NY neoCosmos: The Madness v2.0
Posted on July 18, 2012 12:12 pm
Would someone please tell me what it is about the name “New York Cosmos” that makes otherwise smart people with lots of money and business sense grab their shotguns and head out to the forest while bragging about the big pile of unicorn pelts they’ll soon be bringing home?
When the news broke last week about the new owners of the neoCosmos buying into the NASL, it seemed that, at last, someone was bringing a modicum of proportion and reality into what had been a situation which, while rife with hilarity and eminently entertaining, was so obviously all smoke and no fire that only a brain-damaged monkey could have possibly believed a word of it.
Last Friday, Grant Wahl wrote a terrific piece about the current situation that, among other things, made it clear that the days of 100 foot billboards, swanky Manhattan cocktail receptions and expensive signings of empty names from long ago were over.
As Chairman Seamus O’Brien told Wahl:
“We won’t say anything we’re not going to deliver on, so you’re not going to get hyperbole and big, grandiose lunatic statements that might have been the mantra of the past. You’re going to get facts and reality.”
They were joining NASL because they wanted to build from the ground up and “get it right”. Yes, they are looking at MLS because “We aspire to play at the highest level that we can”, and certainly wanted to continue their “dialogue” with that league but for now just getting 11 guys out there playing the Carolina Railhawks was their sole focus.
The guy was so sincere, so down to Earth, that you were almost tempted to believe him.
Then, on Monday, Roger Bennett at ESPN posted this piece which makes you wonder if he and Wahl talked to the same guy.
With Bennett, O’Brien begins with a very similar tone:
“We’re back with none of the posturing; just a sound business plan…From now on, I want our deeds to match our words.”
Then, however, he tells Bennett that joining the NASL isn’t really a matter of starting at the bottom of the ladder, get some things going, proving your sincerity and humbly working their way up.
Far from it.
What it really amounts to, we’re told, is a “shrewd footballing strategy”:
“We evaluated the NASL opportunity alongside the MLS opportunity and came to the conclusion that it was the better fit for the business we are in today.”
“Simply put, in NASL we have the freedom to do whatever we need to in a way we would not have in MLS. Our goal is to own our own brand, media rights and player contracts.”
Warming to his topic – or possibly cracking a second bottle of scotch – Bennett claims that entering MLS would have cost them $100 million (actually, once the stadum is built MLS supposedly intends to conduct a sort of auction amongst the interested parties and they HOPE it will go that high, but no matter) and “We realized we would be better off as owners by investing that $100 million capital in our own brand and owning it.”
He then makes some snarky remarks about promotion and relegation while wondering aloud about the “evolving relationship between the NASL and MLS” (note to Mr. O’Brien: good luck with that one) and where that might lead but then makes it clear he really has no interest in competing with Sporting Kansas City and the Portland Timbers:
“Our focus is on (the) global football economy. We are not yet a Real Madrid or a Manchester United but as the football world converges, we intend be part of that game.”
He then goes into an amazingly note-perfect Paul Kemsley imitation, noting that “What attracted us to the Cosmos in the first place was the brand — a historic brand that has such resonance domestically and worldwide” before, finally, dropping the facade altogether:
“We understand we need to be able to deliver on that history today by doing the things other truly global teams do: I want to develop a Cosmos TV deal that is viewable around the world. I want to have apparel everywhere from Beijing to Tokyo. I want offseason tours against teams like Real Madrid.”
So then, in summary, O’Brien’s vision differs from the last set of delusional mopes how, exactly? They don’t plan on bringing back Eric Cantona or the late Giorgio Chinaglia? (although he does note that “Pele will be involved”. Of course. What would insanely hallucinatory soccer money-wasting be without Grandfather Time sitting in the corner drooling on himself while muttering that Messi isn’t good enough to carry his old crusty jockstrap?).
So what he’s really saying is what the last guys said. It’s all about “the brand” and establishing a global marketing empire on a par with Manchester United and Barcelona and building a superteam loaded with superstars and having little children in China wearing Cosmos jerseys while huddled around their TV sets at 4 in the morning watching The Cosmos play either a) The Puerto Rico Islanders or b) an exhibition game against an offseason AC Milan.
Really? He believes this?
Now I’m positive that this pile of utter rubbish sounds wonderful to the guys back in Saudi Arabia who are bankrolling this thing. I’m just wondering if he bothered to edit Kemsley’s sales pitch or did he just change out the letterhead?
Now some people are speculating that the real purpose here is to bully MLS into giving them that 20th spot or risk losing the Cosmos brand forever.
