The Houston Dynamo’s Ted Segal (pictured above, center) is not a typical MLS owner. He’s a first-time buyer, if you will — a real estate investor who had no experience in professional sports ownership prior to his purchase of the Dynamo. He lives far away in New York, handling his tasks at the club remotely and flying in and out for games and occasional meetings.
He also by no means seeks out the spotlight, and when you talk to him, that much feels apparent. Segal comes across as serious, thoughtful and reserved. The public-facing work at the Dynamo can be handled by the club’s players or by others in Segal’s ownership group — like NBA star James Harden — while Segal makes his presence felt in the background.
It’s an unorthodox approach by MLS standards, but so far, it seems to have worked. Segal, 42, purchased the Dynamo in June of 2021 and added to his stake a year later. When the Dynamo floundered in 2021 and again in 2022, Segal showed a willingness to push for aggressive change, twice replacing the club’s head coach and, this year, remaking the club’s roster. Segal and others in the Dynamo’s ownership group also poured millions into venue upgrades this offseason in an attempt to make Shell Emergy Stadium a bit more bearable in the summer months.
Not much was expected of the club in 2023, but the Dynamo have been arguably the league’s biggest surprise this year. They finished just a point clear of last place in 2022 but are now competing for home field advantage in the playoffs in a crowded Western Conference race. Mexico national teamer Hector Herrera, the club’s biggest-ever signing, has come alive in 2023 after a forgettable 2022, and former D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen has the Dynamo playing attractive soccer.
The club’s biggest opportunity, though, sits directly ahead: the Dynamo will face Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami in the U.S. Open Cup final on Wednesday. Unquestionably, the spotlight will be bright as Houston aims to win the competition for a second time in five years.
The Dynamo could use the attention even more than most, as they continue to hover near the bottom of the league in attendance. Segal, who paid a reported $400 million for the Dynamo and the NWSL’s Houston Dash, has his work cut out for him in that regard: in one of the largest, most diverse markets in the United States, the Dynamo have often failed to resonate.
Ahead of the Open Cup final, Segal joined The Athletic for a wide-ranging interview to unpack the current state of the club and what lies ahead.
Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Given the club’s form last year, the Dynamo might be the biggest surprise in the league this year. I don’t think many people expected the club to make the playoffs, let alone be competing for home field advantage in the playoffs. What’s your assessment of the 2023 Dynamo?
It’s certainly positive and it’s where we set out to be. We also recognize our work is far from done. Yes, we are currently fourth in the table but we haven’t clinched a playoff spot, so we recognize that there are five games remaining and that we control our outcome. Credit to Ben (Olsen); being here in the locker room yesterday and seeing him speak with the players, players recognize what the task at hand is and they’re not getting distracted and getting ahead of themselves.
Layered on top of that is competing for a trophy in the U.S. Open Cup final. Layered on top of that, also, is that we’ll be competing against arguably the greatest player of all time, in a great atmosphere. It’s something I know is special to our players and I know they’re up to the task.
You mentioned Ben — when you hired him, I think there was certainly a certain segment of your fan base that viewed that hire as an unambitious one. Some fans wanted new blood, not a coach who had spent the bulk of his career playing and coaching in MLS. What did you make of that perception?
I took it as a slight. And I took it personally for Ben. Ben is way too mature and centered to be impacted by something like that. People were calling this “unambitious” — this is somebody who coached at the top level in our league for 10 years and got strong results, won the U.S. Open Cup and qualified for the playoffs the majority of the time. He did that under circumstances that were certainly challenging at times. And people are looking for superior alternatives?
We scoured the landscape. It was our second offseason doing it. We certainly knew what the landscape was and Ben always stood out. We could’ve hired Ben the prior offseason but he wasn’t in a position to take (the job.) — no disrespect to (former Dynamo head coach) Paolo Nagamura and the job that he did, he is a guy of high integrity and dedication.
For people that criticize Ben, I’m glad that he’s proving them wrong now. He was eminently qualified and on top of that, he’s a great guy.
Many fans were also quick to pan Héctor Herrera last year as he struggled to adapt to the league in the months after his arrival from Atletico Madrid. He has had a transformative effect on your club this year, though.
He has delivered on everything we hoped for, and then some. You are right in that last year was an adjustment period. It also happened to coincide with a World Cup that was coming at the end of our season so I don’t begrudge him for focusing on his health and preparation for that. I think you saw last year, even in his limited time, the impact that he could have and the quality he can bring. Throughout this offseason you’ve seen that with great consistency and you see him performing at the highest of levels within this league.
What can you attribute that to? You can attribute it to him buying into this product, and he’s believed it since the beginning. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t believe in what we’re trying to do and the importance of his role in doing that. He’s bought in. Credit to Ben for putting an onus of responsibility on him to be a leader day in and day out, in the locker room and on the field. And credit to (general manager) Pat (Onstad) and (technical director) Asher (Mendelsohn) for the roster overhaul. Hector is one of 11 guys on the pitch but we brought in 17 new guys this year. We have brought in guys who are bought into a culture of winning rather than the culture of complacency that existed before.
It feels like the Dynamo face a lot of challenges that many of MLS’ “legacy” clubs do. Attendance in particular is something that’s been an issue for the Dynamo for years. It is down again this year, as is the attendance of the Dash, your NWSL franchise. How do you crack the code? You just dumped a ton of money into the stadium to make it a more comfortable place but that hasn’t paid immediate dividends at the gate. What will it take to make the Dynamo a draw again?
It’s no single thing. And I think it’s a trope when people say “as long as you win people will turn out.” You can’t solely count on that. I think it helps. I think if we qualify for the playoffs and people are coming to the stadium and seeing a full stadium and the enthusiasm you have while you’re in the stadium, I think we’ll see benefits from that. I think on the marketing side, and our outreach, we’re making strides on that front, and that sort of thing doesn’t happen overnight. I think it’s repairing our relationship with our youth community, which we’re intent on doing and have been doing.
The Open Cup has lost a bit of its shine in recent years. This year feels very different, because of the other team playing in it. Do you think this is an opportunity to reintroduce yourself to your own audience and maybe a subset of consumers who would never even watch the Dynamo to begin with?
It absolutely is. It’s a great opportunity for the fans we already have and for the ones who are checking it out just as a curiosity as well, because we’re playing Messi. It shines a spotlight on your organization that allows you to leverage that and bring those people back.
I’m excited for those new fans to see the quality of play and the quality of the roster we’ve built out. And I know for our players, anytime you’re competing for a trophy, it’s an important thing.
MLS has become a league of have and have-nots in the past decade. There are teams like Atlanta, LAFC that have become the face of the league, so to speak, while you see other teams, particularly the league’s older teams, that have lagged behind and fly under the radar. Is your job as the owner of one of those lower-profile teams fundamentally harder?
First of all, credit to all of those teams who you cited who are enjoying success and attention and strong fan support. I know those owners and organizations and they deserve everything that they’ve achieved. It does not just happen with the snap of a finger, there is a ton of hard work involved.
I would also note that they were able to enter the league at a different time than the league’s so-called “legacy” teams. So they benefited from the growth of MLS over a 20-year runway until they entered the league. They learned from the mistakes and they’ve benefitted from the positives that preceded them. So when you see a $300 million stadium built as opposed to say a $70 million stadium like the one you have here, it happens on a different timeline and a different runway. Now, once again, I don’t begrudge them for their circumstances, they entered at a different time. What I can do is try to elevate the standing of our own club and learn from some of the positives that those new clubs have brought in. The great fan experiences, the great stadiums that they’ve built. They are monuments, in certain instances and so when we put the improvements into our stadiums it’s done learning lessons from those venues. We can learn from one another to collectively benefit each respective club and the trajectory of our league.
But of course it’s nicer to start from scratch, with a blank canvas where you can map certain things out. But I believe in the potential of this market. This market is soon to be the third-largest in the country, it is incredibly diverse and it has a proven history of supporting soccer. Great corporate base, so there’s no reason why it shouldn’t succeed here and that’s why we invested in the first place.
That diversity, frankly, is something the Dynamo have sometimes struggled to connect with. It’s not a problem that’s exclusive to you — many MLS clubs have struggled to connect with those diverse populations in their respective cities. Houston obviously has a massive population of Hispanic fans who turn out in force for the Mexico national team and Liga MX clubs. What can the Dynamo do to better capture their interest?
I think it is elevated engagement with those groups, not taking any group for granted. I know that there is extensive outreach being made to those important communities in Houston. Houston is an incredibly diverse city, it’s not just Mexican or Hispanic communities that fill the stadium, we have a huge Nigerian population, we have a huge South Asian population. The great diversity of Houston is an asset to us. So yes, there are certain segments that turn out and we want to grow, but soccer, to use a cliche, is for everyone. We want everybody turning out.
MLS often seems split into two groups of owners. There are owners who want to grow the league by loosening restrictions on spending and take the gloves off, so to speak, and there are others who maybe favor a more fiscally conservative model or just prefer the status quo. Commissioner Garber has said publicly, at this point, that the league is looking to grow and seize the opportunities presented by Messi’s arrival and the 2026 World Cup. Where do you fall on all of this? Are you part of the conversation at the league level?
