Steven Jay Ross (born Steven Jay Rechnitz; April 5, 1927 – December 20, 1992) was an American businessman and CEO of

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

(now

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...

Warner Communications Warner Media, LLC (doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warner ...

, and Kinney National Services, Inc. He is also known for helping to popularize

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

in the United States.

Early life and education

Ross was born Steven Jay Rechnitz on April 5, 1927 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants. His father—who lost all his money during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

—changed the family name to ''Ross'' in hope of finding work with fewer struggles. Ross attended

Paul Smith's College Paul Smith's College is a private college in the hamlet/village of Paul Smiths, in the town of Brighton, Franklin County, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains. Established in 1946, Paul Smith's College offers academic degrees of Associate ...

for two years and then joined the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

. After his military service, he went to work at his uncle's store in the Garment District in Manhattan.

Career

In 1953, he married Carol Rosenthal, the daughter of a Manhattan funeral home owner,

Edward Rosenthal Edward Rosenthal (1903–1991) was a former vice chairman of Warner Communications and president/owner of the Jewish funeral home chain, Riverside Memorial Chapel.Riverside Memorial Chapel The Riverside Memorial Chapel is an American Jewish funeral home chain with their main facility at 180 West 76th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City.New York Times: "A $78 Million Year: Steve Ross Defends His Paycheck" BY ROGER COHEN
March 22, 1992 and enabled Ross to obtain bank financing to start a rental company, Abbey Rent a Car. He later merged Abbey with a parking lot operator, the

Kinney Parking Company Kinney Parking Company was a New Jersey parking lot company owned by Manny Kimmel, Sigmund Dornbusch, and mob figure Abner Zwillman. History Kinney Parking Company was incorporated in 1945 by Manny Kimmel. In 1961, Kinney reached an agreemen ...

, which was then owned by underworld crime figures

Manny Kimmel Emmanuel Kimmel (April 14, 1896 – July 18, 1982) was a notable underworld figure between the 1930s and 1960s and the founder of the Kinney Parking Company, a chain of parking lots and garages which evolved into the media conglomerate Warner Comm ...

and

Abner Zwillman Abner "Longie" Zwillman (July 27, 1904 – February 26, 1959) was a Jewish-American mobster who was based primarily in North Jersey. He was a longtime friend and associate of mobsters Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Zwillman's criminal organiz ...

, and added an office cleaning business (which was jointly owned by the funeral home and a cousin of his father-in-law). Kinney was taken public in 1962 with a market valuation of $12.5 million. In 1964, Kinney purchased wood flooring manufacturer Circle Floor from

Seymour Seymour may refer to: Places Australia *Seymour, Victoria, a township ** Seymour railway station * Electoral district of Seymour, a former electoral district in Victoria * Rural City of Seymour, a former local government area in Victoria * Se ...

and

Paul Milstein Paul Milstein (May 12, 1922 – August 9, 2010) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist. Early life and education Paul Milstein was born to a Jewish familyNew York Times: "Milstein Opens Throttle as Builder"
October 18, 1981 Ross was company president and moved the firm from downtown New York to 10

Rockefeller Plaza Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...

. In 1966, Kinney expanded into the entertainment business by purchasing the

Ashley-Famous Ashley-Famous was a talent agency started in 1945 by talent agent Ted Ashley. The agency was responsible for many hit television shows and had several famous clients. It changed names and ownership a few times, eventually becoming one of the age ...

talent agency (founded by Ted Ashley) and then in 1969, Kinney paid $400 million for the ailing Warner Bros.-Seven Arts film studio and television and record business. Three years later, after spinning off its non-entertainment assets, Kinney National Services renamed itself

with Ross as co-CEO from 1969 to 1972.