If so, I wish him luck. MLS knows it can get along fine without it.
Or maybe he believes that he can make MLS change their entire corporate structure. Again, good luck.
Or perhaps he believes they’ll let him into the league on a deal that’s different from everybody else’s. Ditto.
Whatever it is, one thing is clear:
Like it always is with the Cosmos, the last thing it has anything to do with is the soccer.
He sounds like Joey Saputo — before the Impact wrote the check.
The Hammerheads don’t play in the NASL. Perhaps you were looking for the Carolina Railhawks? The Islanders are an NASL team.
And I highly doubt that any body who has never been to the US would get up at 4 AM to watch a MLS or NASL match. Sorry, ain’t happening.
The funny thing is that I stopped myself from typing “Rochester Rhinos” and then picked the next name that came to mind. Duh. I changed it to the Railhawks in the text so as not to blow anyone’s fuse. Thanks BA
True, very likely nobody would watch an MLS or NASL game at 4am right now. I could foresee it for MLS in the (far?) future, but never for the NASL. I simply fail to see how playing in the NASL would do ANYTHING to help Cosmos become that global brand. He talks about convergence of soccer, but can’t even imagine how that might work – a world Superleague? And how on earth would Cosmos be invited to that if they are grinding it out in the US 2nd division. The name itself won’t get them there. Eyeballs on the screen would, but again, they can’t get there through NASL. It is ludicrous.
Point being, they MIGHT be able to attain their global brand through MLS. NEVER through NASL. I simply don’t know what this guy is smoking…
No joke, I routinely wake up at 3 or 4am to watch Minnesota Stars games.
The founder of the Hammerheads was an old New York coach Al Pastore. He founded Fc Westchester. We played against his teams now and then.
Al also coached New Hanover High School, whose games I covered back before the Hammerheads existed. (I left, and THEN they got a team. No fair.)
As far as I remember Al Pastore was never an active player himself here in NY.
I wonder how much they paid the Cosmopolitian soccer league for the right to be called the Cosmos. I think the original cosmos paid less then 10,000 dollars for use of the name. So they will be playing in Long Island? Long Island won’t have enough fan support to make it work.
The long island rough riders had a great team before the MLS started under Alphonse Mondelo in the USISL. There was talk about putting that team into the MLS. It never happened because of lack of support to build a stadium and other things. But now in LI it will be a successful?
A few years ago their was supposed to be a NY Cosmo team in the MLS stadium ws to be built in Manhattan. Madison Square Garden organization put a stop to that.
Who will be the coach of this team in Long Island? Some long Island college coach or a former Long Island player or Alphonse?
…er, they bought the name from Peppe Pinton a few years ago.
Actually, Paul Kemsley bought it from Pinton, then Sela bought it from Kemsley.
@nicklaino: The original Cosmos didn’t pay the Cosmopolitan League anything for the use of the name. There was no Cosmopolitan League in 1971. It was still called the German-American League. I think it changed its name to Cosmopolitan around 1980.
The GASL had named an All Star team beginning in 1930. In 1968, after the newly established North American Soccer League approached the GASL about placing a GASL team in the NASL, the league formed its All Star team, known as the Cosmos, into an exhibition team. The Cosmos did not enter the NASL until the 1971 season, but when it did, it was well stocked with former GASL players.
The Cosmos did have a lot of GASL players in their first season, however…
The NASL awarded two expansion franchises on Dec. 10, 1970, one a Toronto franchise and one a New York franchise awarded to 10 executives from the Kinney National Corp., who had put up $35,000 apiece to meet the NASL’s expansion fee of $350,000. The 10 men soon afterward sold the team to Kinney itself, after they had realized what a money pit it was (in 1972, Kinney, which owned the Warner Brothers movie studio, changed its name to Warner Communications).
The name Cosmos was chosen for the new NASL team by general manager Clive Toye in February 1971. He held a contest, and when one of the entries was Cosmos, the name he wanted, he declared it the winner.
“They don’t plan on bringing back Eric Cantona or Giorgio Chinaglia?”
Hope not. As Major Strasser said, “You would find the conversation a trifle one-sided.”
I dunno. Maybe you can bury Giorgio but would that actually be enough? The man did love to talk.
And someone just pointed out to me that King Eric is still listed as the Director of Soccer. Here’s hoping it’s just an oversight.
I wish they could bring back Giorgio from football heaven
he was some guy. He hated Pele he was the big scorer not Pele. He thought he should be getting all the attention from the press.
