Known for promoting and popularizing soccer in the United States, Ross was amongst the group of people who founded the
New York Cosmos in 1971. Backed by his employer Warner Communications, the club brought soccer superstars
Pelé and
Franz Beckenbauer, as well as other prominent players such as
Carlos Alberto,
Vladislav Bogićević,
Johan Neeskens, and
Giorgio Chinaglia. Ross was introduced to the sport during the late 1960s by one of his business executives
Nesuhi Ertegun from
Atlantic Records, the record company co-founded by Nesuhi's brother and also soccer enthusiast
Ahmet Ertegun. The two brothers worked for Ross in the early 1970s after Atlantic got bought in 1967 by
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts that in turn got bought by Ross's
Kinney National Company two years later. When Nesuhi Ertegun had a business opportunity that would require leaving the company, Ross offered anything in an attempt to keep him. Ertegun expressed a desire to have a soccer club created and Ross, a fan of sports in general, obliged. Following the
1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico that the Erteguns used to further establish contacts in the soccer world by throwing lavish parties, one of which was attended by Pelé, the brothers came back to New York and held Ross to his promise. In turn, Ross and longtime associate Jay Emmett reached out to eight other top executives and convinced them to contribute $35,000 each towards establishing a new soccer franchise that would compete in the struggling
North American Soccer League.
Founding the New York Cosmos The
New York Cosmos was created in early 1971 with Englishman
Clive Toye as its first general manager and 37-year-old
Gordon Bradley as the player and eventually, coach. Playing out their
debut season with a small fanbase, the Cosmos were a semi-professional operation, but most importantly, Ross was interested to see the team perform well. Scared of losing money, the ten original investors sold their stake in the franchise to newly created Warner Communications (the company where Ross was CEO and chairman) for $1. With the sale, Ross added the franchise to the vast media empire he was in charge of running.
Bringing Pelé to America Following the first few seasons in obscurity, Ross decided that signing a big marquee name was the way forward to achieving greater prominence and ultimately securing the league's long-term dream—a network television deal. The idea of bringing Pelé to America had actually been around for a while as NASL commissioner
Phil Woosnam and eventual Cosmos GM Clive Toye discussed it as far back as 1970 and even made an approach to the player in spring 1971, one month after the Cosmos had been formed. However, in 1975 with Ross willing to spend the big money, conditions were finally there to make the dream transfer happen. He sent Emmett, Toye, Cosmos vice-president Raphael de la Sierra, and Nesuhi Ertegun to Brazil where they met with 34-year-old Pelé at a seaside resort and played soccer with him on the beach. Since by this time
Real Madrid and
Juventus also started sniffing around Pelé in an attempt to bring him to Europe for the first time, the Cosmos delegation used the possibility of making soccer big in a country new to the sport as their main lure and by the end of the day, the Brazilian agreed in principle to come to New York. The actual negotiation with Warner Communications lawyer Norman Samnick, who was deployed to Brazil by Ross, turned out to be a little more difficult: Ross was willing to risk $2 million for three years of play while Pelé demanded $5 million for two years. In the end, the deal agreed was a complex five-part contract worth around $4.5 million in total that included $1 million for three years of play, $1 million for ten years of marketing rights, $1 million for a fourteen-year PR contract, and another $1 million for a music contract. Warner Communications money thus managed to lure arguably then still the biggest name in soccer out of retirement. In addition to huge amounts of money, due to Pelé's special status in Brazil as the country's national treasure, getting him to leave his homeland for the first time in his career involved a lot of politics as well, especially when the Brazilian president demanded that Pelé play another year in Brazil for the "good of his people". Ross called on his political connections in an attempt to soften the Brazilian government's position and eventually managed to get to the US Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger, who personally called his Brazilian counterpart telling him that Pelé's move to New York would be a huge step forward in the
US–Brazil relations.