Warner Communications/Time Warner

In 1971, Warner expanded into the cable television business by purchasing various small cable companies. Ross competed directly with the Big Three television networks that dominated television broadcasting, believing in the potential of ''narrowcasting'' whereby separate cable channels were developed to target specific audiences with narrower interests, mirroring the radio station model. This pioneering approach led to the creation of the successful cable TV channels

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

which were both later sold at a great profit. In 1972, Ross was appointed CEO, president and chairman of

. He introduced an incentive-based compensation program and delegated responsibility to his middle managers. His support and commitment to his employees, combined with lucrative financial incentives and a hands-off management style, inspired deep loyalty. Many employees saw him as a father figure: "Steve was very much what I wish my father was,"

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

said. Spielberg dedicated his 1993 film ''

Schindler's List ''Schindler's List'' is a 1993 American epic historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the historical novel '' Schindler's Ark'' (1982) by Thomas Keneally. The film follows ...

'' to Ross. In 1976,

purchased Atari, Inc. and had great success with its

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

consoles. But by 1983, Atari collapsed in the wake of the video games crash that same year, leaving

vulnerable to a hostile takeover.

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

tried to buy Warner, but Ross was able to impede him by selling 20 percent of Warner to

Chris-Craft Industries Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly held American corporation that was traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. In 1962, the company adopted the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris ...

(then controlled by Herbert J. Siegel). In 1979, needing financing to further expand its cable television business, Ross partnered with

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

, convincing its executives on the potential of selling AmEx credit cards direct to Warner cable TV customers.

Warner-AmEx Cable Paramount Media Networks is the division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of its television channels and online brands. The division was originally founded as MTV Networks in 1984, named after MTV. It would be known under this ...

was established and Warner received a much needed capital injection. AmEx's cross-sale expectations never materialized and in 1984, Warner bought out American Express's remaining share. The cable TV business eventually became the cornerstone of the company until being spun off in 2009. In 1989, Warner Communications was merged with

Time Inc. Time Inc. (also referred to as Time & Life, Inc. later on, after their two onetime flagship magazine publications) was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New ...

in a $14 billion deal creating the largest media and entertainment company at the time. The merger was seen as a perfect fit: Warner's business was 40 percent international while Time's business was 91% percent domestic; Warner had no magazines while Time had 23 titles; Warner had the world's largest record business while Time was not involved in music; and both were big in the capital intensive cable business where economies of scale mattered. Originally advertised as a combination of equals with both Ross and J. Richard Munro of

listed as Co-Chief Operating Officers, within a year of the merger, Ross became the sole CEO. By 1990, Time Warner owned ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', ''

People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

'' and ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' magazines (the three largest advertising draws in American publishing); the

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

studio in Hollywood; the

Warner Warner can refer to: People * Warner (writer) * Warner (given name) * Warner (surname) Fictional characters * Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, stars of the animated television series ''Animaniacs'' * Aaron Warner, a character in '' Shatter M ...

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, Elektra and

Asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

record companies;

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Kinney National Company acquired the New York City-based Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publis ...

;

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

;

Home Box Office Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

and some of the country's largest cable television systems.

Visionary

Ross moved before many of his competitors to bet heavily on the worldwide potential of cable television, records, videos, and other experiments. Some of his ideas were successful and others failed, but he influenced the development of media and entertainment with his ideas. "If you're not a risk-taker," he once said, "you should get the hell out of business." Ross's early interest in cable television helped him envision

narrowcasting Narrowcasting is the dissemination of information to a specialised audience, rather than to the broader public-at-large; it is the opposite of broadcasting. It may refer to advertising or programming via radio, podcast, newspaper, television, or ...

—cable channels created for specific audiences—

and

were expressly launched and developed to serve young audiences. Today, these two channels are still successful, and the cable television universe is now filled with hundreds of channels, specializing in many topics. Other projects that Ross supported were not as successful as MTV and Nickelodeon, but certainly left a mark in television and helped shape the TV we are enjoying today. One important project was

QUBE Qube (stylized QUBE) was an experimental two-way, multi-programmed cable television system that played a significant role in the history of American interactive television. It was launched in Columbus, Ohio, on December 1, 1977. Highly publicized ...

