Culture

Can a reimagined Cobbs Creek fulfill its promise? Public golf is hoping so

Published

7 days ago

September 19, 2024

Can a reimagined Cobbs Creek fulfill its promise? Public golf is hoping so

Editor’s note: This article is part of The Changemakers series, focusing on the behind-the-scenes executives and people fueling the future growth of their sports.

PHILADELPHIA — From the eastern boundary of Merion Golf Club, water flows southeast along the property, cutting inward across the 12th hole, framing the famed 11th green, where Bobby Jones clinched the 1930 Grand Slam. Veins of tributaries shoot from the stream, slicing through the course. One sidles up to the fifth fairway, what some consider the best par 4 in the world. Everything about Merion is immaculate. Generations of wealth in this city have assured so. Shaping, reshaping. Renovating, restoring. Installing a multi-million dollar underground turf conditioning system.

The water moves on from Merion, meandering alongside estates with houses set far off the street. It flows out of Haverford toward Ardmore, along roadsides and lawns, into Penn Wynne, and cuts through Powder Mill Park in Wynnewood.

Then comes Township Line Road, the stretch of Route 1 that divides Philadelphia from its western suburbs. The water ripples underneath an overpass, entering the city, and flows past a shuttered driving range. A little further, it zigs and zags through the remains of a municipal golf course, past the site of an old clubhouse, one that burned down in 2016. Connected to the same creek as Merion, built by the same architect who designed Merion, once praised in the same breath as Merion, Cobbs Creek Golf Club is now a ghost. Overgrown and unrecognizable. Nature has reclaimed what history created and time neglected.

Two sides of the street, two versions of the same game, four miles apart.

Anywhere else, Cobbs, as it’s known, might’ve been left for dead years ago. The last time it was operational, dying trees, severe erosion and holes in various stages of disrepair made it not only unplayable, but borderline unsafe. Without a clubhouse, the course operated out of two double-wide trailers. It closed in October 2020.

But there had always been these rumors. Anyone familiar with municipal golf in a major city knows the kind. Chatter of some magnificent renovation, the kind that might bring Cobbs back to its original glory and give the public a place as nice as the private clubs. The buzz began what seems like forever ago, back in the early aughts. Word that a nonprofit group was working to save Cobbs. We talked about it while sitting around the old plastic tables in what was the clubhouse. And in the parking lot, where the old-timers sat around in folding chairs with cards in their hands and coolers in their trunks. And around the first tee box, where foursomes stacked up, being told which holes had temporary greens due to flooding, before being sent out five minutes apart for a five-hour round.

Everyone wondered the same thing. What if?

For all its issues, Cobbs Creek carried an unmistakable mystique, even in the end. You didn’t need to squint to see the quality of the design. The land is shaped by features money can’t buy — elevation, natural water flow, vistas, a rail system rolling past. The original 18 holes opened in 1916, immediately establishing Cobbs among the country’s premier public golf courses. A century later, that old layout is referred to only as “the bones.” They’re down there, somewhere.

When the course closed, the non-profit Cobbs Creek Foundation, comprised of local corporate executives and golf architecture enthusiasts, took over the facility in a private/public partnership. At first, the scope was confined to restoring the course and providing an educational program for young people in the surrounding neighborhood. Price tag: Roughly $20 million. Proposed opening date: June 2023.

Two years later, in 2022, that plan was no longer tenable. Work to lower the creek’s floodplain came with endless other hurdles. Between necessary approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, along with countless other state and federal organizations, the project grew exponentially. The Cobbs Creek Foundation signed a 70-year lease for $1 to take over the property and mapped a new plan. This one required rebuilding over 3 miles of creek and tributaries, creating dozens of acres of wetlands, fully renovating Cobbs’ original 18 holes, creating a new nine-hole course, a driving range and a short course, and building a youth education center. Price tag: Roughly $65 million. Proposed opening date: Sometime in 2024.

As it goes in Philadelphia, skepticism built and controversy grew. The clearing of several hundred trees drew outrage from environmental organizations and neighborhood groups. Improper campaign contributions from the foundation to a local councilman drew blowback. Multiple stages of project planning were stunted by denied permits, delaying steps until approved.

There was every reason to see Cobbs’ return as a pipe dream.

Except now, along Lansdowne Avenue, stands the framework of what will be a 30,000-square-foot building. It will be the country’s second TGR Learning Lab, an education center operated by Tiger Woods’ TGR Foundation, where over 4,500 local youth will receive year-round Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education and college readiness programs. In front of the building, bulldozers are kicking up dirt, building a nine-hole, par-3 short course. Both are expected to open spring 2025. Nearby, land is being prepped for a two-story driving range that will include a restaurant, pro shop, area for community events and a museum. That’s also where a junior putting green will be installed, courtesy of a $250,000 grant from Jordan Spieth’s family foundation.

Seeing this in person is mind-bending to anyone who came up playing Cobbs. Knowing what’s coming next is even more so. The course renovation and wetland installation is scheduled to begin next summer. An additional new 9-hole course will follow.

