LAB FIVE, trailblazer for urban soccer in California
CEO of LAB FIVE founder Sebastien Abonnel
The urban environment, with busy work schedules and lack of free green space (for playing fields) represents a challenge if you’re looking to play a game of soccer among friends, or colleagues, right after work during the week, or with family over the weekend. These are reasons we have been witnessing a huge increase in urban sports. A popular style of urban soccer, LAB FIVE positively impacts the community, bringing the opportunity to connect with others with the same passion.
With a large center in Southern California, in Pacoima- San Fernando Valley, LAB FIVE is opening its doors in 2022 to two brand new five-a-side soccer facilities. Finishing up construction, Gardena will open this Summer of 2022, offering 8 fields of turf play, an eSports room and relaxing café. A new center in San Jose is opening in September of 2022.
LAB FIVE is democratizing urban soccer by making it easily accessible to everyone.
The success of the Pacoima center is based on the following values for Excellence:
Passionate Play
Humanity Comes First
Fairness by honoring your teammate and opponents
Inclusiveness
Loyalty
What is LAB FIVE?
KID PLAYING AT LAB FIVE PACOIMA CENTER
CEO and founder Sebastien Abonnel tells us: LAB FIVE’s mission is to help expand the number of five-a-side players globally, within diverse cultures and communities. With an inclusive mindset, we gather on the same square field amateurs, enthusiasts, and professionals, who share common values of equality, fairness, and humanity. Combining new technologies with the love of the sport, we want to support the hidden talent in everyone. We want to give the most motivated and gifted their best chance. Sebastien created an organization able to bring together the community around this tightly run five on five soccer play.
At LAB FIVE we don’t distinguish one person from another. We’re here to enjoy ourselves and forget about everything else. In addition to pickup games, there are recreational teams for adults, youths, and children as young as five. Then there is the club scene, which features the more serious competitive play, including semiprofessional teams sponsored by local businesses. The club teams take in players of all ages, including college and high school students who stay in shape by playing on the teams when they are not competing for their schools.
But it took more than an overnight flight from Paris to Los Angeles to build this enterprise. The story starts in Sebastien’s hometown, in the very South of France, the international city of Aix-en-Provence. Aix welcomes a conglomerate of people coming from all over the world, with international companies and excellent schools. Sebastien grew up in a family where soccer was daily practice, and his neighbor would become his first childhood friend sharing his passion.
A Global Soccer Presence
Like the newly created L.A. Women professional soccer team, LAB FIVE is based on values of inclusiveness and diversity. The creation the Angel City Football Club was supported by powerful players in the sports and entertainment industry, all sharing and promoting the role of female competitive teams in LA. Among the team high profile owners, are singer Becky G, actresses Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria and tennis player Serena Williams, bringing Latin and US women success and talents to the forefront of the game. They are making it a reality. The Angel City Football Club, part of the planned National Women's Soccer League expansion team, is now existing and competing in the National Soccer Women League. The season has started already! The team is based in Los Angeles and was announced back on July 21, 2020.
A Little History of Soccer in L.A.
Soccer has enjoyed longstanding popularity in Los Angeles. As of 2019 there are two professional soccer clubs in Los Angeles County that play in Major League Soccer: LA Galaxy and Los Angeles Football Club. The Los Angeles area is also home to several professional teams, semi-professional clubs and leagues.
Soccer was popularized in central Los Angeles in the 1950s by Mexican immigrants. The sport has easily tripled in size in the last decade, fueled by waves of new immigrants who have brought their love of the game with them.
FIRST CENTER IN AIX, ONE CAN SEE IN GREEN THE PLAYING FIELDS IN THE BACKGROUND
Soccer in Los Angeles had its beginnings in the waning years of the 19th century and in 1902 the Southern California Football League was founded. The Southern California League (later renamed the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League) was founded in 1903 and would be the mainstay of amateur soccer for many decades. UCLA's soccer team began play in 1937 and the Los Angeles Scots became the first Los Angeles based amateur team to win the Senior Challenge Cup, taking the title in 1941 and 1942. Outside of that however, Los Angeles soccer existed mostly in isolation.
