Libonati still buzzing from Old Trafford visit
It is one of sports’ grand cathedrals, this place on Sir Matt Busby Way in the Trafford borough of Manchester, England, they call Old Trafford.
To be considered a grand cathedral of sport, a stadium or a ballpark or even a speedway should have another name, a familiar moniker, by which it can be identified.
Yankee Stadium is “The House That Ruth Built.” Indianapolis Motor Speedway is “The Brickyard.” Old Trafford is “The Theatre of Dreams,” so called by Bobby Charlton, the European Footballer of the Year in 1966, the year England won the World Cup.
Venerable Old Trafford has a seating capacity of 75,957, second only to cavernous Wembley Stadium in London among British soccer palaces. It has been the home of vaunted Manchester United since 1910, with the exception of the years 1941 through 1949, when it was closed for repairs after Adolf Hitler bombed the bloody hell out of it.
But not even the might of the German Luftwaffe could bring down Old Trafford.
That’s part of the reason Daren Libonati wanted to see it for himself.
Libonati is president of Justice Entertainment Group, a Las Vegas sports and concert promoter. Before that, he ran the Thomas & Mack Center and Sam Boyd Stadium. Before that, he was a pretty good place-kicker for the UNLV football team. And before that, he played youth soccer.
Libonati couldn’t keep his corner kicks down, couldn’t bend them like Beckham. That’s what led him to become a field-goal kicker.
This month Libonati traveled to the Trafford borough of Manchester to watch Man-U play the reincarnation of the old New York Cosmos in a “friendly” match, a testimonial for Paul Scholes, the 36-year-old United midfield stalwart who retired at the end of last season.
Scholes scored the game’s first goal — “a trademark fizzing drive” is how The Daily Telegraph described it — and United went on to a 6-0 victory over a Cosmos side that included Fabio Canovero of Italy, Gary Neville of England and Patrick Viera of France; like Scholes, they’re former world-class players who have reached the age of semi-retirement. The old Cosmos of the 1970s who regularly sold out the old Meadowlands stadium were built in similar fashion; the great Pele played for the old Cosmos.
Libonati met with Pele before the game at Old Trafford. Pele is honorary president of the new Cosmos; Eric Cantona, a legend among legends at Old Trafford, is the Cosmos’ director of soccer. This mostly means Pele and Cantona will be available for interviews in halting English when Libonati announces the “Vegas Winter Kick,” set for Feb. 25 at Sam Boyd Stadium, during which the new Cosmos will probably face a Spanish-speaking international side of some repute.
A full house of 75,000 turned out to bid Scholes a fond farewell and ogle his gorgeous wife during ceremonies on the pitch, because all European soccer stars, even the semi-retired ones, have gorgeous wives. Most in the crowd were wearing United’s familiar red soccer “kit” — kit being the British word for soccer attire.
One guy seated in the East Stand, behind the goal, wore a business suit. He stood out in the manner of a Bud Light at a Guinness convention.
“I was asked three times, ‘Why aren’t you wearing your new kit?’ ” Libonati said.
Libonati could have watched the game with Pele in the suites, but he wanted to be among the Old Trafford masses when they sang “United Road (Take Me Home)” to the tune of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” He wanted to feel their passion for this game, for this “Beautiful Game” as Pele dubbed soccer.
When they rose in unison for a United goal, Libonati wanted to rise along with them. He wanted to hear that roar, to feel it shoot down his spine, bending this way and that, like one of David Beckham’s corner kicks before he left United to finish out his career with the L.A. Galaxy.
“Watching it live is a whole ‘nother experience than watching it on TV,” Libonati said after the hair on the back of his neck had laid back down.
“If I could describe the moment where Eric Cantona walked off the pitch, and 10 steps before he gets to the tunnel, he raises his hand, and the roar was so loud it was deafening … not only would your hair stand up, it would fall out. It was like no game I’ve ever been, and I’ve been to them all.”
But if he ever gets back to this place they call Old Trafford, this Theatre of Dreams, this majestic cathedral of European soccer in the Trafford borough of Manchester, England, Libonati said he will learn the words to “United Road” so the hooligans won’t have to ask again why he’s not singing.
Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.
