I have been an avid fan of the game for many years and have found myself heavily involved on the internet fan site side of things in just the last couple of years. Early on, the USL (then USISL) did not view me very kindly. Quite frankly, I think they viewed myself and what the websites tried to do as competition. The reality is that we have been partners all along. It just took them some time to recognize that.
One of the things that changed for we fans was the way that the internet really brought us all together in one place to converse and trade ideas and opinions. One of the things that were needed for those intelligent exchanges was accurate information. The USL, and teams as well, had been very tight lipped about almost all forms of information. They created an information vacuum. Their attitude had been if we don't release it they don't need to know it!
It was from that information vacuum and the knowledge that there were many fans in pockets around the country with no place to gather, that brought about the birth of the USL Discussion Zone at usldiscussions.com in December 1998, and the rebirth of the A-League fan site, a-league.com in February 2000. From these humble roots we have worked hard at gathering information and disseminating it to the growing fan base that had been there all along but were never really brought together into one electronic forum.
While all this was going on, I was working very hard behind the scenes with folks in the league office to not only build a trust between myself and them but to also work to educate them about how important a supportive and informed fan base was to their long-term survival. You see, in the end we are all fans and want our teams and the league to be here years from now to watch and cheer on. The communication barrier that existed between us in the past made it extremely difficult for either side to recognize that the other was on their side too!
For the opportunity to be at this years USL AOM, I would like to say 'Thanks' to both Dave Askinas, Chief Operating Officer, and Tim Holt, Director of A-League Operations for allowing me to attend. This is a closed forum, not an open session, so generally those in attendance fall into two categories: teams and their support staff and vendors. The fan base has never had a seat at the table before, even if only from a viewing standpoint. For me, this was a huge step. The league is truly acknowledging what an important part the fan base plays in their long-term success. And quite frankly, some of the teams are learning it as well!
OK, now on to the meat of what I learned during my week in Clearwater, Florida!
The USL AOM is an annual gathering of owners, team management & coaches of all leagues under the umbrella of the United Soccer Leagues (A-League, D3, PDL, W-League and Y-League). Among the many things that go on during this intense week of meetings are:
- Seminars in such areas as;
- brand building;
- structuring your team's front office;
- building a sponsorship;
- developing a complete soccer program;
- budgeting;
- camps;
- ticket sales and promotions;
- player contract negotiations;
- game day operations;
- and a variety of other key areas that go into running a pro soccer team
Some of these seminars are done by the USL staff, while others are done by experts in their particular field who are hired by the USL to come in for this express purpose. One thing that is common throughout these seminars is a combination of healthy interaction between all the clubs in attendance. Teams have learned much through their seasons of effort about what works and what doesn't, and this is their forum to exchange information about the lessons learned with their peers.
- Game Scheduling - now this is an animal all unto itself. Once teams know the alignment, the guidelines of how many games there will be in the season, how many times they must play teams within their division/conference, and how many games must be played outside their division/conference, the madness, I mean the planning, ensues. Armed with stadium availability and other individual wishes, the negotiations begin. Notice I said negotiations. The league provides guidelines, and the teams do the rest. This was done this year in two pieces with one very long session on Friday afternoon/evening, and the final round of polishing on Saturday morning. From this comes the rough schedule plan that final adjustments are made to, after teams return home and find out what possible changes might impact their schedule choices. The league deals with it from that point on, adjusting the schedule based on the ramifications of additional changes that occur. The hope is to have the schedule out sometime in January 2002.
- Annual Awards dinner - a complete gathering of all attendees where special notice is given to those teams and individuals recognized by both the league and their peers as having performed a cut above the rest for the just completed season. Awards such as Executive of the Year, Organization of the Year, Rookie of the Year, etc. are presented. It was during this particular evening's gathering that I took the opportunity to track down each of the teams GM's & Coaches who had either their organization, executives, or fans recognized as recipients of 2001 A-League.com awards, and made those presentations. I can tell you this was hands down one of the most enjoyable moments of my week in Clearwater. Whether it was presenting Portland GM Jim Taylor with a pair of awards for Allison Andrews, who drew co-Feature Writer of the Year and Match Reporter of the Year, whom he truly recognizes as one of his teams most avid supporters, or Hershey Head Coach Bob Lilley with co-Defender of the Year for Kyle Swords, who was truly appreciative of the fans recognition of a defender who Coach Lilley feels has not gotten the recognition he deserves, or the other awards I handed out on behalf of a-league.com, this was truly an honor for me to take part in.
- Networking, Networking, Networking!!!!! Not enough can be said about folks just being able to gather in one place and relax, trade friendly jabs and suggestions, and generally let their hair down. A tremendous amount of work is done in passing or in short hallway discussions. This week, while short in days, was very intense when you take into account the amount of work that was accomplished.
I have to tell you that quite frankly, I was very impressed! We as fans have done plenty of bellyaching over the last couple of seasons because it appears that the league often seems to dictate this and dictate that. For the most part that is simply not true! Very few decisions are made solely by Francisco Marcos or Dave Askinas or whoever is currently in charge at the time with little or no input from anyone else. Pretty much all matters of importance are discussed and decided among what is called the 'Executive Committee' for each particular league.
This group, selected by their peers, sits down at the table, or on the phone via conference call, and discusses strategic planning and comes to decisions on a variety of subjects. When the teams within a league get together at the USL AOM, they are presented in an open forum with these decisions, and discussions ensue. Sometimes heated discussion. If there are suggestions that things can or should be done differently, after further discussion, it is brought to a vote among all the teams in attendance. It's called a democratic process, and it is at work in your league. I witnessed more than one instance of a difference of opinion with a decision by the executive committee, some lively discussion of both sides of the issue, and then a vote.
Now obviously one key point I am trying to get across here is that nothing is being crammed down a team's throat. Everybody has a voice, and the ability to gather their peers together and swing the decision the other way. It's a healthy process and I was very pleased to see it hard at work all during the week. At the end of the week, I came away armed with a bit more understanding of the types of things the league does to help facilitate the teams' survival. One thing we need to recognize is that these are franchises. The league can and does do a great deal as far as providing training, and facilitating things such as this annual gathering, but it falls to the teams, and specifically the ownership, to hire people who know what they are doing, and who then surround themselves with a competent staff.
Those decisions are ultimately the ones that have the most impact on a team's survival.
Oh, and one final note: they concluded this extremely busy week of networking and planning for the 2002 season with a little of our favorite R & R…a soccer tournament, of course! BTW, Nashville Metros GM Devinder Sandhu's team took the title!
