Lagerwey was told ‘no-one has ever walked in here in a suit’ at Joe Roth’s office!
Photo: Alex Caulfield (Sounders FC)
In the fourth part of our interview with new Sounders FC General Manager Garth Lagerwey, he talks about his relationship with the two other most important figures in the club’s Front Office.
He explains how he and Adrian Hanauer had gradually become acquainted through being GMs in two very different clubs, Hanauer at Sounders FC and Lagerwey at Real Salt Lake:
“Adrian and I had been on a couple of different committees. Often times when you’re building consensus on issues to present to the league, you want to somebody have from a small market group and a large market group. If you can marry up your positions, that’s a more compelling case. You’re not disadvantaged in one or the other.
“So Adrian and I just talked informally over the last couple of years on a couple of those things. We felt we looked at the world similarly and that was really it. I didn’t think any more of it.
The phrase we felt we looked at the world similarly is interesting. Both men share the same politics. Hanauer is a public donor to Democrat causes and Lagerwey a former DC lawyer, professed happiness about the President’s re-election in 2012.
By the day Lagerwey received permission to speak to other clubs, the promance between the two men was in full swing. The Sounders didn’t waste any time:
“Obviously, it was fairly public that I was coming out of contract at the end of last season. I got permission to speak to teams the day before Thanksgiving. On that day I spoke to Adrian and he said he had an interest. I was interested in Seattle.”
Mutual respect or not with Adrian Hanauer, Real Salt Lake had been a massive part of Lagerwey’s life. He wasn’t going to leave the club for just anybody.
“I’d say a couple of things. One of my biggest priorities if I was going to switch clubs was that I had a lot emotionally invested in RSL. I really felt I had built it, or had a big part in building it from the very beginnings. If I left it was going to be or someone that I liked an trusted and I felt like, granted in a limited interaction with Adrian, I both liked and trusted him.
“It took five, six weeks to figure out details and what it was going to look like. I think we did a good job on the front end of vetting everything and the possible obstacles, and getting to a place where we thought it could work long term because this is certainly a place where I hope to get the opportunity to stay long term.”
But one of those ‘possible obstacles’ that was foreseen was that Lagerwey would be working under the man who had previously done the job.
Neither man had to look very far down I-5 to see that situation had inherent dangers. John Spencer in Portland eventually found working under Gavin Wilkinson, the man who had coached the club, to have repeated and insurmountable tensions, and in a slightly different context Davie Moyes at Manchester United had found the shadow of Sir Alex Ferguson a hard one to grow in.
But Lagerwey did not see that as a negative. In fact, he was very forthright that his previous experience in Salt Lake had stood him in good stead and he actually had benefited from such a situation.
“I’ll tell you a very specific story on the other point of working for somebody that’s done your job before. I would say that had I not done that in my first job, the RSL job, I probably wouldn’t have made it (been a success).
“I had the great luxury; the great opportunity to work for Dave Checketts. Dave had been the General Manager and President for 30 years, and moreover had been at one point the youngest General Manager in the NBA, and I was coming in at the time as the youngest GM in MLS.
“I was the tremendous beneficiary of Dave’s wisdom and experience and I feel the same way about working for Adrian. At 42 years old, shame on me if I stop learning and stop developing.”
But working with Hanauer is far from a case of been there done that for Lagerwey. He is genuinely excited about the newness of the challenge that lies before him in Seattle.
“Certainly there are great plains to take this league to, to take the team to. There’s a lot left to accomplish. I really look at it as a positive, as a strength. I’m excited to work with Adrian. I’ve really enjoyed it so far. If I can learn some stuff from him, and maybe fill in a few cents here and there and maybe make the group a little bit better, maybe that’s enough to push us over to wining titles and to winning CONCACAF Champions League.”
There lies an interesting point there.
Lagerwey’s RSL famously made it to the CONCACAF Champions League (CCL) Final, and were one game away from the World Club Cup. Having seen some of the team selections that MLS clubs put out in CCL, one might think they do not see the gleaming prize that lies in being on the world stage with the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Atlético Mineiro or San Lorenzo.
For the ex-RSL chief, the CCL is more than an afterthought:
“There’s two huge prizes out there. The Galaxy have set the bar over the last coupe of years; three of the last four championships, four of the last six finals. The other one is still out there. It’s what we tried to get at RSL. That’s winning Champions League. And I think there’s no arrogance in saying that those are the things at this club, we’re striving to achieve.
“It doesn’t mean they’ll be easy. Anybody that’s been in Seattle recently just has to watch the Seahawks to see how hard it is to win a title. They’re a really really good team that lost only at the last breath, not dissimilar to how the Sounders went out in the Conference final last year. It’s really hard. It’s really challenging but hopefully we can build a really good organisation such as we maximize our chances of doing it over the next couple of years – and hopefully doing it more than once.”
If Lagerwey and Adrian Hanauer were already well acquainted with each other, that was not the case with Sounders FC majority owner Joe Roth.
Lagerwey now feels comfortable around the ebullient filmmaker, but that wasn’t always the case:
“It’s now a funny story. I’d flown to LA and went to this office building where he works. I’m in a suit and tie and I’m nervous. I’m going to meet the big owner who I’d never met before. I knew what he looked like but I didn’t really know what to expect. We meet in his office and he’s in a track suit and sneakers – and it’s his office and his kingdom.
“But he was very disarming and he was very welcoming. It was really comfortable. I kind of walked in and the guy at the front desk laughed and said, ‘we’ve never had anyone appear here in a suit before’ which might have been a small exaggeration but I was a little bit of a fish out of water in the LA Hollywood studio and yet, when I got to Joe’s office, he was real welcoming and real friendly.”
“He certainly wanted to understand what I hoped to get out of the job as well. It just made me think ‘this is a really smart guy’. The guy’s had a totally different life experience from me and that’s something I can learn from. That’s the kind of stuff that makes me want to really want to get my feet in, get excited and work for Sounders.”
Sounders FC now have four men with larger than life personalities and presences steering their ship; Lagerwey, Hanauer, Roth and head coach Sigi Schmid. That’s a lot of personality, a lot of experience and a great deal of drive.
No-one should ever forget that ultimately success is up to the players but this foursome brings a great deal of MLS experience, and Lagerwey adds to that by bringing a view of the league from a different perspective.
The four parts of our interview series with him demonstrate that he brings humility, humour, diplomacy and ambition. Perhaps he brings to Sounders FC some of the very qualities the club often seemed to been lacking. It should also be added he has experience of winning MLS Cup and going far in the CCL.
This outlet specifically called for his hire in October 2013. We hope that in wielding any influence he may have, especially on issues like free agency, he remains mindful of the needs of the small market clubs like the one that brought him to where he is today.
If so, there is every chance that Sounders FC might finally fulfill its stated destiny of becoming the international flagship club of Major League Soccer, a league that continues to grow as a unit, rather than sees smaller clubs who are unable to compete in a financial free for all, struggle to the point where they cannot attract spectators or advertisers.
Getting that balance right is crucial for the future of the league. It is also crucial for the future of Sounders FC.
Also See:
Lager than life Pt 1. Sounders new GM vows to ‘listen but be an independent voice’.
Lager than Life Pt 2- My challenge depends on how much of a pain in the neck Clint is!
Lagerwey – The Best in the Business
Sounders should hire Garth Lagerwey – October 2013
Lagerwey: Removal of the salary cap is our worst case scenario – August 2012
