$35 million bet on pro soccer

Thursday, May 31, 2007 | 7:24 a.m.

Soccer has provided Paul Caligiuri with some indelible memories, from booting the United States into its first World Cup in 40 years to watching the fall of the Berlin Wall from the other side.

The Hall of Fame defender hopes to experience another when Major League Soccer allows the Las Vegas Sports & Entertainment Group to start a franchise in the valley.

The sports group is ready to wire a $35 million expansion fee to a league account in New York if it gets that endorsement.

"I hope this changes the scope of soccer in America forever," said Caligiuri, the group's main spokesman. "I'm also realistic and patient."

Mark Noorzai, the sports group's president who says he's assembled a financial group worth several billion dollars, said he sent a letter of intent to MLS headquarters two weeks ago. He requested a response by today.

Although league officials said they are interested in Las Vegas, they don't seem prepared to react that quickly.

In the letter, Noorzai highlighted some of his group's ambitious plans, including a $500 million retractable-roof stadium, an adjacent hotel and casino, practice fields and other amenities on 200 acres.

Noorzai, 40, acknowledged that the deadline is soft and he won't be dismayed if he doesn't hear from MLS by today, Friday or early next week.

Neither will Caligiuri.

"The proposal on the table is by far the best proposal that this league has ever seen," Caligiuri said. The sports group " is committed to building a franchise that will compete with teams in the rest of the world, not just MLS."

MLS Commissioner Don Garber, who is attending the FIFA Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, intends to add three clubs to the 13-team league by 2010.

MLS President Mark Abbott, who oversees expansion, said the realistic timetable for the construction of a stadium is 18 months, so awarding a franchise to a particular group or city isn't a pressing issue.

Speaking from his New York office Wednesday afternoon, Abbott declined to comment about any prospective ownership group or proposal.

"It's fair to say that Las Vegas is a market that's interesting to us," he said. "We think it would be very supportive of professional soccer, so it's a market we're looking at."

Since the Sun first revealed the sports group's intentions two weeks ago, it has been offered first-division teams in Belgium and Italy, and a second-division squad in Spain, Caligiuri said. Officials in Brazil and Ghana inquired about starting Las Vegas Football Club youth academies in their countries.

"That's how Chelsea does it," Caligiuri said of the elite English team. The sports group " is in this for the right reasons. This is the best new brick in the foundation of the league, if done properly. "

"And I believe this group will do it properly."

Noorzai said the project wouldn't have progressed to the brink of Las Vegas landing its first major sports franchise without Caligiuri.

The two met in January at a soccer clinic in Simi Valley, Calif. They kept in touch. Noorzai talked about his financial group seeking to buy a pro soccer team in Japan or Serie A, Italy's top-flight league.

Caligiuri (pronounced cal-a-JURY), persuaded Noorzai to concentrate the group's soccer ambitions between these shores and pointed to the Nevada desert.

Almost four months later, Las Vegas Football Club continues to gain steam.

"It all starts with Paul," Noorzai said, "from the goal that put U.S. soccer on the map to everyone he knows in the game."

Caligiuri, 40, helped UCLA win a national championship. Near the end of a final qualifier in 1989 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, he scored from 35 yards to slip the U.S. into its first World Cup since 1950.

He played in 110 games for the national team, including two World Cups.

His six professional seasons in Germany included a stint behind the Iron Curtain, for FC Hansa Rostock, in the months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

East Germans marveled about the prospect of owning telephones and automobiles.

They also marveled over this new defender, who became a fan favorite by helping Hansa win the Oberliga title in the final season of East Germany's top division. Yet, he was from America, the enemy.

Outside Ostseestadion one day, a man waited with his eager 8-year-old son after a training session. Caligiuri, fluent in German, bent to speak with the lad.

Caligiuri confirmed that he came from America. The kid asked, Aren't you the bad guys?

"I nearly swallowed my Adam's apple," Caligiuri said. "I said, Do you like me? He said, 'Yes.' Do you think I'm bad? 'No.' Then I'm not a bad guy, am I?"

Caligiuri played six seasons in MLS, and he has coached the men's team at Cal Poly Pomona, in Southern California, since 2001. He has held his A license, allowing him to coach any national team in the world, since 2002.

As a member of the U.S. Soccer Federation board of directors, he helps shape the direction of the sport in the country.

Caligiuri has gotten Alan Rothenberg, the founder of MLS, to back the sports group's plan. Caligiuri, who would play a main role for Las Vegas FC, also is pondering potential coaching candidates.

"It's really gotten a lot of people excited, even if they're not big on soccer," he said. "I think that's what the sport needs, a boost and excitement that doesn't exist. It'll bring soccer to a new level.

"That's what my heart and mind tell me."