Build a stadium, gain MLS following

(by Brad Rock desnews.com 1-28-05)

There were TV cameramen from Telemundo and Univision (the Spanish-language networks in Utah), a coach from England and a player from Argentina via Bolivia. There was a team official who has called a half-dozen countries home, and a player who spent a season in Sweden.

There was also an ambassador from El Salvador, a journalist from Honduras and a marketing-sales guy from Germany via Jamaica.

That doesn't even count all the team members, who weren't there, hailing from such far-flung and exotic places as Bosnia, Trinidad, Botswana and, well, Omaha.

The press conference was even held at an international restaurant: Rodizio Grill.

You want to promote a global sport like soccer, you need to accommodate a global crowd. What says world peace better than fraldinha (beef tender), linguica (sausage) and picanha (top sirloin)?

Thursday's gathering was an excuse for Real Salt Lake — Utah's latest major league sports franchise — to make news prior to its preseason training period. On hand were a few players, all the coaches, some management people, the media and a large supply of meat. RSL leaves next week for Bradenton, Fla., to train and play exhibition games. It then travels to Portugal Feb. 24-March 9. The team won't be back in town until late March.

By then, team officials are hoping Major League Soccer fever will have overtaken Salt Lake. Whether that happens is debatable. Pro soccer in America has never fully taken hold. What's that saying? Oh, yes: Today, the world; tomorrow, America.

Does winning over one solitary country have to be this hard?

Included in the list of dignitaries present at the gathering was Chris Agnello. For the past five years, he guided the fortunes of the Utah Blitzz, serving as coach, father figure, traveling secretary and even owner for two seasons. He built the team into a product that drew 2,500 or so nightly. Not great, but good enough that "we didn't leave any debt and destruction in our wake."

You might say he knew the franchise inside and out, right down to the smallest bit of minutiae — which we can assume included player salaries.

But it has been a good winter for Agnello. The current owners of the Blitzz agreed to shelve their team in order to accommodate RSL.

Agnello was then hired as an assistant coach.

Game off, game on.

As one who has seen the challenges of soccer in the United States, and particularly Utah, Agnello hasn't lost confidence in the game's ability to thrive in Salt Lake. In fact, he's gained it. Why, considering only once in the 10-year history of MLS has a team made a profit?

Partly, he says, it is because the city has tens of thousands of LDS returned missionaries who were exposed to the sport in foreign lands.

Second, Salt Lake has more soccer kids, moms and minivans than anywhere.

Third, MLS teams are averaging about 15,000 fans — which is roughly comparable to the National Hockey League (which clearly has challenges of its own).

There is also the allure of a major league product, which no minor league team can match.

"Much to my dismay with the Blitzz, I was always hearing people say, 'If this were major league, I'd go.' I hate to say it, but I'm not that much different," says Agnello.

And yes, he will be going.

But perhaps the most important survival factor, he concludes, is that a soccer-only venue is in the works. Thus, the team has the potential for revenue from naming rights, concessions, advertising and suites. The L.A. Galaxie — the sole team to turn a profit — has its own stadium.