Red Bulls are thinking big
Ronaldo on team's radar
The New York Red Bulls staged a press conference last week at a boutique hotel in Manhattan, and ended up keeping dozens of journalists waiting for more than an hour because Franz Beckenbauer's flight from Frankfurt was delayed. Then they presented a lively, 75-minute question-and-answer session with Beckenbauer, Pelé, Red Bulls general manager Alexi Lalas, and players Youri Djorkaeff and Tony Meola.
There were no news announcements. Pelé's role with the Red Bulls was not clarified. And the event received little mention outside of the Hispanic media and websites.
Yet there was a feeling that something significant was happening.
Just having Beckenbauer and Pelé, plus former Cosmos and MetroStars such as Carlos Alberto, Giorgio Chinaglia, and Roberto Donadoni, involved with the Red Bulls signaled the ambition of the team's new owners.
''Just to make the announcement that we are here," Pelé said, ''tells people we are here to be a part of this."
What ''this" is, though, is still being defined.
Beckenbauer is a personal adviser to Red Bull Company Ltd. founder Dietrich Mateschitz, and it apparently was Beckenbauer's idea to invest $100 million in purchasing the team. Beckenbauer is busy as head of the World Cup Organizing Committee and will not be available to the Red Bulls until mid-July at the earliest.
But Beckenbauer has persuaded Mateschitz to make by far the highest investment in a single MLS team, and Red Bull is following up with high-level promotion.
There remains the question of improving the team, though. MLS has proposed a ''franchise" player on each team, a so-called ''Beckham Rule," by which one performer can be paid outside the salary cap, without the consent of other investors in the league's single-entity scheme. But that has not been passed by the Board of Governors.
At present, teams can pay players outside salary cap restrictions, but only with the approval of other owners.
The Red Bulls have placed Real Madrid's Ronaldo and other top international names ''on the radar," according to Lalas. But it is difficult to negotiate with star players if you have to wait for the owners of other teams to put up the money. Presumably, the Red Bulls will simply make offers expecting the league to rubber-stamp the deal -- a marquee performer in New York being in the best interests of the league.
Though the Beckenbauer/Pelé announcement struggled to penetrate the mainstream media, it did signify a continuum in the soccer and sporting culture. Beckenbauer and Pelé seem a perfect fit for the Big Apple, world-class celebrities who left their mark on the city and were still comfortable there. They had planted some roots during their Cosmos years in the late '70s, and the result was a blossoming soccer culture.
''The difference is night and day," Beckenbauer said. ''In 1975, when Pelé came here, nobody played the game. We were like pioneers. Now they play the game and the standard is unbelievable."
Portuguese connection
The Revolution plan to establish ties with Eusebio, the Portuguese great who performed for the Boston Minutemen and NASL teams in Las Vegas and Toronto after a long career with Benfica in Lisbon.
''In a World Cup year, it would be great to have Eusebio come here," Revolution general manager Craig Tornberg said. ''Like other MLS teams are setting up with Chelsea, we would like to have a relationship with Benfica because of the strong [Portuguese] community here, and Eusebio could spearhead that. It's a logical extension, a relationship that makes sense, and it would take a person like Eusebio to make the bridge between us."
In fact, the Boston area is potentially a second home for Benfica, just as Chivas USA is an extension of the Guadalajara-based club. There is even a statue of Eusebio on display at Gillette Stadium, a copy of the one featured at Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, commissioned by a local Benfica supporter.
The Los Angeles teams are partnering with Chelsea, Chivas, and Sao Paulo FC; Chicago with Morelia; New York with Austria Salzburg and whoever else Beckenbauer brings in. The Revolution could do worse than to explore the potential of a Benfica tie-in.
