It looks like professional soccer — in the form of a United Soccer League franchise — is headed back our way. The new team, which plans to play in a new, customized facility in North Tampa by 2010, will be called the “Rowdies.” As in the old Rowdies of North American Soccer League fleeting fame a generation ago.
It has already sparked its share of nostalgia by those who recall Pele sightings at Tampa Stadium, crowds that occasionally topped 50,000, the region’s initial validation as “big league” and Tampa Bay’s first pro team and championship (1975). It also has prompted bemusement and ridicule by those who loathe the low-scoring sport and all those “1-nil” games.
But the old Rowdies’ legacy is more than cherry-picked highlights and sports revisionism. Around here, the Rowdies wrote the book on how to market a sports franchise — even the alien likes of soccer, which the rest of the world calls football.
The overriding premise was that attending a game was not some civic responsibility to support “your” team. The challenge was formidable: This was Florida; this was soccer; this was a place with, arguably, better things to do.
It meant free clinics to educate a following and it meant player accessibility – including the ones making the most money. And those players fanned out across the market — from junior highs and Kiwanis Clubs to malls and local pubs. Appearances were never token.
It also meant an attitude. The player-ambassadors were extensions of those ubiquitous bumper stickers that impishly reminded “fannies” that the Rowdie experience was “a kick in the grass.” And you could bring your family to games without fear of being grossed out by beer-bellied louts.
It helped that the players were uniformly nice guys with clipped British accents who seemed to enjoy a good charm offensive. On a Friday night, you could find a number of them at the old Boneshakers in Hyde Park – not some strip joint. Players never made the police blotter for DUIs, drugs or pregnant girlfriend-cuffing.
The Rowdies’ less-than-subliminal message: The onus is on us to make you like us, understand our game and want to root for the home team. We take nothing, especially your patronage, for granted.
Over the years, that memo has been read — and grasped — by the Tampa Bay Lightning and the post-Naimoli, Tampa Bay Rays. No arrogance. No sense of entitlement.
Did I leave anyone out?