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Chivas USA President Nelson Rodriguez outlines three requirements for new club owner in interview

The conditions, unsurprisingly, appear to be direct responses to Jorge Vergara's disastrous tenure as owner.

By Alicia Rodriguez
Drew Hallowell

Univision's Republica Deportiva posted a video profile of Chivas USA ahead of the final Clasico Angelino taking place under the current name, which will be televised on Univision Deportes on August 31.

The profile features two Union Ultras supporters who are well known around CUSA circles, and it was great to see them talk about their passion for the club as well as the challenges surrounding the team at the moment.

Chivas USA president Nelson Rodriguez also featured in the video, and while he acknowledged, "It's difficult to move forward with plans for 2015. What colors will the team be? What will its name be? What are the values of the club?" he did provide some more detail on the ownership requirements:

  1. The club stays in Los Angeles
  2. The group that buys the club must make a commitment to build a new stadium in Los Angeles
  3. The managing director of the club must work and live in Los Angeles
While Rodriguez doesn't indicate where the requirements come from, one must assume his boss, Major League Soccer, which of course owns the team following their purchase of it from Jorge Vergara and Angelica Fuentes in February, laid down those mandates.

And they seem to serve two purposes: to reiterate the league's commitment to keep the club in Los Angeles, and to prevent an absentee owner from simply holding onto the club without putting serious investment into the team or its infrastructure, a la Vergara, who had 10 years to get a stadium deal going but never made any real headway despite many promises as owner and co-owner.

The requirement to have the managing director reside in the area also appears to be a direct response to the Guadalajara-based Vergara, who never lived in the U.S. while he owned the team and hardly ever showed up to his own team's games in California. While the "managing director" caveat gives an ownership group some wiggle room, in that only the person in charge of running operations needs to live in LA, again, it appears the league has learned from the Vergara-Fuentes ownership debacle and are placing much-needed conditions in order to get this club to thrive again.

I tried to embed the video, but was unable to, so if you want to watch it in its entirety, go check it out here (Spanish).

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