Photo: Earl Gardner

Editor’s note: Philadelphia Union majority owner Jay Sugarman responded to this in an email to PSP that was intended as an open response. It was published here.

Dear Mr. Sugarman:

You have a problem on your hands with Philadelphia Union. You need to address it.

Seventy-nine percent of Union observers want you to sell your principal stake in the club, according to a Philly Soccer Page poll conducted last week. Only 7 percent don’t want you to sell, and 14 percent are unsure. That poll seems representative of general public opinion for those who still follow your club.

Only two clubs in MLS history have never finished among the league’s top four or reached a conference final. One is Orlando, which began play in 2015 and currently has the best record in MLS. The other is Philadelphia.

Your club has a record of mediocrity and intermittent futility unmatched in league history, even by the three teams that folded. Today, you have the worst record in MLS.

The Union behave like a small market club. Fans wouldn’t mind that if the product was equal to Sporting Kansas City or the Portland Timbers, but they are tired of seeing this major market team punching well below its weight.

Most thought that would change with the departure of former chief executive Nick Sakiewicz and arrival of sporting director Earnie Stewart, who had a successful track record in Holland. Instead, Stewart has drawn heavily upon his Dutch contacts in the transfer market, often vastly overpaid, and made almost no transactions involving MLS veterans. In short, he hasn’t sufficiently adapted to the MLS marketplace, which may be due to a variety of reasons, including inadequate scouting or a lack of institutional, analytic knowledge getting retained and passed on internally.

This isn’t Moneyball. It’s just failure.

You need to change things.

Your club is in danger of becoming viewed as the punching bag of MLS, that one club that simply can’t get out of its own way. It used to be Chivas USA. They folded. Then Toronto was left, but they committed to serious spending and brought in some smart decision-makers to become the most talented team in MLS. The Union are what’s left at the bottom.

I’ve closely followed this club not just from day one but from minute one, even before I bought season tickets for that inaugural season. Eleven years ago, when MLS president Mark Abbott announced plans for an MLS team in southern New Jersey, I was there to hear it first, ask him about it, and report the news while on assignment for The Press of Atlantic City.

So I get it.

You bought into MLS under the slow growth model pitched to you a decade ago. This was before Toronto FC started selling out its downtown stadium, before the Seattle phenomenon paved the way for the massive MLS successes in Portland, Orlando, Atlanta, and elsewhere, before Kansas City and Salt Lake became model small market franchises and showed that any club could succeed if run well.

The league changed, but you didn’t. It was slow growth, then and now.

There comes a point at which people are done with that. You’ve reached that point.

You finally have the training complex. You still have a good stadium, paid for with tax dollars. Bethlehem Steel FC is a good initiative, in theory, paid for with the USL minimum of dollars. Your academy is beginning to produce, hosted at minority owner Richie Graham’s local business. Your team has talent, both among the players and coaches, despite its Frankenstein roster. And you have a head coach who loves the team like only a local can.

Your club needs to show a commitment not merely to minimum competence, but to excellence.

That means dropping cash on the full complement of three (healthy) designated players, like 13 MLS clubs already do, and probably buying out a DP to free his slot when it’s clear he probably won’t play again. That means paying what’s required for a legitimate scouting setup. No more relying on volunteers working the stadium in Chester either. You need to do more than the minimum with the USL club in Bethlehem so that Lehigh Valley fans take it as seriously as they do the region’s minor league baseball and hockey clubs. And in all this, you need to be prudent and thorough in your decision-making, planning, analysis, and scouting.

Simply put, it’s time for Philadelphia Union to join MLS 3.0.

If not, you should sell your stake in the Philadelphia Union to someone who will make this a top club. People understand that financial situations change. You played a key role in establishing professional soccer in the Philadelphia region. People will thank you for it and remember you accordingly.

Union fans demand better than the product you’re providing them. In fact, they deserve it.

Yours truly,

Dan Walsh

Miscellaneous Union notes for all readers