Studs Up

When news of the reborn New York Cosmos first broke, my immediate response was “Oh cool, the New York Cosmos.” I had heard of them, I even knew a bit about their history. Pele played there right? And Beckenbauer? There was lots of partying in the 70s or something?

I knew the Cosmos, and I had no idea why. The Cosmos were long gone by the time I was born, I grew up in Hong Kong so they were hardly in the news at any point for nostalgic reasons or otherwise. I never followed US football, the exact opposite in fact, and certainly had no reason to seek out and learn its heritage. Yet while I couldn’t pinpoint when or how I learned of them, it felt like that name had always been there in the back of my head. The New York Cosmos.

I have no other reason I can think of other than I have absorbed this knowledge purely through osmosis, absorbing details here and there over a lifetime of football support during which the Cosmos inevitably came up one way or another.

And, I’ll wager, it’s the same for a lot of you. That lingering presence is testament to the impact that the Cosmos had on football culture and history – not just in the US, but around the world. Is there an MLS club that can lay claim to that kind of reputation? Isn’t that how so many of us define a “Big Club” these days?

That reputation and, yes, brand name, is what has drawn so many people over the years to try and revive the club. The notion of fans or independents creating a club from scratch has seen many faces recently. From various “Let’s All Buy A Club Cause We Can Do Better” fiascos to “We Hate Our Owners So Let’s Make Our Own Club” vigilantes.

Those are all well and good. But where are those examples of people living the dream and putting together some sort of Ocean’s Eleven-style dream team to revive a huge brand name back into a huge football club?

Say it with me. The New York Cosmos.

The dream team doesn’t get as much attention as it should, nor does the true goal of the project unless you were really spending time researching it. For the rest of us, us brave Osmosisians, the details we picked up during our day-to-day were a bit hazy. Some felt this was merely a merchandising project, others made up much more extreme, and much more stupid, theories about the project was about.

But even I was rather passively informed, and misunderstanding, of the whole situation until recently. It wasn’t until Umbro announced a worldwide kit deal with the club, my ears and eyes perked up. I love everything Umbro’s been doing lately in football, and now I was excited to see what they were going to do here. “This could be pretty cool”, I thought as I perused the preview images of jackets, kit and balls (hehe). But even at that point, the whole Cosmos “thing” in my mind was merely a merchandising opportunity for Umbro and whoever else was involved to put out some nice gear and make some cash off a recognizable brand name. Like the Yankees Hat, without all the baseball nonsense.

It wasn’t until they invited me down to their office in New York’s Soho to check out the digs and chat with the team that the full picture was revealed to me. And it is a bit mental. A bit LOT mental. Ok that wasn’t the best writing.

Soho was the first hint at what was to come. Not a lot of normal football clubs would set up shop in a trendy part of town I usually only venture into for a bit of shopping or a whatever new restaurant popped up. Still, I was expecting to walk into a room with a few PR execs, shuffling papers, sorting through mercy and generally and acting as middlemen between the Cosmos owners, Umbro, and their their marketing agency. Yet from the moment the lift doors opened I was blindsided by visuals, staff and an operation that was obsessed with making the New York Cosmos a fully operational, successful football club.

I sat down with Joe Fraga (Executive Director) and Giovanni Savarese (Cosmos Academy East Director) where an hour’s meeting turned into two plus without missing a beat. My immediate question was “Who’s behind all this?” The answer is pretty staggering, allow me to break it down for you:

Pele, Honorary President: No explanation needed.
Paul Kemsley, Chairman/CEO:  English businessman, former Vice Chairman of Tottenham and property developer.  Appeared on UK edition of The Apprentice.  
Terry Byrne, Vice Chairman/Director of Soccer: Formerly Beckham’s manager and has run commercial programs for the England National Team
Carl Johnson, Board Director/CEO of Anomaly:  If you work in advertising, you know Anomaly. They’re one of the hottest and most innovative agencies with a staff cobbled together from some of the brightest talents in the industry including the minds behind some of Nike’s most successful marketing campaigns. Anomaly is an agency and equity partner with the Cosmos.  
Rick Parry, Board Director:  The former Chief Executive of Liverpool is a non-executive board member of The New York Cosmos and obviously is bringing deep experience in building and running a world class football club to the table.  
Joe Fraga, Executive Director:  Formerly an executive with Champions World, U.N. World Sports Alliance and the now defunct Miami Fusion.
Dan Cherry, Chief Marketing Officer: Former Managing Partner and Director of Brand Strategy at Anomaly with a killer list of clients during his career such as Nike, Jordan, Umbro, Converse, ESPN, AND1, Budweiser and Motorola.  
Theresa Tran, Director of Communications: Spent nearly a decade at Nike, was the former head of global communications for the Michael Jordan brand.

Such a line up seems insane, bordering on the unfair. They’re well financed, stacked to the ceiling with talented staff and yet the club’s goal is to focus on youth development with guys like Byrne, Savarese, and Teddy Chronopoulos (Cosmos Academy West Director) leading the charge, building best-in-class academies to provide talent for an eventual MLS franchise. That sounds like the “right” way to do this if I ever heard it. Meanwhile, Johnson and Cherry make sure the branding and marketing is at a world class level. On top of it all, Umbro is churning out uber-desirable merchandise that’s going to find its way onto hipsters and streetwear kids as fast as it does actual football players. Long term, “football guys” like Joe Fraga, Kemsley and Parry will be pulling the strings to make sure the ultimate goal is achieved – the New York Cosmos becoming the MLS’ next franchise, winning championships and completing the circle.

I have about 2 hours worth of interview tape with Fraga and Savarese that I’ll get to another time. Suffice it to say, their genuine passion for the club and more importantly the itself has me excited to see what these guys can do with this opportunity. Fraga is a genuine, lifelong Cosmos fan that was crushed by the club’s folding and his dreams of playing professionally along with it. Now, his office littered with stuff he had as a kid and held onto presumably for the day he could dust it off and bring it into his newly decorated New York Cosmos office. 



A lot of us have dreamed of working for our favorite club at one time or another, to have the chance to bring it back from the dead and restore it to its former glory is that dream magnified a thousand times. Osmosis no more, I’ll be paying close attention to seeing if Clooney & Co. can pull this one off.

You know the name, and it may not be that long before you know the club. 

If you want to stay up to date on the Cosmos yourself, track them on Facebook and Twitter.