City needs to help give Eddies a fighting chance
Tom Fath had no earthly idea that he owned the one team in North American professional sports that will travel more miles to play a season schedule than any other this year.
“It never occurred to me. I never thought of adding it all up,” was the reaction of the FC Edmonton owner when your correspondent revealed the details.
“That’s a snack,” Fath said with the revelation that the North American Soccer League team he co-owns with his brother, Dave, will end up flying more miles than the NHL or NBA teams or any other team perspiring for pay on this side of the Atlantic.
In case you missed it, the Eddies will end up flying 64,933 miles during their NASL season — 76,933 if you include their training camp and four pre-season games in England.
The Edmonton Oilers will fly 46,815 miles this season.
The Colorado Avalanche will be tops in hockey this year at 48,639 and the Golden State Warriors tops in hoops at 53,575 miles.
“It’s part of the deal, I guess,” said Fath. “Every year we’ve travelled lots of miles. I know it can be hard on the players and all of that. But it’s part of bringing soccer to Edmonton. Thank goodness we have some home games.”
At first glance it’s a nice human interest story that should make you feel empathy for this team and speak positively to the way this soccer team carries itself representing the city without carping or complaining.
But when you think about it, it’s insane. The Eddies spend more money on airfare alone than they bring in on gate receipts. Fath is probably paying more money to Air Canada, WestJet, Delta, United, etc. than he is to Nik Ledgerwood, Dustin Corea, Ben Fisk, Daryl Fordyce, Tomi Ameobi and Albert Watson combined.
What owner of a pro sports franchise will fly his team to Puerto Rico, Miami, Jacksonville, North Carolina, New York, Indianapolis and San Francisco to play in front of a league average 4,367 fans per game?
FC Edmonton is drawing an average of 3,515 fans per game at home in a brutal, bandbox of a 4,096-seat makeshift stadium 2,602 miles from the next closest franchise, the expansion San Francisco Deltas.
“It’s nice that they’re only one time zone away,” said Fath.
The travel has always been ridiculous. But this year it got worse when Minnesota United moved up to MLS and Ottawa Fury FC moved to the dramatically reduced travel situation in the USL, where six MLS franchises have developmental teams involved.
Fath, being left feeling as if he owned a team in Anchorage not Edmonton, wouldn’t have been blamed if he pulled the parachute. But he went the opposite way. He decided to be the glue to keep the league going while it reconstructed itself.
“I believe in the NASL. We’re the last remaining original owner from when we came into the league in 2010 and began play in 2011,” he said. “Carolina is still there but they have a different name and a different partner. It was interesting in starting a new team but in starting a new league, which is kind of what we did in 2010.”
The travel costs should go down some with the addition of San Diego and likely Orange County next year.
“It’ll help. But they’re not exactly close rivals,” Fath said.
At some point you have to ask the question.
How much longer can this go on?
“Eventually it has to become sustainable,” said the owner.
To break even, he says, he’d need 9,000 fans a game.
But Tom and Dave Fath have faithfully paid the bills, big bills, while holding out hope city council will be inspired to pay them off by building an 8,000seat expandable soccer specific stadium for this city.
“City council told us a couple years ago that if we started selling out, they’d look at it,” said Fath.
Twice, against the Indy Eleven and New York Cosmos so far this season, the team has stuffed a capacity crowd into Clarke Stadium.
But city council continues to spend its time tearing down City of Champions signs, commissioning Talas Balls public art, putting in bicycle lanes and PingPong and picnic tables on Jasper Avenue, not on giving a second glance to the Fath brothers and the millions they are spending to build something here and pave the way to something that can become a bigger entity in the city.
The Fath brothers obviously qualify as champions in the City of Champions.
Hopefully, one day they’ll have a proper home and a fighting chance to succeed.
In the meantime I think they should change their name to the Edmonton Flyers.