Guest Column
View From The Pier
- View From The Pier
- By Herman Sillas
The number of Americans that watched the 2006 Soccer World Cup Championship Game on TV increased by 180 percent from the one held four years ago. I like to think I had something to do with that.
See, I was introduced to soccer in the sixties by my compadre, José Mariano Castillo. He grew up in Honduras and is an avid soccer fan. His dream has always been to attend a World Cup Championship Game. During the time I thought soccer was boring, he'd take me to the L.A. Coliseum to watch teams play and explained the rules. The teams then always came from south of the border or from Europe. On one occasion, England was playing Spain. We were seated next to an Englishman who looked like a character right out of a Sherlock Holmes novel. The Spanish fired off a shot but at the last split second a sure goal was whacked away by a leaping English goalie. The Spaniards moaned their disappointment. Then a young man ran on the field carrying a large flowing Spanish flag. While every Spaniard was standing and howling over the missed scoring opportunity, the Englishman calmly said, "Good show, old chap, good show." I laughed heartedly at the cultural differences.
But I really learned the inside of soccer a few months later. Mariano had obtained the exclusive right to have Pelé and his Brazilian team play in L.A. in September 1970. After contracting with Mexico's Guadalajara team to play Pelé in the Coliseum, Mariano and I directed a publicity campaign in every non-English speaking community using radio stations and non- English newspapers. Tickets were available at outlets that I had never heard of before. We figured Pelé's fame would draw 10,000 people and Guadalajara's team would draw another 10,000. We needed 12,000 persons to break even.
Then at five P.M., the Friday before our Sunday game, Pelé's agent called and said the team wouldn't take the field unless they were paid cash before the game. They had been stiffed by a Texas promoter and weren't taking any chances with us. It didn't matter to the agent that all banks were now closed. He said, "No cash - no play." I figured our short-lived promoters' careers were over.
On Saturday morning, Mariano and I grabbed two brief cases and a list of every ticket outlet in Southern California selling our tickets. Most places were small establishments frequented by non English-speaking customers. We collected every dollar available. That night we returned to our offices with bulging brief cases. I felt like a bag man for the mob. We pulled down the shades and counted the money. We had collected the exact amount we needed, forty thousand dollars cash! Mariano took it home and guarded it with his life.
The next morning, we deposited the cash with the Coliseum Commission with instructions to turn it over to Pele's agent at the start of the game. We then sat nervously in the Coliseum praying for at least 12,000 empty seats to become full. Over thirty thousand persons came to see our game, the largest crowd to ever see a soccer game in the U.S. up to that time. After celebrating, we ended our promoters' careers. One promotion was enough for a lifetime.
Since then, Mariano had his dream fulfilled. Two weeks ago, he and his lovely wife, Nancy, stood in a German stadium with 67,000 screaming soccer fans watching the 2006 World Cup Championship Game. I tried to get him to take me but love won out.
This week, my thirteen-year-old granddaughter Eliana Vasquez left for Holland to play goalie representing the United States in an international soccer tournament. I didn't go. I'm waiting for the World Cup eight years from now when she'll be playing.
- That's the view from the pier.
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- (Herman Sillas a San Clemente resident and L.A. attorney can be found most early weekend mornings fishing at the pier.)
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