Steve Ross (Time-Warner CEO)
Encyclopedia
Steve Jay Ross was CEO of Time Warner Inc., Warner Communications
, and Kinney National Services, Inc
.
, New York. He was the son of a Jewish immigrant family. Mr. Ross’ last name was Rechnitz but his father, who lost all his money during the Great Depression
, changed the name to Ross, in hope of finding work with fewer struggles.
Mr. Ross attended Paul Smith's College
for two years and joined the U.S Army for a brief period of time.
After college and army service, his first job was at an uncle’s store in Manhattan.
At age 26, he married Carol Rosenthal. Her father, Edward Rosenthal, owned a funeral home in Manhattan called the Riverside. At his father-in-law's funeral home, Mr. Ross began showing promise as a businessman.
Mr. Ross' enthusiasm for new ventures led him to help Mr Rosenthal with the funeral home and to start his own company. This company merged later with Kinney parking business
. That merger led to other mergers with an office cleaning business, owned by a cousin of Mr. Rosenthal, and Mr. Rosenthal’s funeral home. The group holding company, Kinney National Services
, was taken public in 1962. Its market valuation was $12.5 million.
Kinney National Services, Inc.
moved from downtown Newark to 10 Rockefeller Plaza in November 1962, Steven J. Ross became the company’s president. Later, Ross served as co-CEO of Kinney National Services from 1969 to 1972.
In 1969, Kinney paid $400 million for the ailing Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
film studio and record business. Two years later, Kinney National Services renamed itself Warner Communications
in 1972. Under Mr. Ross' leadership, Warner Communications
grew from a troubled movie studio into a huge entertainment business.
As CEO of Warner Communications
, he introduced incentive-based compensation and put the right people at the right place. In Hollywood, he inspired loyalty with good payments as well as his commitment to employees during both good and bad times.
Many remember Steve Ross as a person who wanted to make his employees happy. "It's your company," he would say to executives who worked for him. Furthermore, some employees saw him as a father figure, "Steve was very much what I wish my father was," Steven Spielberg
said.
In the early 1980s, Warner Bros.
needed a partner to help finance its cable television business. Ross found American Express
and sold its executives on the potential of selling AmEx credit cards to the wealthy Warner cable TV customers. The gambit worked brilliantly and Warner-AmEx Cable
was born. The cable TV business became the cornerstone of Time Warner
until the 2009 spin-off of the businesses.
From 1976, Warner Communications
owned Atari, Inc. and had great success with Atari 2600
consoles. In 1983, however, Atari dramatically collapsed, leaving Warner Communications
vulnerable. Rupert Murdoch
tried to buy Warner, but Ross was able to impede him by selling 20 percent of Warner to Chris-Craft Industries
.
“Ross created Time Warner
, and as much as a single person can be responsible for merging a multi-billion dollar worldwide media conglomerate, the credit has to go to him. Ross sought to create an American company that could stand up to Japanese conglomerates Sony
and Matsushita, then buying into Hollywood and taking over other media businesses in the United States. The merger was advertised as a combination of equals and at first Ross and J. Richard Monro of Time, Inc. were listed as Co-Chief Operating Officers. But this "sharing of power" proved short-lived; within a year Ross stood alone atop his media colossus.”
Steve Ross’ $14 billion deal with Time Inc.
in 1989 was the last big deal of the 1980s. This deal created the biggest media and entertainment company at the time. In 1989, Time Warner owned: Time, People and Sports Illustrated magazines; the Warner Brothers studio in Hollywood; the Warner
, Atlantic
, Elektra
and Asylum
record companies; Warner Books; DC Comics
; Home Box Office and some of the country's largest cable television systems.
Ross’ early interest in cable television helped him envision narrowcasting
– cable channels created for specific audiences – MTV
and Nickelodeon 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 was launched in 1977 in Columbus, Ohio
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 Warner
to integrate more services to cable television. Prominent among these was the Full Service Network
that was launched in 1994 in Orlando, Florida
.
Ross also supported Atari
from 1977 to 1983, taking the first widely successful video game console to millions of homes around the world. For several year, Atari was a lucrative business for Warner Communications
, 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.
in 1971. Driven by Ross' vision and financially backed by his Warner Communications, the club brought soccer superstars Pelé
and Franz Beckenbauer
, as well as other prominent players such as Carlos Alberto
, Vladislav Bogićević
, Johan Neeskens
, and Giorgio Chinaglia
.
