John, Ian and R.P. discuss the success — or not — of various business deals made across American soccer. They discuss the general move toward digital ticketing, the USSF ticketing structure (13:30), Chattanooga FC’s ownership drive (31:30) and try to answer if bad shirt sponsors affect soccer jersey sales (52:49).
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Michigan State men’s soccer assistant coach Ben Pirmann returns to the Soc Takes Pod ahead of his team’s trip to the College Cup this weekend in Santa Barbara, Calif. He joins co-hosts Kathryn Knapp and Kevin Johnston to size up the four remaining teams — Michigan State, Akron, Indiana and Maryland — vying for the national title, three of which come from the Big Ten.
Pirmann also provides a scouting report on some of the best professional prospects that’ll take the pitch at the College Cup. If you missed Pirmann’s previous appearance on the podcast, give Soc Takes Pod Ep. 41 a listen.
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INDIANAPOLIS — A link up from Andrew Carleton to Tyler Pasher carried the Indy Eleven to a 1-0 win over Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC on Saturday despite a 50th-minute Ayoze red card. The veteran left wingback was sent off for preventing a goal with his arms. Indy ‘keeper Evan Newton delivered in a big way on the penalty, however, going to his right to deny Robbie Mertz’s attempt.
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Image credit: MAC Hermann Trophy
Every generation has one: a player who stands above all others; a player who people come to see; a player who is more than just a player. In the late 1980s, Ken Snow was that player for Indiana men’s soccer.
Kenny, as those who knew him called him, was one of a kind. He could visualize the game. He was crafty and creative. He dodged defenders easily. And he scored goals. He scored goals with ease. He was small and sneaky. He was technical and precise. He made it look simple.
“He was the best without question,” former IU head coach Jerry Yeagley said. “He had a gift where the game slowed down in front of the goal. He became calm. Most of his finishes were passes, toe pokes, a bender. They were off-speed goals.”
Opponents wanted to shut him down. His teammates fed off his energy and work ethic. And the young kids in the stands or at IU Soccer Camp idolized him. Ken Snow was the reason the stands would fill up on game day. Snow ended his tenure at IU as the all-time leading scorer with 84 goals and 28 assists (196 points). To this day, no one has topped that feat.
“I would sit up high and just watch him play,” current IU head coach Todd Yeagley said. “His movement and sophistication — you had a deep appreciation for him. I was old enough to understand that.”
Snow passed away June 21 at the young age of 50 after a battle with COVID-19-like symptoms. His family and friends are mourning the loss of a legend gone too soon. And a whole new generation will miss out on learning from one of the best.
“Todd and I watched all those games,” Yeagley family friend Omar Alani said. “It was adults versus kids. Kenny, he wasn’t big. He didn’t have ripping muscles. He wasn’t a great athlete. He could score from anywhere. He could chip at any angle. He would put a corner flag right next to the goal. He would practice his free kicks. He got it in every time. It was amazing. If my son was playing soccer, I couldn’t think of anyone better to teach him to score than Kenny Snow.”
Snow grew up playing the game and learning all its secrets. He practiced non-stop with his younger brother, Steve. They focused on the little things. They perfected finishing. And it showed.
“He and Steve from what I understood, they had a goal in the backyard,” Todd Yeagley said. “They played and finished all the time. That’s where he honed his craft. His vision and composure in and around the goal was just different. You’re never going to make an average goalscorer great. It’s something you learn from a young age. The daily battle with his brother definitely helped his game.”
And it didn’t end there. Snow was often the first one at practice and the last one to leave, spending time perfecting the little things.
“He was a soccer junkie,” Jerry Yeagley said. “He hung out after practice to work with the intricacies of the game. He was the last one to leave.”
Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Snow made a name for himself starring for Hoffman Estates High School from 1983-86. He scored 128 goals in 74 matches, ranked no. 17 all time for most goals scored in Illinois High School Association history. Steve and Ken rank No. 1 and No. 2 in IHSA history for the most consecutive matches scored in. Steve scored in 49 straight matches, while Ken scored in 47.
Snow lit up the nets for the Hoosiers from 1987-90. The first four-time All-American kicked off his career with a bang, scoring 28 goals in his freshman campaign, topping the record of 27 goals in a season previously held by Robert Meschbach (1980) and Armando Betancourt (1981).
“Any inch a defender gave him, he would take and make them pay,” Alani said. “We would be invited to play in pick-up games. It was like shooting hoops with Steve Alford or playing catch with Peyton Manning.”
Snow turned up the heat again in 1988. He kicked off the season by tallying four goals in IU’s annual Adidas Classic, topping North Carolina 2-0 and UCLA 2-1. Midway through the season, Snow tallied a hat trick in IU’s 3-0 win over St. Louis. Snow tallied 22 goals in 1988, leading the Hoosiers to the Final Four. IU hosted the tournament and earned its third national championship, topping Portland and Howard by 1-0 scores.
