If you ask Andy Kohlberg, one of the American owners of Spanish club Mallorca along with NBA greats Steve Kerr and Steve Nash, if he recommends ownership of a soccer club in Europe, he'll give you a straight answer. will be returned.
“No sane person can say that,” Kohlberg says with a laugh.
“It's very difficult. It's very different from running a normal business, especially in another country and dealing with differences in culture, language and customs,” said former professional tennis player and Mallorca said Kohlberg, the island's major shareholder and president.
In fact, the former vice president of the Phoenix Suns says people would be better off joining an NBA team or another franchise in American sports so they wouldn't have to deal with the “ups and downs” of relegation and promotion. right. This is unique to soccer leagues and can ruin a club's finances.
“It's completely different from American sports,” he says. “If we had a bad season, it was just one season and nothing much changed. I think we are the only club in Spain to have been in six divisions for six years. This is a record that I am proud of. I don't think so, but I think there are very few people who have suffered as much as we have.”
But come this weekend, Kohlberg and minority owners Kerr and Nash will be enjoying the fun part of the soccer club ownership experience. They will watch Mallorca share center stage with Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final in Seville on Saturday.
A “historic and surprising” final appearance, as Kohlberg puts it, comes after the American owners bought the Balearic Islands club eight years ago, buying a stake worth around $20 million in a deal led by the former Phoenix. useful for verifying efforts. Suns owner Robert Sarver.
The Copa success also helped Mallorca show they are on the right track despite early struggles for the club, whose main goal in recent years has been to stay in Spain's top flight. There is.
Despite the difficulties, Kohlberg, 64, assured that he had no regrets about making the leap to ownership of a European club and said American owners were in it for the long term.
“The passion for soccer here is amazing and different from the United States,” Kohlberg told The Associated Press after a meeting with journalists hosted by Spanish news agency EFE. “In America, it's passionate, but it's all about fun, entertainment, music, cheerleading, and dancing, but here it's just a tribal conflict, and it's much deeper.”
Kerr and Nash are not as involved with the club, but Kohlberg said they watch games and sometimes talk about the results after the game. Nash became a shareholder when the club was purchased in 2016, and Kerr joined last year. The Golden State Warriors coach told his first-team squad during a visit to the club in 2022.
Nash, a two-time NBA MVP and avid soccer fan, previously served on the board of directors and has visited Mallorca several times. He has also practiced with the team's B team in the past.
“When the team loses, they call me and ask, 'What are you doing?'” Kohlberg joked about Nash and Kerr's involvement with the club.
Former athletes who are investors in Mallorca include former US soccer player Stuart Holden and former England defender Graham Le Saux.
“Successful athletes have a different mentality,” Kohlberg says. “They understand what type of players are successful.”
Mallorca is one of five foreign-owned clubs in Spain's first division, along with Girona, Granada, Almeria and Valencia. Mallorca is the only island owned by Americans.
Nash, Holden and Lasso are expected to be at La Cartuja Stadium for Saturday's final. Nash and Holden were caught on camera enthusiastically celebrating the club's promotion to the First Division in 2019.
Kohlberg also plans to participate Saturday. Although he has been involved in the club's bigger decisions, he has left his day-to-day operations to business CEO Alfonso Díaz and sporting director Pablo Ortels. He says there is no reason to bring in someone from the United States to fill these roles.
“We have to operate from Mallorca,” says Kohlberg. “It has to be people who live in Mallorca, people who know Spanish football.”
Kohlberg says he comes to Spain about four times a year. He acquired a majority stake in the club last summer by purchasing Server stock during the club's rebuilding.
One of the reasons Americans chose Mallorca is because it is home to a tourist island that is visited by around 13 million tourists each year.
“Maybe they're from Germany and are Bayern Munich fans, but they came looking for a unique soccer experience,” Kohlberg said. “We are trying to bring something different and unique to Mallorca.”
Mallorca used part of the funds the Spanish league received from the CVC Investment Fund to renovate its 26,000-seater stadium and provide a better experience for its fans. The VIP area has been renovated to create an entertainment zone that resembles an American arena more than any other soccer stadium in Spain.
The club has around 21,000 season ticket holders and will work with airlines and companies operating ferry services from mainland Spain to the island to ensure almost all of them can travel to Seville for the final. There was a need.
Mallorca's budget is close to 70 million euros (about $75.7 million), and the American owner is believed to have invested more than $100 million into the club since taking over.
Founded in 1916, Mallorca enjoyed their best years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, finishing third in the Spanish league in 1999 and 2001 and winning the Copa del Rey in 2003. They were in the third tier in the 2017-18 season, and have moved up and down the ranks repeatedly since then, but have competed in the top tier for the third consecutive year.
“When I bought the clubs, I didn't plan on it going up and down, up and down, up and down,” Kohlberg says. “It's difficult when you're going up and down, but you're just trying to build a good foundation. Investing in the academy, the stadium, the training facility, the management team. If you have the foundation, you can get through the ups and downs and hopefully get to La He will be able to stay in La Liga and continue the development of the club.”
More important than winning the Copa, which doesn't bring a lot of money for Mallorca, is that Mallorca remain in the top tier. They sit in 15th place, six points above the relegation zone.
“We want to consolidate our position in the First Division and continue to develop and stay comfortably in the top half of the table each season,” Dias says. “At the moment we are still running two parallel budgets, one if we play in the First Division and one if we are relegated.”
The team's recent resurgence can be linked to the appointment of veteran Mexican coach Javier Aguirre in March 2022. He helped the team avoid relegation that year and led Mallorca to a ninth-place finish last season. His contract expires at the end of the season, but it has not yet been determined whether he will return.
Kohlberg said his focus is on beating Athletic on Saturday.
“It would take us as a club to another level,” he says. “It will be great for the fans and for the project. This stadium has already revolutionized the club and this will take it to a new level.”
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer
