CHESTER — In his state of the club address Wednesday, Philadelphia Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz tempered expectations about the “mixed bag” that was the 2013 financially for the club.
He rattled off the positives — higher television ratings, increased attendance, prosperous sales of merchandise and concessions, a healthier financial outlook for a club in better management hands than the previous regime.
Then Sakiewicz let the negatives, fewer in number if not in significance, land with a thud, one that will shape the future of the club’s new ventures.
The major sticking point according to the club’s CEO and managing partner lay in its relationship with the city of Chester, an arrangement hampering revenues in the present and development in the future.
The primary aspect of that detrimental relationship cited by Sakiewicz centered on parking revenues, an area of the balance sheet in which the Union took a major hit with the city allowing other organizations to set up parking areas among the vacant lots around the stadium.
That development, to Sakiewicz, is emblematic of the ongoing struggles the club has with city, whose government Sakiewicz criticized as “inconsistent.”
“While PPL Park is still and always will be a great place to come watch soccer games, the city’s new parking taxes, special purpose taxes and generally unfriendly business environment has seriously affected our ability to operate and our bottom line,” Sakiewicz said via conference call from the Union’s preseason training base in Deltona, Fla. “New city taxes and increased costs as a result of the independent parking lots the city allowed to open had a significant negative impact to our financial position.”
Sakiewicz stressed that the city’s partnership was still workable on a game-to-game basis, but the relationship for future development had been strained, primarily by new taxes enacted by the government to aid with its dire financial positioning.
While Sakiewicz later struck a more sympathetic chord, he also recognized the red tape involved as a major impediment to the development of the retail and entertainment hub that both the club and city envisioned for the Chester Waterfront district.
“It doesn’t affect fans coming down and still having a great time at PPL Park, but just a lack of long-term vision and long-term strategy discussion with the city leaves a lot of things unanswered, especially for future development,” Sakiewicz said. “The talk about a hotel down there, the talk about retail, the talk about other programming around the stadium, there is no talk about that because the environment that this city administration has put in place has made it such that there are so many other opportunities in South Jersey and Wilmington and other parts of Pennsylvania where building those projects is a lot less complicated.”
Attempts to reach officials with the City of Chester for comment were unsuccessful.
The most pressing aspect of the Union’s developmental plan being held up by tension with the city is the establishment of a permanent, devoted training facility, which Sakiewicz labeled as “our single top priority right now.”
Plans had been drawn up to repurpose Lot B next to PPL Park as a training facility, but the relationship with the city and parking revenue situation have made the untenable, Sakiewicz saying that, “I don’t think we’re moving forward with those for a variety of reasons.” Instead, the Union are evaluating two sites within Delaware County which Sakiewicz chose not to identify. He later reiterated that the club would not look outside Delco for its training facility.
The club currently does its in-season training at Chester Park in Nether Providence, which involves the players using the locker rooms at PPL Park and being shuttled to and from practice. Beyond merely an amenity and a recruiting tool for world-class players, the former pro soccer player in Sakiewicz understands the lure of a full-time, state-of-the-art facility the club can all home.
“We’re dealing with a pretty fluid city government right now, and we’re just not sure of what the environment is,” Sakiewicz said. “That doesn’t just go for fields, it goes for potential other development on that site. No one wants to build in an uncertain environment. We’re more focused on building the practice facility.”
In his conversation with the media, Sakiewicz announced several other changes. Former indoor soccer player Peter Pappas will replace Alejandro Moreno as the Union’s full-time color commentator on television broadcasts, teaming with play-by-play analyst J.P. Dellacamera and sideline reporter Heather Mitts.
Moreno, who also works for ESPN, confirmed his departure via Twitter. He follows the long line of Union color commentators, including Kyle Martino and Taylor Twellman, to parlay regional exposure to national jobs. The club’s local television ratings increased 47 percent last year, per Sakiewicz.
Sakiewicz also assessed the Union as coming off a “rebuilding year,” one where the main focus was rectifying the errors of the departed regime of Peter Nowak. (Sakiewicz also confirmed that the club is still in litigation with Nowak, though he wouldn’t comment further.)
Sakiewicz expressed a belief that his team has exited the “startup” phase of its existence, and in its fifth year, is ready to be a major player in MLS.
“We feel as if the club is truly an MLS club with big ambitions and has settled in,” he said. “We’ve certainly learned a lot and battled through some very serious obstacles, including one of the worst economic downturns in U.S. history. But like our Philly tough fans and players, we’re in our fifth season feeling excited and energized about the 2014 campaign and what it will bring.”