Tom Payne optimistic and critical toward NASL and own club, Puerto Rico FC

Photo credit: John-Joe Pereira/Puerto Rico FC

Puerto Rico FC has had a difficult year. Off-field issues have combined with poor performances on-field. Before the kickoff of Puerto Rico’s first fall season game against North Carolina FC, Soc Takes caught up with PRFC president Tom Payne to discuss the health of the NASL, the search for a head coach and the future of the club. As usual, Payne was forthright.

Nipun Chopra – What are your general thoughts on expansion and status of the league right now?

Tom Payne – Obviously we’ve added two teams, both in Southern California, which certainly opens the league up to having an extended number of teams in the west. That’s great, but it does complicate things in terms of travel for the rest of us, but it is good to have teams in those markets. I’m familiar with the stadium at Fullerton — a good location for soccer. I don’t know the people involved very well, although I met the people involved — GM Michael Collins for example — he comes out of youth soccer mostly and seems honest about the learning curve he will be on.

PRFC president Tom Payne. Photo credit: PRFC

So those things are all good. But as with anyone else, I wonder what about the other markets we keep hearing about? But also some of the other teams in the league right now. We know there’s a Canadian league about to start, does that affect Edmonton? We know North Carolina just hosted MLS, does that have any effect?

I’m remaining positive and assuming these teams will all stay in the league. We’ll add those two west coast teams and 1-2 more. I’m not sure if those two will begin in the spring or not, but overall, signs seem to be positive. The markets we are moving into are good markets. But we also have to ensure that good management is in place in those good markets. We have to ensure that every team is acting as responsibly as possible. Right now every team seems to be doing that, but can they do that if revenue isn’t matching up long-term?

NC – Are you at liberty to discuss the identity of those two teams you mentioned?

TP – No, but I think the information is already out there. 

NC – We heard a lot about transparency in March/April. Was that something that has been followed through among the owners, or was that short-lived?

TP – We certainly send in match reports with numbers. We shared sponsor revenue earlier on as well. And I think at the board level there is transparency too. I see that as a real positive because there are owners that need to understand the true reality of the entirety of the league. Sometimes owners need to see that teams aren’t making money; because that’s realistic. New owners come into the league – and this is true of our leagues and others – and think that they’ll make money within a year or two. That’s just not realistic for most businesses and certainly not for sports businesses.

In MLS, I can think of 4-5 teams that are making money. But we even shared real details of how much a team was paying its staff members and coaches. For example, I reached out to the league to ask if they could give me the range of salaries for head coaches in the league. They got right back to me with an honest number.

Previous head coach Adrian Whitbread was fired in June. Credit: NASL

NC – Speaking of head coaches, what’s the update on the search for a head coach for PRFC? 

TP – It’s been difficult. I think we are going to continue to bide our time a little bit and then decide whether we turn our interim coach to a long-term proposition or whether we want to bring in another full-time coach. I made it clear to ownership that whichever way it goes, it needs to be decided by October because that’s when you’re making decisions about your current players, whether you’re retaining them. Look, we have one win this season, and I stood in front of the whole team recently and told them: ‘Guys we have one win and there’s not many teams interested in many of you guys.’

NC – Wouldn’t that hurt the morale of your players?

TP – It’s the truth. I’m honest with our owner, our staff and our players. I told our coaches we’re open for business if teams call about any of our players. The point I’m making is that at the end of October we’re making decisions about contracts. If you’re bringing in a new coach, he has to be there to have those conversations. I love our ownership, but it isn’t the easiest in terms of communication. Carmelo is obviously very busy and he is in a lot of stuff right now that you are reading about if you’re a general sports fan. So, I haven’t got the answers as quickly as I would have preferred. But in terms of coaches, I have interviewed quite a few candidates via my own contacts. I was impressed by several of them, got it down to a small enough number to possibly meet with Carmelo, but time started getting away a little bit.

“I’m honest with our owner, our staff and our players. I told our coaches we’re open for business if teams call about any of our players.”

NC – How do you think Marco has done so far?

TP – Right now, we’re sticking with Marco (Velez). I think in the first 4-5 games we saw an improvement across the team under Marco in confidence. And then we incredibly got back to our rut where we give up hideous extra time goals. I stood in front of this entire team earlier this week and wrote down numbers on the board for them; we’ve lost five goals after the 90th minute in sixteen games. Every single time, it has meant we have dropped points because of it. I think there has been a huge improvement in training under Marco, but one of the things I would like to see is a change in culture. We want the players to take responsibility for their actions on and off the pitch.