New price tag: $150 million, of which $100 million has been raised. Final completion date: 2027.

In the end, if this works, Cobbs Creek will operate as a financially self-sustaining nonprofit that funnels educational opportunities into the community, offers local residents affordable play, and will perhaps bring a PGA Tour event to the city. It all makes one wonder, if a game so long-tied to barriers can be co-opted by those who want it to be something different, and if land that’s tied to one story can suddenly tell another — if that kind of change is possible, then what isn’t? And where else can public golf be reimagined?

In the early 1990s, as Cobbs slipped into an escalated decline, about to be passed around by various management companies for the next three decades, Merion weighed a heavy decision. The club was set to host the 1994 Women’s U.S. Open but was rattled by a new USGA policy stating all clubs chosen to host national championships must feature inclusive membership policies. Merion hired a consulting firm to survey its all-White membership, asking if the club should consider integration. The membership couldn’t commit to having minority members by tournament time and Merion withdrew as host of the national championship.

Shocking, yes. Surprising, no. Aronimink Golf Club, another elite private club in the Philadelphia suburbs, withdrew from hosting the 1993 PGA Championship because of an all-White, all-male membership. Pine Valley, the top-ranked golf course in the U.S., about 20 miles outside Philly, did not open its door to women until 2021.

Policies aside, these courses, along with plenty other elite clubs dotting the tri-state area, are products of a merry band of early-20th-century golf course architects known as “The Philadelphia School.” They worked with and occasionally for each other. A.W. Tillinghast, George Crump, George Thomas and Hugh Wilson, along with Boston transplant William Flynn, all helped shape much of the Golden Era of course design in the United States.

But today almost all their courses come with high hedges. Places you can’t see into. Places the membership doesn’t necessarily want to see out of.

Cobbs is the exception. In 1914, when the Golf Association of Philadelphia pegged Wilson to lay out the city’s much-needed public course, the 35-year-old was fresh off designing 36 holes at Merion, including the acclaimed east course. His work was a product of both natural genius and thorough study. Wilson, a product of Philadelphia high society and a Princeton education, began his design career traveling across Great Britain to research the game’s greatest layouts — St. Andrews, Prestwick, Muirfield, North Berwick, Hoylake. On and on. According to family lore, he was originally ticketed to return to the U.S. in the spring of 1912 aboard the Titanic but missed departure.

Wilson’s design of Cobbs Creek was both classic and imaginative. He tabbed Flynn, who later created the likes of Shinnecock Hills, Cherry Hills and Lancaster Country Club, to personally build every green and every bunker. From Day 1, the course was heralded as a triumph of public golf. It was open to juniors, first-timers, working-class players, women and minorities.

When some wonder why Cobbs is worth saving, the answer is not only its design, but its place in the history of a sport so steeped in exclusion.

In 1940, Charlie Sifford, then a 17-year-old caddie in Charlotte and 21 years away from being the first Black man to gain membership to join the PGA Tour, jumped town after an encounter with a drunken White store owner who levied threats and racial slurs at him. In his 1992 biography, “Just Let Me Play,” Sifford recounted smashing a Coke bottle across the man’s face and knowing he’d never get a fair trial in Jim Crow South. He instead hopped a train to Philadelphia, where he heard the jobs were available and the golf was good.

Sifford moved in with an uncle in North Philadelphia, not far from what’s now Temple University, and landed a job as a shipping clerk at the Nabisco plant. One weekend, with a fresh paycheck, Sifford spent a long night playing poker, emerging early on a Sunday morning to find a rising sun. Outside, he saw a man catching a street car with a golf bag slung on his shoulder. From “Just Let Me Play”:

“Say, where you going with them clubs,” I called out to him.
“I’m going to Cobbs Creek,” he called back over his shoulder.
“Where’s that?”
“It’s all the way out to the end of the Market Street trolley.”

Sifford joined the man and made his way to Cobbs. He later wrote: “The course was intended for everyone to use, and I was both surprised and delighted to see both black and whites playing side by side there. I’d never seen anything like that in North Carolina.”

At the time, Cobbs was already well-established as a haven for Black golfers. Howard Wheeler and others called the course home well before Sifford. The United Golf Association (UGA), founded in the mid-1920s to provide minority golfers with an opportunity to compete on an organized tour, hosted its national championship at Cobbs in 1936, 1947 and 1956. Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis played at Cobbs. So did trailblazers Lee Elder and Ted Rhodes. In 1961, the Philadelphia NAACP hosted a tournament at Cobbs Creek to raise funds for the Freedom Riders jailed in Mississippi that summer.

The relationship between Tiger Woods, left, and Charlie Sifford drove Woods to be a part of what is happening at Cobbs Creek.

Cobbs meant so much to so many, and served so many different needs to so many different backgrounds, but, like any municipal course, was vulnerable. Heavy play exceeded reasonable usage. Conditions slipped. For years, it was also used as a cross-country course. Those hills punished generations of runners.

Around 1952, in the throes of the Cold War, the U.S. Army scouted multiple sites around Philadelphia to install anti-aircraft batteries. The location chosen? The 13th green of Cobbs Creek. Massive silos were dug and the course was rerouted around the installations. Six years later, the Army filled in the silos and left a vacant expanse behind. Cobbs’ routing was never returned to Wilson’s original design.

In time, a driving range and batting cage facility was built atop the old anti-aircraft installation. The City Line Sports Center, controlled by the same various management companies as Philly’s public golf courses, would end up, in time, just as run-down as Cobbs.

By the turn of the century, Cobbs was little more than a portrait of neglect. Floodwaters washed away greens in the spring. The sun baked out fairways and tee boxes in the summer. The Karakung Course, a second 18 built on the property in 1927 by Abner “Ab” Smith, was somehow worse. A string of superintendents did with it what they could, but no effort could overcome a staggering deficit of resources. The property deteriorated. Vandalism went ignored. Occasional abandoned cars were dumped here and there.

In time, what once was faded from view.

A few weeks ago, on a Monday morning in Philadelphia, Enrique Hervada and Don Dissinger sat in a far booth inside the Llanerch Diner on Township Line Road. The two are current proxies for reams and reams of people who’ve taken on the Sisyphean group effort to complete Cobbs Creek’s reclamation.

Hervada, COO of the Cobbs Creek Foundation, is one of seven full-time staff members. He’s among those trying to raise the final $50 million of what’s ballooned to a price tag three times that number. At least $30 million will be spent fortifying the creek and creating wetlands to prevent flooding both on the course and in the surrounding neighborhoods.

“It might kill us by the time we’re done,” Hervada said over breakfast. “It’s just — it’s a massive project cost-wise and permitting-wise.”

Hearing this, Dissinger put his fork down. “You have no idea,” he said. The 70-year-old quasi-retired architect and engineer was overseeing the construction of two high-rises in Miami when the foundation called him in December 2022. Having helped in the restoration of Merion Golf Club in 2014, Dissinger was an ad hoc member of the Cobbs restoration committee. But the foundation needed more.

A former partner at the design firm EwingCole, Dissinger built Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. His career has been one of municipal red tape, zoning laws, and state and federal licenses. But with a property covering 350 acres, and touching three counties (Philadelphia, Montgomery and Delaware), he’s never seen anything quite like the project at Cobbs Creek.

“The number of permits I have on this exceeds the number of permits I had between those stadiums — combined,” Dissinger said.

(Courtesy Cobbs Creek Foundation)

This all began years ago, around 2007, with a few hobbyists digging into archives, retracing Cobbs’ history and comparing notes online. These early archivists, notably Dr. Joseph Bausch, a chemistry professor at Villanova University, and Mike Cirba, an Information Management Executive, planted the seeds of what became the Friends of Cobbs Creek. Two idealistic outsiders (Bausch from Indiana, Cirba from Northeast Pennsylvania), they became, as Cirba puts it, “obsessed with what it was and what it could be.” The two began compiling information into a book. Today it is up to 400 pages long, in its 12th volume, and is the source material for everything written about Cobbs Creek, including much of this article.

In those early days, Bausch and Cirba thought it was obvious what needed to happen. Then they met Philadelphians.

“And there was always a sense that this can’t happen here. It was a pervasive negativity,” Cirba says. “I think we came into it with a certain level of naiveté, but that was probably a good thing.”

Bausch and Cirba held the earliest meetings with City of Philadelphia officials about saving and renovating the course. They were told, great idea, but where’s the money?

A board was formed. Interest grew from powerful, connected local businesspeople, including Cobbs Creek Foundation founding CEO Chris Lange and president Jeff Shanahan, along with Chris Maguire and the Maguire Foundation. The group grew larger and ideas got bigger.

Cobbs and the TGR Foundation came together. Since 2006, Woods’ charitable arm has operated a year-round learning lab in Anaheim, Calif., offering over 30 classes and workshops for 5th-12th grade students. According to TGR, 98 percent of its scholars graduated from high school and enrolled in college, 91 percent of whom were first-generation college students. Woods, himself, was familiar with Cobbs Creek even before the partnership. Charlie Sifford, he has said, was like a grandfather to him. Woods named his only son after Sifford.

Somehow, now, the thought of restoring 18 holes feels almost peripheral. The foundation hopes to serve 4,500 local students a year. The property is now referred to in two parts — as a course and as a campus.

Sitting in his office at Villanova all these years later, Bausch can only shake his head. “I always thought that this was going to be an incredible project,” he says, “but it has far exceeded anything I could ever imagine.”

There is, though, the matter of that golf course.

Appropriately, two locals are handling what comes next. Hanse Design — the renowned golf architecture firm of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner — is based in Malvern, about 15 miles from Cobbs.

Wagner grew up nearby, playing Cobbs as a high school golfer at Cardinal O’Hara. Hanse is a transplant, but knows the territory. Before his firm handled high-profile restorations like Merion, Aronimink, Oakmont and Winged Foots, Hanse developed a soft spot for the West Philly course. A little-known architect at the time, he rebuilt Cobbs’ third and fourth greens in the early 2000s after extensive flood damage. He did it for free.

