Fox Soccer Channel VP/Marketing & Business Development WHIT HASKEL has only been on the job at FSC for a little less than eight months now, but he is no stranger to the game of soccer. Previous experience in executive roles for MLS rivals Chivas USA and L.A. Galaxy and four years spent in Barcelona provided Haskel with a deep knowledge of both the domestic and international game, which he utilizes while managing Fox' multiple soccer properties. With the European soccer season entering its climax, Haskel recently chatted with Staff Writer William Cooper about his work at Fox Soccer and the business of the sport.
Best place that you've seen a game: The third-place game of the World Cup in 2002 between Turkey and South Korea when we held a viewing event at Staples Center at three in the morning and had 18,000 Koreans there. It was the most remarkable thing I've ever seen in my life.
Favorite app: Flipboard. It incorporates the feed of your Facebook and Twitter into a magazine-like format on the iPad. It's a very cool integration of social media streams.
Champions League winner: If I'm thinking with my heart, it's a place where I lived for four years, Barcelona. If I'm picking with my head, Barcelona.
Favorite L.A. restaurant: I always defer to my kids, and it would have to be In-N-Out Burger.
Q: What is your schedule like? Do you work a lot of weekends?
Haskel: I'm fortunate that I can use the excuse with my wife that I'm working when I'm watching soccer all weekend long. I check in. ... I'm not sitting there 24/7, but that is when our most compelling programming airs, with the exception of the Champions League. I have an eye on the programming, as well as my eye on our social media, which is an area I oversee. It's great seeing the two work with each other.
Q: So many of the games that FSC televises start very early in the morning on the West Coast. How often are you up for the games, either at work or otherwise?
Haskel: The beauty of working with Fox Soccer is that I don't actually have to be at the office to engage with my work. I'm by nature an early riser, so there's no issue with me getting up for a 5 or 5:30 start for a soccer match. There's not a lot of conflicts at that time of day. I can focus on the game.
Q: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
Haskel: It's been understanding how can I make the most significant contribution to our business objectives. I was somewhat new seven months ago when I joined this medium, though I wasn't new to the business of the game. It's been a pretty smooth transition just because of the exciting direction that this group of properties is moving.
Q: What was the motivating factor for you getting into the business of soccer?
Haskel: It's a combination of that something special of working in sports which we're all sort of familiar with, which compels so many people to want to be in that role, and then the passion that was instilled in me by living in Barcelona and becoming an admirer of the world's game. When the opportunity presented itself it was something that I absolutely couldn't pass up, to be a part of MLS almost at its inception.
Q: What are some of the major differences for you between being on the club side and working with Fox Soccer?
Haskel: Here you're spending more time with the global game, not only with MLS but we've invested in the Champions League and Barclays Premier League and Serie A, which are some of the best club competitions in the world that we bring to the U.S. soccer community. To be able to add that on to MLS and WPS, it's quite a stable of properties to have the good fortune to work with.
Q: What were some of the major differences in marketing Chivas USA and the Galaxy?
Haskel: When I was with the Galaxy, the highlight or the focus was transitioning to The Home Depot Center, which was the first of its kind as far as soccer-specific stadiums in this country. The focus was really anybody promotionally and financially committed to the game of soccer. With Chivas, it was definitely more focused on the Hispanic community, of course, and much more of a grassroots approach of reaching out to your target audience and trying to compel them and tell a story and bring them to your games.
Q: What stands out to you as an indicator of where soccer is in the country right now?
Haskel: I think one thing you have to look at is deep-pocketed visionary ownership coming into (the MLS) and these exquisite stadiums that are being built almost exclusively for the game, as well as the hugely successful launch of these expansion franchises over the past few years that are just packing people in. It's so exciting to see.