Ross was introduced to the sport during the late 1960s by one of his business executives Nesuhi Ertegün
from Atlantic Records
, the record company co-founded by Nesuhi's brother and also soccer enthusiast Ahmet Ertegün
. 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' Kinney National Company
two years later. When Nesuhi Ertegün had a business opportunity that would require leaving the company, Ross offered anything in an attempt to keep him. Ertegün expressed a desire to have a soccer club created and Ross, a fan of sports in general, obliged. Following 1970 FIFA World Cup
in Mexico
, the event that Ertegüns 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 so he and longtime associate Jay Emmett called and convinced eight other executives to contribute $35,000 each towards establishing a new soccer franchise that would compete in the struggling North American Soccer League
.
was created in early 1971 with Englishman Clive Toye
as its first general manager and 37-year-old Gordon Bradley
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.
The idea of bringing Pelé to America had actually been around for a while as NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam
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 Ertegün 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
and Juventus 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
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
on 10 June 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
at the dilapidated Downing Stadium
on Randall's Island
was broadcast live on CBS
network. It was the Cosmos tenth match of the season 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 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
who was about to turn 30, 31-year-old Rodney Marsh
, 34-year-old Geoff Hurst
, and 35-year-old Bobby Moore
.
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
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 chequebook midway through the season and looked oversees for more big stars, singing 31-year-old German superstar Franz Beckenbauer from Bayern Munich 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
, Mick Jagger
, Phil Collins
, Robert Redford
, Muhammad Ali
, Quincy Jones
, Andy Warhol
, Henry Kissinger
, Steven Spielberg
, 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 defenceman 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 14 August, the Giants Stadium was sold out for the Cosmos first game of the playoffs against Fort Lauderdale Strikers 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.
, the originally selected host
of the 1986 FIFA World Cup
, gave up on organizing the event due to 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
, but in May 1983 FIFA
decided on Mexico
as the replacement host.
Carol Rosenthal Married 1953 – Divorced 1978. one daughter and one son
, Toni and Mark.
Second Marriage.
Amanda Burden
. Married 1980. Divorced 16 months later.
Third Marriage.
Courtney Sale Ross. Married in 1982. One daughter, Nicole.
, from which he suffered in his final years.
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
, and Kinney National Services, Inc
Kinney National Company
Kinney National Services, Inc. was formed in 1966 when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Company merged. The new company was headed by Steve Ross....
.
Early life and career
Steve Ross was born Steven Jay Rechnitz on April 5, 1927 in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York. He was the son of a Jewish immigrant family. Mr. Ross’ last name was Rechnitz but his father, who lost all his money during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, changed the name to Ross, in hope of finding work with fewer struggles.
Mr. Ross attended Paul Smith's College
Paul Smith's College
Paul Smith's College is a private college and is the only four year institution of higher education located within the boundary of the Adirondack State Park in Upstate New York...
for two years and joined the U.S Army for a brief period of time.
After college and army service, his first job was at an uncle’s store in Manhattan.
At age 26, he married Carol Rosenthal. Her father, Edward Rosenthal, owned a funeral home in Manhattan called the Riverside. At his father-in-law's funeral home, Mr. Ross began showing promise as a businessman.
Mr. Ross' enthusiasm for new ventures led him to help Mr Rosenthal with the funeral home and to start his own company. This company merged later with Kinney parking business
Kinney Parking Company
Kinney Parking Company was a New Jersey parking lot company owned by Manny Kimmel, Sigmund Dornbusch and mob figure Abner Zwillman. Prior to its public listing in 1960, it merged with a funeral home company, Riverside, and then expanded into car-rentals, office cleaning firms and construction...
. That merger led to other mergers with an office cleaning business, owned by a cousin of Mr. Rosenthal, and Mr. Rosenthal’s funeral home. The group holding company, Kinney National Services
Kinney National Company
Kinney National Services, Inc. was formed in 1966 when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Company merged. The new company was headed by Steve Ross....
, was taken public in 1962. Its market valuation was $12.5 million.
Kinney National Services, Inc.
Kinney National Company
Kinney National Services, Inc. was formed in 1966 when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Company merged. The new company was headed by Steve Ross....
moved from downtown Newark to 10 Rockefeller Plaza in November 1962, Steven J. Ross became the company’s president. Later, Ross served as co-CEO of Kinney National Services from 1969 to 1972.
