Major League Soccer has a number of particularities, even at the head of its clubs. Contrary to other leagues, each club has a mandatory owner and that person can own more than one team. Who are these people and organizations that have decided to take ownership of a soccer club in our part of the world?
BIG NAME OWNERS
A few years ago, there weren’t very many of them. For quite some time, nearly all of the MLS clubs were under the control of three people: Phil Anschutz, Robert Kraft and Lamar Hunt.
Hunt, a Texas oil magnate, had long been involved in the sport. After attending the 1966 World Cup in England, he fell in love with the sport and founded a club in Dallas, which played in the now-defunct NASL. He also convinced Sam Berger to create the Montreal Olympique during that same era. Upon his arrival in MLS, Hunt immediately invested in several clubs. Thanks to him, Columbus was able to build the league’s first soccer-specific stadium. When he passed away in 2006, his son, Clark Hunt, inherited his teams and still presides over the two most emblematic ones, Columbus and Dallas.
Kraft, another investor from the very beginning, is a man who built his reputation on location: Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. He also owns the two teams that play there, one in MLS, the other in the NFL, and is one of the 400 richest Americans. He has no affiliation with the Kraft Foods Company.
Anschutz, through his AEG group, scattered his business everywhere. Since 1996, he’s invested in seven different MLS clubs. He’s what you could call a “professional sports owner”, seeing as how he also owns several hockey teams and arenas. Phil Anschutz got his career started by working with his father in the oil business. Phil’s money allowed a number of MLS clubs to survive during difficult times. Since then, the majority have stabilized and are headed in the right direction. AEG owns the LA Galaxy, which isn’t surprising given that the group is based in Los Angeles. Anschutz is still a majority investor in Houston and was able to find some worthy business partners, most notably, boxer Oscar de la Hoya, who purchased shares in 2008 with the Brener Group.
LOCAL INVESTORS AND CELEBRITIES
Many of the recent moves made by big-name investors reflect the growing interest and evolution of soccer in the United States, with the MLS as a prime example. In fact, groups of local investors have been formed in some places, in order to reclaim the local club. The names of the groups are the best proof: DC United Holdings for DC United, as well as the Sporting Club of Kansas City, where the club recently adopted the name Sporting Kansas City. In San Jose, Earthquakes Soccer succeeded in re-launching a team in a city that was deprived of an MLS club for two years. The Philadelphia Union was founded by a similar group; Keystone Sports and Entertainment, where eight investors got together to get the team off the ground.
The members of these investor groups are obviously well-known businessmen with lots of money, but they’re bound by a common passion: soccer.
Other clubs have multiple owners acting as individual investors. In these cases, it’s usually a relatively unknown person, sometimes a foreigner, whose reputation was built outside of soccer. That doesn’t stop them from believing in the game. The best example is in Seattle, where Adrian Hanauer took over the USL club in 2002. He partnered on an MLS bid with comedian Drew Carey, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen as well Joe Roth, the former chief of 20th Century Fox and Disney Studios. Similarly in Vancouver, D2 owner Greg Kerfoot solicited the support of basketball star Steve Nash, as well as tech giants Stephen Luzco (Seagate) and Jeff Mallett (Yahoo!).
PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS AND SPECIAL CASES
This new type of MLS investor doesn’t mean we won’t see “professional sports owners” anymore. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) is the best example, owning Toronto FC, the Maple Leafs (NHL) and the Raptors (NBA). The majority shareholders of MLSE are the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. By the same token, SCP Worldwide owns Real Salt Lake, as well as the St. Louis Blues (NHL) and other sports and entertainment venues.
Colorado’s Stan Kroenke single-handedly built his empire, first making a fortune in real estate, before investing in basketball, hockey, football and soccer. He’s even a majority shareholder with English club Arsenal.
Another heavy hitter in the soccer world, Jorge Vergara, owns the two clubs bearing the “Chivas” name. The original, based in Guadalajara, Mexico, was founded in 1906. Its American counterpart, Chivas USA, entered MLS in 2005. Red Bull, the energy drink known around the world, has been making a name for itself in soccer for the last few years. After purchasing and transforming Austria Salzburg in 2005, it did the same thing in New York one year later.
In Portland, Merritt Paulson took it upon himself and was successful in taking his D2 team into MLS. A Harvard University graduate, he gained experience in various roles with the NBA and with the media, before investing in Oregon in 2007. Finally, perhaps the most anonymous of the MLS owners is in Chicago. Andrew Hauptman is the man behind Andell Holdings, a private investment group, which took over in 2008. At 39, Hauptman became the league’s youngest owner.
Matthias Van Halst, Impact Média
