Crains New York - September 24, 2012 - (Page 26)

Soccer’s net gain Continued from Page 25 popularity among adults. Companies are forming teams to build workplace camaraderie, and new leagues and tournaments are being created to meet the growing demand. “There is a huge growth in adult organized leagues,” said Leonard Shostak, a business consultant who referees soccer games on the side.“It used to be that companies all had softball teams, but now they are switching to soccer.” There are no available statistics on the number of amateur adult players in the city, but soccer organizers say it’s well into the thousands. ZogSports, which manages recreational leagues in 13 different sports, runs more than 600 soccer teams a year in New York. Players can sign up individually or with their own team. Robert Herzog, who founded Zog, said he started offering soccer in 2003 and filled only 25 amateur teams the first season. Now it’s his fastest seller. ‘We sell out everything’ The prices at different leagues vary, but with Zog, individuals pay about $100 to $150 each season to play in a weekly game in a league. If you register your own team to be part of the league, it costs around $1,700. “We’ll put soccer on sale, and some of the most popular leagues, like a weeknight league in Manhattan, will sell out in a couple of days,” Mr.Herzog said.“We sell out every- thing we offer with soccer because it’s so popular.” Tarek Pertew, co-founder of WakefieldMedia.com, decided to start his own soccer league with four friends a year ago.The league, NYC Footy, now has 325 players from a wide variety of professions, with a number of hip technology companies, such as Adobe and Etsy, signing on as sponsors. Shoaib Alam, a solutions architect for Adobe and the captain of its soccer team, said he originally tried to start a flag-football team at his company, but there wasn’t enough interest. The company’s coed soccer team has 13 players so far, but Mr. Alam expects that number to double this year. Overall, the number of interested players is growing so quickly that this fall, NYC Footy had to turn away more than 40 people because Mr. Pertew can’t get the permits he needs for more field space. “This is the biggest problem for leagues in New York,” he said. Mr. Herzog said he hasn’t been able to grow his soccer business further because there are no more fields. He lost room for about 50 players in 2007 when a big field on the City College of New York campus at West 133rd Street and Convent Avenue was closed to build a new science facility. Ms. Tikotsky said her women’s team plays on a field at East Sixth Street that is so badly damaged, she expects the city to close it down soon.The New York City Parks Department did not return calls for comment. Still, soccer organizers say that overall there is a lot more playing space in the city than there used to be—and, most important, many of the new fields are turf and have lights. “Now you can play soccer from six in the evening until midnight at Pier 40 and Randall’s Island,” said Niall Swan, founder of Soccer Resort, a company in Hoboken,N.J.,that runs adult soccer tournaments all over the world, including three in New York. SOURCE LUNCH: by Jeremy Smerd JEFFREY ZARNOW Corporate Cup Mr. Swan has noticed a big increase in corporate teams, so much so that a year ago he started a new soccer tournament called the Wall Street Corporate Cup. The one-day event had 30 teams this July, double the number of a year ago.Companies that played included JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Google. One firm that participated, Squarespace, just recently started its first corporate soccer team. It was founded by Matt Haggerty, the company’s marketing director, who grew up playing soccer. The coed team is the only sports team the company has. Mr.Haggerty says soccer is an easy way for busy professionals to let off steam because games are quick and you don’t need a lot of equipment. “I don’t know a lot of people who play in softball leagues, and golf, in my mind, is from my parents’ generation,” said Mr. Haggerty, 35. “Soccer has a coolness factor to it.” LISTEN to a discussion at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts J Living on $2 a day. Rum not included effrey Zarnow didn’t intend to be a rumrunner. But a chance meeting inspired him to break from film producing to launch Starr African Rum, distilled on the island of Mauritius. Nelson Mandela’s former chief of staff persuaded him to make the corks, bottles and boxes in South Africa as a way for the New York-based entrepreneur to help the continent improve its exports and lift up millions of people who live on less than $2 a day. When a friend asked him to help produce the Global Citizens Festival,a music concert intended to raise awareness of extreme poverty, he said he’d invite his friends the Foo Fighters to play. A friendship with a classmate from his University of Pennsylvania days, former Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler, helped him navigate the red tape at City Hall. The Central Park concert is Sept. 29 on the Great Lawn. So you are still a Hollywood producer, and now you’re a New York liquor seller. Which one is harder to make money at? You’d think it would be easier making money on liquor, but for me it’s been the opposite. All the profits I’ve put back into the company. Still, last year was our third straight year of double-digit revenue growth. After the recession, there’s a sense that people don’t mind spending money, but they want to get something of value. Is that why we’re having a $2 lunch on a park bench near your apartment in the West Village? Well, we’re still a startup. You still have that mentality of not wasting money. I thought it was because you’re raising awareness about poverty. It is.The festival Saturday is to teach a whole new generation to think that our individual actions can make a difference. It’s a free concert, How’d you start your but you have to earn your business? ticket. You can sign a peOn a bench in the I knew nothing about tition. Or tweet or share it West Village, near the corner of West Mauritius other than it on Facebook. You earn 10th Street and was in Africa. I hated rum. points by doing these Greenwich I got sick on it in college. charitable acts. Then you Avenue It’s the one alcohol I get a lottery ticket, and a AMBIENCE: wouldn’t drink. But I took certain amount of tickets Depends on the a meeting that changed are chosen. weather and the my life. I tried the rum, as We want to let people traffic. Sunny and you are about to, and I was know that there are small mellow. blown away by it. Like so things you can do differWHAT THEY ATE: many people, I didn’t want ently. Maybe it’s having a 99-cent slice of to drink cheap booze any$2 lunch and donating pizza from Fresh more, for no other reason the money you would Pizza Villa Café than it gets you hung over. have spent. These little Can of Coke things can go a long way. TAB: $2 each, It’s OK to brown-bag it? It’s possible to take acno tip I have a solicitor’s permit, tion.The Global Citizens which allows me to carry platform will live on long alcohol to give samples to people. after the festival. Doesn’t the rum make the Coke taste like a Cherry Coke? I hope I So Africa really affected you, huh? Africa is one of those places that didn’t make it too strong. breaks your heart and inspires you at Not at all! So what do you mix with a the same time. I wanted to see a posclear rum like this? itive thing for Africa. Not exploiting The Apothéke bar downtown it but helping to glorify the quality makes a drink called the Blue Mau- of the products they’re making. I ritius, which is blueberry, ginger and tasted the rum and fell in love with rum, and it’s phenomenal. It’s be- it, which is why I wanted to create come one of their top-selling cock- the Starr brand and take it global. tails. At the end of the day, people want a delicious cocktail. And our And who will be at the festival? restaurant partners say they want to Neil Young, Foo Fighters, the Black serve top-shelf items, liquor that Keys, K’naan and Band of Horses. It’s an incredible lineup. they can’t get everywhere. WHERE THEY DINED INSIDE TIP: Rum and Coke on a bench is best consumed in a paper cup with ice. Bag the bottle. Hold the lime. 26 | Crain’s New York Business | September 24, 2012 http://www.WakefieldMedia.com http://www.CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - September 24, 2012

In the Boroughs
In the Markets
The Insider
Business People
Corporate Ladder
Small Business
Opinion
Greg David
Report: Accounting
The List
Classifieds
Real Estate Deals
New York, New York
Source Lunch
Out and About
Snaps

Crains New York - September 24, 2012