In 1969, Kinney paid $400 million for the ailing Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was formed in 1967 and became defunct in 1970, when Seven Arts Productions acquired Jack Warner's controlling interest in Warner Bros. for $32 million and merged with it. The deal also included Warner Bros. Records, Reprise Records and the B&W Looney Tunes library...
film studio and record business. Two years later, Kinney National Services renamed itself Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
Warner Communications
Mr. Ross became CEO, president and chairman of Warner CommunicationsWarner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
in 1972. Under Mr. Ross' leadership, Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
grew from a troubled movie studio into a huge entertainment business.
As CEO of Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
, he introduced incentive-based compensation and put the right people at the right place. In Hollywood, he inspired loyalty with good payments as well as his commitment to employees during both good and bad times.
Many remember Steve Ross as a person who wanted to make his employees happy. "It's your company," he would say to executives who worked for him. Furthermore, some employees saw him as a father figure, "Steve was very much what I wish my father was," Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
said.
In the early 1980s, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
needed a partner to help finance its cable television business. Ross found American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
and sold its executives on the potential of selling AmEx credit cards to the wealthy Warner cable TV customers. The gambit worked brilliantly and Warner-AmEx Cable
Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment
Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Company was a joint venture owned and operated by Warner Communications and American Express that developed and worked on interactive television systems in the late 1970s and initiated several successful cable...
was born. The cable TV business became the cornerstone of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
until the 2009 spin-off of the businesses.
From 1976, Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
owned Atari, Inc. and had great success with Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
consoles. In 1983, however, Atari dramatically collapsed, leaving Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
vulnerable. Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
tried to buy Warner, but Ross was able to impede him by selling 20 percent of Warner to Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries
Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly-held American corporation traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. It later took on the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris-Craft Boats...
.
“Ross created Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
, and as much as a single person can be responsible for merging a multi-billion dollar worldwide media conglomerate, the credit has to go to him. Ross sought to create an American company that could stand up to Japanese conglomerates Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
and Matsushita, then buying into Hollywood and taking over other media businesses in the United States. The merger was advertised as a combination of equals and at first Ross and J. Richard Monro of Time, Inc. were listed as Co-Chief Operating Officers. But this "sharing of power" proved short-lived; within a year Ross stood alone atop his media colossus.”
Steve Ross’ $14 billion deal with Time Inc.
Time Inc.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines, most notably its namesake, Time...
in 1989 was the last big deal of the 1980s. This deal created the biggest media and entertainment company at the time. In 1989, Time Warner owned: Time, People and Sports Illustrated magazines; the Warner Brothers studio in Hollywood; the Warner
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, Elektra
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
and Asylum
Asylum Records
Asylum Records is an American record label founded in 1971 by David Geffen, and partner Elliot Roberts, who had previously worked as agents at the William Morris Agency. Founded specifically to provide a record contract for Jackson Browne, the label signed Tom Waits, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell...
record companies; Warner Books; DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
; Home Box Office and some of the country's largest cable television systems.
Visionary
Steve Ross is often considered a man ahead of his time. 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 definitively 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’ early interest in cable television helped him envision narrowcasting
Narrowcasting
Narrowcasting has traditionally been understood as the dissemination of information to a narrow audience, not to the general public. Narrowcasting involves aiming media messages at specific segments of the public defined by values, preferences, or demographic attributes. Also called niche...
– cable channels created for specific audiences – MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and Nickelodeon 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
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and Nickelodeon, but certainly left a mark in television and helped shape the TV we are enjoying today. One important project was Qube
Qube
Qube may refer to:*QUBE, a former cable television system*Qube , a short-lived desktop for various operating systems*Qube Software, makers of 3D software Q *QubeTV, a conservative video website*Cobalt Qube, a server appliance...
. Qube was launched in 1977 in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
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
Qube
Qube may refer to:*QUBE, a former cable television system*Qube , a short-lived desktop for various operating systems*Qube Software, makers of 3D software Q *QubeTV, a conservative video website*Cobalt Qube, a server appliance...
led to further attempts by Warner
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
to integrate more services to cable television. Prominent among these was the Full Service Network
Full Service Network
Time Warner's Full Service Network. Formerly the 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, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
.