. Qube was launched in 1977 in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

and was Ross' vision of how television could become interactive. Although this trial was not successful, it was an important step for what became known as advanced television. In some ways, the Qube project failed because it was ahead of its time. QUBE led to further attempts by

to integrate more services to cable television. Prominent among these was the

Full Service Network Full Service Network, also known as FSN was an 18-month trial interactive television service launched by Time Warner Inc. in Orlando, Florida. The FSN was active between 1994 and 1997 targeting an initial number of 4,000 households with services ...

that was launched in 1994 in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. Ross also supported

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

from 1977 to 1983, taking the first widely successful video game console to millions of homes around the world. For several years, Atari was a lucrative business for

, but in 1983 it collapsed. Although many of Ross' overly ambitious projects failed, some of these failures shaped future success in the video game and cable industries.

Soccer

Known for promoting and popularizing soccer in the United States, Ross was amongst the group of people who founded the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Indepen ...

in 1971. Backed by his employer Warner Communications, the club brought soccer superstars

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

and

Franz Beckenbauer Franz Anton Beckenbauer (; 11 September 1945 – 7 January 2024) was a German professional football player, manager, and official. Nicknamed ("the Emperor"), he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, and is one of nine p ...

, as well as other prominent players such as Carlos Alberto,

Vladislav Bogićević Vladislav Bogićević ( sr-Cyrl, Владислав Богићевић, ; born 7 November 1950) is a Serbian retired footballer. He is a member of the American National Soccer Hall of Fame. Club career Bogićević's playing career included 13 ...

Johan Neeskens RCH may stand for: * Radio Club de Honduras, an amateur radio organization * Railway Clearing House, the British financial clearing house and technical standards bureau for railways * The Royal Canadian Hussars (Montreal), a unit of the Canadian ...

, and

Giorgio Chinaglia Giorgio Chinaglia (; 24 January 1947 – 1 April 2012) was an Italian association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He grew up and played his early football in Cardiff, Wales, and began his career with ...

. Ross was introduced to the sport during the late 1960s by one of his business executives

Nesuhi Ertegun Nesuhi Ertegun ( Turkish spelling: Nesuhi Ertegün; November 26, 1917 – July 15, 1989) was a Turkish-American record producer and executive of Atlantic Records and WEA International. Early life Born in Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire, Nesuhi ...

from

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

, the record company co-founded by Nesuhi's brother and also soccer enthusiast

Ahmet Ertegun Ahmet Ertegun ( ; , ; July 31, 1923 – December 14, 2006) was a Turkish-American businessman, songwriter, record executive and philanthropist. Ertegun was the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. He discovered and championed many lead ...

. The two brothers worked for Ross in the early 1970s after Atlantic got bought in 1967 by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts that in turn got bought by Ross's

Kinney National Company Kinney Services Inc. was an American conglomerate company that existed from 1961 to 1972. Kinney Services was established as a holding company and originated from a joint venture between a funeral business and parking company. After Mergers and ...

two years later. When Nesuhi Ertegun had a business opportunity that would require leaving the company, Ross offered anything in an attempt to keep him. Ertegun expressed a desire to have a soccer club created and Ross, a fan of sports in general, obliged. Following the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the 9th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to ...

in Mexico that the Erteguns used to further establish contacts in the soccer world by throwing lavish parties, one of which was attended by Pelé, the brothers came back to New York and held Ross to his promise. In turn, Ross and longtime associate Jay Emmett reached out to eight other top executives and convinced them to contribute $35,000 each towards establishing a new soccer franchise that would compete in the struggling

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

Founding the New York Cosmos

The franchise called the

was created in early 1971 with Englishman

Clive Toye Clive Roy Toye (born 23 November 1932) was inducted to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in the United States in 2003. Toye was born in Plymouth, United Kingdom, to Thomas Roy Toye (1906–65) and Irene Turner. He was a sports writer for the '' ...

as its first general manager and 37-year-old

Gordon Bradley Gordon Bradley (23 November 1933 – 29 April 2008) was an English-American soccer midfielder born and raised on Wearside who played several seasons with lower-division English clubs before moving to play in Canada at the age of 30. During the ...

as the player/coach. Playing out their debut season in almost empty stadiums with virtually no media coverage, the Cosmos were a rag-tag semi-professional operation, but most importantly Ross was hooked and very much interested to see the team do well. Scared of losing money, the ten original investors sold their stake in the franchise to newly created Warner Communications (the company where Ross was CEO and chairman) for $1. Essentially, with the sale, Ross added the modest franchise to the vast media empire he was in charge of running.