Professional soccer returned in a major way in 1996 with the introduction of the Los Angeles Galaxy as the city's Major league Soccer team, with a lineup featuring US and international stars.
What was your first experience with urban soccer?
This is where the beginning of my adventure starts. I had never heard of urban soccer before. While interning at Nike in Paris, my colleagues invited me after a busy work conference in Bercy, on a Monday night, for an indoor soccer game. It was freezing cold outside. To my surprise the indoor soccer fields were filled with people and we played until midnight! Some centers were even open until three in the morning. I then saw the opportunity to create a center, back at home, in Aix-en-Provence.
Since it was so popular here in Paris, why not in Aix, that has an international community full of young professionals and families with children.
I had an older warehouse that belonged to my grandmother’s former international trading business. I rented it to companies that needed a large place to store items. Instead, I could build an indoor soccer facility so everyone would enjoy playing, at any time. It felt this was meant to be. I was always drawn to soccer and sports, always seeking the New, the Unknow, the Adventure, The Excellence.
What is urban soccer field play?
Imagine a bunch of large rectangles, fields, eight or twelve soccer fields, in a huge warehouse, and tons of players in shorts and soccer shoes. Every day different teams come to play and compete, during their daily scheduled games. Professionals, friends, and colleagues come play hand in hand.
The resurgence came about as many young professionals, with work and family demands, were not able to play several times a week in club any longer. Before, if you wanted to play soccer in the city, you had to fight to keep the field at the park or some fields. England started tackling the problem and invented indoor soccer, and France followed during the mid-2000s, very successfully.
Today there’s about 300 urban soccer rooms in France and about 40 in Paris! It is extremely popular and successful. And now, with LAB FIVE, Sebastien and his partner Gilles are opening the doors of urban soccer in Los Angeles.
HOW LAB FIVE WAS CREATED: PASSION AND VISION
FIRST URBAN SOCCER CENTER SEBASTIEN OPENED, IN AIX-EN-PROVENCE
From Aix-en-Provence to San Francisco: Thinking Outside the Box
Aix has an international population, with about 200,000 inhabitants. The city is home to Airbus, and has a dynamic university pole with Cadarache, attracting people from all over the world. A lot of these families come to stay for five years,
Gilles Mischler, a San Francisco transplant, came to Sebastien’s center on an early Sunday morning, bringing his children to play some games. Gilles invited Sebastien to join him for a well needed morning espresso. Sebastien was also back from a busy Saturday evening and welcomed the caffeine jolt, and there, the real story begins…
THE CAFÉ AT THE SOCCER FIELDS IN AIX, WHERE GILLES AND SEB SHARED THAT FIRST EXPRESSO…
Gilles shared the same passion for soccer, and over time, they went from sharing coffees to conversing around a few glasses of beer. Gilles, a wizard in the tech industry, started his career in the Silicon Valley. During their meetings, Gilles would talk to Sebastien about creating a company to bring urban soccer centers in the U.S. “Let’s do it! It would be phenomenal to introduce this concept in California, with the different cultures and sports’mindset, it would be a hit!”
Sebastien was young and his vision of the U.S. included the show Beverly Hills 90210, the New York yellow cabs, the smoke coming out of the streets only to look up at the giant skyscrapers. “Even with the predominant U.S. sport’s culture, I had no idea what I was going to do there. I just knew I had that dream of experiencing the U.S. culture and sharing my passion for soccer.” Soccer in the US has evolved since the 2000s. Back then, soccer was different, the techniques were not the same. It was the very beginnings.
““Where could we get it started, Miami? Only six hours plane ride away from France, it didn’t seem too far out of realistic expectations.” ”
Gilles, Internet Wizard and Business Partner
As a newly French computer science graduate in the early 2000s, Gilles traveled to the Silicon Valley in search of an internship. At that time, when companies failed, employees were offered computers, chairs, or desks to take home, in lieu of salary. The Silicon Valley was a nest for booming entrepreneurs with adventurous mindsets and a touch of craziness, willing to ride the ups and downs of short-lived internet tech companies.
