Rapids weigh their moves

James Paton and Aresu Eqbali, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 26, 2007 at midnight

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While Fernando Clavijo coaches the Colorado Rapids on the field, Jeff Plush is directing the team's business upstairs. The Rapids' managing director, who answers to billionaire owner Stan Kroenke, is busy. The soccer club has a new home in Commerce City, a new naming rights partner, Dick's Sporting Goods, new uniforms and a new marketing pact with Arsenal. (His boss also bought a stake in the famous English team.) Oh, and David Beckham is coming to town.

Now that you're settling in, how are ticket sales looking?

We are still learning and getting better all the time. Ticket sales are up dramatically from where they were last year, up more than 150 percent. We've had some challenges with weather, and that has made it more difficult. For the opener it was 23 degrees. It got to the point we started to chuckle because there's not a darn thing you can do about it. It was horribly depressing, but the crowd was fantastic that day. We sold the game out, (18,000 capacity) and 14 and change showed up, fans wearing ski masks and gloves. People have responded to the stadium, to the merchandize, and they have responded unbelievably strongly to the complex.

How about sponsorships, and has it been tougher than you thought to find the big ones?

Right now there are two founding partners, Coca Cola and HealthOne. I think we always envisioned eight total (including Dick's) so we are still talking to major companies to fill out those other categories, but we got another 25 other sponsors in multiple categories.

It has been harder than anticipated, but I did not expect to start this season with all of them. The reality of the sales process is that it takes a long time. Some people take a tour quickly and say they want to be part of it, and other people take much longer and say, yes, that's fine, but we need to see some actual results. We are not frustrated. But it has been challenging. Denver is a competitive market.

Are you going to sign a jersey sponsor like other MLS teams?

We are actively talking to some companies. That's not something we would do lightly. It's gotta be the right kind of company. We're not like the rest of the world, especially Europe, where clubs like Milan have such great brand strength. They have been around for 100 years or so. But we believe this is the most integrated sponsorship opportunity in U.S. team sports.

What about David Beckham, who's arriving with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Aug. 26?

We have sold out all our single-game inventory. You can still get very good seats by purchasing season tickets. The inventory we did have sold out in 90 minutes. Beckham is a phenomenon. He's iconic. He's a name and face people who know nothing about soccer recognize and are intrigued by - men and women. Some are glass-half-empty type of people. But the reality is Beckham is still one of the best players in the world. He brings a lot off the pitch too. He brings water cooler talk. And that's important for our league. The energy will be different just because he'll be in the building.

When are you going to sign a big-dollar player (thanks to a new rule allowing each club to exceed its roughly $2 million salary cap for one mega-star)?

We're actively considering it. We're looking for the right player. You don't just want to take a guy who is an iconic name and maybe sells tickets, but there's a problem in the locker room, or he's over the hill and can't provide anything on the pitch. You're playing him only because you paid a ton of money for him. The fans want to win at the end of the day. It'll happen. I just don't know when.

We got very far down the road with a very good player, and didn't get it done. They went a different direction, and that's OK. We were upset by it. We wanted it to happen.

He was exactly the kind of player we were looking to get. But it was more about family than soccer for him. He went home. You can't complain about that. We lost him for the right reasons. But the door is not closed.

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