The magic wand that may save NASL

by Steve Clare

NASL is in trouble. The source of their trouble is not completely connected with recent events but they perhaps have brought a shuddering halt to what progress was being made.

One of the innocent victims of the unraveling of the FIFA scandal were the Carolina RailHawks. The Hawks are owned by Traffic Sports, the sports marketing firm that has been well and truly fingered by the US Department of Justice investigation.

Traffic stand accused of offering inducement to obtain marketing rights for tournaments. NASL reacted commendably quickly on the day itself. They took over the day to day running of the RailHawks and immediately cut ties with Traffic. They also suspended their own chairperson Aaron Davidson, who was one of the four marketing executives charged.

It was an honest and laudable reaction which in comparison made US Soccer’s statement look obfuscatory.

The necessary move however left the league is in the somewhat awkward position of running one of its own clubs. That didn’t work out so well for ChivasUSA. But the RailHawks are not alone. The league actually fully owns the Atlanta Silverbacks and has had no luck securing a buyer since the purchase in December 2014.

Although it is unclear whether Traffic could be forced by some morality clause to sell Carolina, the thought of recouping some money to pay their legal bills may be attractive, as may the thought of offloading something relatively unimportant given their current position. It could also be that there is somewhere a ‘fit and proper owner’ clause such as those used to ward off undesirable takeover coups in England.

And if Traffic ceases to be a viable business, what happens to the RailHawks then?

Does the club die with them? Do the liquidators have a fire sale in which they try and raise cash from any sellable assets, to pay debtors cents on the dollar? If so, the Hawks may be for sale at a knockdown price rather than a decent market value. Yet, any buyer may have to inherit considerable liabilities and debts.

Compared to all that, buying the Silverbacks may be comparatively simple, but not necessarily cheaper.

The NASL has very few revenue streams and Traffic has been bankrolling it. However if the NASL is in crisis and in danger of losing clubs, you could not tell it from the ebullience of the Commissioner Bill Peterson.

Speaking at a media teleconference in February, Peterson hinted that there was a list of applicants for his league. Since then Puerto Rico and Miami FC have joined, the latter being a curious turn of events with the possibility of an MLS side in the same city hanging over it.

Virginia and Oklahoma are spoken of but it is doubtful whether the market could cope with a second team in the latter, given the presence and popularity of Jimmy Nielsen’s Oklahoma Energy.

However whether these come to fruition or not, they do not achieve Peterson’s main aim. NASL wants and needs an imprint on the West Coast. Currently Edmonton is the furthest west geographically but the requirement is based on time zones as opposed to cultural outlook.

That dovetails with the USSF requirement to have 12 US based teams including at least one in each time zone. As Puerto Rico has its own federation and is thus a foreign club, it doesn’t even count as a US based team.

Even if it did, that still leaves the question of how do you plant a foot where Lewis and Clark one marched?

Soccer’s popularity is at a record height in the Pacific Northwest, but who in their right mind would want to take on the cultural domination of the Sounders and Timbers brands.

Both have an enormous vice like grip on the affections of the fans in Washington and Oregon. Both now have successful reserve teams and both cities have an existing and popular presence in the NWSL.

The Sounders also have their own womans team in addition to the Seattle Reign. There do not appear to be any soccer dollars left there.

Further south, San Jose may be a little isolated but nearby Sacramento Republic are drawing in large crowds and seem destined for MLS when the league finally discards its Beckham fetish.

The NASL already struck out in San Francisco and there is little evidence of a public actively waiting for soccer in Oakland. There you are also competing there with three major league operations in other sports, as well as being close to the Quakes catchment area.

In LA, you’d not only have to compete with the Galaxy but the media excitement about to be generated by the second LA team. There seems little room north of Camp Pendleton once you draw obvious conclusions from the low crowds at Orange County matches in Irvine.

That leaves us San Diego. There are good reasons why no MLS franchise would go there. Among them is insufficient support from the business community given the sports dollars taken by the Chargers.

But it is there, the border with Mexico that provides the potential for a most unusual marriage.

The Tijuana Xolos want to increase their footprint in the USA. To that end, they already employ dedicated English speaking staff to man a media relations department. Their womens team already are registered to play in San Diego County. At the tailgate there, US flags are in obvious presence. And one can navigate a day out at the match with barely a lick of Spanish.

An unofficial poll estimated that 25% of their fans cross the USA/Mexico border for every home match in Tijuana. That is roughly 1/4 of over 20,000 people.

( See Also: Tijuana – Mexico’s Most American Club)

What if Tijuana could be persuaded to expand that footprint in San Diego this time for a mens team; either to invest in a new franchise or buy out an existing NASL club in a buyers’ market?

There are many advantages to it for the Xolos:

They would get US national media coverage, as well as relentless anglophone coverage in the region.

In fact, the lack of a West Coast side is a major stumbling block to a tv deal, and they may be the catalyst that allows NASL to get such a deal, including them on cable.

Most importantly, the club can make profit.

If 5000 San Diegans are already prepared to navigate the border hassles to watching a Liga MX side, any Xolos owned US based club already has a fanbase inbuilt. Not a single marketing dollar has to be spent to raise that brand awareness.

To that existing fanbase, they can add local fans with no connection to the Mexican side of the border who just want to support a San Diego team. My anecdotal evidence from my time in Brazil proves there is support there.

With an inbuilt media operation already in place, the contacts are there to reach local people.

