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Lamar Hunt Q&A Wizards, Crew owner: 'We're only seeing the tip'
Updated: Friday October 27, 2000 4:28 PM
By Ridge Mahoney, Soccer America Kansas City investor-operator Lamar Hunt added the 2000 MLS championship to the NASL title he won with Dallas in 1971. SOCCER AMERICA: Obviously this is a great result for the Wizards and the Hunt family. Does it help the league? LAMAR HUNT: It's good for the league to have different teams win. Now, we've had D.C., Chicago and the Wizards. Los Angeles has been close a couple of times. Obviously, for the Wizards, Bob Gansler and [General Manager] Curt [Johnson] and all the players, it's a tremendously satisfying and outstanding moment.
LH: That was a sport that was well-established and the Chiefs were already established. That was a great day for the Chiefs franchise, but I can't compare them. This sport is not that far along in America, it's not that well developed. This is especially important in Kansas City. This is whole different war and a whole different battle. Our battle here is against the bill collector. We have to sell tickets and do all the other things it takes to make this sport succeed. SA: And what about the 1971 NASL title with the Dallas Tornado? LH: The championship was three games in those days, and I couldn't go to the final game in Atlanta. My partner, Bill McNutt, went, and he brought them home. We played Rochester [in the semifinals], and one of those games was the longest played, 176 minutes. So they put 176 minutes on our [championship] rings. SA: How good are the pro soccer teams and players of today? LH: Athletes are getting better. I'm convinced the players of today are better. The players in MLS are higher paid and of a higher caliber in general. I'm not comparing them to the Cosmos, which was a great team. It's a function of the budgets. I think our players in Dallas made about $10,000 [per year] and they had outside jobs. SA: Where is the sport of soccer headed in this country? LH: I think it's going to be a very big sport in America and I think we're only seeing the tip of it.
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