New soccer team would be smart to use Mavericks as a business model

I heard the theme “Midnight Express” in the parking lot of the Independence Events Center Wednesday afternoon as I walked up to the news conference introducing the newest version of the Major Indoor Soccer League’s Missouri Comets.

I’m going to have to be careful when I write about the Comets, because the Kansas City Comets were such an important part of my life in the early 1980s that it will be – at first – a bit difficult to refer to them as the Missouri Comets.

If you were around in the 1980s, the Leiweke brothers brought a spectacular show to Kemper Arena in the form of this crazy sport called indoor soccer.

There were lights, smoke and the “Midnight Express” theme that shook the Kemper Arena rafters as the players were introduced.

“Everything the Leiwekes did back then, with the Comets, is basically what every NBA and NFL team is doing today,” MISL commissioner David Grimaldi said after the news conference. “They were visionaries. That’s why they sold out every game, and that’s why every team in the league liked to play at Kemper Arena.”

That statement made me think back to the start of the Missouri Mavericks’ inaugural season in the Central Hockey League last year.

There were flashy introductions, a great show on the ice and in the arena, and the end result was 13 sellouts and an entire community embracing a team and its players much like a small town adopts the local high school football or basketball team.

“That’s what we want to do with the Comets,” Comets co-owner Ed Scheetz said. “We want to do what the Mavericks did last year and what the original Comets did back in the 1980s.

“It’s going to take a lot of hard work, but we’re going to do it.”

When asked about the time frame for an announcement concerning the team’s coach, Scheetz just grinned and said, “We have a lot of coaching candidates, but we’re looking for the coach who is willing to go into the community – like the Mavericks did – and introduce fans to indoor soccer.”

I remember standing in the rain for three hours at last year’s Santa-Cali-Gon Days festival on the Independence Square with Mavericks coach Scott Hillman.

The team had just been announced and didn’t have a player or a name. Yet there was Hillman, shaking hands, greeting anyone who approached The Examiner’s booth, talking about hockey.

Hockey?

In Independence?

I never thought it would fly – and, boy, was I wrong.

The Mavericks became the hottest ticket in town. The drama surrounding the tragic illness of all-star forward Jeff Christian’s daughter (8-year-old Ryan, who is St. Jude’s Hospital receiving chemotherapy for cancer), the iconic stature of team captain Carlyle “The Grim Sleeper” Lewis, the brilliance of rookie goaltender Charlie Effinger and the victorious first round of the playoffs made the Mavericks the darlings of Eastern Jackson County.

Can the Comets catch lightning in a bottle again and enjoy the same success?

“I believe they can,” Grimaldi said. “This is a win-win situation for everyone – the Comets, the fans, this great building and the ownership group.

“I know how hard Ed and the other owners worked to make this happen and they’re going to continue working to make this a successful franchise. There is such a rich history of indoor soccer in this area, dating back to the original Comets.

“I believe this is going to be a very, very successful franchise.”

On one cold and snowy January Sunday back in the NFL strike-plagued 1982 season, the original Comets did the impossible – outdrawing the lowly Kansas City Chiefs in attendance.

When that was announced, Chiefs coach Marv Levy and his staff and most of the front office were fired the next day.

This newest version of the Comets will never outdraw the Chiefs, but they don’t need to. What they must do though, is get involved in the community, let the fans know how important they are to their success, keep ticket prices low and keep playing “Midnight Express.”

If they do all those things, they’re going to be just fine.