Doug Logan, the new CEO of USA Track & Field, apparently promoted himself as the soccer savior of MLS. Well, maybe. But did he fully disclose his failures as well? One was in the mid-1990s, when he was the owner of a Continental Basketball Association franchise in San Diego. His club, called the San Diego Wildcards, went belly up shortly after a losing season, and he owed nearly $500,000 when he filed for bankruptcy. Meet your new CEO, USATF! Here are excerpts from Logan’s brief run in San Diego.

This story by Mark Zeigler was published January 12, 1997, in The San Diego Union-Tribune under the headline “Wildcards left no assets, lots of unpaid bills”

The San Diego Wildcards basketball team folded a year ago last Monday, and Logan Sports Enterprises, the company that owned the franchise, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy last spring in Indianapolis.
The bankruptcy case closed quietly in October. The result: There aren’t any chips left on the table.
When attorneys in Indianapolis sifted through potential assets of the Continental Basketball Association team that survived two months and 21 games in San Diego, they found a $100,000 letter of credit to the CBA, a $5,000 loan to a Wildcards player and no value to the franchise itself.
They determined rights to the folded franchise no longer had value, and the CBA used the entire $100,000 to cover its losses.
That left the $5,000 loan and, as one attorney said, “My guess is that if a player had to borrow the money, there would be a question of collectibility.”
And that left nothing. The court was told there were no assets to liquidate.
Schedule F of the court documents lists “creditors holding unsecured non-priority claims.” It is 55 pages long. There are nearly 300 claims. They total $489,532.73.
There is a $243.39 claim from Athletic Laundry Soaps and Supplies in Charlotte, N.C., a $431 claim from a local travel agency for airline tickets, a $1,360 claim for magnetic refrigerator schedules, a $7,963.35 claim from Global Style in Sorrento Valley for uniforms.
There is a $4,500 claim from the San Diego Chicken.
There is a $1,500 claim from Pony Express Creations. Under “consideration for claim,” it says: “Jumbo Jester.”
There are bigger claims. Loma Palisades Apartments, where most of the players lived, says it was owed $32,654 in rent. The La Cima complex in La Jolla colony, where coach Mauro Panaggio lived, sought $10,890.
Both get nothing.
Everyone gets nothing.
That includes the 228 season-ticket accounts in the bankruptcy filing. Most of the season tickets cost $250, and the Wildcards played 11 games of a 30-game home schedule, leaving their adjusted value at $158.27.
“I feel like as a business we understand the risks of sports franchises,” said Jeff Quinn of Arena Group 2000, which operates the Sports Arena and lost $34,237.83 in the bankruptcy. “We were aware of those risks going in. The season ticket holder, I don’t think they were aware of them.”
Arena Group 2000 offered to exchange remaining Wildcards tickets for other events at the Sports Arena.
“I felt badly that I didn’t have the resources behind me to stick with it longer and make it work,” said Doug Logan, the Wildcards owner. “But the reality is I sacrificed a great deal of my own personal financial wealth in making that attempt and I would hope people would understand that.”
His estimated hit: “In excess of $500,000.” . . . . .
Meantime, Fashion Furniture is out $5,620 for furniture it rented to the Wildcards. Laser Print Plus lost $8,800 for game programs. AD-Quick Signs lost $644 for advertising banners. Bill Walton swallowed $1,254 worth of season tickets.
“I still feel very, very badly that what I tried to do failed and that there were some people who got hurt along the way,” Logan said. “To them, I offer my sincerest apologies. I really wish it could have worked out.”

On September 22, 1995, readers of the Union-Tribune were introduced to Logan’s team thusly:

The new San Diego franchise in the Continental Basketball Association unveiled its logo yesterday. The nickname is the Wildcards, the mascot is a joker, the principal sponsor is Viejas Casino & Turf Club, “Viejas” will appear on the home jerseys . . . and team owner Doug Logan announced all this wearing multicolored jester’s glasses, complete with dangling bells.
No joke. It happened.
“I wanted something distinctive, something new, something that hadn’t been used before,” Logan said. “I also wanted something that would project and portray a feeling . . . Too many (sports franchise owners) take themselves too seriously. We’ve got to go back to the roots.
“This is a game. It’s fun.”
About the same time he was considering this, Logan said Viejas — which features bingo, video gaming, poker and off-track wagering at its casino near Alpine — entered negotiations as a promotional partner.
The result: the Wildcards, with a logo of a maniacal joker in a jester’s hat. The bells of the hat, if you look closely, are minibasketballs. The backdrop is a playing card.
Sort of like Jack Nicholson’s character in “Batman” gone “Viva Las Vegas.”
The inclusion of Viejas, which signed a multiyear deal for an undisclosed amount, is further evidence of the increasing commercialism of American sport. In Europe, many prominent teams wear jerseys with a number and sponsor’s name, nothing else.
“This is in no way, shape or form encouraging a minor to gamble,” Logan said. “But it’s also recognizing a reality. I don’t think your newspaper is encouraging minors to bet by publishing betting lines.”

Here are portions of a story that ran in the Union-Tribune on January 6, 1996, under the headline “The Wildcards couldn’t draw, so they just fold”:

The Wildcards, 21 games into their inaugural season, have tossed their hand into the center of the table. They’ve folded.
San Diego’s first Continental Basketball Association franchise — and fifth pro basketball team — ceased operations yesterday, in owner Doug Logan’s words, “as a consequence of our financial performance.”
The on-court performance probably didn’t help. The Wildcards lost at home, lost on the road and, adding insult to ignominy, lost last night when they didn’t even play.
Shreveport was already in town when the announcement was made, and according to league rules the Storm was awarded a forfeit victory. So the Wildcards officially close the books at 4-18, last in the 14-team league.
Eleven Sports Arena employees in the marketing, accounting, public relations and game operations departments were laid off Wednesday, and the team’s players will enter a dispersal draft Monday. Coach Mauro Panaggio, 67, whom Logan coaxed out of retirement, will go to his townhouse in Daytona Beach, Fla., and blow the dust off his golf clubs. . . . .
Logan stood behind the same podium 3 1/2 months later and opened this news conference with: “Needless to say, there are no funny glasses today. This is one of the most difficult days of my life.”
He needed to average about 4,200 fans per game, and the Wildcards were drawing 1,612. And of that, only about 1,000 were paid.
Logan estimated he was losing $35,000 a week and had dropped “a minimum” of $325,000 in the past 90 days, and projections were no better for the second half of the season. As of Wednesday night, not counting season tickets, the Shreveport game had sold five tickets.
Bob Brown, the arena’s vice president for ticket operations, said hundreds of freebies were given to charities or for promotions. Less than 25 percent came back.
“We tried just about every promotional gimmick that we could,” said Logan, who moved the franchise here from Mexico City in July, “but the acceptance just wasn’t there, and there’s only so long you can go without acceptance.”