Defying Expectations

"Defying Expectations" is the story of Phil Rawlins finding success in Major League Soccer with Orlando City. It follows the history of Rawlins trying to get his teams into MLS and how the fans, the city, and the league have accepted Orlando City into the fold. Some of the more interesting aspects of the story are the more political parts, like the headaches of trying to get the city of Orlando and the state of Florida to help him with the venture, particularly the building of the stadium. MLS has a rule that before you are given a new franchise, the owners have to have plans for a soccer specific stadium, and this seems to be the hardest step in any sort of new team and/or relocation. To read about the headaches that Rawlins and company had to go through to get a stadium deal is interesting, and it makes me wonder how any of the franchises exist.

Of course with it being the story of Phil Rawlins and his success, the story is told by the winner, i.e. there are some things that are sugar coated a little. An example of this is his time in Austin with the Austin Aztex. The PDL was in dire straits when they joined the league, and even though they tried, the book mentions that Rawlins could not get any support in Austin because if it did not pertain to the Longhorns, no one was interested. Though this is most likely true, it is also true that the city of Austin did not care for Rawlins. I was recently on Twitter talking about the potential of moving the Columbus Crew SC to Austin, and I asked how Austin would support the Crew when they did not support the Aztex. The response was unanimous that Rawlins did not get the support of the city because of his attitude and his decisions that resulted in the alienation of the fanbase. Somewhere in the middle is the truth, but this story does show that there might be a bit of a skewed telling of the tale.

I believe most of it. I cannot watch an Orlando City game and not be impressed by the home crowds. They have chants, they have tifos, they field a good team, they have record setting attendance (until Atlanta United came into the league) and they have a club that they can be proud to cheer for. Most of this is due to Phil Rawlins and his vision. "Defying Expectations" is a well constructed, nice telling of his story, and definitely a must read of anyone who loves MLS, American soccer, or soccer stories in general.

What's not to like about a book about football - when its all written in "American". I hate that Americans just adopted their own sporting language when referring to football (refusing to call it "soccer"!) and all the usual references ie dressing rooms not locker rooms etc. Not sure if this book is aimed at the UK or US market but I hope for those in the UK, that they are knowledgeable about sports given the language used.

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.