AEG BAILING ON SOL? Not just yet, says league commissioner
by Charles Cuttone Executive Editor
Although it appears that Anschutz Entertainment Group does not have a long term vision for its investment in Women’s Professional Soccer, the company is not bailing out on the Los Angeles Sol—just yet.
“We have a committed ownership group,” said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci in response to a story in the Los Angeles Times earlier this week that quoted AEG CEO Tim Leiweke as saying, "Are we going to lose money the first year? Yes," Leiweke said. "Is it a million-plus? Yes. Did we expect that? Yes. Will that continue? No.
"We've made it clear that our job is to get it started, and then we're going to let others step in here and continue this. But we felt we owed it to the women's game to give them a shot.
"We were never intent on being here forever.”
Leiweke admitted in the article the Sol’s losses would be over $1milliion, a figure that is not going to be unusual in the first year league, with most teams expected to lose that much according to multiple sources.
“I have not yet spoken to Tim Leiweke, said Antonucci. “AEG has some very big investments in sports and they are committed to our team. As they evaluate things and in this economy in particular, I don’t think anyone is going to be making any decision in the middle of the season.
Everything has to be evaluated on a regular basis.”
According to one source within the league, Leiweke’s comments maybe a way to push Blue Star LLC, owners of the other 50% of the Sol to step up their commitment to the team.
“We’ll work with AEG and Blue Star,” said Antonucci. “If we need to adjust things and bring in more partners to the LA Sol ownership group to either raise more capital or to bring in owners who are as focused as necessary to grow the business, then we’ll do that.”
The Blue Star group includes actor Anthony LaPaglia, and also owns the Pali Blues of the W-League and the Hollywood United Hitmen of the Premier Development League.
Antonucci went on to say, “A company like AEG has a lot of priorities, and that is going to be a factor as they look at things.”
A call for comment from the Sol and AEG was not returned.