Anecdotally, there is significant love of soccer in the area. While covering the World Cup in Brazil, I commonly asked US fans where they came from. Apart from cities with MLS franchises, the biggest number came from Southern California, south of LA.

The local business community may not have deep enough pockets or soccer-love to meet the needs of an MLS franchise and NFL, but the demands to commercially sustain one in NASL are lower. This move would allow Tijuana’s ownership to dig into an entirely new collection of coffers, San Diego’s large business community. That’s an untapped soccer goldmine that should have the already wealthy Xolos ownership licking its lips.

No MLS club is sustainable in San Diego because it would have to compete with the Xolos for fans and the Chargers for sponsorship but the NASL club would not be competing at all. Indeed the two would compliment and promote each other. Xolos play home games on Friday nights leaving the weekend clear. There is potential for joint season tickets and all manner of cross promotion including supporters groups.

The San Diego local authorities are already on board with the concept of Tijuana being a ‘regional team’ so civic support from Mayor Kevin Faulconer is guaranteed.

He already has performed public events with Xolos players for the San Diego press.

“We are not two separate cities, San Diego/Tijuana” he said to members of the media. “We are one region, and the Xolos are the team of the region.”

On the playing side, there are also advantages.

The club itself would be able to field a farm team in a US league where players could learn the style of football they may need in CONCACAF. They could hire and observe American players with no immigration implications.

The club would be able to enter the US Open Cup and mix with MLS teams with the chance of playing a local derby with LA Galaxy and later LAFC.

The two seasons a year nature of NASL matches the calendar Xolos play. Xolos would add a little global prestige by joining the ranks of those organizations who own clubs in two nations such as Manchester City.

What are the likely hurdles and drawbacks?

Firstly, as (at least initially) the only Western side in NASL, the travel will take its toll until there is a second side. Peterson acknowledged this in the teleconference:

“It’s a little bit tougher for the early clubs. Flying and the expense of flying is part of the equation, and it’s always going to be. We have to balance that out with the need and desire to have a full footprint. It’s impossible to enter into a national tv deal before you have that full footprint. We’re hoping we can move quickly and have some sort of critical mass out there.”

Unless NASL price themselves out of the market, the biggest stumbling block, is a stadium. It would be preferable if San Diego would join along with a second franchise.

USSF demands a 5,000 seater stadium and that is a standard for a league to be given D2 status. The NASL itself imposes no standard though.

It just so happens that the NFL Chargers are looking for a new stadium. Currently it looks as if a relocation a new stadium in Carson, which will be shared with the Raiders is the likeliest outcome.

San Diego Mayor Faulconer is pitching for a new stadium to be built in Mission Valley. Fast tracking an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is key to the project moving forward according to NBC San Diego. The earliest that could happen is January 2016.

Even then, a citywide vote would have to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.

To people in Seattle, some of this might sound vaguely familiar. In 1996, the Seattle Seahawks were about to be moved to Los Angeles. Microsoft-co-founder Paul Allen offered to buy the club if public finance would be available to replace the decaying Kingdome and a city wide vote passed the initiative.

In a Guardian piece, How soccer saved the Seattle Seahawks, Les Carpenter reports that the vote seemed doomed to defeat until the guarantee that the stadium also be made available for soccer changed the likely outcome by bringing a key demographic to the city wide vote; soccer fans. Urban legend in the Emerald City is that the soccer fans’ intervention won the referendum.

Carpenter quotes someone who would know better than most, Gary Wright, the Seahawks vice president at the time, who was later drafted in to provide midwifery and all round counsel to the nascent Sounders franchise in 2008:

“Knowing what I know about soccer today [the fans]brought a totally different demographic to the vote,” Wright told Carpenter. “The hardcore soccer person isn’t the same as the hardcore football person. It widened the margins of the electorate by bringing in extra people.”

Is it just possible that Faulconer has a better chance of winning any city wide vote if he follows suit and builds a stadium for both codes, assuming the clock doesn’t beat him.

If that seems too tight a call, then we could point out that Major League Soccer’s NYCFC currently use the baseball field belonging to the New York Yankees. So using the Padres Petco Park does not create a precedent.

The current Chargers stadium has been a venue for many international soccer matches. It has hosted FIFA tournaments, including the CONCACAF Gold Cup as well as many Mexico friendly matches. The USWNT played China there last year. It was good enough for Real Madrid in 2011 and was part of the failed US World Cup bid for 2022.

It may not be good enough for the Chargers anymore but it would be just fine for the NASL. They would not fill it but they could learn from the Sounders and Vancouver and only open the lower bowl to create an atmosphere. That would hang on it not being flattened however upon the Chargers’ departure.

All these sharing plans will require negotiation and contract but if Yankee Stadium isn’t sacrosanct and Qualcomm has already seen soccer then why not?

Peterson needs a West Coast side and Tijuana need new ways of infiltrating their brand into San Diego.

Given the NASL’s need and the lack of alternatives, surely the expansion fee could be waived or spaced over five years to reduce any remaining risk to the Xolos ownership? Or a deal cut which limited responsibility for the Silverbacks’ liabilities?

For NASL, this offers the best (perhaps only) route to a west coast club as well as solving one of their main existing issues.

For the Xolos, this gives them a chance to inject the red and black into the DNA of American soccer that no amount of newspaper articles can achieve, and with a chance of making a profit.

Will either pick up the phone?

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