The Grand Failure Of A Real Soccer Club In St. Louis
A few months ago, Peter Wilt posted an interview here with Jeff Cooper in which he described him as arguably “the most powerful man in soccer in the Midwest and one of the most influential in the country.”
Cooper is the lead man behind a unique endeavour in American soccer: a professional men’s club (AC St. Louis, part of the NASL in the USSF Division II which began play this year), a top flight women’s professional club (St. Louis Athletica, in Women’s Professional Soccer which began play last year) and an ambitious youth club, St. Louis Scott Gallagher, that amalgamated three of the area’s leading youth set-ups.
It seemed as if Cooper was putting together the perfect regional pyramid of soccer, from youth to the professional game in both genders.
But Cooper could not find the investment he needed to win an MLS franchise as well.
And now it appears that there is not enough investment to keep all this going: as reported today, it looks as if Athletica will be taken over by the league due to the team’s financial dire straits. “WPS and its Board continue to work closely with the appropriate parties on the matter related to St. Louis Athletica, including the possibility that the league will take over the team which would enable the Athletica to play the 2010 season in full.”
The men’s team seems to be in equal difficulties, a particularly awkward situation for Cooper as the Interim NASL Commissioner.
According to reports, Cooper’s investors, the brothers Heemal and Sanjeev Vaid from England, have pulled out, leaving the entire organisation in severe financial peril. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported yesterday that costs involved with St. Louis’ stadium have been one of the main issues facing the club’s finances:
A reliable source in St. Louis said that the money woes for AC and the Athletica stem, at least in part, from costs associated with operating the Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park, which Anheuser-Busch Inbev donated to Cooper’s group last summer. “The cost of the park is too much to allow funding for the teams,” the source said.
Three months ago, Cooper told Wilt on these pages that “Our model could be adopted to any market. It is scalable for larger or smaller markets. In time, every pro team in the US will become a real “club” with a youth program, academy, women’s team etc. It is the evolution of the game in this country.”
Cooper’s dream was grand and worthy.
But are there lessons to be learned here, if indeed AC St. Louis and/or St. Louis Athletica are taken over by their respective leagues? Would resources better have been devoted solely to the top flight women’s team, rather than trying to run a professional men’s team as well? Is the evolution of the game not at the stage that such an ambitious set-up can be stable without an investor willing to lose millions a year for several years? Is it sensible for men’s and women’s professional teams to be part of the same club, and thus dependent on the financial viability of each other?
Seems to me that he should have diversified his investors rather than relying on the two guys from England. But honestly, how could he have foreseen them pulling out? They must have agreed to invest while the economy was turning downward, so they must have known it would be rough sailing and yet still been willing to lay down the cash. An ambitious dream, possibly ahead of its time, but with one or two other investors to cover his losses the situation might not be so dire.
The reporting that must be done here: What is the deal with the Soccer Park? Why is it so expensive to maintain? MLS clubs that *built* soccer-specific stadiums have had some financial success, so why is St. Louis in such strife with a *donated* park?
This is nothing short of failure to see the market. St. Louis is a city with many recreational soccer players, but soccer-watching fans are few and far between. Living in St. Louis for a couple years showed me that if you don’t have a cardinal or a note on your shirt, St. Louis fans will support your team lukewarmly at best. The market is oversaturated with the Cards, Blues, Rams, several minor league teams, Athletica, ACSTL, as well as substantial alumni bases for Mizzou, SLU, and U of I, all of whom have their own athletics programs. To say there’s extreme competition for the sports dollar, largely won by the Cards, Blues, and colleges is an understatement.
Beau – I agree, that’s a very important question. Especially given the stadium seems to be an appropriate size for both teams, meaning costs to run games there should not be as big as operating a WPS team in an MLS stadium, for example.
Prison Mike – that’s an interesting angle. Given how young both teams are, though (AC St Louis haven’t played many games at all), is it not maybe too early to judge this as a failure based on a lack of popular support in the area, given the club hasn’t really had a chance to establish itself? Everything would surely have been very different if they had earned an MLS franchise a couple of years ago. Do you think there is no chance they would have developed some of the momentum the new expansion teams have managed elsewhere in MLS? (I’m really asking as I know nothing about St. Louis; my only visit there was to watch the Red Stars play their inaugural game down there last year)
Sounds more like Jeff Cooper ran a shell game on people.
When Cooper got into this, he had to understand that he may lose some money the first couple of years. It’s not like he couldn’t pay for all of this with the change in his pocket. Why does the team have to go under?
It sounds like it’s less of a money issue, than this just isn’t interesting enough for Cooper to continue to invest in it. Very flaky, if you ask me.