“He was a great friend and a great person,” former teammate Ken Godat said. “He was always known as a fun guy. He was as smart as can be. He was a brain. On the field he was creative, crafty and all finesse — no power about it. He was always chipping, bending, dinking it in, doing something creative. He was a marked man. The year we won it he had 22 goals as a marked man. That’s impressive. He was an amazing player.”
Ken and Steve played one year together at Indiana in 1989. In that year, their teammates witnessed magic. The Snow brothers sparked a 7-2 win over Harvard on Sept. 24. Ken recorded a hat trick in the first half, adding a fourth goal in the second half. Steve scored once and assisted on two of Ken’s goals. The duo combined for 12 points in the win.
“When his brother was there, they could always find each other,” Godat said. “They always had a sense of where the other one was. Steve was strong, the opposite of Ken.”
Snow ended the 1989 campaign with 20 goals and 1990 with 14. He won both the MAC Player of the Year Award and Hermann Trophy in 1988 and 1990. Players around the country knew who he was and idolized him.
“I was excited when I found out Ken was my coach,” former Hoosier J.T. Cerroni said, reflecting on his IU soccer camp experience. “He is so much more than awards, records and accolades. He taught me how to get that half step and turn the defender. He taught me how to get that perfect angle. He was very analytical. He was always thinking. He knew exactly how to get away from his defender. He knew how to get the ball into the back of the net. I learned so much from him.”
In 1988, Snow added two U.S. men’s national team caps to his resume. He played professionally from 1991-99, spending most of his indoor career with the Chicago Power. He played in 140 games for the Power, netting 151 goals. Snow played his best indoor soccer during the 1994-95 season, where he scored 56 goals in 40 games. Snow had a couple of trials with Major League Soccer teams, the Kansas City Wizards and Chicago Fire, but failed to make the cut. He hung up his cleats in 1999.
“He was a natural goalscorer,” former Power general manager and Fire president and GM Peter Wilt said. “That’s what made him special. In the first preseason for the Fire we were desperate for another forward. I pushed Bob Bradley to bring him in. He was trying so hard, but he just couldn’t score. It was down to him and Ante Razov. By the time he finally did score, it was too late. Ante had pretty much made the team. If Kenny would have gotten on a hot streak, he might have had a great MLS career.”
Snow remained active in the soccer community, with youth soccer camps in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Snow’s camps focused on shooting and goal scoring. His camp website, KenSnowSoccer.com, emphasized that “players at every position need to be able to shoot the soccer ball.” His summer 2020 camps were postponed due to COVID-19.
“He worked with young kids on finishing,” Jerry Yeagley said. “He was very smart, very intelligent. He was a hero, a role model. Basketball kids looked up to Steve Alford. Kenny was the one that people wanted to be like. People loved Kenny and loved watching him. People came to our games to watch Kenny.”
It’s simple and tragic. Snow is a legend. He is a legend that left his mark on the game of soccer, and all who knew him. And sadly, he is a legend that was taken too soon.
Follow Kathryn on Twitter: @Katknapp99.
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Photo credit: Robbie Mehling/Soc Takes
Cha-Ching. Corked Champagne. Celebrations. On April 18, MLS confirmed what everyone except Don Garber had said out loud — MLS would be expanding to 30 teams, already accelerating beyond their previously set upper limit of 28. While this is good news for the top division, what does it mean for current professional soccer in the lower divisions, particularly the USL?
Well, it’s likely good news.
The news of MLS expansion means that the USL can sell a dream to current and potential owners. That dream is: “Join us and find your feet. Once you do, you’re merely one step away from the big leagues.” It is the dream on which the futures of the ownership groups of Sacramento, Indy XI, Phoenix Rising FC, Saint Louis FC, Las Vegas, etc., hang their annual financial losses.
USL spokesperson Ryan Madden suggests that MLS expansion is a sign of the growth of the sport in the country.
“We believe that more soccer is better,” he said. “Whether it be in the Championship, League One, or elsewhere, expansion ultimately is a good thing. It means more access to more soccer for more fans across the country. Communities who have never before experienced the game in their own backyards are now getting that opportunity. Young soccer fans are being given a local club to grow up with and to look up to. Communities like Albuquerque, Memphis, Statesboro or Madison, to name just a few, are seeing their clubs become local rallying points. There are a tremendous amount of positives stemming from the game’s growth at the moment and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
Though when asked about whether or not expansion influences the USL’s own expansion efforts, Madden opined, “While expansion in other leagues only further emphasizes the appetite for professional soccer across the country, USL’s is conducted independently, and not influenced by other organizations.”
Not influenced?
