defying expectations

Reviewed by G. Louis Heath, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor, Ashford University, Clinton, Iowa

18 april 2018 archive

The narrative of this book begins in 2007, the year soccer superstar David Beckham debuted with the Los Angeles Galaxy, a year important to American soccer. That year was also the year Phil Rawlins embarked on his odyssey to "spread the soccer gospel" that would eventually find its way to the USA. As a child growing up in Stoke-on-Trent, in the heart of industrial England, soccer was the passion of his life. He aspired to become a professional soccer player but by his teen years he realized he lacked the natural, raw, physical talent of others and began to think of other career options. However, his passion for "the Beautiful Game" never waned. He was a diehard fan of the Stoke City Potters and always carried in his heart the desire to plant the culture of "Stokie"-style, community-supported soccer elsewhere.

The first few chapters flashback from 2007 to cover his youth in the colliery and pottery city, Stoke-on-Trent, where the noisome odor of black damp pervaded. It is an unusual biography for a man who became an important figure in the world's most popular sport. At age ten, Rawlins played his first soccer game on a slimy, oozy field beside a slag heap. He soon became hooked on soccer. He attended matches at the venerable Victoria Grand, a working-class sport cathedral (50,000 worshippers every other weekend) and the oldest-continuously used soccer stadium in the United Kingdom. "The Vic," inaugurated in 1862, was home to one of the most storied teams in the UK, the Stoke City Potters, the second-oldest soccer team in the world, nicknamed for the region's Staffordshire pottery industry. The team was the city. The sense of community generated by games was strong. Imbued with this spirit, Phil grew up dreaming of playing for the Potters, though he was a scrawny kid, a "pipe cleaner on legs."

Although Phil Rawlins was not a natural athlete, he was a natural salesman in a variety of early jobs he held. In 1982, he began to sell software for the Olivetti Company. After 20 months he hired on with Hewlett-Packard in Bristol, 130 miles from Stoke-on-Trent. He eventually left HP with a partner to start The Sales Consultancy Company (marketing computer software) in November, 1989. He and his partner mortgaged their homes to begin the venture. Their firm soon garnered the distribution rights for HP in the UK and Chicago. Phil logged three million miles with American Airlines in the next eight years in building the business. It succeeded beyond his wildest expectations. The stock value rose to $259 million. At age 41, he sold his stock for $68 million. He had become independently wealthy.

At that time, his beloved Stoke City Potters were faring very poorly. Under the system of relegation and promotion, City had fallen from the First Division in the 1984-1985 season, steadily down England's soccer ladder, to the lowest rung ever in the club's 128-year history by the end of the 1990-1991 schedule. It was mired deep in the muck of Division Three, even in danger of dropping out of the Football League into the murky, nether world of the Conference, playing matches with bottom feeders such as Waxham, Tranmere, Grimsby, and Halifax. For a man whose very essence was Stokie, this was too much to bear. He, as consultant to some of the tech behemoths of the world, knew how to formulate a business plan and take products and services to market. He felt he could help his beloved hometown team to the promised land of the Premier League. So, he became part owner of the club with an Icelandic consortium (The details of that contentious partnership make for a very compelling story here.)

In the 2003-2004 season, Stoke finished in a "comfortable midtable position." Progress had been made. Soon there was much more progress, and by 2007, after 23 years out of the Premier League, they ascended once more to the PL after a dramatic, late-match win (Details of the contest are riveting.) Stokie fans went wild, delirious with joy, mobbing the touchline, later to flood the city's working-class pubs to drink to the club's success. It had been a long dry spell.

At this juncture, Rawlins began to look for an affiliate for Stoke based on six Core Principles he and his wife Kay had developed: 1) Openly communicating with and caring about our fans; 2) Playing entertaining, exciting soccer; 3) De-veloping our players as both professionals and people; 4) Being a positive influence in our community; 5) Creating a family culture; 6) Building a culture of success (pages 78-79). He made a connection with the United Soccer Leagues (USL), the level below Major League Soccer (MLS). From the USL a club can advance to the MLS as the Seattle Sounders had done. Rawlins sought to bring pro soccer to Austin, Texas. (He had moved to Dallas). He founded a club dubbed the Aztex (a portmanteau of Aztec and Texas). However, the uber-fractious USL collapsed after two seasons (2009 and 2010). The Aztex sustained huge financial losses.

At this point, Rawlins contacted Orlando, Florida and sold the city on the idea of a soccer club that he called the Orlando City Lions. His motto for the new team was and remains "Defying Expectations." In October, 2013, Orange County commissioners approved a stadium deal and in November, 2013 the club was approved for MLS status. Rawlins set about implementing his six Core Principles to great effect. The home opener in the Citrus Bowl sold out the 62,510 seats. In 2014, he signed Brazilian soccer legend, Ricardo Kaka, the former Real Madrid and AC Milan superstar, to a three-year contract. By 2015, Kaka became a MLS icon, drawing huge crowds wherever the Lions played. By 2017, the club's fans, nicknamed "The Purple City," had evinced such strong support for the club that they enabled Rawlins to fulfill his dream of community-focused soccer in Orlando. The first six home games saw an average attendance of 37,400, by far a record for an expansion franchise. Later attendance figures would soar above 43,000. The inaugural-year total was the highest first-year attendance ever for a MLS team. The Lions had clearly achieved an emotional connection with the Orlando community, turning fans out in droves, the ultimate satisfaction for Rawlins.

After four seasons' building his dream club, through ups and downs the authors document in detail, Rawlins, always the businessman looking for a new venture, felt it was time to move on. He had gone through many trials and tribulations (documented in detail in the book) during the long odyssey from his youth in Stoke-on-Trent, including two divorces and huge financial losses. In 2017 he moved to Colorado where, among other things, he planned to do some skiing with his kids. However, he keeps an apartment in Orlando and regularly visits to attend matches to cheer with his fellow ultras, participate in purple tifos, and hold high with pride his Lions' scarf for the club he created. Editorials and many letters to the editor in local media in 2017 expressed great appreciation for what he has done for Orlando. Rawlins had departed on a high note.

This is a thoroughly-researched, extremely well-written book by two veteran writers. Simon Veness is a career sports journalist. Susan Veness is a much published travel writer. The two together have penned a fine volume that is a much better read than most sports books. They include sidebar coverage on the dark side of English soccer tribalism (hooligans and overzealous ultras); the worst mass U.S. shooting up to that time (49 dead, 53 wounded) that occurred inside Orlando's Pulse nightclub in summer, 2016 and its impact upon the city and the club; the community-service requirement in Lions' player contracts (e.g. talks at schools on healthy eating, reading at Head Start preschools); the sacking of head coach Adrian Heath, Rawlins' fellow Stokie and eight-and-one half year right-hand man; and, the rivalry that developed between the Lions and the New York Red Bulls. But, in my view, they capture best the unique and powerful bond between fans and club in both Stoke City and Orlando City. Libraries everywhere should consider accessioning Defying Expectations: Phil Rawlins and the Orlando City Soccer Story. Soccer fans, indeed all sports fans as well as general readers, will enjoy reading this excellent book.

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