant the other night to raise funds for his Kick the Violence Foundation, a charity aimed at helping youth.
The event raised $15,000, much of it from an auction of sports memorabilia.
Among the items bought was the infamous T-shirt Petke displayed last season in the wake of Tampa Bay Mutiny forward Mamadou “Big Mama” Diallo’s appalling collision with MetroStars’ goalkeeper Mike Ammann, who suffered a punctured lung among other injuries.
“Crime of the Century. Revenge is Coming,” Petke’s T-shirt read. MLS officials were not amused and fined Petke $250.
The T-shirt, autographed by Petke, and a letter from the league informing him of the fine, fetched $525 in the auction, where they were bought by the Empire Supporters Club, the MetroStars’ fan club.
The odd part about all this, however, was the comment made by the club’s president, Kevin McAlister.
“This is the biggest piece of memorabilia generated by the MetroStars,” he said.
That’s a pretty sad statement. There must have been better items. Whatever happened, for instance, to Roberto Donadoni’s fright wig, Lothar Matthaeus’ walker and Bora Milutinovic’s Serbo-Brooklyn dictionary?
They, surely, would have fetched a better price.
IN PASSING
It took the new operators of the Earthquakes less than 24 hours to show Lothar Osiander the door in San Jose. So the former U.S. national team coach and former U.S. Olympic team coach and former Galaxy coach is now also the former Earthquakes’ coach.
“The fit was not right for the future of this team,” said Greg Elliott, a suit from Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (SVS&E;), which runs the NHL’s Sharks and which last week was named to operate the Earthquakes.
Elliott will find that Osiander’s experience is not easy to come by and that he might have benefited by moving the 61-year-old Osiander upstairs rather than out.
Former Dallas Burn coach Dave Dir has been mentioned as a possible successor. He would be a good choice, but Galaxy assistant Ralph Perez would be an even better one, if he cares to move north.
QUICK PASSES
If the U.S. women’s national team loses to China today in Hangzhou, Coach April Heinrichs will have lost eight games in her first year in charge of the team. In six years, former coach Tony DiCicco had a 103-8-8 record. . . . The U.S. Soccer Federation and American television networks ought to be ashamed for allowing the March 28 Honduras-USA World Cup qualifier in San Pedro Sula to be available in the United States only on pay-per-view. . . . Wednesday night’s CONCACAF Champions Cup doubleheader featuring D.C. United against Alajuelense of Costa Rica and the Galaxy against Real Espana of Honduras at Titan Stadium on the Cal State Fullerton campus will be broadcast live on https://Internetsoccer.com.