Bad move for old cosmos fans
It looks like the plan is to play in the MLS in 3 years time when the stadium in Queens is built. They will play in the NASL in the meantime but they don’t want to turn off potential fans that will be disappointed to see the world famous Cosmos playing in a 2nd tier league. Its really not that bad of a plan.
It’s a horrible plan. I heard they’re playing at Hofstra, right? So, if I’m envisioning this correctly, the new Cosmos is going to be playing sh*tty soccer on gridiron lines in front of puny crowds.
And they don’t think this will damage their precious brand?
if i hear the snideness in your comment correctly, you dont seem to be concerned if the Cosmos’”precious” brand is damaged or not so how is this relevant to you, unless you think that by being negative it will make your wish come true?
Isn’t that how the original Cosmos started out, playing at Hofstra? Maybe they are hoping for history to repeat itsself.
I’m still waiting for Roger to write a post about the Cosmos Hoftra years. The soccer wasn’t that sh*tty and crowds weren’t always that puny. I remember some good friendlies against eastern European teams, back in the cold war days when those type of games were still fairly rare.
I really ought to leave it for Allaway, but actually the Cosmos played their first season in Yankee stadium. They moved to Hofstra in year two, but only stayed there for two years because attendance was so dismal. In the 5000 range both years they were there.
I happened to drive past Hofstra about 12 hours ago, although I live in Philadelphia, and stopped to peek through the fence into the stadium. Surprised to see that it still has football lines, since Hofstra gave up football three years ago. Don’t know who plays football there now. Also surprised by a large sign over the press box, Home of the Flying Dutchmen, since Hofstra gave up that nickname for p.c. reasons eight years ago. However, I must concede that the stadium looks a lot better than the ramshackle place the Cosmos played in 40 years ago. Actually, I never went to a Cosmos game at Hofstra back then, although I did go to several track meets in that stadium in the ’70s (it no longer has a track).
What exactly was considered non p.c. about a ghost ship?
The reference to a particular ethnic group.
I don’t know what the capacity of Hoftra was back then, but it couldn’t have been more than 7,500; so about 5,000 wouldn’t be that bad. I’m sure they didn’t get much more in Yankee Stadium. However most of the 5,000 who attended Cosmos games back then were just like me: Long Island HS kids getting on for ridiculously low student prices. Plus is seemed like there were constant give-a-ways. I still have LPs from various Warner Bros labels which were given away.
They need bus service to tge stadium from other out of borough locations. When the Metrostars opened at Giant Stadium. Sometimes I would get their by Bus from Brooklyn. They had bus service to the race track. I would take the bus to the track. Then walk the 300 yards to the stadium to catch a metrostar night game. Then walk to the track and play the last three races before the bus left. Then go home to Brooklyn on the bus. It was great except for the three hundred I would lose at the track.
Let’s bring back bus service to RedBulls games and to the new Cosmos games.
I really hope they knock out at least one MLS team in the next US Open Cup, just to see how big their heads get…before someone else brings them back to Earth.
“I want to develop a Cosmos TV deal that is viewable around the world. I want to have apparel everywhere from Beijing to Tokyo. I want offseason tours against teams like Rangers, FC.
That’s better.
You beat me to the punch, Bill. This is deja vu all over again. It is a sad treatment of the brand, though not entirely unfitting. “Delusions of grandeur” would not be too off the mark for an epitaph of Cosmos I. Besides, now we have years more of pointing and laughing to look forward to.
“I want to have apparel everywhere from Beijing to Tokyo.”
Err, Beijing and Tokyo aren’t very far apart.
It’s been years, but at the end of “Once in a Lifetime” the documentary about the rise and fall of the NY Cosmos, I recall a guy, I think it was one of Chinaglia’s servants, sitting alone in a small NY office, holding out hope that NY Cosmos would make a come back and he’d make a bundle because he owned the naming rights, or something like that.
Anyone know what he ended up selling them for? $5 and a couple of slices of pizza?
Peppe Pinton.
Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwSlXv0iFzo
One of my favorite parts of the documentary. I’ve cited “Peppe Pinton owns nothing” more times than I can count.
Thanks!
The Sounders.
No, he doesn’t believe it. Garber says he’s talking to other owners (as a negotiating tactic with the Cosmos). Now O’Brien says they don’t need MLS for the same reason. They are both haggling over that 100 million dollar franchise fee, that’s all.
“Haggling” implies the Cosmos have something to offer that MLS needs. O’Brien can think that all he wants. Doesn’t make it true.
Oh goody! I hope somebody forks out some dough to bring back Bethlehem Steel!
