There’s never a good time for a civil war. Yet the unrest which threatened to wreak havoc in Sacramento couldn’t have come at a worse juncture.
As MLS weighs up who’s next to join the expansion party, it was virtually nailed on that the Sacramento Republic would be first on the list.
Despite playing in the USL – effectively the third tier of US Soccer – crowds averaged a whopping 11,000 [the league average is 3,000] with near on every game a sell-out.
A city with just one other sporting team – the NBA’s Kings – have embraced soccer with the kind of emotion and unbridled interest which firmly ticks all the boxes at MLS HQ.
Yet, when the applications were delivered on deadline last week, an astonishing coup was revealed which could ultimately deter commissioner Don Garber from giving that all important thumbs-up later this year. There was no mention of the Republic in the documents handed over. No press release from what should be a proud as punch club owner Warren Smith. No fanfares. Absolutely nothing but utter disbelief and simmering fury.
Instead, majority owner Kevin Nagle launched a bid with the city’s name yet without the club identity which has made this possible in the first place.
In the blink of an eye, his Twitter handle was changed from @srfc_kevin to @KevinNagleMLS.
It wasn’t long before the hashtag ‘NoRepublicNoParty’ was created by furious fans. Since arriving on the scene in 2014, Nagle has been the financial brain while founder Smith concentrated on soccer matters. He has controlling interest, Nagle has the finances.
They were supposed to be on the same page and by Saturday night, the problems had been resolved.
Two days of talks between the feuding pair and Mayor Darrell Steinberg resulted in all three sharing a beverage and looking forward to the future as if nothing has happened. “It was very satisfying to see them both shake hands,” said Steinberg. “We are on the cusp of getting an MLS franchise.”
At long last, Sacramento stands before @MLS as one team and one community.
— Kevin M. Nagle (@KevinNagleMLS) February 4, 2017
Below is my full statement: pic.twitter.com/3jgZwPMCnT
Earlier in the week however, storm clouds gathered. “We are just as surprised as our fans to hear reports of a bid that was submitted to MLS for Sacramento which does not reference Sacramento Republic FC,” read a statement when the news broke.
It was the wealthy pharmaceutical entrepreneur who pushed forward with plans for a new downtown $226m stadium and dealt with city officials.
Sources claim there has been friction in the boardroom for a while yet following the money trail reveals a great deal.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed that the stadium deal was created when the unpopular former mayor Kevin Johnson, the ex-NBA star turned politican whose St Hope charter school receives the largest donations from Nagle himself, was still in charge. Fallouts behind the scenes happen all the time.
Yet to publicly drop a bombshell like this is something else.
Sources claimed that with the January 31 deadline looming and the club refusing to give permission to use the name and logo, Nagle had no option but to lodge a bid for fear of missing out altogether.
There’s confusion as to who owns what but, as it stands, the application for MLS status is being funded by Sac Soccer & Entertainment Holdings which is controlled by Nagle. San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York and former eBay chief Meg Whitman have arrived to add further financial muscle. While Smith embodies everything which has been special about the Republic story, he will know that money always talks loudest. And for Garber and his fellow MLS suits, there are no shortage of options. San Diego, who have just lost their NFL team, are pushing hard in the knowledge there won’t be two new franchises on the West Coast. Phoenix, Cincinnati, Detroit, San Antonio, Tampa Bay, Charlotte, Indianapolis, St Louis, Nashville and Raleigh are also in the mix. So now a tense waiting game begins with only four from 12 getting the nod. “This is a very strange situation but it’s all about the money,” a well placed MLS source told Sport360.
