Milwaukee Torrent Owner Andreas Davi on the Team's New League and Soccer in Milwaukee

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Milwaukee Torrent owner and CEO Andreas Davi (right) with new head coach Carlos Córdoba.

The Milwaukee Torrent soccer club has only been around for a few years, but the organization has made major strides during its brief existence. This year the Torrent will see a big step forward in competition as they participate in the National Premier Soccer League’s inaugural Founders Cup and they’ll do so with a new coach, former Argentine player Carlos Córdoba.

We recently talked with Torrent owner and CEO Andreas Davi about his organization’s growth, the new league and his goals for soccer in Milwaukee.

As you prepare for the first-ever Founders Cup, how are things different for your organization this season?

It’s a completely different level of soccer, first of all, because of the teams we’re facing. With Cosmos New York coming from the NASL (North American Soccer League), Miami FC a former NASL team and current NPSL champion, looking forward we need a completely different level of players.

We’ve changed our coaching staff, I stepped down as the head coach and brought in a much more experienced coach with much, much more experience on a level with adult soccer than I have. It came to a point where, at this level the owner and CEO shouldn’t be the coach, you know? I needed the first two years to bring the Torrent where they were, but now it’s time to make all those changes.

Financially, it’s a lot of changes. The budget will be triple as much as the normal season. That is big. But when you want to play with the big boys, this is what you have to do. And the goal was always to have year-round soccer, and this will happen now with the team playing in the Founders Cup and in 2020 we’ll play year-round. So those are the biggest changes.

You mentioned your new coach. What does Carlos Cordoba bring to your organization?

Well, first of all, just from the respect that he has, not only in the city of Milwaukee but all over the U.S. He’s well-known, you can actually use the word “legend.” A guy who played for Boca (Argentine club Boca Juniors), who won three championships with Boca, who coached and won three championships with Boca, who coached and played with (Diego) Maradona, and who coached (Sergio) Aguero, who was the first coach of the Rampage. He was the first Argentinian coach in the MLS with the Miami Fusion.

Everywhere he was, he was just successful at the youth and the adult level. He brings so much quality to the Torrent on and off the field. He knows many players and coaches around the U.S. and South America. That will help us with bringing talented players into the Torrent. This is a really big thing for the Torrent.

Aside from the league change, how have things changed for the Torrent in the few years since the club started?

When I announced this in 2015, most of the people were laughing about it, specifically in the soccer community. From year to year we had developments. In 2016 we played just in a provisional division inside the NPSL. Then by 2017 we were a complete member of the NPSL. By 2018 we added the women’s team, that was really big. Now for 2019 we have the Founders Cup, in 2020 we’ll have year-round soccer, plus in 2020 we’re going to add an under-23 team that plays in the normal NPSL.

This is what I was going for. I wanted there to be development every year, that people see that we’re working hard for our goals. The goal was year-round soccer, for men and for women. We’re not there yet for the women, but this was also on top of our list. And I think it’s important that you show the community, the families, the kids who play soccer, the fans and the supporters, that you work and strive for what is next. We did this every year so far, and there is for sure much more to come.

Compared to what you were expecting when you announced the formation of the club in 2015, what has surprised you about owning a soccer club?

What surprised me in a positive way is…actually nothing.

To be honest, what surprised me most negatively was how many people and organizations work against us, in the city of Milwaukee and Wisconsin. That makes this so hard. I thought there would be more support. I know I should stay positive, but I say how it is. You asked me the question. That’s probably what surprised me the most; how many people were up against us.

But then, you know, the positive is when you walk around the city or you go somewhere, and you see kids or people that you don’t know and they’re wearing either a Torrent scarf or a Torrent hat. That’s pretty cool.

There was nothing that could really surprise me by owning this, because I had experienced too much coming from Germany (Davi played as a youth player for Bayer Leverkusen), and being in soccer my whole life. If it would be a surprise, it was just the negative stuff. But I have to stay positive, I can’t focus on it. But to give you an honest answer, that would be my answer.

What does a successful season look like for the Torrent this year?