That pro bono work will now continue in 2025 through 2026. Hanse and Wagner will not only rebuild Cobbs Creek Golf Club to Hugh Wilson’s original design, but will also lay out the new nine-hole course on the old Karakung land.

The scale of the project is immense.

On my recent visit, I stood near the old 12th tee box, scanning an area that once included the 11th green, the 13th green and crowded and long views of tree-lined fairways. If I didn’t personally know what had been there, I wouldn’t believe it. Anyone imagining a “restoration” is misguided. The original Cobbs Creek is gone, reclaimed by the land.

What remains of the view from the 12th tee box at Cobbs Creek. (Brendan Quinn / The Athletic)

“You can’t put it back,” Wagner said. “It’s impossible to put it back to what it once was because so much has changed in the environment. Mother Nature came in and moved things around.”

But you can return the intention and objective of what the golf course was meant to be. At last, that’s happening. Something bigger than anyone in Philly ever imagined. Something just as nice as all those private courses, except open for all.

Today, this ground is in Philadelphia. But if a successful model is created at Cobbs Creek, combining golf and STEM education under a non-profit, self-supporting model, other cities might have to sit up and take notice. Chicago. Detroit. St. Louis. Los Angeles. Houston. Maybe they’ll see the municipal course that time has forgotten and see something different. Maybe times can change.

The Changemakers series is part of a partnership with Acura.

The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Courtesy Cobbs Creek Foundation, Brendan Quinn / The Athletic)

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Culture

Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid survival and the soft superpowers behind his success

Published

7 hours ago

September 26, 2024

Press Room

Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid survival and the soft superpowers behind his success

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was in typically relaxed form when he spoke to the media before Tuesday’s La Liga game at home to Deportivo Alaves this week.

“I’ve been lucky enough to coach 300 games at the best club in the world,” Ancelotti said. “To be on this bench is something special. To sit there 300 times… I’m not saying it’s a miracle, but almost.”

To reach such a milestone at any big European club is a superb achievement. It is especially impressive at Real Madrid, given president Florentino Perez’s history of hiring and firing coaches. Only one manager has taken charge of more games at Madrid: Miguel Munoz, with 605 between 1959 and 1974.

It helps that during both of Ancelotti’s spells as Madrid manager (he was in charge from 2013-2015 and returned in 2021) the team won the Champions League, first in 2014 and then in 2022 and 2024. But winning trophies alone is often not enough to ensure job security at the Bernabeu.

Just 12 months after delivering Madrid’s long-awaited tenth European Cup in 2014, Ancelotti was fired by Perez as serious issues arose in their relationship. His second spell has also featured several rocky moments — while also delivering two more Champions League titles.

To survive, and thrive, in arguably the most demanding environment in football is, as Ancelotti himself recognised this week, almost miraculous.

So how has he done it?

Over almost three decades working as a manager (he started at Italian club Reggiana in 1995), Ancelotti has acquired plenty of experience working for big characters used to issuing orders and seeing them quickly followed.

At AC Milan (2001-2009), Silvio Berlusconi was the owner — as well as the domineering prime minister of Italy for part of Ancelotti’s spell. His ultimate boss at Chelsea (2009-2011) was Roman Abramovich, a secretive Russian oligarch. At Paris Saint-Germain (2011-2013), the president was Nasser Al Khelaifi, a close associate of the ruling powers in Qatar.

Between his spells at Madrid his superiors were Bayern Munich’s self-confident president Uli Hoeness (Ancelotti was there for 2016-17), Napoli’s larger-than-life president Aurelio de Laurentiis (during 2018-19) and Everton’s majority owner Farhad Moshiri (2019-2021).

Ancelotti’s 2016 book — Quiet Leadership: winning hearts, minds and matches — includes a whole section on “managing up”, discussing his experiences dealing with colourful and powerful bosses.

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Co-written with former Chelsea director Mike Forde and management consultant Chris Brady, it was published between the Italian being fired by Madrid in June 2015 and him joining Bayern the following summer.

At Milan, Ancelotti wrote, it soon became clear certain realities had to be accepted: “With Berlusconi I learned very quickly that, since he owned Milan, my job was to please Berlusconi.”

Ancelotti and Silvio Berlusconi pictured in January 2006 (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images)

On joining Chelsea, Abramovich instructed him to play a possession-based style of football. To do so, Ancelotti asked for playmaker Andrea Pirlo but when that was not possible, he used Michael Essien in that role. The book does not complain, but readers will know these are two very different types of players.

Ancelotti could handle not getting everything he wanted in the transfer market but it was more problematic that every time Chelsea lost a game, Abramovich arrived to personally demand answers.

“(That) taught me how to deal with this different kind of president,” Ancelotti wrote in his book. “I chose not to meet aggression with aggression, it is not my way. I like to think through difficult times, address the problems coolly and with reason.”