The Cosmos “brand” isn’t strong enough to make actual paying fans give a crap about soccer at Hofstra. Ask the Major Indoor Soccer League how that worked out back when hundreds of thousands of NY/NJ fans had fond first hand experience of that brand in 1985.
…but it’s just strong enought to super charge a year’s worth of pro-rel nonsense from a half dozen maniacs who want to see the Minnesota Stars FC replace Toronto FC in MLS in 2014.
To be fair, after the way this season’s gone, it wouldn’t surprise me if most fans wanted Minnesota Stars FC to replace TFC in MLS.
Me thinks if the Cosmos ever do get into MLS they will be the team everybody loves to hate. At least that seems to be a consensus from the comments. Move over Galaxy.
Cosmos are better off in NASL. I didn’t find anything O’Brien said to be hyperbolic. In the NASL the Cosmos will have control over their brand, their media rights, and their player contracts. In MLS, because of single entity, you don’t get any of that. Then you factor in the possible 100 mill franchise fee and its a no brainer. The Cosmos would be better off using their millions to build a stadium.
The NASL is an appealing league for those soccer fans that prefer a league with less restrictions. There’s no salary cap, there are no drafts, there are no allocations or DP’s or any other gimmicks. You sign the players you want and you sell the players you want. I think this is what O’Brien means when he says that the Cosmos want to be in the same business as Man U etc. It’s the business of soccer they want to be in.
As someone who is going to buy season tickets to the Cosmos the day they become available i would not want the Cosmos in the MLS.
Clearly it’s way too early in the morning for you to be trying to sound logical.
typical
You’re being awfully generous. When the president of a non-existent team starts comparing his franchise to two of the most recognizable brands in the world, red flags go up.
If I were starting a software company, I would never say, “I want to be in the same business as Microsoft and Google,” because that would invite the comparison.
And by comparison, I would look tiny, minuscule, itsy bitsy, and oh yeah, deluded.
except he didn’t compare the cosmos to man u or real madrid. He said he wants the cosmos to join the business of global football even though they are not yet those clubs. A little over the top? Maybe. But thats nitpicking.
I mean when Don Garber says in 10 years MLS is going to be one of the best leagues in the world is he being delusional?
“I mean when Don Garber says in 10 years MLS is going to be one of the best leagues in the world is he being delusional?”
Yes. I don’t know why you asked a question with such an obvious answer.
Obvious answer to you and me, but there are MLS maniacs out there just like Cosmos maniacs.
I believe having a New York Cosmos brand playing in D-2 NASL is the minor league equivalent of MLS signing David Beckham. And god knows, minor league soccer could use a shot in the arm these days…
Anyone know who the coach will be?
Raymond Domenech…or maybe Rinus Michels?
Last I checked, the Earth has spun on it’s axis while orbiting the sun, whilst the sun rode the orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy just fine since the original Cosmos were dissolved.
What in the name of all things football (and business in general) makes anyone think MLS couldn’t get along without the brand?
On a personal note, how is it that morons can be so rich?
I’m confused. Who the hell are they going to play?
The cosmos is the Kardashians of the football world, famous for being famous.
without the big butts!
“Like it always is with the Cosmos, the last thing it has anything to do with is the soccer.”
Hmmm. Funny, growing up with Wim Rijsbergen and Johann Neeskens and Hubert Birkenmeier and Andranik Eskandarian and Vladislav Bogisevic and Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Carlos and Daryll Gee…all of whom who took the time to come out to clinics and camps to personally work with me at camps like All-American Soccer Camp run by the Chyzowycz Brothers…it would have nothing to do with soccer.
That’s why I can’t stand this place. For over 10 years, focusing on the negatives.
But I speak the truth, and I’ll leave it to Sport Billy to give me another lame “yellow card.”
Once again, Bill Archer makes unwarranted, unsupported, and frankly, unbelievable allegations about folks associated with Cosmos.
I, for one, see absolutely no reason to think that the people behind this are ‘otherwise smart’ or have ‘lots of business sense.’
Karl Heinz Granitza, Pato Marhetic and the rest of the Chicago Sting did the same camps for me.
Though I am sure they loved soccer, I believe getting a bit more money was what they were really after.
I would love to go on a cruise ship trip with the old Cosmos. Somebody arrange it and I ‘m in.
Looks like Cosmos Chairman Seamus O’Brien aided corruption at AFC
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQEUxsAx-rIlAFohxD8As1Hqsk4g?docId=eaa2a8ed4a624d5d87732b35aed37fca&utm_source=buffer&buffer_share=255f0
But… the Cosmos apparel is extremely cool, more than any other team’s anywhere. Really classy.
The team? Who cares if you can have the shirt
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