You can read success differently. You can read it on the field and off the field. To talk about off the field, I would love to sell much more season tickets than last year. Our goal is 1,000 season tickets to sell. We would love to partner with many more youth organizations. Our goal right now is to find a sponsor that pays a specific amount of money so we can give all the kids under the age of 14 free access to the Torrent teams, men and women. That would be a big success, because I want the Torrent to be accessible to everybody. We do a lot for the kids with my foundation, through the Boys & Girls’ Club and the Milwaukee Public Schools. This would be a success off the field if we make this happen so that all the kids get access to the games.

On the field, we will obviously be a little bit of underdogs in the East Division that we play in (the Torrent will be grouped with the aforementioned Cosmos and Miami FC in the Founders Cup’s East Region), because the other teams have more financial resources than we do. But I like being the underdogs. Of course, when you compete somewhere you compete to win. Even though I am the underdog, we’re not doing this just to deliver a point to the other teams. We want to win every game we play.

It will be a success to have 2,000, 3,000 people at the games and just giving people, on Saturdays for those 90 minutes, giving them what they want. They want a professional organization that uses professional soccer players that the kids can look up to, that they have fun when they go. That they go, “Hey, it’s Saturday, it’s Torrent time.” It doesn’t matter if it’s the men’s or the women’s team.

The women’s side was, in their first year, very successful. We want to win more games, we want to inspire the kids when they come to a Torrent game so that they want to play more soccer. Being successful on the field, but also giving the people…I wouldn’t say entertaining, it is a kind of entertainment, but we want that they see quality, really good soccer, and that they’re excited to come to the game and just be a part of all of this. Those are the goals.

How soon can we expect more announcements about the 2019 roster and schedule?

We’ve already had some teasers out for some players that will come and some others will come out this week. We’re going to really publish the players in the end of February and beginning of March, we’ll put pictures out on the players. Right now, we’re in the process with many players of talking to them. We’ll have our tryouts in May. We’re going to take a little bit of time with this, because we want to make it the right way. It’s not easy. It’s not easy with most of our players because most of our players will come from outside Wisconsin. We have to find them housing and stuff. But we have players signed, we have players signed that we didn’t even do teasers for.

The goal is to have the schedule out by February 1. This is the goal of the league that there will be a big announcement. But the goal is February 1. I’m actually in charge of the schedule for the East Region, and the schedule is some work, as you can imagine. Even though it’s only six teams, everybody has wishes about the schedule, “we want to have a home game here, a home game there.” It’s not easy. But the schedule is basically all set, everybody has to agree on it, and the goal is to publish it by February 1.

So how can people get more involved?

Well, obviously we need sponsors. We need much more sponsors. I think many companies in Milwaukee, they don’t understand the visibility that they get with the Milwaukee Torrent. Now that we’re playing in a nationwide league, all those teams, the league itself, we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of followers that companies get to be visible year-round. I think this was one of the challenges before, because it was not year-round, but now it will be year-round. It doesn’t matter if it’s men or women.

So this is a big thing we’re looking for, that one sponsor with the kids that says, “We’re going to pay Amount X and get the kids to the games.” There’s no organization that does something like this. But then also, we need people to buy tickets. Season tickets cost only, for adults like $100, and for $100 you can see 15 games, we guarantee 15 games, but when you go with your season tickets to Leff’s (club sponsor Leff’s Lucky Town) you get 10% off your bill, and after the game you get two drinks for the price of one. The season ticket pays for itself, you know? Ticket sales is a big thing for us.

We’re going to have concessions this year at Hart Park that will be run by Sobelman’s. That was big for us, they’re also a sponsor. But whoever wants to be involved, they can contact us over social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, our home page MilwaukeeTorrent.com. My number is on there, if companies want to get more engaged.

I still think what I said before, for many companies in Milwaukee, whether it’s big or small companies, they don’t understand the value of this. That’s nothing against the companies, it’s just because it wasn’t here yet. They had only the Milwaukee Wave, which runs basically through the winter and has completely different marketing strategy and visibility from what this team will have. We just need the companies to allow us to explain what they get out of it. That’s what we’re trying.