Ancelotti decided to use the owner’s interference in his job to motivate the team — and they won a Premier League and FA Cup double in his first season in charge. He wrote that the players knew Abramovich was “on my case” and they “responded brilliantly”.

It was difficult for that approach to succeed in the long term, and Abramovich fired Ancelotti after the following season ended trophyless. Next, he joined PSG, where the general director was Leonardo, “a friend of mine from Milan”.

Within 12 months it was clear things were not going to work out. After PSG lost to Ligue 1 rival Nice in December 2012, Leonardo told him he would be sacked if they did not beat Porto in their next game. Ancelotti realised Al Khelaifi had decided that the ‘project’ was not working, so he informed his bosses he would leave at the end of the season.

Next stop was the Bernabeu, where Ancelotti quickly realised he should just focus on coaching the first team and not worry about things outside his control. In his book, he wrote about realising “you are only ever a piece of the project” at Real Madrid. He said accepting that liberated him to focus on getting the best out of his players.

Following three seasons of predecessor Jose Mourinho’s pragmatic approach, Perez wanted a more attractive style of football at Madrid. Ancelotti set to work, allowing senior figures Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modric greater responsibility. He also devised new roles for Gareth Bale and Angel Di Maria within a 4-3-3 tactical shape. It delivered ‘La Decima’ in his first season.

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The strength of the relationships Ancelotti built is shown by Ronaldo guest-writing a chapter in Quiet Leadership.

“One of the reasons the atmosphere was so good was because Carlo protected the dressing room from the president and anything else that might upset the balance of the family,” Ronaldo wrote. “I’ve seen that he does not bow to pressure from anyone: he makes his own decisions.”

Ancelotti and Ronaldo celebrate reaching the 2014 Champions League final (Stuart Franklin – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Yet not all was perfect. Quiet Leadership also tells of Perez informing Ancelotti that Bale’s agent said his client wanted to play more centrally on the pitch. The Italian spoke directly with the player, explaining the team’s setup, and his vital role in it. He also used a press conference to tell the agent to “shut up”. Ancelotti wrote that this changed his relationship with Perez.

When Madrid lost a few games in early 2015, the club hierarchy grew concerned at a report claiming that Madrid’s training sessions were not intense enough. Ancelotti thought the squad needed more rest, especially with important players Ramos and Modric injured. The issue was never resolved, and when the season ended without a major trophy, the axe came.

Ancelotti wrote that his time at Madrid was “shorter than he’d hoped, but also longer than many who manage there”.

He added: “Leading may sometimes involve compromise, especially at the biggest clubs, but not when it comes to your expertise and you have the conviction of your decisions.”

Returning to Madrid in summer 2021, Ancelotti was well aware of the issues that caused friction the first time around. He accepted without complaint the club adding fitness coach Antonio Pintus to his staff, and repeated often that energy and physicality were vital for success in today’s game.

But he also insisted on bringing his own son Davide, then 34, as his assistant coach. This raised eyebrows at the Bernabeu, where the number two has often been a former club legend with the president’s ear. Ancelotti talks in his book a lot about how his closest staff are like a family. Now that was literally the case.

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Ancelotti was also well aware that the president would continue to have the final say on transfer policy. That meant adapting tactics to the current squad. The team sat deeper, meaning less running for veteran midfielders Toni Kroos and Modric, and more space for Vinicius Junior to exploit. Balance came from midfielder Federico Valverde on the right wing. It paid off when Valverde assisted Vinicius Jr’s winning goal in the 2021-22 Champions League final against Liverpool.

Ancelotti is mobbed after Madrid’s victory in the 2022 Champions League final (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

When Karim Benzema left for Saudi Arabia in summer 2023, Ancelotti wanted England captain Harry Kane as a direct replacement. That option was not seriously pursued by Perez, so instead he created a new attacking role for Jude Bellingham, who scored 23 goals as Madrid won the La Liga and Champions League double last season.

Such success was far from inevitable. In May 2023, Madrid were thrashed 4-0 by Pep Guardiola’s City in a decisive Champions League semi-final second leg, just as Xavi’s Barcelona were easily winning the La Liga title. It was a rocky spell not unlike that which ended Ancelotti’s first term at the Bernabeu.

Ancelotti had an easy escape route — Brazil wanted him as their next national coach. His first option was always to remain in the Spanish capital, but speculation continued well into the 2023-24 campaign, with Ancelotti’s contract due to expire in June 2025.

It was an awkward situation, as Perez is not used to any coach having such strong bargaining power. The Bernabeu hierarchy considered other options, including Bayer Leverkusen coach Alonso. Meanwhile, Ancelotti’s team went on a 17-game unbeaten run, winning 14 and drawing three, including a 2-1 Clasico victory at Barcelona, putting them in control of the La Liga title race. In late December, he was offered an extension to 2026 and accepted.

“I can’t control the direction of the president, I can only hope to influence him, and the best way to do that is by winning,” Ancelotti wrote in his 2016 book.

