This is overdue for today, but the link to my story today on Victor MacFarlane selling his share of D.C. United’s operating rights to Will Chang is here.
Chang spoke with me yesterday afternoon. Here are some of his comments that didn’t quite make it into the print edition or were cut down for space reasons.
First, on becoming the first Asian-American owner in Major League Soccer: “We live in a country where people come from many different areas of the world, and I think the distinction of being Asian American or Chinese American or being African American are beginning to blend. I really don’t consider myself as much Asian American but more as somebody who enjoys sports, enjoys soccer, in it because you have a passion for the sport.”
On how the change in D.C. United management will affect the stadium pursuit: “In terms of our stadium pursuit, I have to get up the learning curve. But having said that, I think my approach is going to be a little bit different than Victor’s in that Victor was such a dominant person in the real estate industry, very well regarded both in the African American community and jurisdicitions that we were talking to , which were led predominantly by African American politicians. Victor was a very prominent person in the African-American community, and he has been the point in those negotiations. Because I don’t really have a presence in D.C., and I don’t have much expertise in this area, I’m going to go through the stadium pursuit very much as part of D.C. United as a team. I’ll be involved in some regard, Kevin Payne will be involved, but we’re not going to personalize it. It’s going to be about D.C. United. We want to go to a community that wants D.C. United, not a community that wants Will Chang or Kevin Payne or anybody else. It’s a package deal. So to the extent that we can de-personalize the stadium pursuit, we’re going to de-personalize it.”
In light of last year’s disappointments, was Chang instrumental in working with the front office to build this year’s D.C. United?: “I wouldn’t use the word instrumental. This was something that was very much led by Dave Kasper and Tommy Soehn. I was not instrumental. I was kept in the loop. I was more active than the first year I was involved with the team, but I was not instrumental. I did take a very strong interest. I talked to our folks regularly, and I want to be involved. But I would be the first one to admit that I really don’t have the expertise.”
His outlook for the team and the front office in light of last year: “I continue to have absolute confidence in our staff. There was a lot of discussion in the press last season about changes in management, and if you look at our management team, both on the operations side and the management side, we haven’t made any changes. My actions speak more than what I can say. That’s a testimonial to the belief and the confidence that I have in the GM and the coaching staff and the management team.”
Chang said the letter he and Victor wrote to the fans at the end of last season was meant to take responsibility for the disappointing season, both an apology and a promise that it wouldn’t happen again: “It was not intended to be in any regard a lack of confidence in our management. If that was the case, we would’ve taken action would’ve made management changes, which we did not.”
