MLS Goal: Broaden Ownership Base
Near the end of its ninth season, Major League Soccer finally got it exactly right, producing a match last Saturday night to rival anything seen on the playing fields of Europe or South America.
The spectacular 3-3 tie between D.C. United and the New England Revolution, followed by a tense 30 minutes of scoreless sudden-death overtime, followed by six rounds of penalty kicks, provided drama to satisfy the most demanding fan.
In the end, D.C. United prevailed, but it was the quality of the match itself that will be remembered, not the winner.
“I felt like I was in Europe,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said Tuesday afternoon. “I felt like I was in England, standing in a stadium in Manchester, watching the stands vibrate, with the fans chanting in unison, and watching real soccer teams in a real soccer environment.
“We have work to do to replicate that week in and week out because there’s no reason why our teams can’t put the same show on” throughout the season.
Behind the scenes at RFK Stadium, however, an altogether different sort of game was being played out, one that speaks to the future of MLS every bit as loudly as the 21,101 fans who whooped and stomped and shook the RFK stands to their uncertain foundations.
Despite reaching its fifth championship match in nine seasons -- MLS Cup 2004 against the Western Conference champion Kansas City Wizards at the Home Depot Center on Sunday -- D.C. United is for sale.
Stranger still, D.C. United, despite being for sale, recently announced its intention of building a 24,000-seat stadium, with luxury boxes, a restaurant and adjacent training fields and facilities, alongside the Anacostia River a mile or so from RFK Stadium.
If it seems peculiar that a team can be putting down roots while simultaneously being on the auction block, that’s the way it is in MLS.
In fact, it might even be the business model of the future for the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which operates D.C. United, the Galaxy, the Chicago Fire, the MetroStars and the San Jose Earthquakes.
Build it and they will buy it, or at least lease it, might become AEG’s mantra as MLS seeks to broaden its ownership base.
The company’s octopus-like reach into every facet of soccer in the U.S. has led it to completing or planning stadiums in five cities. Consider:
In San Jose or a nearby community, AEG wants a new home for the Earthquakes and has been seeking a city willing to invest in a stadium for the two-time MLS champion. Just to make things interesting, AEG also has the team up for sale.
In Chicago, AEG is building a stadium for the Fire in suburban Bridgeview, Ill., and is scheduled to have it up and running by 2006.
In Harrison, N.J., AEG has reached agreement to build a stadium for the MetroStars as part of a much larger sports and entertainment and shopping complex. It too is supposed to be ready by 2006.
In Los Angeles, AEG has entered into a unique arrangement with Mexican businessman Jorge Vergara under which Vergara’s Chivas USA team will share the AEG-built Home Depot Center with the Galaxy starting next season.
In Washington, AEG plans to share RFK with baseball’s former Montreal Expos until its new stadium is completed, with the target date set for 2007.
There was a time in MLS’s brief history when Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz was all that stood between the league and oblivion, the sizable investments of Lamar Hunt and Robert Kraft notwithstanding.
But MLS has doubled its number of investor-operators in the past 14 months. Garber said Tuesday that the league would expand to 14 teams in 2006 or 2007.
Last year, AEG, which once operated six MLS teams, sold the Colorado Rapids to Denver businessman Stan Kroenke, whose Kroenke Sports Enterprises also owns the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, among other sports properties.
Not long thereafter, MLS reached agreement with Vergara, making the Guadalajara-based businessman the league’s first foreign owner.
In July, MLS added another expansion team when Dave Checketts, former president of the Utah Jazz, the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden, brought Real Salt Lake into being.
Currently, AEG is in talks with several parties over the possible purchase of D.C. United and the Earthquakes. The latter club announced Tuesday that it would play in San Jose in 2005, but potential investors could move it to Texas in 2006.
Kevin Payne, president and general manager of D.C. United, said Tuesday that the sale of some teams by AEG was a logical step.
“I think that AEG recognizes that long-term it’s not in the best interests of the league or the sport for AEG to continue to own this many teams,” he said. “AEG never intended to own this many teams. It did that as a means of stabilizing the league when we went through some tough times with the retrenchment in 2000.”
Garber said Anschutz and Hunt deserved praise for carrying MLS this far.
“It’s something they should be canonized for as opposed to criticized for because without the commitment that the Hunts and AEG have made, there would be no Major League Soccer in America today,” he said.
Garber said AEG and its president, Tim Leiweke, “have been consistent in saying that they are looking to reduce the number of teams that they own in our league, not because they want to own fewer teams but because they believe that owning fewer teams would be good for MLS and for the sport in this country.”
The way to attract new owners, apparently, is to present them with both a team and a stadium.
“If somebody came to us and said ‘We want to buy the club but we want to continue to play at RFK,’ I’m not even sure we’d sell it to them,” Payne said of D.C. United. “For the league to be successful, teams have to be in their own buildings.”
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Stadium Matters
*--* Team Investor-Operator Stadium Status Chicago Fire AEG Opening in 2006 in Bridgeview, Ill. Chivas USA Jorge Vergara Home Depot Center opened in 2003. Colorado Rapids Kroenke Sports Planned for 2007 in Denver. Columbus Crew Hunt Sports Group Crew Stadium opened 1999. D.C. United AEG Planned for 2007 in Anacostia, D.C. FC Dallas Hunt Sports Group Opening 2005 in Frisco, Texas Galaxy AEG Home Depot Center opened in 2003. Kansas City Wizards Hunt Sports Group Arrowhead Stadium opened in 1972. MetroStars AEG Planned for 2006 in Harrison, N.J. New England Revolution Kraft Soccer Gillette Stadium opened in 2002. Real Salt Lake Dave Checketts Planned for 2007. San Jose Earthquakes AEG Seeking new ownership and stadium.
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New England and Kansas City play in NFL stadiums. The other 10 teams will be in soccer-specific stadiums by 2007, according to MLS.
