Always Sonny

Having a few afternoon kicks with Tulsa’s soccer evangelist

Sonny Dalesandro is owner of Dalesandro’s, a mainstay of the restaurant community in Tulsa, as well as part owner of the Tulsa Athletics, a soccer club competing in the National Premiere Soccer League. He chose the Mercury Lounge at 18th and Boston as the site of this interview, a Coors Original for his drink.

The Tulsa Voice: Tulsa seems to have a penchant for European-style sports.

Sonny Dalesandro: Tulsa is very open to the counterculture and I think that’s why, cycling, for instance, thrives here. It’s in our music scene, it’s in everything. We’ve always had that vibe—that cool, indie culture. Soccer fits in well with that.

TV: There is a large segment of younger people in this community that seem to want to get behind something. They like to be engaged in sport, but I don’t feel like they want it to be as simple as just being a Sooners fan.

SD: Right. I agree. I think that gets back to Tulsa always having been a pretty creative community. What the Athletics offer that other teams wanting to come to this community aren’t going to offer is this: If a high school art teacher from Sapulpa calls me up and wants to have her class paint a mural on the fence around our field, we’re going to say, “Absolutely.” We want the community to take ownership of our team. We’re not in this to make money. We will take this as far as the citizens of Tulsa and surrounding communities want this to be taken. 

TV: Are you happy with the way things are going for the Athletics?

SD: Our goal this year was to win the National Premier League Championship and we’ve laid the groundwork for that to be done. [Editor’s note: The Tulsa Athletics finished the 2014 Regular season with nine wins and only one loss and were eliminated from playoffs in the South Region finals by hosts Chattanooga FC, 0-2. The Athletics have had the best average attendance in their respective league.] Now, we have to follow through. 

That being said, we are a club that focuses solely on what is in front of us. We are one game at a time. We had a very nice regular season, but you don’t win six games at once, you win them one at a time. 

TV: Is there a reason you picked Mercury Lounge today, other than geography?

SD: This is one of my spots. I don’t get out as much as I’d like to because I’m really busy these days. But it is across the street from the restaurant. I spent a few years of my life in a house next door. My mom owned an antique store there. I went to Lee School—I mean, I’m a midtown kid. 

It’s just a great bar. Reggie here is awesome, and they keep my “yellow bellies” cold for me. 

TV: What is your primary role at the restaurant?

SD: My business card reads: Owner/Dishwasher, so it really is about whatever needs to get done, and I think that’s one of the things that has served me well. My dad taught me at a very young age that the people around you are only going to work as hard as you do. That being said, whether it is with the restaurant or the soccer club, I have been surrounded by incredibly good and loyal help. I wouldn’t be where I am without people who treat these projects as their own.

TV: Let’s talk about this other soccer team that is coming into Tulsa next year. Help me understand who they are and how it affects your club.

SD: They will be playing in a league called USL Pro, which is sort of like “Double A,” kind of like the [Tulsa] Drillers [baseball club]. The Athletics play one division below that in the National Premier Soccer League. The owners of the new team [to be called the Tulsa Roughnecks] also have some ownership in the Oklahoma City Energy soccer club.

TV: When they decided to put another soccer team in this city, why didn’t they come to you? You already had a built-in fan base.

SD: Speaking quite honestly, we were disappointed initially we weren’t approached as a viable partner for them. We had already created a base, we had tapped in to Tulsa’s love of the game, we have helped fix up an old Tulsa landmark [the former Driller’s Stadium], and we felt like we were a great candidate for someone to partner with. But to be fair, our goal isn’t to be in their league or even the league above it. Our goal is to build a major-league soccer franchise and bring that to Tulsa. 

TV: It’s our last shot at professional sports, right?

SD: Absolutely. In terms of sports in Tulsa, it really is. We’re never going to have an NBA team or an NFL team. You could theorize that maybe an NHL team would be interested, but I would call that a very distant long shot. You look at the history of this town and its relationship to this sport, and soccer has worked here before. The “Real Roughnecks”— [Editor’s note: The Tulsa Roughnecks were Tulsa’s North American Soccer League team during the late 70s and early 80s.]

TV: Whoa.

SD: Sorry to call it that, but those guys are like my uncles. I grew up at the [Victor] Moreland household [Editor’s note: Moreland was a member of the Tulsa Roughnecks.]. I don’t want to come across as bitter, because I understand what the [new franchise] is trying to do, but that name is sacred to me and to a lot of people that followed that team. They don’t want to see a “cover band.” 

TV: I was a fan. I get that.

SD: With my club, we felt like we needed to start something organically, new, while paying respect in our own way to what has been here before. 

TV: How bad is it going to hurt your club when the new team starts playing next year?

SD: This town is going to be blanketed in Tulsa Roughnecks gear. Their marketing budget is going to be sizable. Everyone is going to know what they’re doing. The astute fan might look at it differently, but most people won’t. Look, I can’t move our stadium to downtown Tulsa, no matter how many coats of paint I put on it, it just won’t happen. But what we have done is energize and entertain a certain demographic of this city—the one I personally think is the most interesting and creative—and we have given them a team and they have supported us. These are the people who can take a city and shape it into what they want it to be. We always wanted to make the Tulsa Athletics the “people’s team,” so to us, to be able to involve other local business owners, be that food trucks parked on the field or local graffiti artists decorating our stadium walls, we have always had the goal of being a very inclusive franchise.

TV: What’s the endgame? Is there a strategy in place to keep moving to your original goal? I mean, other Italian restaurants have opened and Dalesandro’s didn’t close their doors, right?

SD: With their free fuckin’ breadsticks and salads [laughs]. Yeah, that’s a great point and a solid way to look at this from a business perspective. When it was announced that the new team was coming in, we were disappointed. I remember I was at my mom’s house having dinner and she said, “Son, all you can do is your best.” You know, we might have to tighten our belt for a year or two, but the endgame remains the same. Tulsa is not going to be able to support two soccer franchises over a long period of time. We’re going to do what we have been doing since day one: Keep improving our stadium, making it as soccer-specific as possible, keep growing our fan base and having a presence in the soccer community. It’s a difficult spot to be in, but we’re not going to fold up shop. I’m a fighter, and I was raised by a fighter. We’re soccer people, and we were raised in the soccer community here in Tulsa. The whole reason I love this game is because of what was brought to Tulsa in the late seventies and the impact on us was profound. When people come to me and my business partner [Dr. Tommy Kern], they know they are talking to soccer people—to Tulsa people. We feel like we have the best product in town at the best value. Five bucks to get in, great beer, great concessions, and a great product. 

TV: And maybe most importantly, you win a lot.

SD: That’s right. We smash everyone.