There was another awkward moment just last month. The Ancelottis wanted Madrid to hire 38-year-old Stockport County coach Andy Mangan, who is close to Davide. Not everyone at the Bernabeu liked the idea, and in the end the Spanish authorities refused Mangan a work permit.

That came amid a feeling around the Bernabeu that Madrid have not started the new season well, with departed playmaker Kroos badly missed. Stuttgart having more possession (54 per cent to Madrid’s 46 per cent) in last week’s Champions League group game at the Bernabeu fed a debate about the team’s style of play (even though Madrid won 3-1).

Afterwards, Ancelotti faced tough questioning from reporters well aware that Perez prefers to see his team dominating possession and playing stylish attacking football.

“Maybe we could play better, but Real Madrid fans are used to seeing ‘rock and roll’ football, not lots of touches,” he responded coolly. “We try, with our characteristics, to make the fans happy. The fans like winning more than playing well. The ideal is to win and play well.”

Ancelotti with his Real Madrid players in pre-season this August (Victor Carretero/Real Madrid via Getty Images)

It was typical Ancelotti. He made the point that his squad, especially in midfield and attack, is made up of players suited to football that is “entertaining, direct, intense, with pace”. The underlying message was that he was making the best of the players available, while everyone knew he was not primarily responsible for assembling the squad. It was all delivered calmly, showing he was in control of the situation and nobody should worry.

Not all top managers react to criticism, or interference from above, in such a way. With some, their ego gets in the way. But at this stage of his career, and his life, the 65-year-old Ancelotti has sufficient self confidence to not react to treatment others might take personally. His experience of dealing with many different owners and presidents has taught him to be philosophical.

“I’ve learned that getting sacked — and getting recruited for that matter — is rarely just about you,” Ancelotti wrote in Quiet Leadership. “It is always about the person hiring or firing you. Do your job to the best of your ability and let others judge you because they will anyway.”

In another section of the book, he puts it differently.

“As Vito Corleone would have said in one of my favourite movies, The Godfather, ‘It’s not personal. It’s just business.’”

(Top photo: Angel Martinez – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Culture

Pirates designate Rowdy Tellez four plate appearances short of a $200K bonus

Published

18 hours ago

September 26, 2024

Press Room

Pirates designate Rowdy Tellez four plate appearances short of a 0K bonus

With the Pittsburgh Pirates out of playoff contention, first baseman Rowdy Tellez was playing for an opportunity to receive a $200,000 bonus based on plate appearances. He entered Tuesday with 421 plate appearances, four away from earning that additional bonus.

For Tellez, the chance was dashed. With five games left in the regular season, the Pirates designated Tellez for assignment before their Tuesday game against the Milwaukee Brewers. With MLB in the final week of its regular season, Tellez will likely end his 2024 campaign at 421 plate appearances, four shy of the 425 needed to earn an extra $200,000.

Pirates general manager Ben Cherington told reporters that the potential for a $200,000 bonus didn’t impact his decision to remove Tellez from the roster.

“We feel like we gave Rowdy lots of opportunity here this year,” Cherington said Tuesday.

The Pirates signed Tellez to a one-year, $3.2 million deal in the offseason. Through 383 at bats in 2024, Tellez slashed .243/.299/.392 with 13 home runs and 56 RBIs. While his overall numbers are an improvement from last year (.215/.291/.376 with 13 home runs and 47 RBIs in 2023), it’s a decline from 2022, where he set a career high in homers (35), RBIs (89) and hits (116).

Tellez struggled to start the 2024 season, tallying just one home run through May. But he improved as the season progressed, the exclamation point happening on July 5 when he hit a homer and a grand slam en route to a 14-2 drubbing over the New York Mets that caused Pittsburgh to run out of fireworks.

The Pirates were trade deadline buyers and entered August chasing a playoff spot. But a 10-game losing streak at the beginning of the month effectively ended the Pirates’ playoff hopes. The Pirates were eliminated from playoff contention on Sept. 16. Eight days later, the team DFA’d Tellez.

MLB players in their contracts are eligible to receive bonuses through the incentive clause according to the CBA. Per MLB’s Basic Agreement, incentives based on statistical achievement are prohibited. This means predetermined, non-statistical benchmarks allow players to earn extra money. For hitters, the most common incentive is plate appearances. Staying on the active roster for a certain number of days can also earn a bonus, depending on the contract.

The Pirates lost 7-2 to the Brewers on Tuesday, falling to 73-84 in 2024. In addition to Tellez, the Pirates also designated outfielder Michael A. Taylor for assignment.

(Photo: Jason Mowry / Getty Images)

Culture

From Drake in pink to ‘Blokecore’: How football shirts became fashionable

Published

1 day ago

September 25, 2024

Press Room

From Drake in pink to ‘Blokecore’: How football shirts became fashionable

Football shirts were once an item of clothing for a) players to wear at work, and b) fans to sport on the terraces in solidarity with the lads out on the pitch.

Now, what must seem abruptly to the uninitiated, they have become the uniform for British music festivals and a source of inspiration for major fashion houses.

Several moments signalled the shift to football shirts becoming mainstream during the 2010s.

