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below. Austin American-Statesman
Off-season wrangling begins: Austin front office already
working to round up
more W's and more fans
Austin
Wranglers President Doug MacGregor might be
the
biggest kid in the Arena Football League, wide-eyed and
thrilled
about running his very own professional football team.
He trades his suit and a luxury box at home games for face paint, a
blue wig and a 100 similarly dressed hooligans known as the Rowdy
Wranglers. He is unashamed of his belief that the AFL
trumps the outdoor game, and he calls Wranglers
fans "the loudest per capita in the league."
But MacGregor also is an adept businessman, a former Dell executive candidly aware of the bottom line. He knows his team is 5-9 going into this weekend's home finale against Orlando, and interest will be tepid at best until he provides a winner.
"It's not even remotely acceptable," he said of his team's record. And so MacGregor, sitting alongside Wranglers General Manager Glyn Milburn at a local Starbucks, wipes whipped cream from his face after taking a sip from a frappuchino and whips open his laptop computer.
On it is a recent presentation he gave his team called "How We Intend to Build a Champion." He starts with the positive. The Wranglers are happy enough with the offense to re-sign quarterback John Fitzgerald and linemen Aaron Humphrey and Eric Thomas.
"Last year we went into free agency looking for everything, and you can't do that," Milburn said. "We're light years ahead of where we were this time last year."
But 5-9 doesn't cut it in a league on the edge of America's collective sports consciousness, and MacGregor and Milburn don't shy away from the obvious problems confronting them. They described the play of the defense as "unacceptable," and said free-agent acquisitions would focus on beefing up the secondary. They said they would wait to see how the Wranglers finished the season before evaluating Coach Skip Foster.
"Obviously we're disappointed with the record, and there were some games we thought we should've won," Milburn said. "But we want to see how we respond when things aren't going right. There's still two games left to see."
Off the field, MacGregor and his staff continually adjust their efforts to increase community awareness and fan support. MacGregor concedes that his inexperience with arena football and his late start with the team left the franchise ill-prepared to start the season.
"I arrived in September, and it was November before I knew which way was up," he said. "By the time I had everything in place it was already December, and suddenly we're looking ahead to 2006."
The Wranglers also were hurt by off-season whispers that former owner Greg Feste had plans to move the team to San Antonio, in essence freezing season-ticket sales and free-agent acquisitions.
"It was paralysis, really," Milburn said.
But the league-wide salary cap ensures parity in the AFL and provides hope for quick turnarounds on the field. MacGregor said more players are considering staying around Austin this fall, providing more links to the community. He's also switching the team's marketing focus from teenagers to preteens. He's adding a larger ticket staff, sweetening season-ticket incentives and ramping up efforts to make the Wranglers a bigger part of Austin.
"We'd rather make mistakes of action rather than inaction," MacGregor said. "Learn. Change. Win."
