This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Sandy • Bill Manning would have loved to blaze his trail into Major League Soccer as a player.
Alas, he was ahead of his time.
Once a heralded collegiate player, the 45-year-old president of Real Salt Lake never had a top-flight pro league in which to play when he finished college a decade before the MLS was born. So he soon turned to management — something for which RSL can be grateful.
In no small part, it's because of him that RSL has evolved into a popular championship team whose growing influence will be on display when it plays FC Dallas in a must-win playoff game at jam-packed Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night.
"I'm not stressed," he said with a laugh, "I'm actually looking forward to it. ... This is what it's about. It's about the games and it's about the challenges. This is why I'm in the business, and I love this stuff."
You'd have to say it shows.
In barely two years since joining RSL, Manning has helped the franchise open its new stadium; stabilize itself financially; boost ticket sales and sponsorships to broaden the fan base; and become one of the best teams in Major League Soccer. Beyond the sport, he's worked to make Rio Tinto Stadium a prime venue for concerts and a bevy of sports beyond MLS.
Colleagues say it's because he's focused, attentive and driven — though most of his work occurs behind closed doors.
While general manager Garth Lagerwey and coach Jason Kreis are the faces of team management, Manning is the one who oversees both of them, as well as the departments that run the stadium and the ESPN 700 radio station the team owns.
"He's been real helpful to me, in particular," Lager-wey says, "in terms of negotiations and strategies and tactics and things like that."
That's because Manning's first love is soccer, and his first job in MLS was as a general manager for the Tampa Bay Mutiny a decade ago.
That's when Nelson Rodriguez, a league executive who has known Manning for years, became convinced Manning would become a "super success," watching him "put others first" when the Mutiny went out of existence.
"He just did all these little things that made you say, 'This is a special guy,' " Rodriguez said.
At that point, Manning decided to pursue his career in other sports — first with the NBA and then the NFL, two of the biggest leagues in the world.
"I kind of always knew I'd be back in Major League Soccer," he says. "But it had to be the right opportunity."
After all, when owner Dave Checketts approached Manning about joining RSL, Manning was a vice president for the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, a great job that he particularly enjoyed. He had already been the director of corporate partnerships for the NBA's Houston Rockets after working in management positions for various minor-league soccer teams.
But Checketts was persuasive, and a skeptical Manning came to believe in Checketts' vision for RSL.
Besides, the move represented a return to the sport he loved — one in which Manning was named a Division II All-American at Bridgeport University in Connecticut in 1986, when he led the Purple Eagles to the Final Four in the national tournament.
Now he has helped transform the RSL culture.
While the team made the playoffs for the first time just months after Manning arrived in 2008, it also changed its business identity.
For example, Manning instituted a businesslike dress code that hadn't existed to help improve the franchise's image, and he worked to increase the value of its product.
The team gave away far fewer tickets than it once did, and it quit using outside promoters to book concerts and other events. Manning boosted the value of its average sponsorship deal from $21,000 to $140,000, and he increased season-ticket sales from fewer than 5,000 to about 7,000.
Part of all that stemmed from the popularity of the new stadium and RSL's success on the field.
But those close to Manning say he has been instrumental.
"Bill doesn't have a big ego, and that's one of the things I love about him," said his wife, Jennifer, with whom he has two sons. "He goes in and just wants to make things better. That's just how he is. He wants to make it better and wants it to be a success."
So far, so good.
While Manning now obsesses about how RSL can become Toronto, with its massive fan base and perpetually sold-out stadium, the team he oversees is on the verge of beginning a dynasty if it can win Saturday night and go on to claim another MLS Cup title.
"I didn't always think we'd get there, but I have to say I believed in myself and I believed in Dave's vision," Manning says. "I knew we could get there. We just needed a couple of bounces to go our way. … And I think the best is yet to come."