Frank Myrland
While the MLS, as well as the whole of American soccer, fizzled during the 90s, a guardian angel appeared in the form of multi-billionaire Phillip Anschutz. Combining his love of sports with his substantial wealth, Anschutz turned the league around, attracting investors and fans in the process.
Born in small town of Russell, Kansas in 1939, Anschutz wasted little time in acquiring the business knowledge that would catapult him to the highest ranks of America’s elite. He graduated with a degree in finance from the University of Kansas and studied law for a time at the University of Virginia before removing himself from the school when his father grew ill.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Anschutz became involved in the business of oil-drilling, founding the Anschutz Corporation in 1965. He didn’t have to wait too long for success. After many years of successful business, Anschutz was propelled to billionaire status when his company found the largest oil deposit ever uncovered in the United States in the 1980s, all while he was just the tender age of 43. Not content to succeed in only one industry, Anschutz moved into telecommunications and railroads. Hailed as a business wizard by his colleagues, these further ventures only added more to the pot before Anschutz found another calling in the world of sports.
Anschutz’s interest in soccer skyrocketed in 1994 when he was given free tickets to the World Cup Final. Even as Roberto Baggio was sending his penalty shot over the bar to give the title to Brazil, Anschutz was forming plans for soccer in North America. A year later, the billionaire became the operator of the MLS franchise team Colorado Rapids.
While making an investment in the struggling MLS may not have been a smart business decision, it was a decision which Anschutz was eager to make. Without strong financial backing, the MLS was almost certainly going to slip into oblivion to join a number of failed North American leagues.
Anschutz seemed to take it as his responsibility and his alone to keep the league running, owning an amazing six franchises at one time even while taking substantial financial hits for doing so. While the credibility of the league would necessarily suffer as long as one investor owned six of the teams, the other billionaires weren’t biting and Anschutz did what he had to in order to keep the ball rolling. Rather than cutting costs and passing on opportunities, Anschutz believed that the MLS would only be taken seriously if it could spend money, and spend he did. Grand new stadiums and television contracts had a part in finally turning the heads of Americans.
The MLS eventually gained a foothold on the continent and attained a sort of stability. With franchises once again achieving profitability, Anschutz was able to sell off some, but not all, of his interests in the league. The billionaire currently owns the Los Angeles Galaxy and half of the 2006 and 2007 league champions Houston Dynamo. He played a significant part in the acquisition of dwindling English soccer star David Beckham for his Los Angeles squad, which attracted an immense amount of publicity for a time despite very little actual accomplishment from Beckham himself.
On October 29, 2008, the MLS revealed a newly designed trophy for the winner of the MLS Cup which had been named in Anschutz’s honour. This new cup replaced the Alan Rothenberg Trophy, named after another figure in the development of North American soccer but whose contributions, it appears, have been overshadowed in recent years by Anschutz.
Well-liked and respected by players, coaches and officials alike, Anschutz regularly attends matches and visits his teams during practices. While constantly keeping up-to-date on his club, Anschutz never interferes with the decision of his general mangers and coaches. The magnate shuns the spotlight, choosing instead to let his underlings handle the journalists, the reporters and the interviews. He owns, or holds interests in many different ventures, including sports teams in America, Sweden and Germany; film companies; theatres; British news conglomerates, and he also helped build London’s Millennium Dome. As of 2006, Anschutz was ranked as the 31st richest American by Forbes Magazine, worth a total of $7.8 billion.
It is necessary to mention that all of Anschutz’s enthusiasm could have been for naught without the sizeable efforts of rival investor Lamar Hunt. A part of the founding group of the defunct North American Soccer League, Hunt pitched in for the creation of the MLS in 1996 as well. Hunt also bore the brunt of the leagues financial distress as the owner of several teams so that the sport could have its chance to gain popularity. Like Anschutz, Lamar Hunt was honoured with a trophy bearing his name in 1999, given to the winner of the US Open cup competition. Hunt died in 2006 after a long battle with cancer.
