Rapids have new look, new partner

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DENVER - When it came to rebranding Colorado's Major League Soccer organization, the Rapids ultimately valued the strength of their own organization even more than the trappings of one of the most prestigious European clubs.

The Rapids unveiled a new shield and colors Friday, moments before announcing a marketing relationship with London's storied Arsenal Football Club. While rumors had been flying for weeks on both sides of the Atlantic about a more extensive partnership - perhaps including a name change for the Rapids and an ownership change for Arsenal - the two clubs are focusing on youth development and marketing, for the time being.

Arsenal brings 120 years of tradition to the partnership, including 13 league titles in England's top flight, and the Rapids hope to utilize that expertise in new youth programs at the club's new Colorado-based soccer complex, hosting training camps and clinics through the new Arsenal Center of Excellence as well as the inaugural Arsenal Cup, an invitational tournament bringing together youth clubs from all over the country to compete in Colorado. The first tournament is tentatively scheduled for July 2007, with the winning club heading to England as part of their prize.

"Arsenal is truly one of the great, great clubs in all the world," Rapids Managing Director Jeff Plush said Friday. "They'll have a physical presence in the United States 365 days a year with the Arsenal Center of Excellence [at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver]."

The Arsenal Center of Excellence is aimed at bringing Arsenal's distinctive style of play to the youth using the multiple fields at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, and Plush called the center the "hallmark" of the partnership.

"They will hire a full-time coach who will relocate to Denver," Plush said. "It will be somebody with a strong Arsenal lineage who will come and build the Arsenal way of playing. Arsenal has a very special and stylized way of playing. It's a very offensive, very beautiful style that will be very attractive to the American customer."

As for the rumors of a name change, Plush confirmed that the Rapids had explored numerous possibilities, but dismissed the idea that there had been any discussion of Kroenke Sports Enterprises pursuing any level of ownership with the Arsenal.

"Absolutely not," Plush said. "This is 100 percent a commercial relationship, a marketing relationship, a best-practice relationship. There were zero equity conversations as a part of this, period.

"This is business, this is strategic," Plush added. "This is about brand extension for them. We become their advocate and their friend on the ground in the United States. Arsenal is a global brand. We aspire to be a global brand, and we believe they can help us get there faster."

But despite the emphasis on youth development and marketing, Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo couldn't help but be optimistic that some of the benefits would spill onto the field, including possible player exchanges further down the road. Arsenal's aggressive offensive style, characterized by one-touch movement up the pitch, could play well in Colorado, where the large new field and the element of altitude are well suited for a relentless, attacking approach.

"This is one of the best teams in Europe," Clavijo said. "Any time you have a direct relationship with a team, the coach and the staff from both teams, we can only benefit. We have to find how to materialize this relationship even better."

Noting that 85 percent of Arsenal's roster is made up of players from outside of England, Clavijo explained that the relationship gives Arsenal both insight and inroads into the growing talent base in the MLS.

"Arsenal is extremely intelligent," Clavijo said. "Our American players are getting better and better. Soccer in America will keep growing. Teams in Europe want to have relationships with teams in the United States. We have the greatest soccer complex in America. We're going to get a lot of things from Arsenal, but I think Arsenal is going to benefit from this relationship in a big way too."

In the short term, Arsenal will play host to the Rapids at their facilities in London from March 8-13 as part of Colorado's preseason training camp. The Rapids hope to schedule a game with Arsenal before traveling on to Valencia, Spain, and Clavijo noted that the players are excited about the opportunity to "test themselves" against an elite team from Europe.

Plush described Arsenal as an organization epitomizing "integrity, class, and professionalism," and KSE Executive Vice President Paul Andrews called Arsenal the "cream of the crop" among several clubs the Rapids explored regarding a partnership. The partnership caps some six months of discussions and helps to position the Rapids as a central figure in MLS' efforts to expand their global presence.

"The league is on the verge of really taking it to the next level," Andrews said. "You've got Beckham in the league now. You've got a new stadium here in Colorado. You've got the designated player rule. You've got the All-Star Game here in Colorado. You've got a new TV agreement. You've got a worldwide recognized game. We think we can translate that into making soccer one of the biggest games in the United States over the course of the next several years.

"The Arsenal marketing alliance will help bring more legitimacy to the league and help get us smarter," Andrews concluded. "And maybe it will give us a competitive advantage here that we're hoping to attain."

Plush's counterpart in England, Arsenal Managing Director Keith Edelman, was equally respectful of his new U.S. partner, pledging to help the Rapids with their "technical performance on the pitch" while immersing themselves in grassroots development in a new market.

"This is a very important step for Arsenal Football Club," Edelman said in a pre-recorded video statement. "It will be our first venture into the States.

"A major benefit for Arsenal is to be involved in a very important marketplace in the world, in a very important sport," Edelman continued. "We see this as a long term development partnership, and there will be some immediate gains, probably more for the Colorado Rapids in terms of name recognition. In the longer term we see this as a joint venture partnership where we can both develop extra revenues."

Though the Rapids color changes coincidentally incorporates the "throwback" maroon color that Arsenal used last year, the new shield and kit are more about developing consistency between KSE's prominent sports franchises.

Calling it "timeless ... elegant ... and representative of our game from a global perspective," Plush pointed out the newly incorporated elements of both the Avalanche (NHL) and Nuggets (NBA) colors and design features in the Rapid's new look and feel.

"The mountain peak is evocative of the top of the "A" of the Avalanche, and the backdrop here has the Nugget mountainscape behind the ball," Plush explained. "The whole idea we built upon was really using the Kroenke DNA: the Avalanche, the Nuggets, the burgundy and powder blue."

"This was important for us to step forward as who we are as an organization," Plush said. "We're proud of what we've done. We've had a lot of success in this market. The Rapids have been to two conference finals. We're on the precipice. This is the next natural step for us. We're chomping at the bit, to say the least."

Owen Perkins is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.