San Antonio based Spurs Sports and Entertainment company owns the NBA San Antonio Spurs, the WNBA San Antonio Silver Stars, the AHL Minor League San Antonio Rampage and the NBA D-league Austin Toros. They wanted to bring professional Soccer to the Alamo City, but bad decisions and delayed action caused the organization to watch from the sidelines as another investor bought the rights to a NASL second division club.
For now, MLS wouldn't consider San Antonio as a contender for its league, because there are no plans for any Soccer-specific stadium. Thus, the newest team, the Scorpions, owned by philanthropist, Gordon Hartman, will be for the time being, the highest level of professional Soccer in San Antonio.
The interesting elements to this story come from a source, who met with SSE staff in January of 2010, 9 months before any announcement took place with Hartman and the NASL.
Representing SSE was Leo Gomez, an executive with the organization put in charge of investigating opportunities for bringing pro Soccer to San Antonio. Though his knowledge for pro Soccer was not extensive, he was willing to listen and learn from all offers, including USL and NASL.
Gomez was not the decision maker, but the point person to take the information back to upper management and the owner, Peter Holt. While discussing various options in the marketplace and how they may fit within San Antonio's economy, Gomez made it clear, finding the right stadium took precedence.
SSE was not willing to do any grassroots running of a team, starting down on the totem pole. Branding the team, like the Seattle Sounders achieved while in the minor leagues at high school stadiums and smaller sports complexes, averaging 3,000 per game in attendance, would not happen without the right stadium.
Blossom Soccer Stadium is a Soccer-specific stadium in San Antonio that hosts the Big XII Women's Championship and the NCAA Division III Men's and Women's national championships. It seats more than 2,500-4000 and is $1000 to rent per game. It could have made for a great start-up venue for minor league pro Soccer.
SSE wouldn't think of putting in the effort to make it work at this level. Their attitude, according to the source, was and may still be, to let someone else give it a try and if they can make it work, than SSE will buy them out.
The source said, he mentioned to Gomez that by starting a team and branding it, SSE would not have to worry about other investors beating them to the punch and they could search for the right stadium while concentrating on the branding, like the Sounders model.
Gomez scoffed at the idea and asked the source if he was familiar with the Iguanas, a defunct minor league hockey team from years earlier. SSE tried to buy them out and eventually succeeded in supplanting them with the Rampage, who play in the same AT&T center as the Spurs and Silver Stars.
As for Hartman, he has successfully received the backing of community leaders. He has plans to launch his team in 2012 and open a new stadium in 2013. Soccer supporters groups are lining up behind the team. He has built a lot of excitement.
Profits from revenue generated by the team will go to sustaining the world's first theme park for handicapped people. It is a wondrous facility already opened, called Morgan's Wonderland, named for Hartman's daughter, Morgan.
There are still many factors out there in flux, one being the NASL's status for next year (click here to learn more on that situation). Also, there are plenty of doubters to Hartman's plans and whether pro Soccer can function at a high level in San Antonio.
The irony to the story is the amazing 'Soccer For A Cause' non-profit ideals associated with the Scorpions team gives little to no chance for SSE to ever win a public relation's war with Hartman. They are not really able to pursue pro Soccer because of the way it would appear in the eyes of the public. Essentially, if they try to make a competitive stand by bringing in a team from the USL, they would be harming the future for Morgan's Wonderland and risking the Spurs' untarnished reputation at the same time.
The learning lesson is there for SSE, for sure. It is a reminder of how competitive franchising pro Soccer is now in big and medium sized cities in the U.S. SSE didn't want to put the work in to start from the bottom and it is coming back to bite them. They misjudged the situation and the value of pro Soccer in the U.S.
It is certainly possible, SSE ends up with a pro Soccer team in San Antonio. Hartman's team may fail or they may end up buying it out and still owning the team. But, it will be a much heftier price than what they would have paid to start a team on their own.
It seems more likely, if SSE wants a pro Soccer team bad enough, they'll have to go to Austin to get one started.
There are a number of problems with Hartman.
ReplyDelete#1. Morgan's Wonderland is not wondrous. It is actually a money pit. Hartman is always looking for cash to help run it.
#2. Hartman's idea that revenue generated from the club can sustain his theme park. Minor league soccer teams LOSE money. Lots. They can not even support themselves, never mind another entity.
#3. Hartman has faces huge legal challenges and lost. The city voted not to help fund his new stadium. A judge ruled he could not even build the stadium where he wanted. The stadium was suppose to be built by 2012. Now he claims 2013 with private funding. But there is no set date and there might not be a stadium. The Scorpions will play in a High School football stadium next year with a plastic and small field. That means rent and no concessions or parking. The Scorpions are already off to a bad start.
#4. Hartman's 'Soccer for a Cause' is entirely based on altruistic principles and not sound business sense. When the loses for the team add up, expect Hartman to bolt. He bit off more than he could chew.
If SSE wasn't serious about it, then it's better that they didn't get the NASL team. It would have been better if the team started off at Blossom, but I am eager for the new stadium.
ReplyDeleteIts good to know that soccer finally getting some well deserved attention here in the states.
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