Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos Page #2

cable, you know.

'Company doing $6 billion a year,'

and he's enamored

with going into a locker room.

'But for what reason?

What purpose was he obsessed with it?

'What was that all about?'

The big bang of the Cosmos

began with a backbeat.

And two brothers from Istanbul.

Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun are

responsible for more classic vinyl

than Elvis and the Beatles put together.

Ahmet founded Atlantic Records

in 1947.

Warner Communications

bought Atlantic 20 years later,

and the Erteguns went to work

for Steve Ross.

Here we were,

two New York businessmen,

who had this love of soccer.

'My brother decided

to leave Atlantic Records.'

And Steve Ross said, "If you'll stay,

I'll do anything that you like."

So my brother said to Steve Ross,

"What I really would like is

a professional soccer/football team."

Nesuhi Ertegun came to me

and Steve actually and said,

"Soccer is going to be the biggest sport.

It is the biggest sport in the world.

"Clearly it's going to overtake America."

Television viewers in the US

had got their first taste

of world football's potential in 1966.

They saw almost 100,000 fans

pack Wembley Stadium

for the final between

England and West Germany,

as the BBC broadcast

was carried live in America.

In one of the most thrilling matches

ever played,

young Beckenbauer and his team-mates

could not stop England's Geoff Hurst.

'England... it's a goal!'

'Some people are on the pitch,

they think it's all over...

'It is now!'

In the UK alone, 32 million viewers

tuned in to the extra time thriller.

Still the biggest audience

in BBC history.

You can't have a professional league

without having investors convinced.

I think the showing of the World Cup

in 1966 was the turning point.

'That convinced them

that it could happen in this country.'

The American game of the same name

was flourishing

with the birth of the Super Bowl and

the first network television contracts.

The American Football League

franchises had become over the years,

sometimes quite quickly,

worth millions of dollars.

'Soccer franchises were very cheap,

so you had the opportunity'

of getting in on something

on the ground floor.

Emboldened by

the BBC success in '66,

American investors backed not one but

two professional US soccer leagues.

'Trying to find an American

who could play soccer,'

American-born who could play soccer,

it just wasn't there.

By 1968, the two leagues

had collapsed into one-

the North American Soccer League-

featuring five largely failing franchises.

We knew if the league

was going to be a success

'and get the media sponsorship

and television attention,'

that we had to have

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