Whether the USL is not influenced by the decisions of the league is debatable. The USL is certainly independent in some demonstrable ways, such as its recent laudable decision to introduce temporary substitutes to facilitate the diagnosis of brain injury, something MLS has disturbingly and inexplicably not prioritized. But, in terms of expansion? Can the USL’s expansion and expansion fees exist in a sports-biz vacuum, independent of MLS’ actions?
Not buying it.
There are almost no independent USL teams in cities/areas that have successful or even semi-successful MLS franchises. The USL franchise fee will not — in any foreseeable scenario — exceed that of MLS. Sure, those things likely suggest prudent business practice versus any nefarious conflicts of interest, but they demonstrate that USL expansion is (and should be) influenced by the ecosystem it exists in.
And MLS remains the alpha predator of that ecosystem.
In 2018, Soc Takes explored the financial implications of ownership investment in lower-division soccer based on data from 2017 and earlier. Per sources, it seems that losses in 2018 were of a similar magnitude as reported in that story. (Caveat: This is certainly anecdotal data — n = two clubs — and may not represent trends at other clubs. In other words, it is possible that USL clubs suddenly started performing better financially in 2018, though no such evidence exists.)
The league deserves immense credit for stabilizing Division 2 soccer vis-a-vis the metric of dying clubs. However, the financial concerns likely remain.
MLS’ 30-plus-team expansion will likely lead to more influx of expansion fees for the league, particularly as it begins to build out its fledgling, USL League One. The eventual ascendancy of a club like FC Cincinnati or Nashville will also mean the influx of “upward mobility fees,” as previously reported by Soc Takes.
If the USL is Dr. Evil, League One is clearly its Mini-Me. Using largely the same vision for expansion, rising expansion fees, etc., the league will adapt the lessons learned by the USL Championship on a honey-I-shrunk-it-down-to-Division 3 scale. In spite of their alignment with the USL, populating the third division is no easy task. Ask NISA. While League One experienced some growing pains, they seem to be on course to populate the third division. Per sources, the league will have 3-4 announcements regarding 2020 expansion teams in the fall.
So, yes, the league will continue to flourish. But, will MLS’ expansion directly affect the finances of teams? Indirectly, perhaps. Leveraging team-owned stadia allows owners to attempt to empower their own financial futures. Though, at this point, it seems that teams such as Louisville City and Indy XI are attempting to change the equation by taking MLS out of the equation, and convincing their cities that USL Championship soccer itself is worthy of fanciful leviathans of reinforced metal, artificial turf and incentivized taxpayer dollars.
When asked about the USL’s reliance on expansion fees, Madden told Soc Takes, “While we can’t divulge specific financial information, it’s fair to say that commercial growth will absolutely continue to be a priority for us. In fact, we’ll be making some very exciting announcements on that front in the near future.”
It remains to be seen if other clubs can convince their cities that the USL Championship has relevance on the sports stage. It also remains to be seen if USL team-owned stadia generate enough revenue to truly provide a return on investment of a magnitude hypothesized by many.
Approximately 500 years before the birth of Marouane Fellaini, Greek philosopher Heraclitus talked about the “upward-downward path” — that the facets of life interchange and occur simultaneously. His idea stood in direct contrast to that of his compatriot, Parmenidus, who opined on the immutable nature of life.
I have previously suggested that the USL’s purported growth may actually be Parmenidian stagnation. Yet, only results on a long-enough time scale will validate whether the league and its members succeed. Until then, the yet-again-open doorway of MLS expansion provides the space for Heraclitian movement, growth and, potentially, success.
Follow Nipun on Twitter: NipunChopra7.
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Lansing Ignite starters huddle up ahead of their May 15 Open Cup match against the Indy Eleven. Photo credit: Robbie Mehling/Soc Takes
On the heels of USL League One’s official announcement that Lansing Ignite FC is discontinuing operations after their inaugural season, we caught up with club vice president Jeremy Sampson to find out more.
Nipun Chopra: Let’s start with how are you doing?
Jeremy Sampson: The feeling right now is emptiness and disappointment. This decision to cease operations was made by (Lansing Ignite owner) Tom Dickson. The owner is the ultimate decision maker. I’m devastated at the outcome as this team was something I spent six years building. And now it’s gone.
NC: Was this decision out of your hands?
JS: Absolutely, I didn’t have a say in the outcome of the organization. He’s the owner, I’m an employee. I handled the soccer side and the president handled the business side.
NC: Before we get into details, when did you know that the club was in trouble?
JS: The first signs were in late June, early July (2019).
NC: What were those signs?
JS: Front office folks were let go and their positions were not filled. I started to wonder what was going on.
NC: Did you bring that up with Tom Dickson?
JS: I would approximate that I haven’t spoken to him in three months. When we did communicate it was by text.
NC: Was your relationship always this way?
