The Long View: A Talk with Colorado Rapids President Tim Hinchey

The Colorado Rapids were in Salthill Devon for the Macron Galway Cup this past week and came away with the 2002 Boys Cup after beating Belvedere by two goals to nil in the final. Before that they had beaten Clare and drawn with Kildrum Tigers before getting past Colga by the one goal in the semi-final.

Colorado Rapids President Tim Hinchey has been on the sidelines watching as the young Rapids showed good, disciplined performances on their way to lifting the trophy. Tim initially joined Colorado as the Chief Marketing Officer in December 2010 after three years of being the Vice President of Commercial at Derby County. A year later, he was named President of the Denver based club and has witnessed major change occur over his four-and-a-half years at the helm.

Speaking to him after the Colga game, Tim felt it was a great opportunity for the boys to play in the Macron Galway Cup, saying, “I think that for these boys at this age to be able to come and play at this kind of level with this kind of competition, you learn a lot about yourself as a player, you learn a lot about being a teammate, you learn how to travel, you learn how to take care of yourself, I mean they’re just learning so much and growing so much this week that it’s fantastic.”

The Colorado President was also happy with how the team applied themselves in the competition as he said, “They’ve done well and I think they’ve been able to express themselves, not be intimidated, play their game, play to our ethos and they’ve gotten some really good results.”

This is isn’t the first time the native Californian has visited Ireland as he has the proverbial connections, with him coming from “Irish heritage”, as he added, “I have family from Cork and Limerick so to be back here is always a joy for me and my family.”

The Irish connection can now be felt at Colorado Rapids with Republic of Ireland international Kevin Doyle leading the line for them while Midleton born Shane O’Neill was a key player in the squad before he was recently sold to Cypriot side Apollon Limassol. His brother Mark O’Neill was a part of the Colorado squad over here in Salthill Devon.

Speaking on the connection at the club, Tim said, “We’d love to keep the relationship going and in fact we’ve signed Sean St Ledger today, so we’ll have another Irishman to continue the increase in profile of the Rapids here,” while he also hinted at future affiliations in Galway, as he added that the team, “enjoyed our experiences here at Salthill Devon which is a first class club with first class facilities and we want to continue that. We’re also trying to get together a relationship with Galway United, obviously we wear the burgundy and they’ve got the maroon, which are great colours, so we’ll try to do that as well.”

Tim, who at time of interview was not long off the phone to give the greenlight for St Ledger’s transfer to go through, expressed his belief that the Irish international will prosper at his new club.

“He’s done okay in Orlando and, for whatever reason, things didn’t work out down there so we were happy to snatch him up,” while vastly experienced Honduran international Maynor Figueroa has also been recruited to bolster the Rapids squad. Tim felt that these players added to the club in many ways.

“We’re looking for better players all the time and these aren’t just better players that will help us on the pitch but they help our profile as a global club and, at the same time, it’s the level of play, the professionalism they bring to the locker room and to the rest of the squad”, and he added that while youth development is important, you need to have a good recruitment system “to bring in professionals like them.”

On the subject of youth development, four players, five before Shane O’Neill’s departure, came into the team from the academy or were drafted in from college. One of these players is Dillon Serna, one of two Coloradans in the squad along with veteran James Riley. While Tim is a very much for youth development, he still feels the college draft is very much needed.

“I think right now the youth university system is still important to us and, although we’re getting players at the age of 20/21/22, which may seem late, certainly to English football, I think it’s still an important part of establishing and getting quality free assets to help bolster your squad on a year-by-year basis and I think if you look back at the last three years, you’ll be hard pressed to find a club who has done as well, in my opinion, as our scouts have done in the university system.”

Listed off as examples of the system’s previous success are current Rapids player Dillon Power, who was Rookie of the Year in 2013, and former player and Jamaican international Dershon Brown, who finished runner-up to Dillon Powers in the running for the award before being sold to Norwegian team Valerenga in March, before Swedish centreback Axel Sjöberg is mentioned as the one college draftee to watch this year.

However, Tim was quick to emphasise the point that Colorado are a club who prepare for the future and bringing through players from the academy is no exception. “Long term though, we need to keep developing our own players so to have Shane O’Neill and Dillon Serna come from our own academy and to not only play for the Rapids, and play meaningful minutes, but to also be included in the Youth U23 International team for the US, which will be the Olympic squad, goes to show the value of what we produce in our own back yard and that’s something we have to focus on.”

Long term vision is not only used on the field with Tim having set his goal of having a sponsor on the front of Colorado shirts early into his tenure and this year finally saw this goal achieved with TransAmerica proudly displayed across the burgundy. “In getting TransAmerica, getting a fantastic North American yet global company to want to invest, whose growing its operations in Denver Colorado where they’re adding another 650 people, who are into sports and into sports marketing, I think we’ve found the perfect partner.”

With TransAmerica evidently supporting all those who wear the Rapids jersey, as they tweeted out a picture of the Colorado boys playing with the TransAmerica logo on their shirts in Salthill Devon, and Dick’s Sporting Goods being the name of their Stadium, many more sponsors have come forward to back the Rapids. “We’ve signed some very major partners just in the last three months, Western Union, Audi, and Toyota have all come on board so I think people are seeing the rise in Major League Soccer and the rise in the individual clubs all over so it’s a good sign of things to come.”

When I ask the question on what are the plans for the end of the 2015 season and the 2016 campaign, I get the feeling whatever the Colorado Rapids do, it’s a club effort not a certain team’s, as Tim spoke how the future goal is “about continued growth” and that the Rapids “have a great commercial team, we have a great group of people that believe in the culture of what our clubs’ trying to be.”

In his explanation of Colorado’s #ONECLUB on twitter, he says “everyone is on the same page; so from the locker room to the squad to the coaching staff to the technical staff, everyone’s pulling right now from the same rope.”

And with it being the theme throughout this article, Tim says the Rapids’ goal “is to take the long view. Take the long view on players. Take the long view on sponsors. I think that’s why we are having the commercial growth we are having and that’s going to see us through for a lot longer than the next couple of years.”