Chris Klein never really had a formal interview to help him get his position atop the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer. It was more like a lifelong job interview.
The famed midfielder has played at every level of American soccer, first as a collegiate athlete at Indiana University and as a member of the USA National team. Klein spent the entirety of his 12-year professional career playing in Major League Soccer, including a championship title with the Kansas City Wizards and four seasons with the L.A. Galaxy. He transitioned to the front office with the encouragement of former AEG CEO Tim Leiweke and, in January, was promoted to the position of team president. Venues Today caught up with Klein at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., to discuss the building’s place in MLS, and U.S. soccer’s place in the world of sports.
What will be the StubHub Center’s legacy as an American soccer stadium?
I think that if you go back 10 years, when it first opened, it was looked at as state of the art and the best MLS stadium around. You’re hard-pressed to find a better venue for a soccer game than StubHub Center. It’s still seen as one of the best in our league in terms of watching a soccer game. The atmosphere that we had here for the MLS Cup two years in a row was incredible. StubHub Center has had some of the biggest moments our country has had when it comes to soccer.
As a player, what did you think when you heard of the plan to build a soccer-specific stadium in L.A.?
I think it was the moment where every player wanted to play in L.A. Quite honestly, the Galaxy have always been the envy of the league. Once they went forward with this stadium, it was official. You walk in here and it goes beyond the actual stadium. It goes to the facilities that are here. It’s the locker room. It’s the weight room. It’s the training field. Plus, the weather that we have pulls it all together to make it the best place to play in our country.
What do you think of the stadium’s new sponsorship by StubHub?
I think you’re going to see a lot more technology. The world has definitely changed in terms of how our consumers want to be talked to, and how we communicate with them, in terms of how they buy their tickets, how they sell their tickets, how they come to the game and how we interact with them. Having a company like AXS [AEG ticketing] and having a partnership like we have with StubHub is only going to enhance that relationship.
What does it mean to have so many companies want to be involved with the Galaxy and the stadium?
What it means to the Galaxy is that because of who owns us (AEG), we’re part of something much bigger in the entertainment industry. It’s very important for us and for what we want to do. We’re a successful soccer team, but we want to move beyond that and be a successful brand — one of the brands that is recognized not only locally in L.A., but in the world. I think if you went anywhere in the world, everyone knows who LA Galaxy is. With the backing that we have from AEG, whether it’s ticketing, whether it’s marketing, or it’s how we handle show business, it adds to our brand and it adds to who we are as a company inside of something much bigger.
How has the league’s ability to attract new fans changed in the past decade?
We’ve tried everything. We tried penalty shootouts because we didn’t think the American fans wanted to see ties. We even talked about making the goals bigger — just really trying to market to every sports fan in the U.S. I think where we’ve come to is that — and this has been a big change — there are enough soccer fans in this country to make it wildly successful. I think that’s been the biggest shift. We are who we are. We’re not a niche sport. We are a major sport in this country and that will continue. We have our fans and we love our fans. If we can go forward that way, I think that it’s best for us. We need to be authentic. We need to be a league that’s recognized around the world.
What can MLS do to be better recognized as a global league?
The season keeps getting longer to help the integrity of our league. Before we used to start in April and end in October, which would mean getting four or five months off. You can’t be looked at as a real league in how we’re developing players if you’re taking that much time off. You can fill it in with preseason or post-season but it doesn’t really work. Today, we have the longest of the U.S. sports seasons. Hockey, basketball, baseball, football – they’re all much shorter, but they’re only competing against themselves and the other teams, so they can do that, whereas we’re competing for players and for attention with the rest of the world. To stay competitive you have to be playing. You can’t have that much time off or else you’re not seen as a real league.
Are there challenges with bringing in international players?
It’s something that’s very important to our league, that our players get to play with their national teams. Where it’s challenging is, take England for instance, their players only leave on FIFA dates. These FIFA dates are recognized around the world. Their leagues don’t schedule games during these windows, and they’ll only release their players during those windows. Where we’re a little bit different is our schedule is not perfect yet, we have to play through FIFA dates. There are a few times a year where we’ll be missing a few of our players because they’re away with the national teams. It’s just part of what we deal with and we have to do it the best way we can. It’s a great opportunity for some of our younger players to play.
How do you keep a balance between bringing in international players and developing local talent?
We’re the prime example of that. We’re always going to have a David Beckham (from England) or a Robbie Keane (from Ireland). However, we also have invested heavily in our youth development system. We’re bringing players up like Jose Villarreal and Jack McBean — players that are starting to contribute to our first team. For us to be successful, because of the economics of our league and because of how many of those big players you have, we have to be able to develop our own players.
Speaking of balance, how do you interact with the supporters groups and decide how much power to give them and how much, if at all, to restrict them?
It’s definitely a balance on both sides. With supporters groups, the one thing they don’t want is me, or anyone else, dictating who they are or what they do. At the same time, we don’t want them doing that to us. We understand that they are a large part of our fan group so they should have a voice. They’re the ones who are buying tickets, sitting here, parking and having a beer or a soda. If you look at the atmosphere that we want in the stadium, we want to have mom and dad and the youth soccer player and everything else, but it’s also very important to grow our supporters group because, if you come to our game, they’re who you hear cheering. They’re an extension of our brand and we think of them as part of our family, so we want to have the right conversation with them about how we can grow and what we can do to add to the atmosphere in the stadium.
What is the biggest concern when it comes to team operations?
The biggest thing for me is the product on the field and how we can improve the product on the field. If that’s the starting point for every discussion that we have, we’re moving in the right direction.
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