Bringing Pelé to America

Following the first few seasons in obscurity, Ross decided that signing a big marquee name was the way forward to achieving greater prominence and ultimately securing the league's long-term dream—a network television deal. The idea of bringing Pelé to America had actually been around for a while as NASL commissioner

Phil Woosnam Phillip Abraham Woosnam (22 December 1932 – 19 July 2013) was a Welsh association football inside-right and manager. A native of Caersws, Powys, Wales, Woosnam played for five clubs in England and one in the United States. He played internati ...

and eventual Cosmos GM Clive Toye discussed it as far back as 1970 and even made an approach to the player in spring 1971, one month after the Cosmos had been formed. However, in 1975 with Ross willing to spend the big money, conditions were finally there to make the dream transfer happen. He sent Emmett, Toye, Cosmos vice-president Raphael de la Sierra, and Nesuhi Ertegun to Brazil where they met with 34-year-old Pelé at a seaside resort and played soccer with him on the beach. Since by this time

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

also started sniffing around Pelé in an attempt to bring him to Europe for the first time, the Cosmos delegation used the possibility of making soccer big in a country new to the sport as their main lure and by the end of the day, the Brazilian agreed in principle to come to New York. The actual negotiation with Warner Communications lawyer Norman Samnick, who was deployed to Brazil by Ross, turned out to be a little more difficult: Ross was willing to risk $2 million for three years of play while Pelé demanded $5 million for two years. In the end, the deal agreed was a complex five-part contract worth around $4.5 million in total that included $1 million for three years of play, $1 million for ten years of marketing rights, $1 million for a fourteen-year PR contract, and another $1 million for a music contract. Warner Communications money thus managed to lure arguably then still the biggest name in soccer out of retirement. In addition to huge amounts of money, due to Pelé's special status in Brazil as the country's national treasure, getting him to leave his homeland for the first time in his career involved a lot of politics as well, especially when the Brazilian president demanded that Pelé play another year in Brazil for the "good of his people". Ross called on his political connections in an attempt to soften the Brazilian government's position and eventually managed to get to the US Secretary of State

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...

, who personally called his Brazilian counterpart telling him that Pelé's move to New York would be a huge step forward in the US–Brazil relations. Pelé's arrival created a media sensation and overnight transformed the fortunes of soccer in the USA. From the moment he signed his contract at the

21 Club The 21 Club, often simply 21, was a traditional American cuisine restaurant and former prohibition-era speakeasy, located at 21 West 52nd Street in New York City. Prior to its closure in 2020, the club had been active for 90 years, and it had ...

on June 10, 1975 in front of ecstatic Ross and a crush of worldwide media, the player's every move was followed, bringing attention and credibility to the sport in America. His debut NASL match five days later versus

Dallas Tornado The Dallas Tornado was a soccer team based in Dallas, Texas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the U.S. in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest–15 seasons. T ...

at the dilapidated

Downing Stadium Downing Stadium, previously known as Triborough Stadium and Randall's Island Stadium, was a 22,000-seat stadium on Randalls Island in New York City. It was renamed Downing Stadium in 1955 after John J. Downing, a director at the New York City ...