(Author’s note: Later that night, PRFC conceded a late 90th-minute goal to North Carolina, dropping two points from a winning position and proving Payne’s word as rather prescient).

NC – It sounds like you’re really hands on with the team currently. Is that something you’re looking to ensure with the next head coach — that they understand that you will be more hands on?

TP – I think you’re reading too much into it, Nipun. Listen, Puerto Rico is a tough market and I have to focus on the business side. I do every single sponsorship pitch and hired every single person and built every job description. Plus I deal with a lot of media interviews and conversations. I do try and allow the coach to be the team person and making those decisions. I really like Adrian (Whitbread) and Neil (Sillett), but I didn’t hire them. So I went out of my way to let them do their thing, rarely went to training or stood in front of the team that I can remember.

With Marco, I didn’t hire him, but we elevated him. I never tell him who should play, but I’m sharing my opinion, and I will be very involved in who we hire as next coach. Carmelo is a professional athlete, but his expertise is basketball. I’m the one with soccer experience so it is my responsibility to handle contacts for potential coach candidates.

NC – Switching gears back to the NASL, your thoughts on Brian Helmick’s much discussed post regarding the status of Deltas.

TP – Look, they are having some of the same struggles we have like attendance and revenue. But I was pretty surprised at the start of the season that they didn’t have staff yet; they were around for a year and didn’t have people focused on sponsorship and ticket sales, and I thought that was odd.

But this is where the league needs to be the leader. The league shouldn’t get involved in the daily decisions of a team, but they should know best practices and how a front office should be structured. I think I said this to you before, I remember my ticket guys getting off a league ticket call and telling me that San Francisco had one ticket guy who had just started and he didn’t know anything. And that’s not a knock on him, you have to learn quickly in this business. We ourselves, with our guys, have trouble selling tickets.

“The league shouldn’t get involved in the daily decisions of a team, but they should know best-practices and how a front office should be structured.”

What I’m saying is, you have to ask if the effort was made if the people weren’t put in place? Those guys in the SF group are clearly really smart people. I’m surprised their crowds aren’t a little better. I know earlier on they decided to announce the true attendance number. To be frank, I’m not sure whether that’s a good idea. Because how many of those are complementary tickets? So, in essence, you’re still fudging the numbers; just in a different way.

Look, we need them to do well, and it sounds like they might be getting competition from the other league and that’s worrisome, but maybe it’s a market that can handle two teams. I really like Todd Dunivant (Director of Soccer operations at Deltas), he played for me at Galaxy. I don’t know Brian all that well. I think there have been some really cool ideas from Deltas. Their recent idea of the virtual jumbotron was awesome.

Puerto Rico FC

NC – What’s the health of the PRFC market?

TP – We are in a difficult, financially depressed market. I wish Puerto Rico had the median incomes of markets like San Francisco or North Carolina. Our median household income is $18,000. So, buying a ten dollar ticket is an appreciable investment from our fan perspective. We need to win more games if we want to change that bit of the equation.

NC – Tom, is PRFC committed to NASL?

TP – I believe we are. Carmelo came to the game not long ago, and he said he is committed for the long haul. He will be down here in two weeks and he believes in the people of Puerto Rico and the market. I’ll be honest, a lot of it comes from his heart, as much as his head. Truthfully, if you were to talk to me and it was my money and you asked me if this is feasible right now? I would say it’s feasible if you’re willing to lose a couple of million a year. Recovering costs is going to be a ways away in our market.

Having said that, every team in the league loses money. It takes the right kind of person with passion, love for his community and the game, and yes, deep pockets, for this to work. The league needs to come along as well; we can’t be in a position where people like you are constantly wondering if the league will make it or not. You can’t run a business like that. Frankly, every coach I’ve talked to, everyone in the game, some of whom are US national team stars, all ask me: ‘Is the league going to survive, and is your team going to be around?’

I believe in the league, I try to be supportive, I always make sure the league knows I’m available if I can help given my experiences. But I don’t get asked very much, which I don’t understand. I do think big picture, if our league is going to make it, we’re going to have to be more transparent publicly. You’ve got to hear from us, you’ve got to hear about the good things that are happening. It can’t just be a press release the day of an announcement, it has to be more. People such as yourself should get answers to questions, because so many people out there are wondering what is happening with the league.

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You can follow Nipun on Twitter: @NipunChopra7.

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