John Thorrington’s first experience with MLS expansion came when he was still a player. In 2011, the Chicago Fire midfielder was left exposed in the MLS Expansion Draft and selected by the incoming Vancouver Whitecaps. As LAFC travel to face the Whitecaps for the first time in Club history, the general manager and executive vice president of MLS’ newest side reflected on his past and present expansion experiences.
“Having gone through expansion as a player, having lived this in a different capacity, has been very valuable. And those lessons I can apply to the job here at LAFC. When I moved to Vancouver, MLS was very different, but we were starting to see the shift into today’s MLS, where you have ownership, stadiums, crowds, and cities that are really embracing MLS,” Thorrington said after LAFC training one afternoon.
Playing two seasons with the Whitecaps, Thorrington got a taste of both the growing pains of an expansion franchise and the thrill of starting something new. The Whitecaps finished tied for the worst points total in MLS in their inaugural season, only to bounce back and make the playoffs the following year.
That dichotomy of outcomes in the first two years of an expansion franchise is something that has stuck with Thorrington as he continues to build LAFC.
“I think in Vancouver, we had the tools to be successful, the issue and challenge that faces an expansion team is there is no depth and experience to draw from as a collective group that form weapons in your arsenal of how to deal with situations.
“We showed encouraging signs at different times throughout the year, so it didn’t entirely shock people that we made the playoffs the next year. For us at LAFC, when these tough times come, we’ve seen a few of them already in the past couple of weeks, what’s our response, and is it going to be a response that we are proud of,” Thorrington said.
For all the similarities though, with the opening of a training facility just last week and Banc of California Stadium’s imminent completion at the end of the month, LAFC has a definitive leg up over MLS expansion sides of the past. It’s an advantage Thorrington knew was necessary for an expansion team to succeed.
“I did a study on MLS teams that did not have their own training facility, and they never make the playoffs. That’s not through want of trying, I know Vancouver tried very, very hard, as did we. Finding space, getting entitlements, and approvals is a very challenging process. We were incredibly fortunate to get [the LAFC Performance Center] done in 10 months, which is unheard of,” Thorrington said. “But it is an absolutely critical piece that players have a home base, a foundation, where they come to everyday, where training is never compromised.”
Now as LAFC take the pitch against his former team on Friday, Thorrington hopes his past will continue to inform his future.
“The expansion experience just showed me that there is turbulence that comes with expansion,” Thorrington said. We will be no different. The question is how steady you can be in those times of turbulence. See through the ups and the downs. I am confident that we will be able to do that, and in part, that’s our staff, that’s our infrastructure, that is in place from day one.”
