Spider provider: Forming a soccer team

Al Brown used to go to Spokane Shadow soccer games and put his MBA to work during lulls in the action. “This probably cost about this much, this was that much,” he’d say to himself. “And it was, ‘There’s no way this can work.’ ”

That was about eight years ago and Brown pretty much shelved the notion of owning a team. Then roughly four years ago, after beating leukemia, Brown’s oncologist posed a question: “In her wonderful bedside manner she said, ‘What are you going to do with the rest of your life?’ “

Brown’s answer: Operate a soccer team.

After the Shadow called it quits, Brown consulted with friend and fellow youth soccer coach Fred Bowman and decided to form the Spokane Spiders, who, like their predecessors, play in the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League. The team consists mostly of prep and college players from the region.

It’s a passionate cause for Brown, who developed his affection for soccer at a young age while living in Singapore, Malaysia, India and the Soviet Union. His father was a diplomat for the state department and moving was a way of life. He attended junior high and high school in Virginia, college in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and eventually joined the Air Force, which brought him to Fairchild Air Force Base in the early 1980s.

All the while he played soccer “on a disorganized basis, intramurals, high school, military intramurals,” before entering the coaching ranks in Spokane. The 51-year-old still coaches a youth team and he rarely misses a Spiders practice or game.

No doubt Brown spends a lot of time on the sidelines trying to figure out ways to make the franchise a long-term success. Bowman, too, since he serves as the team’s vice president of marketing.

Brown started the Spiders with inheritance money left to him by his late grandmother.

“My older sister, who saved my life by donating bone marrow, sized the situation up,” he said. “Basically, you could buy a Bentley or create a soccer team, and a soccer team will make you a lot happier.”

The second-year team has encountered a rash of injuries and is 1-4-1 heading into a home game against rival Yakima at 7 p.m. Saturday at Spokane Falls Community College.

Brown is typically blunt evaluating the franchise’s future.

“As the first son of some people who lived through the depression, I’m never comfortable losing money – never, never, never,” he said. “It has not been easy. It’s still questionable whether the program can continue past this year and maybe next. Like any sports franchise, if there isn’t enough support from people, if you don’t get enough to watch the game, it can’t continue unless you’re a rich man and I’m not a wealthy man.”

Perhaps not so much in dollars, but in desire and determination Brown is loaded.

“Al stepping up (two years ago) was huge,” Spiders coach Abbas Faridnia said. “He has a big heart for it. Something bit him however many years ago and he got the soccer bug.”

Brown’s definition of success isn’t based solely on the win-loss column. He refers to the team’s mission statement: Soccer is a working man’s game. Spokane is a working man’s town. The Spiders are a working man’s team. We are committed to developing the soccer community at all levels. The Spiders are determined that Spokane has national and worldwide recognition as a soccer center, and a source for world-class talent.

“And we have succeeded,” he said. “Austin Washington, from Ferris and Gonzaga (and the 2007 Spiders) got himself hired by the Chicago Fire of the MLS. What we’d like to do is be more successful and get more of Spokane’s young people hired.

“The biggest success was getting it going in the first place. It was a real uphill struggle to get a competitive team on the field.”

Brown has hopes of starting a women’s team, but he knows that would require more money and time. The Spiders generally play matches at SFCC. The Greyhound Park is another option and there’s talk of creating a ‘mini-stadium’ at Plantes Ferry Park.

For road trips, 15-17 pile into two mid-1990s 10-seat vans. League rules require the host team to provide seven hotel rooms for visitors. Players aren’t paid so they retain amateur status. Spokane often practices at 7 p.m. so players can work during the day. The Spiders play a 16-game regular-season schedule, eight home and eight away. Attendance at home games has ranged from 154 to nearly 1,000. The 154 was the result of playing on Mother’s Day at 2 p.m.

“People who come have a great time,” Brown said. “It’s universal good feedback.”

Same thing goes for the Spiders filling a soccer void in the area.

“It’s always good to have younger kids look up to the guys playing,” said Faridnia, who estimated that 7,000-8,000 Spokane youths play soccer. “In basketball, baseball, they always have somebody to look up to or watch.”

Brown is looking for more support. Simple gestures have helped sustain his enthusiasm.

“After our very first practice one of our older players came up and said, ‘I just want to thank you for doing what you’re doing,’ ” he said. “I said, ‘You’re welcome.’ It was repeated by a couple other players.

“When you find someone with a real sense of commitment, that’s when we spend the extra effort with them and we’re reinvigorated to carry forward with our mission.”

Busy weekend

The Spokane Spiders host the Yakima Reds at 7 p.m. Saturday and the Ogden Outlaws at 2 p.m. Sunday, both at Spokane Falls Community College.