Anschutz Expands Empire
Phil Anschutz is up to something, but whether it’s spinning plates or setting a table is difficult to tell.
On Wednesday, the Denver billionaire surprised--shocked might be a better word--the American soccer community by announcing that he had purchased Major League Soccer’s New York/New Jersey MetroStars.
It’s not as if Anschutz needed another MLS team. He already had four: the Galaxy, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids and Washington D.C. United.
But the MetroStars were up for grabs and Anschutz, in the form of the increasingly octopus-like Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), grabbed. League Commissioner Don Garber declined to reveal the purchase price, but it is likely to have been somewhere between $25 million and $30 million.
Such an amount is pocket change to the 16th-wealthiest man in the United States, but it will bring his investment in MLS to well over the $100-million mark, even without taking into consideration the $50 million or so he plans to spend on a soccer-tennis complex in Carson.
And it might not be the end of the story.
Anschutz bought the MetroStars from the team’s original investor-operators, John Kluge and Stuart Subotnick of MetroMedia. They, in turn, hold the rights to a second MLS franchise in the New York area, and AEG officials said the company will consider purchasing that too.
With five of the 12 MLS teams under AEG control, it should be clear to even the dimmest soul that the league no longer calls the shots, AEG does.
That can be viewed as a good thing by those who want to see soccer prosper in the U.S., but it will cause many to regard the league with a skeptical eye.
How can one man control five teams? How can there not be conflict of interest, especially in the areas of player trades and competition issues? Even if everything is done above board--and so far there has been no reason to suspect otherwise--the perception is of a stacked deck, a rigged game.
That, surely, is not good for the league.
Garber, however, argued that AEG’s increased investment is exactly what MLS needs.
“The most important way to achieve credibility in any sport or league is raising the level of success in things like attendance, television ratings, stadium construction and the quality of play,” Garber said Wednesday. “I believe we’re in a far better position with fewer investors who are fully committed to the long-term success of the sport than with a greater number who don’t have that same commitment and are unable to get us to that goal.
“I don’t believe in any way that having AEG, the most committed group to soccer in this country and perhaps in the world, have a greater interest in soccer could be anything but very, very good.”
In private conversations, AEG officials have suggested that soccer’s progress in the U.S. has been held back by too many small-time operators, investors who, with all the good intentions in the world, don’t have the resources to bring the sport to the level it needs to reach.
If it had its way, AEG would just as soon clear the deck and run the entire league--perhaps with a little help from, say, Lamar Hunt, who owns the Columbus and Kansas City teams, and the Kraft family, which owns the New England team.
With that in mind, it would not be at all surprising down the road to see AEG purchase the Miami Fusion from its investor-operators, Ken Horowitz and Jon Stol, or even add a league-operated team such as Dallas.
Obviously, AEG has deeper pockets than most and is not afraid to spend money. In addition to the planned stadium in Carson, the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Corporation, will build a stadium for the MetroStars, who currently play at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Harrison, N.J., is the probable site.
Also, if AEG goes ahead and purchases the rights to the second New York area team, a soccer-specific stadium is likely to be built there too, possibly at Aqueduct Race Track in Queens.
“I think anybody who understands the new demographics of the city and particularly of that area, sees that there could be tremendous opportunity there,” said Kevin Payne, AEG senior vice president.
Those who view with suspicion AEG’s de facto control of the league might be better served by giving some thought to what AEG’s long-term vision might be. It certainly isn’t anything as short-term or small-time as running MLS.
Driving the moves being made now by Tim Leiweke, AEG’s president, is a vision of soccer in the U.S., or even North America, competing head to head with Europe for the best teams and the best players--as well as the huge crowds and lucrative television contracts that logically follow.
Anschutz isn’t thinking about today or tomorrow or even next week or next month. He’s thinking years down the line, and Garber understands that.
“If you knew Phil Anschutz the way we do and heard him, Tim Leiweke and Kevin [Payne] talk about their views about this sport and the importance of the sport to our society, its role in the sports culture and its potential of achievement, then you would not have that concern and I don’t have that concern,” Garber said.
So while it is possible that Anschutz is spinning plates and that whole lot could come crashing down atop MLS if he fails, it is more likely that he is setting the table for a soccer feast to come.
On Thanksgiving, that’s a better way to look at it.
