Stars align for ex-Whitecap in L.A.
John Thorrington returns home to help bring glamorous new West Coast team into MLS
John Thorrington is sitting in an outdoor courtyard in Manhattan Beach, Calif., musing about how it used to be a sleepy surf town.
He grew up a few minutes away, a water sports nut in Palos Verdes Peninsula, before leaving home at 16 to join Manchester United’s academy.
Now, two decades later, after a playing career in England and MLS, including two seasons with the Vancouver Whitecaps, and after working for the MLS Players Union and finishing his MBA at Northwestern University, Thorrington is back.
About a year ago, he was hired as executive vice-president of soccer operations for Los Angeles FC, who join MLS in 2018.
“Everyday, I feel so incredibly privileged to be in this position,” says Thorrington. “I’ve always said my goal is to take whatever I’ve learned and to play a part in growing the game. I couldn’t have dreamed a scenario where I could do that in my hometown.”
The transformation of Manhattan Beach has got nothing on what’s taking place in L.A.’s soccer scene.
Gone is Chivas USA, that ill-conceived franchise that had become a leaguewide joke. With few fans and few wins, and playing out of the same Carson, Calif., stadium as the L.A. Galaxy, it ceased operations in 2014.
In Chivas’s place, two seasons from now, will be LAFC, a glittering addition to MLS, backed by big money, big stars, and with the drawing power to attract big-name players.
Last August, the club broke ground on a US$350-million, 22,000-seat stadium on a 15-acre plot of land in the heart of L.A., next to the Los Angeles Coliseum, and about 25 kilometres from Thorrington’s home in North Manhattan, where he lives with wife Krista and their three young kids, Elle, who was born in Vancouver, Jensen and newborn Ara.
“Leaving ownership resources aside,” says Thorrington, “what I’d say differentiates us is an incredible advantage that we’re in L.A. I knew that (advantage) because I’m from here. I get it. I know the appeal. But I grossly underestimated the level of interest from players and coaches, here and abroad, Champions League and World Cup players and coaches.”
Those names are all anyone wants to talk about. Thorrington says he was mobbed at the stadium groundbreaking media day, and nobody asked him about the stadium. He thinks the two are related; that the stadium — “unlike any stadium our continent has seen” — will be a big part of the draw.
Reports, including those from ESPN, have lately linked LAFC to the likes of Wayne Rooney, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, Luka Modric and Cesc Fabregas.
There is speculation that longtime Seattle Sounders bench boss Sigi Schmid could coach the expansion franchise, which has exceeded 10,000 season-ticket deposits, has almost sold out its luxury boxes and already has some of the best-selling merchandise in the league.
Thorrington won’t delve into the name game, but knows that getting their designated players right is critical, and that’s about far more than money.
“We’re going to spend very wisely,” says Thorrington. “We’re not going to just spend because we can.”
Thorrington’s lived MLS expansion with Vancouver in 2011, when the Caps were a league-worst 6-1810. And he’s dissected the moves and strategies of all the clubs who’ve had to navigate the expansion gauntlet.
“Expansion is so hard,” he says. “I know that. Vancouver knows that. You have to do well in every single area of player acquisition. You have to get your DPs right. You have to get the draft right.
“If you look at Seattle (who made the playoffs and won the U.S. Open Cup as an expansion team in 2009), they got Kasey Keller, who wasn’t even a DP. They got Freddie Ljungberg, who performed well. They got (Steve) Zakuani in the draft. They got some real pieces in the expansion draft. They found Ozzie Alonso and Fredy Montero. They hit home runs in a lot of ways.
“With how hard expansion is, you can’t afford to miss, so I’m grateful for this runway to do that planning and strategizing.”
Thorrington isn’t surrounded by soccer people at LAFC, but says the large and diverse ownership group — LAFC’s website lists 27 owners — is an “incredible asset.”
Larry Berg, who has made his fortune in private equity, heads a group that also includes entrepreneur Peter Gruber, an owner of both the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Former Portland Trail Blazers executive Tom Penn is owner-president, while the likes of Magic Johnson, Will Ferrell, Mia Hamm, Nomar Garciaparra and Tony Robbins bring the star power and give the whole project a glitzy L.A. feel.
Cardiff City majority owner Vincent Tan is also involved, and Berg and fellow LAFC owner Bennett Rosenthal have a minority stake in AS Roma.
Forbes numbers peg the net worth of the ownership group at around US$4.5 billion.
“There are guys from the Warriors that can say, ‘This is how we turned this around in five years from the worst on-court and off-court franchise in the NBA to the best,’ ” says Thorrington, who came onto LAFC’s radar through their managing partner, Henry Nguyen, a fellow Northwestern alum. “I can talk to the Dodgers about their scouting and their data analytics and their player-performance evaluations. Baseball’s further up the curve than (soccer).
“Will Ferrell gets us into conversations that MLS has never been in before. The magazines that call LAFC wouldn’t be calling us if it weren’t for Will. And the one thing in common with all of the owners, is they’ve been incredibly successful in everything they’ve done.”
Thorrington, who was born in South Africa but moved to Palos Verdes Peninsula at age two, says he first started thinking seriously about the business side of soccer at 21 while playing for Huddersfield Town in England. The club was going bankrupt and he was the union representative, helping to find new owners.
Injuries throughout his career, including in Vancouver, kept him determined to forge a life in soccer after playing.
“The experience I had in Vancouver was incredibly valuable,” Thorrington says. “I still have a lot of respect for the whole organization. I’ve gotten to know (majority owner) Greg (Kerfoot) in a different capacity now and certainly see his hand on how the club has been built. I think a lot of what Vancouver did from the get-go was spot on, and then there are things like the training ground and stadium that we didn’t have from Day 1 that definitely affects things.
“If you look at the statistics of expansion teams that come in and don’t have a stable home training facility, the first season’s a writeoff. I lived that.”
A thriving academy is also key, says Thorrington, and LAFC’s under-12s are already up-and-running at Cal State Los Angeles, just east of the stadium site.
The rivalry between LAFC and the Galaxy in the academy space, as well as in MLS, should be fierce.
“It’s going to be great for our kids, for our fans and for the organization,” says Thorrington. “I’ve lost to them enough times that I’ve got some seeds that have germinated over time. They’ve been the most successful team to date in MLS, through MLS 1.0 and 2.0. And our challenge is to be the best team of MLS 3.0. They’ve set a very high bar, and I’m grateful for that.”
It’s been a year since Thorrington took the gig. One more year to go to build a team that LAFC fans can be proud of — a team that reflects the grit and substance of L.A., not just the glamour, he says.
He knows it will go quickly. To unwind, he gets in the water almost everyday, usually around 8:30 p.m., after the kids go to bed.
“The competitor in me wants to say we’re going to go out there and do well (in Year 1), and that’s possible,” he says. “But I’ve seen enough expansion. It’s not like because we’re L.A. we have some God-given right for success.”