Randall's Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Island, in New York City.

was broadcast live on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

network. It was the Cosmos tenth match of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

and led by the Brazilian, who recorded an assist and a goal, they managed to come back from two goals down for the 2–2 final score. The contest was also Pelé's first competitive match in eight months since his last outing with

Santos FC Santos Futebol Clube () is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a ''bairro'' in the city of Santos, São Paulo, Santos. It plays in the Campeonato Paulista, the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo's premier State football lea ...

in October 1974. He would eventually end up with 5 goals in his debut season during which his biggest challenge became figuring out how to fit into this team of journeymen players with abilities far inferior to his. Still his biggest impact was on the sport in New York and the rest of America as Cosmos' home attendance got tripled in just half the season he was there. They also played in front of huge crowds on the road since everyone wanted to see Pelé – towards the end of the season when he pulled a hamstring and couldn't suit up, 20,000 fans in Philadelphia showed up just to see him in street clothes. Furthermore, the league's profile got raised as other NASL teams – encouraged by Ross' investment in Pelé and the prominence his arrival brought to the Cosmos franchise – started bringing over more big-name aging foreign stars such as

George Best George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional association football, footballer who played as a winger (association football), winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United F.C., Manchester Un ...

who was about to turn 30, 31-year-old

Rodney Marsh Rodney William Marsh (born 11 October 1944) is an English former footballer and football coach; he later worked as a broadcaster. A forward, he won nine caps for England between 1971 and 1973, scoring one international goal. Brought up in the ...

, 34-year-old

Geoff Hurst Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst (born 8 December 1941) is an English former professional Association football, footballer. A Striker (association football), striker, he became the first player to score a Hat-trick#Association football, hat-trick in a ...

, and 35-year-old

Bobby Moore Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore (12 April 1941 – 24 February 1993) was an English professional footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England national team that won the 1966 FIFA ...

More big names arrive in New York

Since the Cosmos failed to make the playoffs in Pelé's debut season, for the next season, Ross decided to complement his superstar with more prominent names from overseas, the biggest of which was 29-year-old temperamental Italian striker Giorgio Chinaglia from

S.S. Lazio (; ; ''Lazio Sport Club'') is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity. The society, founded in 1900, plays in the Serie A and have spent most of their history in the top tier of Italian footba ...

. The striker became an undeniable goal-scoring hit on the pitch with 19 goals in 19 league appearances that season, but his style of play as well as his egotistical and arrogant manner also got him many detractors both within and outside of the club. However, he endeared himself to Ross as the two soon became very close friends. Due to increased interest, the team moved to Yankee Stadium. Though the Brazilian midfield organizer and the Italian striker quickly developed an uneasy relationship, thanks to their assists and goals, respectively, the club managed to make the playoffs, losing to underdogs

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

led by Rodney Marsh in the conference semifinal series 3 games to 1. Pelé still got the league MVP honors and Chinaglia became the league's top goalscorer. Though furious over the early playoff exit, Ross immediately took the team on an exhibition summer tour of Europe with stops to play friendly games in England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. Though hugely expensive, the tour generated plenty of publicity for Warner Communications. The 1977 NASL season—Pelé's final season before retirement—began at the newly built

Giants Stadium Giants Stadium (sometimes referred to as Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands) was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and primarily hosted sporting events and ...

in New Jersey as New York Cosmos dropped "New York" from its name to become just the Cosmos. With the new giant home, Ross decided to Americanize the experience of going to a Cosmos game with cheerleaders, halftime show, and mascots. On the field, however, the squad got internationalized even further with a roster that had players from every corner of the world. Attendance rose slightly to just over 20,000 in the first five games (3 of which Cosmos lost), but still not enough to Ross' liking. In search of more people in the seats, Ross decided to raise the bar again. He reached for the checkbook midway through the season and looked oversees for more big stars, signing 31-year-old German superstar Franz Beckenbauer from

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

in May 1977. The German's debut was a 4–2 loss away at Tampa while the following week Cosmos beat Toronto at home in front of 31,000 fans. Ross was happy with the attendance increase, but wanted even more and to that end enlisted celebrities that did business with Warner Communications to make publicized appearances at Cosmos home games. People like

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and later became the lead singer of the rock band Genesis (band), Genesis and had a successful solo career, ac ...