For example, Drake, the Canadian music artist, wore the 2015-16 season’s pink away shirt of leading Italian club Juventus, leading to an internet scramble from his fanbase. And two years later, the landscape changed completely again when Nigeria unveiled their kit for the 2018 World Cup finals.

“After 2016, we’d seen quite a few years of blank kits,” says Phil Delves, a kit collector, designer and influencer. “Many people rightly refer to the Nigeria kit (in 2018) and the interest around that, and I think while the design itself isn’t the craziest design we’ve seen, everything was massively amplified because of the moment it arrived and the fact it was coupled with a major tournament.”

Juventus in Pink
2015 – The latest instalment of the Juve pink kit was seen in 2015. It wasn’t just made famous by the big names, such as Pogba, on the pitch but reached a larger audience thanks to rapper Drake.
Hopefully there will be another great pink kit soon! pic.twitter.com/BGoucrstPM
— Classic Football Shirts (@classicshirts) August 2, 2018

Before Nigeria took to the pitch at that tournament in Russia, the shirt they wore as they did so had taken on a life of its own. Designed by American artist Matthew Wolff as a tribute to that African nation’s performance in reaching the knockout phase of the 1994 World Cup, in what was their debut on the global stage, the kit featured a green and white torso with triangle-patterned black and white sleeves.

The bold and vibrant design in 2018 represented the nation’s history and an emerging ‘Naija’ culture centred on a hopeful view of the country’s future, embodied by a new generation of exciting players and a growing arts sector.

Following the kit announcement, internationally famous music artists, including Wizkid, the Nigerian singer from whom Bukayo Saka has borrowed the ‘Starboy’ nickname, and Skepta, a rapper born and raised in London to Nigerian parents, wore the shirt.

Nigeria’s jersey for the 2018 World Cup was a significant moment in the scene (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images)

At the same time, England were enjoying their most successful international tournament since making the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championship, and staunch and casual fans alike went shopping for retro kits to wear while watching the games.

Shortly after that 2018 World Cup, serial French champions Paris Saint-Germain announced a collaboration with Nike’s Jordan Brand worth around €200million (£168m; $223m at current exchange rates). The striking black-and-white kits produced under the deal drew eyes from around the world as global superstars in football, including Neymar and recent World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe, played for PSG in the Champions League wearing a logo associated with U.S. basketball legend Michael Jordan.

This was not the first time PSG had taken inspiration from other fashion sectors — their 2006-07 Louis Vuitton-inspired away kit was among the first of its kind — but it marked a period when the once-niche collaboration between fashion and football went mainstream.

PSG’s Louis Vuitton-inspired away kit from 2006-07 (Pascal Pavani/AFP via Getty Images)

“For us as a business, the summer of 2018 is a real turning point,” says Doug Bierton, CEO and co-founder of Classic Football Shirts. “We opened our first retail store in London, and we got to see first-hand the passion and hype.”

Classic Football Shirts started life in 2006 when Bierton and co-founder Matt Dale went searching for a Germany kit from the 1990 World Cup for a fancy dress party. After purchasing the shirt from eBay, and an England one with Paul Gascoigne’s name printed on the back, the duo noted the dearth of authentic retro jerseys available online.

Bierton and Dale set up a business to buy and sell football shirts, reinvesting their profits into new stock. Less than two decades later, Classic Football Shirts has more than 1.3 million Instagram followers, stores in major cities in the UK and the United States and expects revenues north of $50million in 2024.

Following a $38.5million (£29m) cash injection from investment firm The Chernin Group in May, the company announced several other strategic investors this month. The new investors include actor and Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney, recently retired USWNT legend Alex Morgan and global sports and entertainment agency Wasserman.

Bierton is as equipped as anybody to chart how the business has developed from a relatively niche collector industry into one of the most prominent subcultures within football and fashion.

A model wearing a football shirt at the 2018 Paris Fashion Week (Christian Vierig/Getty Images)

“It was much more underground,” says Bierton. “It was only after the 1994 World Cup and the advent of the Premier League that football shirts started being produced with any volume, so when we set up the company in 2006, there was a limited range to look back to. When we began, shirts from the 1980s were more fashionable — like, indie style, the skinny Adidas trefoil type.

“People weren’t buying 1990s shirts from a fashion point of view because the baggy stuff wasn’t really on-trend. It was more ‘I want to get a David Beckham shirt because I’m into shirt collecting or just football in general’. But as the years go by, kids get older. People are harking back to different eras.”

Still, diehard football fans are only a portion of the industry.

Over the years, high-end fashion brands including Giorgio Armani, Dior, Stella McCartney, Yohji Yamamoto and Balenciaga have partnered with football teams to design special kits. Celebrities with no apparent ties to the sport, such as pop stars Rihanna and Sabrina Carpenter — the latter wore an England shirt over a Versace dress at the ‘Capital Summertime Ball’ festival in the UK during the recent Euros — have jumped on the hype train.

With the rise of ‘Blokecore’, an internet trend popularised on TikTok where people of all ages and genders wear retro football shirts with casual outfits, there are no limits on who wears these kits or where.

