The Austin Aztex and Foreign Ownership in American Soccer
Here come the Austin Aztex — the newest United Soccer Leagues team, who will play in the First Division, itself one rung below Major League Soccer in the American soccer pyramid.
As Americans are too busy buying Premier League teams, it’s been left to an Englishman, Phil Rawlins, to launch the Aztex in Texas. Rawlins is also an owner and director of Stoke City, who play in England’s Championship.
The Aztex will be officially affiliated to Stoke, which will mean “the English club holding their summer training camp in Austin, scouting for talent both locally and across the US, exchanging players with the Aztex and sharing best practices between the two clubs.”
The interesting part is that this latest move is part of a deliberate strategy by USL founder and president Francisco Marcos to further internationalise the league. As he explained,
I firmly believe that Phil Rawlins understands, and is fully committed to, the concept of international relationships as the way to speed up American player development and to further the creation of thriving soccer culture in the US. Following in the footsteps of Crystal Palace Baltimore, who began play last season, and of our recently announced partnership with West Ham United, this is a significant moment in the history and growth of the USL First Division
My question is, does this represent a good step for American soccer? On the one hand, bringing in foreign expertise on training and development could be helpful (though it would be good if the affiliations were with clubs from more diverse football cultures than the British).
On the other, it’s hard to imagine Americans becoming attached to the likes of Crystal Palace Baltimore, and I say that not only out of my own personal antipathy to Crystal Palace.
Locally rooted USL teams can develop strong support and identity, as we’ve seen with the Portland Timbers. But foreign owned USL teams, as essentially farms or appendages to a higher priority team, seem unlikely to set down roots for long. Despite the remarkably passionate and valiant efforts of California Victory fans to save the club after their Spanish ownership abandoned them, they’ll be on hiatus from the USL in 2008, and their return uncertain.
Yet it’s hard to say a new team being placed in Texas is bad for soccer overall. Austin is a vibrant, growing city — if the Aztex can find and settle at a suitable stadium, it could be a success. There’s already talk on soccer forums of a supporters’ group being formed.
And the Aztex — despite the really forced way they’ve stuck “tex” in the name — can at least claim an actual local basis to their ownership, as Rawlins lives in the area. He also said all the right things, stating that “My goal is to make the Aztex a community-based club that the Austin area can be proud of.”
Let’s hope so. What soccer needs here are more locally rooted clubs that stick around for a long time, not farm operations run for the benefit of foreign clubs.
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Tom Dunmore is the founder and editor of Pitch Invasion. Follow him @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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6 Comments
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As with everything, if it looks fake, it’s in trouble.
Setting down a team that’s obviously designed as nothing more than a local appendage to a foreign club, i.e. Crystal Palace Baltimore, West Ham USA or, yes, Chivas USA (not to mention the abortive Arsenal Colorado rebranding), is doomed. Quite simply, fans everywhere know when they’re being played. Austin appears to be avoiding this, at least; whether they actually do cater to local supporters and potential supporters on an operational basis will determine their success, as is true for all North American minor league professional sports franchises (not just soccer).
It’s good to see the return of gratuitous “x”s and “z”s to American pro soccer. Perhaps soon we can dream of a return to the glory days when you had team names like the Xoggz (http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2325)
My thoughts and concerns pretty much parallel yours. In connection with this, somewhere in one of yesterday’s “More Yanks Buy Premiership Club” stories on Derby County, there was a line from the prospective owners to the effect that it was going to “extend the Derby County brand in North America and around the world.” Excuse me? All apologies to Rams fans, but “the Derby County brand”? This can’t be right. How much brand-space do they really think there is anywhere – much less in the US – for the biggest clubs in the world, much less provincial clubs rattling around the nether reaches of the Premier League?
How do so many very rich people have so little clue?
Francisco Marcos (the USL president) has it 180 degrees backasswards. Instead of foreign ownership, or private ownership at all, which does not take the either the long term interest of its fans or the game as a priority, but rather making money (see your article on Wimbledon FC, or look at Liverpool), the USL should only have teams that are owned by fans as non-profits (in that all profits are reinvested in the community to further soccer development). Barcelona and the Green Bay Packers of the NFL have demonstrated that this is possible, and can form the base for an incredibly strong league, with great fan interest and loyalty, as well as increasing the level of soccer in the U.S. (which the MLS is currently doing little or nothing to help develop).
The name Real Salt Lake is stupid beyond belief.
Its like saying that people wont go for a product but if you change the name to somehting recognizalbe its somehow better.
That might work in Canada where they rename political parties and hope that no one notices (it works!) but its idiotic and is condescending.
Its like when your kids play sports and the kids name themselves after the name of popular franchises.
Its cute when you are 7 because you are identifying with your heroes.
When its a pro team, it reeks of bush league.
The play on words in not genial but I like the aztec/texas combination… it at least represents the region well.