DENVER - In the wake of Thursday's announcement that the Colorado Rapids will host the 2007 MLS All-Star Game, club officials took some time to look at the state of their own club just 72 days from the grand opening of Dick's Sporting Goods Park on April 7.
The upcoming days will reveal whether news of the All-Star Game pitting the best of MLS against Celtic FC of Scotland at the Rapids' new stadium in Colorado makes a bigger splash than the announcement earlier this month that David Beckham would be joining the Los Angeles Galaxy. The day of the Beckham announcement, the Rapids sold hundreds of season tickets, generating a buzz around the team's fans that managing director Jeff Plush hopes is only heightened by the All-Star announcement.
"I think it will have a significant quantifiable effect," Plush said of the Rapids hosting the All-Star Game. "The Beckham announcement was very good for everyone in the league from a tickets-sold perspective. L.A. did great, but we all had record weeks. I think this will have the same type of effect. This stadium is changing everything for our organization. It's a massive step in the right direction. We can't wait for April 7th to get here."
The Rapids have already recorded roughly 85 percent season ticket renewals, bringing their season ticket base to about 2,500 preceding Thursday's All-Star news. Plush expects to see the number "growing dramatically" in the remaining time before the season opens.
While Rapids fans were clearly energized by Beckham's arrival in the MLS, they remain curious to see if the Rapids will make a similar signing with the newly created designated player slot, a provision allowing each team to sign one player outside the league-wide team salary budget and to take on the financial burden for that excess salary. Trading the designated player slot is also an option, but the Rapids emphasized that they have no intention of making any hasty moves.
"Nothing's imminent, either a signing or trading," said Plush. "We've had offers to trade it. I don't think we're ready to do that. We're going to hold on to that asset for right now, because we think it is an asset worth using but using the right way. I think the prudent thing is to take your time and watch how the market evolves a little as opposed to just jumping in and saying we've got our designated player, now what do we do? Clearly Los Angeles did it in a very big way, in a positive way, and in an impactful way. That's the way to do it."
Team owner Stanley Kroenke has already give the Rapids the green light to move on the right deal, according to Paul Andrews, executive vice president of Kroenke Sports Enterprises, but as Plush pointed out, the most significant team needs have already been addressed.
"Look at the holes we had in our team last year, even though we made it to the conference finals for the second (consecutive) year," Plush said, pointing out the club's offseason moves. "Left back, we now have Greg Vanney, a former national team player. Left side at midfield we've got a kid out of Holland, Yherland McDonald. And at striker, we just signed Roberto Brown, a Panamanian player. So we think we've addressed every issue we have, all within the cap. We didn't have to do anything crazy to get any of those done."
Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo said the club had pursued Mexican international striker Jared Borgetti, and Plush characterized the team as making a serious, though unsuccessful bid.
"We were very aggressive on signing a player; it didn't happen," said Plush. "We were thrilled about it, but we didn't get it done. That's okay. You have to get in the game a little bit."
Plush emphasized the team's willingness to remain open to any opportunities that make sense for the Rapids market and their team makeup, following caution from Andrews not to sacrifice team chemistry in pursuit of a high-profile player.
"Clearly a Mexican national or a South American player makes more sense here than an Eastern European, just from our ethnic background here," Plush said. "They have to want to come here too. We live in Denver because we love it. It's still a smaller market. It's not New York City. It's not Los Angeles. So we have to find the right person who's going to adapt here and be excited to be here."
MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis was in Denver for the All-Star Game announcement, and he weighed in on the impact players like Beckham could have on the league's existing salary structure. For the first time, players some $25 million apart in salaries could be on the same field together, creating a new dynamic for the league.
"This is not reckless spending that we're engaged in," Gazidis pointed out. "This is strategic and smart, forward-thinking spending. It's spending that wouldn't have made sense two or three years ago, but we believe it does make sense now.
"We're not opening the doors to the kind of over-expenditure that saw the end of the NASL," Gazidis continued. "It's radically different. We're talking about one player per team. We're talking about a three-year period when we reassess it and make sure that it's providing us the results that we want. And it's being done in a very controlled and disciplined way within our single-entity structure. We have to wait and see what the results are, but the early returns point to something that could be very special for us."
Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