Ross also supported Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
from 1977 to 1983, taking the first widely successful video game console to millions of homes around the world. For several year, Atari was a lucrative business for Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
, 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
Ross is also known for promoting and popularizing soccer in the USA. He was amongst the group of people that founded New York CosmosNew York Cosmos
The New York Cosmos were an American soccer club based in New York City, New York and its suburbs. The team played home games in three stadiums around New York before moving in 1977 to Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, where it remained for the rest of its history...
in 1971. Driven by Ross' vision and financially backed by his Warner Communications, the club brought soccer superstars Pelé
Pelé
However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...
and Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Anton Beckenbauer is a German football coach, manager, and former player, nicknamed Der Kaiser because of his elegant style, his leadership, his first name "Franz" , and his dominance on the football pitch...
, as well as other prominent players such as Carlos Alberto
Carlos Alberto Torres
Carlos Alberto Torres is a former Brazilian footballer, one of the most highly regarded defenders of all time. He captained Brazil to victory in the 1970 World Cup and is a member of the World Team of the 20th Century, as well as the U.S...
, Vladislav Bogićević
Vladislav Bogicevic
Vladislav Bogićević is a Serbian former football player. He is a member of the American National Soccer Hall of Fame.-Club career:...
, Johan Neeskens
Johan Neeskens
Johannes Jacobus "Johan" Neeskens is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. As a player, he was an important member of the Dutch national team that finished as runners-up in the 1974 and 1978 FIFA World Cups. Former England manager Alf Ramsey said Neeskens was "as good as any player" in...
, and Giorgio Chinaglia
Giorgio Chinaglia
Giorgio Chinaglia is a former football striker from Italy. He grew up and played his early football in Cardiff, Wales and began his career with Swansea Town in 1964. A year later at age 19, Chinaglia returned to Italy to play for Massese, and then Internapoli, before joining S.S. Lazio in 1969...
.
Ross was introduced to the sport during the late 1960s by one of his business executives Nesuhi Ertegün
Nesuhi Ertegun
Nesuhi Ertegun was a Turkish record producer and executive of Atlantic Records and WEA International.-Background:Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Nesuhi and his family, including younger brother Ahmet, moved to Washington, D.C...
from Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, the record company co-founded by Nesuhi's brother and also soccer enthusiast Ahmet Ertegün
Ahmet Ertegun
Ahmet Ertegün was a Turkish American musician and businessman, best known as the founder and president of Atlantic Records. He also wrote classic blues and pop songs and served as Chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum...
. The two brothers worked for Ross in the early 1970s after Atlantic got bought in 1967 by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was formed in 1967 and became defunct in 1970, when Seven Arts Productions acquired Jack Warner's controlling interest in Warner Bros. for $32 million and merged with it. The deal also included Warner Bros. Records, Reprise Records and the B&W Looney Tunes library...
that in turn got bought by Ross' Kinney National Company
Kinney National Company
Kinney National Services, Inc. was formed in 1966 when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Company merged. The new company was headed by Steve Ross....
two years later. When Nesuhi Ertegün had a business opportunity that would require leaving the company, Ross offered anything in an attempt to keep him. Ertegün expressed a desire to have a soccer club created and Ross, a fan of sports in general, obliged. Following 1970 FIFA World Cup
1970 FIFA World Cup
The 1970 FIFA World Cup, the ninth staging of the World Cup, was held in Mexico, from 31 May to 21 June. The 1970 tournament was the first World Cup hosted in North America, and the first held outside South America and Europe. In a match-up of two-time World Cup champions, the final was won by...
in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, the event that Ertegüns 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 so he and longtime associate Jay Emmett called and convinced eight other executives to contribute $35,000 each towards establishing a new soccer franchise that would compete in the struggling North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League
North American Soccer League was a professional soccer league with teams in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984.-History:...
.
Founding the New York Cosmos
The franchise called the New York CosmosNew York Cosmos
The New York Cosmos were an American soccer club based in New York City, New York and its suburbs. The team played home games in three stadiums around New York before moving in 1977 to Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, where it remained for the rest of its history...
was created in early 1971 with Englishman Clive Toye
Clive Toye
Clive Toye was inducted to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in the United States in 2003.Toye was born in Plymouth, United Kingdom. He was a sports writer for the Express and Echo newspaper in Exeter, and later Chief Sports Writer for the Daily Express....
as its first general manager and 37-year-old Gordon Bradley
Gordon Bradley
Gordon Bradley was an English-American football 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 Canadian off-season, he played and coached in the U.S. based German American Soccer...