“We did a string of pop-ups in the autumn in the U.S. last year, and the turnout was insane,” says Bierton. “We had lines down the block in Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

“It was unbelievable to see the range of stuff people were wearing. It was a combination of hardcore fans who loved the game and wanted a shirt to show their knowledge and passion and those who think football shirts are pretty cool to wear. We had someone ask a customer why they were wearing an old Sheffield Wednesday shirt, and they responded, ‘I don’t even know what Sheffield Wednesday is!’.”

Some old football shirts are worth more than others (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

As the industry has grown, the chances of strolling into a charity shop and finding a rare shirt with a unique design have significantly declined.

People are far more conscious of the cost of used football shirts, and resellers and larger third-party retailers have increased the prices to reflect the demand. In some cases, legitimate good quality shirts in adult sizes, like the Netherlands kit from their victorious 1988 Euros campaign, can fetch more than £1,000 ($1,300). An authentic USMNT “denim” pattern shirt, worn by the host nation during the 1994 World Cup, regularly demands prices above £500.

Coupled with the increasing prices of contemporary shirts, which typically range from around £60 to £80 for the ‘replica’ version to more than three figures for the ‘player-issue’ versions produced for Premier League clubs, sales of fakes are now on the rise. According to Corsearch, a global leader in trademark and brand protection, the online market for counterfeit football shirts for Premier League clubs has risen to £180million per year.

“In the past two or three years, there have been a lot more fakes knocking about,” says Jack Mcandrew, owner of Sound Trout, an online independent vintage retailer. “It’s due to social media and the influencers who have been wearing football shirts, in some cases even wearing fakes themselves without realising, indirectly increasing the demand and creating opportunity.

“I’ve come across a lot, even from sellers who I know to be reputable. But because the shirts are so in demand and the quality is so high, people fall for them. It’s funny, because the factories that make the fakes aren’t even just doing the ones that are considered cool and coveted, like the Atletico Madrid home shirt from 2004-05 with the Spider-Man kit sponsor, they also do random generic ones.

“I’ve had to be a lot more careful. If a shirt is from the 1990s and it’s in ‘mint’ condition, nine times out of 10 it’s probably too good to be true.”

Authentic USMNT “denim” pattern shirts, worn during the 1994 World Cup, regularly demand prices north of £500 (Ben Radford/Getty Images)

For independent store owners like Mcandrew, the growing counterfeit market means they have to be extra careful when buying shirts from online outlets or inspecting in person at car-boot sales.

Classic Football Shirts, which operates a significantly larger operation with more than 160 employees, has staff responsible for sifting through fakes and procuring legitimate retro classics from all corners of the planet.

“We’ve got a rigorous authentication process,” says Bierton. “This includes looking at labels and product codes and comparing them to shirts we have. We used to have a thick written manual, and now it’s computer-based, but we have a team of around 20-odd people working on the process. It gets more challenging, particularly with the quality of fakes now produced, but once you’ve worked here for a couple of months, you can usually tell the difference.

“It’s still the case that over half the classic shirts are sold to us by people through the website. But there are crazy jobs within the company, basically hunters, whose role is to go out and find shirts in the wild for us. They go around the world, making connections to find old shirts.”

As the trend has popularised, it has become more of an international industry. While there have always been collectors worldwide — Classic Football Shirts sold its first jersey to a Liverpool fan in Norway and has had interest from “hardcore” kit enthusiasts from South Korea since its inception — subcultures have developed reflecting specific interests within populations.

“Particularly in the U.S., many fans are drawn to ‘hero printing’,” says Bierton. “It’s about players as much as teams. I think of the U.S. customers as similar to myself regarding Italian football of the 1990s. I wouldn’t necessarily support any of the teams, but I love the idea.

“I would have a Parma shirt, a Sampdoria shirt, a (Gabriel) Batistuta, (Francesco) Totti or (Roberto) Baggio shirt. That’s the Premier League to a lot of fans from the States. They might like Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney or Sergio Aguero. They tend to be more interested in the technical aspect in Asia, preferring the player-issue shirts.”

The 1990s remain the golden era for long-time shirt collectors and those who have immersed themselves in the trend more recently. Manchester United and England tops with Beckham’s name printed on the back are among the most popular on Classic Football Shirts, competing with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi ones.

With the introduction of ‘icon’ cards on the Ultimate Team mode of the EAFC video game, legends of the era such as Zinedine Zidane and the original, Brazilian Ronaldo have maintained their relevance to younger generations, and their shirts remain some of the most coveted.

Football in 1997 – when players’ shirts were definitely baggier (Alex Livesey/Allsport)

“The ’90s is the high water mark,” says Bierton. “There’s much more freedom of expression in the kits. They’re bolder, and they’re baggy. It’s not ‘Fly Emirates’ on the front of the shirt; it feels pre-commercialisation. It feels like there is still something pure about these shirts.

“There’s something about the 1990s and early noughties that has managed to capture the imagination of younger generations.”