http://www.si.com/vault/1977/03/14/560862/mmm-love-that-dtente
Mmm, love that détente
When Leningrad Zenit came to Tampa, the Rowdies improved foreign relations
By J. D. Reed
By J. D. Reed
March 14, 1977
A West Indian band played, the palm trees rustled just like the
Florida brochures promise and the Tampa sunshine did its job to the tune
of 78° last Friday as 16 Soviet soccer players—the Zenit team of
Leningrad—looked wide-eyed at a buffet of barbecued ribs, corn on the
cob and Budweiser in an elegant dining room at Busch Gardens, the
brewery's huge recreation and entertainment park. Media types, pretty
girls, soccer officials and one baseball notable, Yankee owner George
Steinbrenner, circulated as the Soviets listened attentively to
translations of welcoming speeches. In Tampa for outdoor/indoor matches
with the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League, the
Zenits seemed to be wondering if all this opulence and hospitality was a
capitalist plot to psych them out of playing a good game. If that was
the case, it didn't work. On Saturday night Zenit won the opening
outdoor game 1-0.
The Soviets were right, however, in sensing that what they were seeing was really high-powered capitalism in high gear. The Tampa Bay Rowdies are one of the most financially successful teams in the league—which means they lost less money last year than most of the other 19 franchises—and they have a reputation for front-office savvy. Indeed, they are regarded as one of the slickest little organizations in all of pro sports.
Declared Steinbrenner, pushing away his plate of rib bones, "If anyone asked me how to start and operate any kind of franchise, I'd tell them to study the Rowdies. It is simply the best marketing in sports. From the top on down, it's a group of geniuses that have put it together. They have done the one thing that most teams fail at in all sports—in Tampa, they've made going to the soccer game the thing to do."
The Rowdies won the NASL championship in 1975, their first year, and made it to the semifinals in the playoffs last season. But they do a good deal more than play just fine soccer in their slightly comic, Victorian-looking uniforms of sunshine-yellow and grass-green stripes.
The Soviets were right, however, in sensing that what they were seeing was really high-powered capitalism in high gear. The Tampa Bay Rowdies are one of the most financially successful teams in the league—which means they lost less money last year than most of the other 19 franchises—and they have a reputation for front-office savvy. Indeed, they are regarded as one of the slickest little organizations in all of pro sports.
Declared Steinbrenner, pushing away his plate of rib bones, "If anyone asked me how to start and operate any kind of franchise, I'd tell them to study the Rowdies. It is simply the best marketing in sports. From the top on down, it's a group of geniuses that have put it together. They have done the one thing that most teams fail at in all sports—in Tampa, they've made going to the soccer game the thing to do."
The Rowdies won the NASL championship in 1975, their first year, and made it to the semifinals in the playoffs last season. But they do a good deal more than play just fine soccer in their slightly comic, Victorian-looking uniforms of sunshine-yellow and grass-green stripes.
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