Club sets up employee assistance fund

Business as usual is a relative term in the era of coronavirus-induced work from home. But for Philadelphia Union president and chief business officer Tim McDermott, technology is helping the club adapt and conduct business not too dissimilarly from its inperson routine.

And where technology can’t bridge the gap, the Union are stepping up their efforts.

Thatincludestheestablishment of a gameday employee assistance fund for the more than 200 parttime employees losing income due to the MLS season being on hiatus during this global pandemic.

“We’re all trying to take the right actions and be thoughtful about the people who are being impacted, and some are (impacted) more than others,” McDermott said by phone Friday. “We wanted to make sure we were thoughtful about how we do it and how we help our gameday folks.”

The Union and MLS won’t be back in action until at least May 10, with the league announcing last week that it would follow Centers for Disease Control guidance avoiding any gatherings of 50 or more people for the next eight weeks. MLS has provided regular updates to clubs regarding when training can resume, and on Wednesday it extended the training moratorium through April 3.

Despite the physical distance being observed, telecommunications have allowed both the Union’s business and soccer staffs to continue their regular slate of meetings, McDermott said. He’s been in daily contact with owner Jay Sugarman, and the ownership group has met weekly during the outbreak, in addition to what McDermott praised as “consistent communication” from league headquarters.

McDermott has focused the club’s efforts on how they can help the community. That includes the employee assistance fund, with a hotline to call (610859-3100) to see if workers are eligible for benefits. McDermott estimated that more than 200 workers – many of them regulars, plus those that have signed up to work games affected by the postponements this season – would be eligible for relief.

The Union have reached out to local health care and government entities offering their parking facilities for use (many large parking areas, such as lots at Citizens Bank Park, have been used for drive-through COVID-19 testing). The club also has 30,000 latex gloves it is looking to donate to organizations in need, and it already donated food that was destined to be sold in the home opener at Subaru Park March 14 to CityTeam Chester.

The front office is trying to strike a balance, McDermott said, between immediate decisions (particularly those that involve employee or public health) and the longer-term ones on which more information would be valuable to help assess.

With a May 10 resumption, the Union would have 10 games to make up, seven at home. Gate revenue remains a big part of the economic model for every MLS club, and anything less than 17 home games would represent a hit to the bottom line. But MLS commissioner Don Garber this week expressed an intent to play the full 34 games, with flexibility as to when the season can end, and that’s the assumption the Union are operating under.

“Right now, we are focused on playing a full season and that is definitely the goal, to play an entire season,” McDermott said.

“The league is looking at a whole host of scenarios, and the good thing is that we can push back the end of the season.”

McDermott is in his fifth season in charge of the Union’s business operations. He was brought in two months after Earnie Stewart took over as sporting director, and the mandates ran parallel: To clean up the messes of the club’s early years, to standardize and modernize policies.

Both lanes of the business have made tremendous progress in those efforts, and the structures that have been developed are being tested by coronavirus perhaps more than ever. McDermott hails the continuity of leadership on his side of the operations as crucial (Stewart gave way to Ernst Tanner on the sporting side, but many of the philosophies have continued with some modification). Between those core philosophies, Sugarman’s input and the league coordination, they hope to have a grasp on what comes next.

“I think to the extent that you have processes in place, you’ve got policies in place, in our case, we have a lot of the same leaders that have been here now for an extended period of time, I think those are all very helpful in a situation like this,” McDermott said. “… That continuity of knowing each other is certainly helpful. And having the right policies and procedures in place helps in this situation.”