New women’s team leader has played the field
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Business Journal – by John George Staff Writer
Matt Driver is well-acquainted with women’s soccer.
The former professional soccer player and Major League Soccer coach from Scotland left the sport a few years back to take a marketing job with the Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City.
But he didn’t stay away from the sport for long.
Driver, 48, returned to soccer two years ago, reinvigorated and with a plan to help build women’s soccer. He launched Team Dynamics, based in Egg Harbor City, Atlantic County, which owns and operates three area teams in the Women’s Premier Soccer League — an independent national league founded in 1998 to develop highly competitive amateur women’s soccer teams.
In May, he added a new line to his résumé: managing partner of the new Philadelphia professional woman’s soccer team set to begin play in the Women’s Professional Soccer league in 2010. WPS, which makes its debut next year, officially approved the addition of the Philadelphia team last week.
When word started spreading about the WPS, Driver envisioned Team Dynamics as the perfect partner — a sort of farm system that could supply players — for a franchise in this region.
Driver, through his playing and coaching career, knew several of the people involved with launching the WPS. “I spoke to those chaps and said, ‘There has to be a group of people in the Philadelphia area who want to get involved with this,’” he recalled.
Philadelphia had a professional women’s soccer team, the Charge, in the short-live Women’s United Soccer Association. The WUSA folded after three years in 2003, unable to attract sufficient support from corporate sponsors.
Driver learned the WPS founders had received a few calls from people in the area, but no solid commitments. They suggested Driver take a leadership role.
“I told them I didn’t have that kind of money,” he said. However, after talking with some potential investors, he decided to take the plunge.
The league is looking for its ownership group to have financial liquidity in the $7 million to $10 million range.
The first investor he lined up was a personal friend, David Hershey, a North Jersey-based entrepreneur whose family’s holdings include an ownership stake in the New Jersey/New York Boat Show.
Hershey, who once played semiprofessional football, decided to invest in the Philadelphia team because it provided an opportunity to combine his business background with his love of sports. He will be part of the front office for the as-yet-unnamed team.
“I looked at the numbers and the way everything is being put together and it looked like a great opportunity,” he said.
Driver said additional potential investors have ranged from hedge fund managers to farm owners.
“Most of the people I’ve talked with are from New Jersey where I know more people,” he said. “We want to get more people from Philadelphia involved.”
Driver is in the process of finalizing an agreement in principle to have the women’s team play in the 18,500-seat soccer stadium being built in Chester for the expansion Major League Soccer team set to begin play in 2010.
He has already developed an operating budget of $2.5 million to $3 million a year, which is based on what he believes is a conservative estimate of 5,500 fans a game.
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