I think, as you touched on, we are in a unique moment in time to capture the attention of the American sports fan and the global sports fan based on Messi coming into this league. And bringing in a Messi is just one way to construct a roster. That is a strategy that has been attempted by many teams with varying degrees of success. Messi in particular is an exception to all that have come before him, maybe with the notable exception of David Beckham. But that approach is just one way to achieve success. The beauty of MLS, and some other American sports leagues, is that you really can take a number of approaches to succeed.
You look at the Philadelphia Union, who have been very focused for a long period of time on youth development and the dividends that it has paid, devoting resources in an entirely different way than teams that make star signings, but getting equal or greater success to what you’re seeing in Miami right now. Now I think overarching all of that — and that it’s incumbent on all of us as owners to take advantage of this unique moment in time and not squander it — I know that some owners are planning on bringing on big names, and there are others who will focus on youth development or any number of other things. And then there are organizations like us that will take a hybrid approach.
How involved are you in the day-to-day? You don’t have a traditional soccer background and you’re not based in Houston. How plugged in and involved are you?
From the outset, from my very first press conference, I said I’m never going to be the person who is picking the 11 players to go out on the pitch. I know what my strengths and limitations are and I’d never force my way into roster decision making. I have a weekly update call with Pat Onstad and (Houston Dash president) Jessica (O’Neill) where we debrief on the past week, the critical issues facing the team both in the short term and in the longer run, which involves strategic roster planning. That’s me hearing Pat out, hearing about his vision. And then where I hope I can bring some useful perspective is applying my perspectives from other lines of work to at least counterbalance or attempt to reason out what he’s suggesting or proposing — “OK, so Player X, you want to sign for this reason or this amount of money. How does that make sense? How does that compare to Player Y.” General negotiating skills and business knowledge that is applicable to any industry and hopefully benefits guys who have soccer expertise where I certainly have none.
MLS continued to refine its competition format this year and expanded its playoffs. They’ve added entirely new competitions in recent years as well, like Leagues Cup. What are your thoughts on the new setup?
Speaking to the idea of a cluttered landscape, I don’t know that it is that dissimilar in terms of the regular seasons in other places around the globe, where you see things like FA Cup, Copa Del Rey or what have you. And I don’t think you can dispute that Leagues Cup was a huge success this year. Now some of that was the benefit of it being Messi’s debut. But I think it also brought a lot of attention to the league and it brought a lot of attention from fans of Liga MX, who saw that our teams are competing with them and are at their level. The tournament was a boon in terms of displaying the talent level of MLS and it brought new exposure for the league from groups who might not usually be focused on it.
In terms of the league’s postseason structure, I think if you compare it to other U.S. leagues, it is consistent with the expanded playoffs that you see in other leagues. And what you’ve seen in other leagues, you see heightened fan affinity when more content is offered and when more teams can stay in the hunt late in the season. It maintains a lot more eyeballs on the sport across the league, which is a positive thing. And then lastly, and I’m not privy to these conversations directly, but generally for a content provider (like Apple) more content is better than less.
For the longest time, the idea of a “downtown, soccer-specific stadium” has been viewed as a sort of panacea for all sorts of problems in MLS. Shell Energy Stadium, honestly, bucks this trend. It is centrally located and easily accessible by public transit and automobile alike. Given your recent investments, the club seems committed to the location. What are your thoughts on the venue as it stands today?
I think the location is great. If you speak to somebody like commissioner Garber, he’ll frequently say we have arguably the best location in all of MLS. I do think that if you look back at our earliest days in Robertson Stadium over at the University of Houston, that was filling up, as well. So I think our fans will travel. Now, being where we are I think is a positive in that it can draw fans from downtown. This is a transformative neighborhood and it’s only going to continue to transform based on the development that’s happening around the stadium. It’s every bit the outcome that MLS hoped for when they helped choose to locate the stadium here over a decade ago. You have seen this sort of hip neighborhood develop sort of organically here over the last 10 years that mirrors what Greenpoint in Brooklyn has become, or U Street and Logan Circle in D.C., or Wynwood in Miami. Fans who came in 2012 or 2013 would not recognize what it is today.
And lastly, just given some of the transformation that the city is doing around the neighborhood where they’re going to bury the highway that bisects downtown and east downtown, where the stadium is located, doing a “big dig”-style project and creating a unified downtown with a green space opening up to the doorstep of our stadium. An outstanding location is going to become an extraordinary one.
(Photo: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)
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