GO Indoor

FACILITY PROFILE Santa Clarita Soccer Center by Sylvie Green S anta Clarit Soccer Centeris in the Santa Clarita Valley, just north of Los Angeles, in California. Unlike facilities in the colder areas of the country, Santa Clarita is an outdoor indoor facility. "The Center is built outdoors, as are most of the facilities in Southern California," says owner Scott Schauer. But the playing doesn't stop, even on the rare occasion when rain does fall on sunny Santa Clarita. "We've only closed two or three days in the past seven years, when it was raining so hard that the water wasn't flowing off the field properly. We generally play rain or shine. The kids especially love to play in the rain." Soccer players at Santa Clarita get the best of both worlds: They get to play indoor soccer and enjoy the outdoors. Indoor soccer continues year round, not just dur- ing the outdoor off-season. "We have about five 10-week seasons a year. We run them continuously, and each season is just as busy as the one before it. We don't have a busy time or a slow time; it's always pret- ty busy." Since space is limited in Southern California, Santa Clarita has very few parks. The Soccer Center runs an outdoor league at the city park, but players only have access to the field a few months out of the year. "There really isn't an outdoor season for adults, which is why we focus on them. Our business is much different than many of the other indoor soccer facil- ities because our main focus is women. We're running 140 teams right now, and over half the players are women over 30." Because of the high price of property, not a lot of soccer fields exist. The cost of land also affects the structure of indoor facilities. "To buy land and to build a facility on it is difficult. Even if the building was filled to capacity, making money would be tough." Scott is trying to buy the acre next to Santa Clarita Soccer Center, but the price on it is $1,000,000.00. Santa Clarita Soccer Center has been filled to capacity since it opened in 1995, which is one of the reasons why Scott decided to open two other Soccer Centers, one in Bakersfield and another in the Antelope Valley. He soon discovered, however, that managing a facility that was close to where he lived was much easier than managing the two that were further away. Bakersfield and Antelope Valley were sold in 1999 and 2000, and Scott has been focusing on Santa Clarita ever since. Because of the population of Santa Clarita, Scott knew he wanted to focus on coed teams and women's teams over 30. "I went to Chicago before I opened Santa Clarita Soccer Center, and Hank Aldrich took me to 10 different facilities. I heard from many people that 16-25 can be quite a difficult age group, as far as players' atti- tudes. I wanted to focus on the over-30 age group. I was in my late thirties; all of my friends were in their thirties. We focused on coed and women's teams over- 30, and the majority of our leagues is just that today." Scott compares this generation of indoor soccer players to its previous generation of bowlers, because indoor soccer is a social event as well as a sport. Local sports bars and pizza places are very busy because of Santa Clarita Soccer Center, as players meet up after practices and games some- times. "I've gotten to know a lot of the people who play here. They often get together on days they're not playing. It's quite the social thing." Though Santa Clarita Soccer Center focus- es on adult leagues, there was a time when Scott was very involved in youth soccer. "My son played soccer. I coached and I loved the game. I was hosting a foreign exchange student who told me about an indoor soccer facility up in Washington, so I went up there to check it out and that's how it all got started. I wanted to find a 12• August/September 2003 • GOAL Indoor business I really enjoyed that could also support my family, and this one has." Scott has always been in one type of busi- ness or another. "I don't work well for other people, so I have to figure out some- thing I can do for myself. I have a brilliant father. He brought us up with an under- standing of hard work and dedication. All my brothers are very successful. I've tried to follow in my father's footsteps." Scott's first business was a wholesale meat compa- ny that he owned for 15 years before sell- ing it and going into the produce business. After selling his produce company, he wanted to do something fun, so he went into the acting business. "I had a great time acting," Scott says. "I just never made any money. After about five years it was time to make a living again." Santa Clarita Soccer Center runs quite smoothly. "I was never educated in busi- ness," Scott says. "I've learned by doing it." When the facility first opened, Scott and one employee worked from about six in the morning until about one or two in the morning. Now, of course, things are different. "The business itself has not changed, but we're running it a lot more efficiently than we used to. We have man- agers and staff and we've learned what we need. We started a software company and designed our own software that does our scheduling and our standings. It does everything. After a lot of years of making a lot of mistakes, this place runs like clock- work." "When Hank Aldrich took me to 10 cen- ters in Chicago, I talked to as many people as I could. I learned so much from those guys as far as what to do and what not to do. Santa Clarita Soccer Center, for exam- ple, has 45-minute games that run every 50 minutes. Each one of our games runs right on time. If you have a game at 9:45, you can be sure your game will start at 9:45. We are very efficient that way. One of the chief complaints we hear about other centers is that players go there for a 45-minute game that doesn't start until a half hour after it's supposed to. We run this place like a business. A lot of people are very passionate about soccer, but they don't run their facility like a business. They want to have a fun job and take care of their friends. If I did it that way, I wouldn't be in business." After the sale of Bakersfield Soccer Center and Antelope Valley Soccer Center, Scott was able to focus on expanding Santa Clarita Soccer Center. "We always wanted to get into selling soccer merchandise, but we had a lot of trouble setting up accounts with major manufacturers. Santa Clarita Soccer Center is close to soccer specialty stores, and the major manufacturers didn't want us competing with their other accounts nearby." In 2001, the owners of Soccer World in the San Fernando Valley

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• History: Speaking with Ron Newman