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
Phil Woosnam
Phillip Abraham Woosnam is a Welsh former Association football inside-right and manager. He went on to become commissioner of the North American Soccer League.-Playing career:...
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 Ertegün 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
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
and Juventus 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 Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
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
21 Club
The 21 Club, often simply 21, is a restaurant and former prohibition-era speakeasy, located at 21 West 52nd Street in New York City.-Environment:...
on 10 June 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
Dallas Tornado
Dallas Tornado were a soccer team based in Dallas that played in the NASL. They played from 1967 to 1981. Their home fields were Cotton Bowl , P.C. Cobb Stadium , Franklin Field , Texas Stadium and Ownby Stadium on the SMU campus...
at the dilapidated Downing Stadium
Downing Stadium
Downing Stadium, previously known as Triborough Stadium and Randall's Island Stadium, was a 22,000-seat stadium in New York City. It was renamed Downing Stadium in 1955 after John J...
on Randall's Island
Randall's Island
Randall's Island is situated in the East River in New York City, part of the borough of Manhattan. It is separated from Manhattan island on the west by the river's main channel, from Queens on the east by the Hell Gate, and from the Bronx on the north by the Bronx Kill. It is joined to Wards...
was broadcast live on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
network. It was the Cosmos tenth match of the season 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 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
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
who was about to turn 30, 31-year-old Rodney Marsh
Rodney Marsh (footballer)
Rodney William Marsh is an English retired footballer. He was named after HMS Rodney by his father, who served on the battleship. He played for Fulham, Queens Park Rangers, Manchester City, the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the England national team. Lately, he has been a pundit and a commentator on the...
, 34-year-old Geoff Hurst
Geoff Hurst
Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst MBE is a retired England footballer best remembered for his years with West Ham. He made his mark in World Cup history as the only player to have scored a hat-trick in a World Cup final. His three goals came in the 1966 final for England in their 4–2 win over West...
, and 35-year-old Bobby Moore
Bobby Moore
Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...
.
More big names arrive to 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 SS Lazio. 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 RowdiesTampa Bay Rowdies
The Tampa Bay Rowdies was a professional soccer team from Tampa, Florida, USA. The team played in the North American Soccer League until the league's dissolution and went on to play in several other leagues before folding in 1993. The Rowdies played their outdoor home games at Tampa Stadium and...
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
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
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 chequebook midway through the season and looked oversees for more big stars, singing 31-year-old German superstar Franz Beckenbauer from Bayern Munich 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
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
, Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
, Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
, Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, 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
Eddie Firmani
Edwin Ronald "Eddie" Firmani is a retired football player and manager. He was born in South Africa but represented Italy internationally.-Playing career:...
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 defenceman 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 14 August, the Giants Stadium was sold out for the Cosmos first game of the playoffs against Fort Lauderdale Strikers 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 ColombiaColombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, the originally selected host
FIFA World Cup hosts
The organization of early FIFA World Cups was awarded to countries at meetings of FIFA's congress. The choice of location was highly controversial, given the three week boat journey between South America and Europe, the two centres of strength in football at the time. The decision to hold the first...
of the 1986 FIFA World Cup
1986 FIFA World Cup
The 1986 FIFA World Cup, the 13th FIFA World Cup, was held in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had been originally chosen to host the competition by FIFA but, largely due to economic reasons, was not able to do so and officially...
, gave up on organizing the event due to 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
João Havelange
Jean-Marie Faustin Goedefroid de Havelange , more commonly known as João Havelange , was the 7th President of FIFA, serving from 1974 to 1998. He received the title of Honorary President when leaving office. He succeeded Sir Stanley Rous and was succeeded by Joseph Blatter...
, but in May 1983 FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
decided on Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
as the replacement host.
Personal life
First Marriage.Carol Rosenthal Married 1953 – Divorced 1978. one daughter and one son
, Toni and Mark.
Second Marriage.
Amanda Burden
Amanda Burden
Amanda Jay Mortimer Burden is the director of the New York City Department of City Planning and chair of the City Planning Commission....
. Married 1980. Divorced 16 months later.
Third Marriage.
Courtney Sale Ross. Married in 1982. One daughter, Nicole.
Death
Ross died on December 20, 1992, due to complications of prostate cancerProstate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
, from which he suffered in his final years.
See also
- Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner by Connie Bruck (Simon & Schuster, 1994)
- Once in a Life Time – The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos. (Paul Crowder and John Dower, 2006)