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the ...

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

, etc. became a regular sight in the Cosmos locker room and in the luxury boxes at the Giants Stadium. Other changes were in order too as general manager Toye and head coach Bradley got fired and Tampa Bay's Eddie Firmani became the new coach. The team's striker Chinaglia was said to be the driving influence on Ross to hire Chinaglia's good friend Firmani as Chinaglia and Ross developed a personal relationship. Chinaglia thrived under Firmani, scoring goals one after another. The team's play as well as the attendance also started to pick up – led by Pele's hat-trick, the Cosmos finally managed to avenge the losses to Tampa Bay by beating them at home in front 62,394 fans. However, this was followed by another inexplicable dip in form with five losses in seven games. Ross reacted immediately, throwing more big money into the squad, signing Brazil national team's former inspirational captain defender Carlos Alberto who was about to turn 33 years of age. He joined the squad with only four games remaining in the 1977 regular season. By this time, the attendance was rising sharply as the team as well as the league started to catch major buzz. The summer of 1977 was the franchise's first true foray into big time: on August 14, the Giants Stadium was sold out for the Cosmos first game of the playoffs against

Fort Lauderdale Strikers Fort Lauderdale Strikers may refer to: *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1977–1983), member of North American Soccer League from 1977 to 1983 *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1988–1994) The Fort Lauderdale Strikers were an American soccer team establishe ...

with 77,691 people in the stands. The Cosmos finally won the title defeating Seattle Sounders in the Soccer Bowl during late August as Beckenbauer became league MVP and Pelé retired in style.

Heading US bid to host the 1986 FIFA World Cup

In November 1982, when Colombia, the originally selected

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County * Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica People * ...

of the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

, gave up on organizing the event, for economic reasons, Ross called upon all his soccer connections and campaigned hard to bring the tournament to the US including meeting with FIFA president

João Havelange Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (, ; 8 May 1916 – 16 August 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who was the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in ...

, but in May 1983

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

decided on Mexico as the replacement host. The United States eventually hosted the World Cup in 1994.

Personal life

Ross was married three times: *In 1953 he married Carol Rosenthal, daughter of

Sir George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatle ...

of music production company, GrandMaster Music. Mark Ross had two children with his wife Cinthia: Caroline Ross (born 2002) and Brian Ross (born 2001). *In 1980 he married Amanda (née Mortimer) Burden, the daughter of Barbara (née Cushing) Mortimer (who later married CBS chairman,

William S. Paley William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into o ...

). They divorced 16 months later. *In 1982 he married Courtney Sale, daughter of a prosperous

Bryan, Texas Bryan is a city in and the county seat of Brazos County, Texas, United States. It is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley (East and Central Texas). As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 83,980. Bryan borders the city of C ...

, family. She dated Ross before his marriage to Amanda Burden and upon their divorce, they rekindled the relationship, eventually marrying. They remained married until his death in 1992. They had a daughter, Nicole.

Death

Ross died on December 20, 1992, due to complications of

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

, from which he suffered in his final years. Three months later, when

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

accepted the

Best Picture Oscar The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the Film producer, producers ...

for ''

Unforgiven ''Unforgiven'' is a 1992 American revisionist Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by David Webb Peoples. It stars Eastwood as William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after ...

'', he dedicated it to Ross's memory. Similarly, the 1993

film ''

'' is also dedicated to Ross.

Legacy

Warner Bros. Studios Warner Bros. Studios may refer to: * Warner Bros. Studios Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios located in Burbank, California * Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, Warner Bros. Studios located in Leavesden, England * Old Warner Brothers Studio, now known as ...

has named its theater on the backlot of its historic Burbank studio property in honor of their longtime boss, and the UJA-Federation's Entertainment, Media & Communication Division has recognized Ross' commitment to philanthropy by naming the humanitarian award at its annual Leadership Award Dinner in his honor.

Awards and honors

In 1988, Ross was the recipient of the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...