Fennelly: Longtime Rowdies, a self-made owner and bruised feelings

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Fennelly: Longtime Rowdies, a self-made owner and bruised feelings

Martin Fennelly, Times Sports Columnist

Tuesday, May 17, 2016 11:19am

Where have all the Rowdies gone?

I mean the old Rowdies, from the kick-in-the-grass glory days. The Tampa Bay soccer club, when reborn in 2010, leaned on its brand, on men like Perry Van Der Beck, who was drafted by the Rowdies out of high school in 1978 and whose devotion to the franchise and its fans was and is unwavering. He loves this club.

Love had to be the only reason why Van Der Beck was in the stands at Al Lang Stadium Saturday night as the Rowdies played their first match since he resigned as the team's assistant general manager and vice president of community relations. Old Rowdies never die, they just move to section 5, row 10.

Van Der Beck's resignation severed the final link between the original Rowdies and today's NASL entry. It's a sad thing. It can't be a good thing. Something has been lost. In August, Rowdies GM Farrukh Quraishi, the first college draft pick in Rowdies history, was fired nine months after being hired, along with coach Thomas Rongen.

That, kiddies, brings us to the man who did the hirings and firings and who might turn up as an exact match if they ever dust Van Der Beck's departure for fingerprints: Bill Edwards, the wildly successful St. Petersburg businessman and wildly hands-on Rowdies owner and CEO.