CREATION OF “SOCCER CENTER LLC”, THE ORIGINAL NAME, IN 2015. SEB’S WIFE TOOK THIS MEMORABLE PICTURE.
Gilles arrived as a fresh intern from France, with a head full of dreams and a big vision. A few failed startups later, he found a job (still unpaid) in a new company about to revolutionize the world: Mark Zuckerberg interviewed Gilles, who then became part of the first fifteen Facebook employees. Gilles specialized in internal networks, bringing extensive calibration in order to meet the sharp daily increase of users on the network, almost doubling overnight.
He participated in the IPO like all employees and a sale of his stocks would bring in the initial investment for the future LAB FIVE.
After his Facebook time, Gilles invested in several companies and then moved back to his native France, choosing the South for the warm weather. He moved with his family to Aix-en-Provence, sought out city by international expats for the excellent schools and the high-tech industries. Gilles started his own consulting company and met Sebastien when taking his kids to play soccer. Both men met on that Sunday morning, sharing espressos and a passion for soccer.
Gilles went back to San Francisco and told Sebastien “Come to the U.S. when you’re ready to start the adventure.” Seb had to think about the logistics and expanded his flyer miles above the Atlantic. Sebastien and Gilles registered the family-owned company around a kitchen table, in Gilles’ San Francisco house back in 2015. “Let’s drink a beer and get it done!” “Soccer Center LLC” was the very first name of the company.
SEB’s STORY: A FAMILY AFFAIR, PASSION FOR SOCCER
A Childhood Cradled in Soccer
“When I was four or five years old, my next-door neighbor, introduced me to the ball game. When I discovered soccer, I was already practicing swimming, judo, and other sports. Playing soccer in the village was like playing with family. My dad was an educator in the village, and then was the president of the club of the Village. My brother is younger and started playing earlier than me. I started with lower level teams, and I was so good I would increase their game level. They would then move me up, and I would raise their level again, and so on, all the way through school. So, at 14 years old, I would make teams go onto the next level! I was like Nicolas Batum😊, the glue to the team. I would get recruited each time to the stronger team.”
““My dad has always been passionate about soccer. He comes from a large family of four brothers and one sister, all enjoyed playing the game growing up. I’m the oldest kid in the family. In our village of 7,000 inhabitants, all the kids in the neighborhood would ring my doorbell, knock on the door, and then we’d be running outside to the field to become the toughest and most unbeatable team of the village!””
Seb was quickly recruited by BUREL FC, who noticed his brilliant performances. That was the best club in Marseille for kids that age.
“The try-outs were on Wednesdays. Eighty kids were competing on the field. I was the discreet type of kid, a bit shy. I would usually stay on the side, by my own choice. And each time I would kick the ball, the coach would put me on the side, right away. That meant they wanted me for the next round! They would notice me, and I’d have to sit on the bench right away, but as a kid, I thought I played terribly, I thought it meant the opposite.
Finally, one coach told me “You have something else that the other kids don’t” At the end of the selection, we were 2 out of 100 kids, who made it in the national team for youth!” This was my first mental and physical training for competitive sport. That meant a big change of environment. There were lots of trainings, dedication, driving, my dad taking me to all games and practices.
In high school, I was in a class for high level sports students. In my class, many from different sport disciplines went on to compete in the Olympics. It was four days of training per week and matches on the weekend. I got to travel this way, visiting Nice, Monaco, Ajaccio, that was nice! But also complicated, difficult. Out of one and a half million of students playing high level sport, only one thousand become professionally paid. I left for Marseille, when I got accepted at the university for a competitive sports management program. My first time away from home!
From Sports Management Graduate to Intern at Nike
Developing the Entrepreneurial mindset
Seb went on to do a Master in Sports’ Management. Highly competitive, there was only thirty slots available for the entire program.
“Pierre Dantin, high profile personality in the professional sports industry, developed the program. As the Director, he was closely tied up with the French Olympics organization. He started this new field of Sports Management study in France. His focus was to spice up and create dynamism in the class to make us grow, think outside the box, create higher ambition and goals. This was an amazing environment, that fostered several French Olympic teams, including the Gold medalists of the French swim team!
