Title/Author:
“Defying Expectations: Phil Rawlins and the
Orlando City Soccer Story” by Simon Veness and Susan Veness
Tags:
Football (European), soccer, professional,
biography, business
Publish date:
November 1, 2017
Length:
304 pages
Rating:
4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review:
No matter the sport,
league or level of play, one of the more difficult tasks in the business side
of sports is to build a franchise from scratch.
Phil Rawlins, his wife Kay and their team of investors and executives
did this in Major League Soccer, building the Orlando City Soccer Club from the
ground up. Their success, starting with
Phil’s success in both business and football in England, is captured in this
book by Simon Veness and Susan Veness.
The origins of Orlando
City can be traced back to another soccer club, Stoke City who is currently a
club in the English Barclay’s Premier League.
This team was the one Phil Rawlins followed from childhood and when they
had been playing poorly enough to be relegated out of the Premier League,
Rawlins felt it was time to do something about that and he became an influential
member of Stoke’s board. His innovation put Stoke back on track, but the lure
of building a soccer team in the United States brought him to Austin,
Texas. There, with his then-wife Wendy
(Rawlins would have three wives, Kay being his most recent) they put together a
success team in the heart of American football territory, piling up wins and
drawing fans to Austin’s minor league team.
However, Phil’s
ultimate goal was to build a team in the largest American league for soccer,
Major League Soccer (MLS). The league wanted to expand to the southeastern part
of the country and Orlando was considered to be one of the markets in which a
franchise could be viable. By then, Phil
realized he had gone as far as he could in Austin, so he and his new wife
decided to make the plunge and go for it in Orlando.
Using Six Core Values the couple developed at the kitchen table, they set out to find investors and other key personnel required to build a team. Like in Austin, the franchise in Orlando started in the United Soccer League, winning the title in their first year, 2011. But unlike Austin, they saw much more potential. Through hard work, perseverance even after setbacks such as denial for stadium funding from the Florida legislature and a very large and loyal fan following, the club became an MLS expansion team in 2015. They made the league sit up and take notice by not only signing Brazillian superstar Kaka, but also for selling over 60,000 tickets for the very first game. Orlando City has been one of the more successful MLS franchises since then and they hope to continue this into the future.
This entire story is
told in an easy to read manner by Simon and Susan Veness and covers much of
Phil Rawlins’ life successes in both business and soccer. The story of how he
went from a hustling salesman to earning $259 million on an initial IPO is just
as interesting a tale as is the success of Orlando City. The book is part business, part soccer and
part biography of a man who never let setbacks stop him from achieving his
visions. It is an inspiring story that
readers will enjoy, even if they are not soccer fans.
I wish to thank
University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for
an honest review.
Book Format Read:
Hardcover
Buying Links:
https://www.amazon.com/Defying-Expectations-Rawlins-Orlando-Soccer/dp/1496201760/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr
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