More big names arrive in New York Since the Cosmos failed to make the playoffs in Pelé's debut season, for the
next season, Ross decided to complement his superstar with more prominent names from overseas, the biggest of which was 29-year-old temperamental Italian striker Giorgio Chinaglia from
S.S. Lazio. The striker became an undeniable goal-scoring hit on the pitch with 19 goals in 19 league appearances that season, but his style of play as well as his egotistical and arrogant manner also got him many detractors both within and outside of the club. However, he endeared himself to Ross as the two soon became very close friends. Due to increased interest, the team moved to Yankee Stadium. Though the Brazilian midfield organizer and the Italian striker quickly developed an uneasy relationship, thanks to their assists and goals, respectively, the club managed to make the playoffs, losing to underdogs
Tampa Bay Rowdies led by Rodney Marsh in the conference semifinal series 3 games to 1. Pelé still got the league MVP honors and Chinaglia became the league's top goalscorer. Though furious over the early playoff exit, Ross immediately took the team on an exhibition summer tour of Europe with stops to play friendly games in England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. Though hugely expensive, the tour generated plenty of publicity for Warner Communications. The
1977 NASL season—Pelé's final season before retirement—began at the newly built
Giants Stadium in New Jersey as New York Cosmos dropped "New York" from its name to become just the Cosmos. With the new giant home, Ross decided to Americanize the experience of going to a Cosmos game with cheerleaders, halftime show, and mascots. On the field, however, the squad got internationalized even further with a roster that had players from every corner of the world. Attendance rose slightly to just over 20,000 in the first five games (3 of which Cosmos lost), but still not enough to Ross' liking. In search of more people in the seats, Ross decided to raise the bar again. He reached for the checkbook midway through the season and looked oversees for more big stars, signing 31-year-old German superstar Franz Beckenbauer from
Bayern Munich in May 1977. The German's debut was a 4–2 loss away at Tampa while the following week Cosmos beat Toronto at home in front of 31,000 fans. Ross was happy with the attendance increase, but wanted even more and to that end enlisted celebrities that did business with Warner Communications to make publicized appearances at Cosmos home games. People like
Barbra Streisand,
Mick Jagger,
Phil Collins,
Robert Redford,
Muhammad Ali,
Quincy Jones,
Andy Warhol,
Henry Kissinger,
Steven Spielberg, etc. became a regular sight in the Cosmos locker room and in the luxury boxes at the Giants Stadium. Other changes were in order too as general manager Toye and head coach Bradley got fired and Tampa Bay's
Eddie Firmani became the new coach. The team's striker Chinaglia was said to be the driving influence on Ross to hire Chinaglia's good friend Firmani as Chinaglia and Ross developed a personal relationship. Chinaglia thrived under Firmani, scoring goals one after another. The team's play as well as the attendance also started to pick up – led by Pele's hat-trick, the Cosmos finally managed to avenge the losses to Tampa Bay by beating them at home in front 62,394 fans. However, this was followed by another inexplicable dip in form with five losses in seven games. Ross reacted immediately, throwing more big money into the squad, signing Brazil national team's former inspirational captain defender Carlos Alberto who was about to turn 33 years of age. He joined the squad with only four games remaining in the 1977 regular season. By this time, the attendance was rising sharply as the team as well as the league started to catch major buzz. The summer of 1977 was the franchise's first true foray into big time: on August 14, the Giants Stadium was sold out for the Cosmos first game of the playoffs against
Fort Lauderdale Strikers with 77,691 people in the stands. The Cosmos finally won the title defeating
Seattle Sounders in the Soccer Bowl during late August as Beckenbauer became league MVP and Pelé retired in style.
Heading US bid to host the 1986 FIFA World Cup In November 1982, when Colombia, the originally selected
host of the
1986 FIFA World Cup, gave up on organizing the event, for economic reasons, Ross called upon all his soccer connections and campaigned hard to bring the tournament to the US including meeting with FIFA president
João Havelange, but in May 1983
FIFA decided on Mexico as the replacement host. The United States eventually hosted the
World Cup in 1994. == Personal life ==