CVO — Jeff Cooper’s pockets are clearly not very deep, which is why he’s been searching for serious investors in these enterprises for years. He’s an attorney, not a billionaire able to sustain losing large amounts of money year-on-year. I don’t think you can question his interest or passion in developing soccer in St. Louis, he just hasn’t found the backing to achieve what he wanted to do so far.
Tom-
True, he may not be a billionaire, but he has to be worth enough to float this team.
http://www.metrounitedsoccer.com/docs/cooper.pdf
“Jeff Cooper likely wasn’t used to this routine. His law firm, SimmonsCooper, had reached stratospheric heights in asbestos verdicts and settlements, at least $1 billion since 1999. His practice is known throughout the country, and clients seek him out.”
So, as one person on BS surmised, even just 15% of this = $150,000,000. So, unless he blew alot on the ponies, hookers, and/or blow, he’s got enough to float a minor league team and a women’s team w/o breaking the bank for a few years, at least.
I’ll take back the lack of passion portion of my comment, but I still feel if you’re not willing to put your own money into this (when you appear to have plenty), then how “serious” were you?
In addition to the question of how owning/operating a stadium caused a bigger financial burden when it was promoted as being a cost savings there is another question I’d like to see reporters tackle.
There is a perception in some corners (perhaps wrongly) that once AC STL got started the Athletica became an after thought & the sales & pr & work needed to make that team a success off the field was put on the back burner (at best) or criminally neglected (worse interpretation). Perhaps those closer to the situation can give a better/more well informed account. Was Athletica really “sacrificed” to get a men’s team (with NASL’s delusions of grandeur beyond D2 realities) off the ground? Did the men’s side have large cost overruns which compounded the loss of the hedge fund brothers’ money?
(sorry wasn’t able to edit entry…)
Also, does anyone think that WPS league personnel can run the team “better” (and by “better” I mean get butts into seats for the rest of the season) without putting the entire WPS at risk?
AC St. Louis seems to be sitting on quite a lot of real estate for such a minor club.
And I’m sure there are many strings attached to this “donation” (i.e. I doubt it was a pro bono business deal), which is compounding the financial woes.
There’s some decent discussion of all this, and some more questions about Cooper and the future of WPS, in general, in the comments over at Fake Sigi.
“So, as one person on BS surmised, even just 15% of this = $150,000,000. So, unless he blew alot on the ponies, hookers, and/or blow, he’s got enough to float a minor league team and a women’s team w/o breaking the bank for a few years, at least.”
Some people have a tendency to confuse the ability to lose lots of money on something with the inclination to lose lots of money on something.
These types of people say, “If I won $100M in the lottery, I’d own a team, or a league.” Well, you would until somebody smacked some freaking sense into you.
Phil Anschutz (thank God) has a passion for the game. Not everybody has the passion or the stomach for it. These are real losses, losses that may never be made up.
All that said, no, we don’t have enough information about what’s really happening – only bits and pieces. Apparently there’s a gag order on the organization, which is fairly understandable. But the leading economic indicators are not good, you’d have to say.
As for the notion that the utopian “true club” is something that has to happen here…well, I’m not sure it does. I’m certain that Euro types get wood about it and feel it’s the only way things can ever be done. But we have enough problems with organizations running one team, much less two and reserve teams and youth schemes and all that. The dream of a “true club” may be years off in this country.
@ KT
Vancouver does it. They’ve been doing it for years in fact and probably spend 5 times the amount to keep the thing running each year than Cooper would have spent this year alone. Granted, Greg Kerfoot is quite a bit wealthier than Cooper, and it is Canada rather than the US, but the idea that a true club setup is impossible in North America has long been disproven by the Whitecaps.
But it does start with some dedication. Noone pointed a gun to Cooper’s head and forced him into such an ambitious approach. But if you’re going to start such an endeavor, then leaving it on the ground the way that he did is both irresponsible and disingenuous. To the men and women athletes left in the lurch,… the kids who were hoping to play in the academies for a long time. MLS was worried that his financial situation (150M is alot but nowhere near enough to be a major league sports team owner) wasn’t stable enough for them, so he goes down one level and proves them 100% right.
AC ST Louis is still alive and kicking and the fans can not wait for the 2011 season to start. The reports of their death here were greatly exaggerated!!! The attendance has improved throughout the season and having taken roadtrips to games in Tampa, Austin, and Fort Lauderdale this season, I can tell you they already outdraw all of those teams. AC draws several thousand fans a game with absolutely no promtion except on facebook. The idea that St Louis can not support the number of pro sports teams in the area is ludicrous and saying noone will support the Cardinals and AC is just plain stupid!! Just more of the same east coast crap you hear and see constantly coming from the elitests on the coast. I know the midwest is just the part of the country you fly over jetting from coast to coast but we were playing soccer here before anyone else in this country. The Red Bulls couldn’t draw more than a handful of people until a new stadium was built and DC United is a joke. No stories about that failure!!!