JS: Yes, from the very beginning. If there was information, it was routed via the president, Nick Grueser.
NC: How was your relationship with Grueser?
JS: Nick was great. We had a really good working relationship.
NC: Then why was there a lack of communication between yourself and the ownership for three months?
JS: That’s a question for Tom, I’m not sure why he didn’t reach out.
NC: Were expectations from ownership, such as attendance, unrealistic?
JS: Unrealistic is an interesting word. When you’re starting a business for the first time, you have to understand what you’re getting into. We had expectations that our attendance would be a little higher. But, we’re a smaller market and we had the third-highest attendance, so I’m not sure that was the issue.
NC: Why did Dickson not want Lansing to continue?
JS: Not comfortable answering that because I don’t know what his reasons are for not continuing past year one.
NC: Was Lansing Ignite just a way to get more revenue at the baseball stadium?
JS: I am not comfortable speaking to that. I know some changes were made to the stadium lease with the city to include soccer, but I honestly don’t know what his end goal was.
NC: Let me ask again, why do you think Dickson ceased operations?
JS: I am told, this is second-hand information, that it was a financially motivated decision.
NC: Approximately how much money did Ignite lose in their first year?
JS: I have no idea. I was never privy to that information.
NC: Do you regret your decision to move Lansing United from the NPSL to League Two, which subsequently lead to the decision to go pro with League One?
JS: Six years ago, I had a dream of growing the game of soccer in the Lansing community. It turned into a grassroots club that was a contender in the NPSL. It captured the imagination of the city and my heart. As difficult as it is to watch it come to end, I’m proud that we had the opportunity to play as a professional team. I would rather have tried and failed than not to have tried at all.
NC: Would you do it the same way — making the switch from the NPSL?
JS: I would go the same route. In looking back, one of the biggest mistakes we made was that we rushed to go from League Two to League One. It was my recommendation to start in 2020. I remember Tom calling me and telling me good and bad news. Good: We had a pro franchise. Bad: We start in 2019. Announcing the franchise in late October and going through the process of building a team, franchise and front office staff is a Herculean task.
NC: Why did the team start in 2019 and not 2020 like you recommended?
JS: I was not told that information.
NC: Was it a league decision or ownership decision to begin in 2019 or 2020?
JS: I wasn’t privy to any discussions between league and ownership.
NC: Did you feel supported by the league through the process? Did they offer ideas on how to save the club?
JS: The league provided a lot of support. I had a lot of dealings with League One and League Two. There are people at the league office dedicated to help you increase ticket revenue. We implemented some of those strategies.
NC: What were some of those strategies to increase ticket sales.
JS: Here’s one I can think of. Another team in the (USL) Championship had a process they were using — take a single ticket buyer and turn them into a multiple-game ticket buyer and/or season ticket sales for the following year.
NC: Other than not rushing through the building process, what advice would you offer to other clubs?
JS: Each individual organization in each market will have to learn different lessons. What worked in Albuquerque doesn’t necessarily work in Lansing. We needed more time and more marketing to make this work. The staff you hire on the sales side is tremendously important; we were hit and miss on that staff. We had a staff member who was first or second in ticket sales in the league. We needed a few more like him.
NC: What have you learned personally?
JS: In our meetings with the players last Monday, my message to them — in your life, you’re going to have something that doesn’t go your way. You’re going to have struggles, obstacles. Through that adversity, you build character. This is an adverse situation in my professional career but it’s taught me so much in who I want to be as a person/employee/leader. A lot of people could look at it full of regret, I’m glad we took a shot. You have to have a belief in yourself in the way you do things and handle people and situations. You learn through mistakes than you do successes.
NC: What’s next for you and soccer in Lansing?
JS: I’m looking for a job and I’m not sure what my next endeavor will be. I’m going to keep the Lansing United women’s team going. The big question is regarding the Lansing United men’s team and to be honest, I don’t know the answer to that yet. I haven’t had any discussions with any league about a men’s team at this point.
NC: In your opinion, is what happened a Lansing-specific phenomenon or a larger issue with the league?
JS: Lansing-specific. If it was a wider phenomena, I think we would see more teams folding. Individual teams are different and there are owners putting in millions of dollars into their clubs such as Chattanooga, Greenville and South Tormenta. There are a lot of good things happening in League One.
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John Lenard, R.P. Kirtland and Ian Foster discuss what the success of the #SavedTheCrew movement means for MLS, U.S. Soccer, sports in America, sports everywhere else, life, the universe and everything in the latest edition of Front Porch Discourse.
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Cincinnati Soccer Talk’s Nick Seuberling joins co-hosts Kevin Johnston and John Lenard to analyze FC Cincinnati’s roster construction ahead of the club’s first season in MLS. Seuberling also discusses his background in soccer and digital media.
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