INSIDER

Until Sunday night, the weekend in late May had been a relaxing one for Dallas oil man James Graham. He had just returned home from a father-son getaway, floating down the San Marcos River with his eight-year-old boy. Then Graham, president of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce Soccer Association, received a phone call from Dallas Sidekicks general manager Ron Adkins, who asked him to help save the financially ailing professional indoor soccer team.

“I’ve never been to a Sidekicks game, but I’ve met some of the players and I knew what the team meant to kids,” says Graham, owner of Palo Petroleum Inc. “I told Ron that I couldn’t do much financially, but to let me know how I could help. Later that evening my wife and I were watching the ten o’clock news and heard that a Dallas oil man was putting together a group of investors to save the Sidekicks. We just about fell out of bed.”

That was only the beginning. The next morning Graham was deluged with calls from potential investors ranging from wealthy fellow oil men to single-parent mothers offering to put up savings account money to rescue the Sidekicks. “There were people actually crying on the telephone.” says Graham. “I had no idea what I was getting involved in. From that Monday morning on, I’ve not been in control of my life. As of June, I took a leave of absence from the oil company, and I’ve been working sixteen-hour days ever since.” Graham, thirty-eight, and Dallas investment banker Stan Finney are heading a limited partnership of about thirty investors who raised more than $2 million to buy the Sidekicks from former owner Don Carter. Although the Sidekicks had a terrible first season in 1984. last year they bounced back to play .500-plus soccer and make the playoffs. During the last six home games, attendance climbed to 10,000-14,000.

The Sidekicks lost more than $2 million last year, and Graham admits that putting the team back into the black is a long shot. Graham won’t say it, but the implication is that there’s plenty of room for improvement in the way the team was managed and promoted off the field.

Graham and Finney hope to make the Sidekicks as successful in Dallas as the pro soccer team is in Cleveland, where more fans turn out for soccer than pro basketball. But with projected losses next year of up to $700,000, it could take three years to turn the Dallas franchise around.