(L to R) Former United CEO and President Kevin Payne along with team owners Erick Thohir, Jason Levien and Will Chang are pictured at a press conference earlier this year. (Photo by Pablo Maurer)
D.C. United fans were stunned to hear last week about the surprising departure of D.C. United President and CEO Kevin Payne, who’d been with the club in one position or another since its inception. First thought to be a completely voluntary move—Payne himself said on a Tuesday evening conference call that the move was “100 percent” his decision—it was reported by multiple sources as the week went on that United’s new investors, Jason Levien and Erick Thohir, had encouraged Payne to explore other opportunities and didn’t want to keep him in his position.
The turnover continued Friday afternoon, with seven front office employees losing their jobs, two of them among United’s longest-tenured staff members: Vice President Stephen Zack and ticketing and customer service boss Fred Matthes, both of whom came on board during the team’s inaugural season in 1995. Several members of the media and marketing department also got the axe, including United’s director of marketing and communications, Kyle Sheldon.
Michael Williamson, the team’s chief financial officer, and Doug Hicks, the senior vice president for marketing and communications, will stay on board and run the business side of the club; a source familiar with the situation told DCist this weekend that the details and specifics of the new arrangement are still being worked out. The club didn’t have a comment as of Sunday evening, but an official announcement is expected later in the week.
The scale of the layoffs comes as a bit of a surprise, but Levien and Thohir made it clear when they bought into the team that they’d be taking a fresh look at all aspects of United’s operations, including the team’s finances. It has long been known that the team has struggled to be profitable for years, forced to languish away in a 50-year-old stadium that doesn’t afford them the revenue streams that a new facility would.
Aside from the financial burden created by playing at RFK Stadium, United has had to contend with several other financial obstacles: a source familiar with league operations suggested to DCist that United’s marketing proposal for MLS Cup—a provisional pitch that the league required for several teams who could have theoretically hosted the event—was significantly higher than any other clubs. The massive difference in cost was likely the result of having to attempt to fill a 45,000 seat venue located in one of the most expensive media markets in the United States, though one also wonders why the club would be spending so much if it’s in dire financial straits.
The loss of Zack in particular has been a huge blow to United’s supporters groups, many of whom took to social media to voice there displeasure after having lost their two biggest front office allies in the course of a few days.
“Kevin and Stephen were so key in our relationship with the Club, league and RFK,” Barra Brava “elder” Robert Gillespie—who’s been with the group since 1998—told me Sunday evening. “The relationship between the Club, Barra and Stadium used to be terrible. We had members assaulted by CSC [Contemporary Services Corporation, the company tasked with crowd management at RFK], fights with security. Stephen and Kevin worked really hard with me, [fellow elder] Oscar Zambrana and the late Chico Solares to fix them.”
The supporters groups, who receive a discount on tickets from United and also get help from the club with their in-stadium and tailgate-related efforts, are effectively the black and red’s biggest customers. It doesn’t make sense for United to alienate them, frankly, but many of their concerns, though understandable, are also largely speculative. Gillespie told DCist that he’s “skeptical but willing to listen” to the new front office staff about their plans. From what I’ve gathered both the club and a representative from Jason Levien’s Philadelphia-based office reached out to the leaders of almost all of the groups over the weekend; bridges are being built between United’s new front office and the boisterous fans who make seeing a United game such a unique experience.
Progress is also being made on the stadium front, as reported by the Post’s Capital Business Blog. District officials have entered into preliminary talks with Pepco—which owns two of the lots in the footprint of United’s proposed Buzzard Point stadium—about the feasibility of building the facility there. While the news isn’t earth-shattering, it’s a further indication that a stadium deal for the club may finally be on the horizon. As Payne noted on Tuesday, a new venue is “by no means a done deal, but I feel really good about where it is in the process.”
United also reached an agreement with Volkswagen last week to extend its sponsorship agreement through next year. The automaker also has an option to pick the team up in 2014, and has openly stated that they’d like to be a part of United’s stadium plans. Terms of the agreement weren’t released, but their previous deal with the club was valued at $3-4 million annually. Volkswagen already has it’s name on one stadium—the VW arena in Wolfsburg, Germany, where the company is based. Volkswagen Stadium at Buzzard Point (VoStad at BuzzPo if you’re into that sort of thing)—kind of has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
We’ll have more on United’s front office developments later in the week when we’re able to flesh more of the details out and get a better idea of the particular direction the club will be heading in. To those United fans who find the turnover a bit unnerving, I’m with you. But you’ve got to think: how many organizations out there have employees who survived 16-plus years while operating in the red? It’s likely time for a change, and we’ve seen Jason Levien—who’s talked about wanting to “take a machete” to the District’s red tape—arguably make more progress on the stadium front than any of the brave souls who came before him. United’s faithful will just have to wait and see about this one.
