WILMINGTON - Two years is a long time, and even the people running the Major League Soccer expansion franchise granted to the Philadelphia region are thankful for the timeline given to get things going.
Still, when you are creating a professional sports franchise from scratch, including the building of a state-of-the-art stadium that could serve as the linchpin of a $500 million development project, time becomes a relative concept.
Months can feel like weeks and weeks can feel like days.
"Weeks are literally flying by," said Nick Sakiewicz, CEO and operating partner of Keystone Sports and Entertainment, LLC, the ownership team in charge of the MLS franchise that will begin play in 2010 in Chester. "It seems like it was just yesterday that we announced the team and now we're almost 3 months into it.
"For the fans, it may seem like a long way away, but for us in here it is flying by. Opening Day is going to be here before we know."
On Tuesday, in the temporary offices of MLS Philadelphia, Sakiewicz, Dave Mosca (senior vice president of corporate partnerships) and Tom Veit (president of a marketing consulting firm) were holding down the fort.
Between meetings and conference calls, plus conference calls and meetings, things are moving rapidly.
"We are where we expected to be in stadium development," Sakiewicz said. "Clearly that is a priority, but the development of the organization is a priority, too. That is not a back-seater.
"The third priority is brand development of the team itself - the name, the team colors, brand identity, if you will."
Sakiewicz said there is a timeline leading into April 2010, but adds that things are fluid.
The plan is for groundbreaking on the stadium in the fall.
Toward the end of the year, MLS Philadelphia would like to have a name, colors and logo.
The beginning of next year will be for filling out the front-office staff. A team technical director will be hired and the summer will bring the interviewing and hiring of a coach.
"The expansion draft is in November '09," Sakiewicz said. "The MLS SuperDraft is in January 2010. We begin signing players and then in February we have our first preseason.
"That's a macro view, but in between there are a lot of other things to fill in."
To get ready to run in 2010, most deadlines will be much tighter than 24 months.
Building a stadium from the ground up speaks for itself, but lots of things require planning.