During this Master, I needed to find an internship. I sent applications to the biggest sports brand in Paris, NIKE and Adidas. They receive millions of candidate requests for internships each year. They loved my profile and called me right away to come interview in Paris. I drove there in the middle of a snowstorm, to interview with the VP at the Champs-Elysees store location. The weekend happened, Monday came, and I got a call… Nike wanted me! They asked if I could leave my school to work as a trainee, and they would free me for the exams. They gave me a car, lab top, and cell phone. I remember that Monday particularly because it was that year where the temperatures were freezing, and I drove six hours from Marseille to Paris under a shower of glowing white snowflakes.
Nike! Wow, me, the little kid from that village, where I, my brother and my skinny neighbor would play soccer after school on the streets of the village, to playing with professional teams.
Family and Life Values
I also worked as a street cleaner for five years to sustain my student lifestyle. My parents always wanted me to learn values of hard work and commitment. To understand that life is not just about pleasure and fun. I believe no success happens without hard work and commitment to the job. In Graduate school, I was rubbing elbows with the new and important sport personalities-trend setters in France. Then, I became a NIKE intern! As I was driving back from Paris, I was rehearsing all this in my head, and wondering what my professional future would be like. Before, when I was about 14 or 15 years old, I went away on vacation and my parents agreed, under the condition that I paid half of the cost myself. So I worked full time. I worked construction, I worked on fields where they needed me. While I was a student at the university in Marseille, I also worked as a street cleaner for five years. The work was difficult, the times were very long, we had to wake up super early and some days I was so tired I had to miss class. But the pay was good and the benefits as well. This was a great life learning skill, and I learned the importance of discipline and never giving up.
Later, when I worked at GO Sport, my disciplined savings approach and strong work ethic enabled me to save quite a bit of money and as a result I built my home in Aix-en-Provence. Seb comes from a family of entrepreneurs, with his grandmother being a trailblazer, a woman ahead of her time. She was strong willed and created a very successful international import/export trading business, traditionally reserved to men especially back then. She was also stunningly beautiful. My incredible grandmother was Spanish and was ahead of her time. A modern woman, she created an empire in the international trading business, managing a food manufacturing export industry. Based in Spain, the deliveries would reach all the way to different countries. She had several giant hangars in several locations. Much like his grandmother, Seb is a visionary, and entrepreneurship runs in his blood.
What were the biggest Challenges? What Kept you Going?
Preparing my move here, required a family plan and of course a business plan. But it was more about life planning in the large sense.
EXPANDING THE BUSINESS WITH ESPORTS!
Left to right: ROMAIN SOMBRET, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF MCES, GILLES MISCHLER AND SEB AT A TECH CONFERENCE IN BORDEAUX, 2019
Leaving and starting a new enterprise has an impact on many other people in your life. There is a positive pressure. But there is also sadness to leave friends, kids leaving their friends and habits. The departure was very organized– Funny thing is that I just had my house built, a beautiful provencal style house in Aix, just two years before we left.
All my friends and family supported me “JUST GO for it!!!” Unanimously! It’s now or never!
The goal was to organize everything to prepare well how to manage both businesses from Los Angeles. I had to manage my business in France differently, now leaving in the States. I learned to lean on others and delegate business. Training all the employees and teaching them as much as I could. Working at the same time in two different time zones can be quite challenging with employees on both sides on the Ocean!
I learned the value of leadership, letting go and trusting people, and the importance of working with people that you like and trust. The commonality is that we only hire people who have a passion for sports, soccer, and who understand the heart and mind of a sport’s player, the concept of sportsmanship.
Thankfully my father was able to help with the business in France. He originally introduced me and my brother to the love of the game, so he is passionate about the company as well.
BACK FROM BORDEAUX CONFERENCE, ON THE WAY TO MARSEILLE, 2019
Surprisingly, the most difficult aspect of this new enterprise was emotional. But, courage, adventure and a certain part of loneliness is required. You can be in business with a new partner, but you inevitably leave a group of family and close friends behind. Embarking on a new adventure, traveling, adapting to new culture, business skills and habits, without knowing the results, has a certain part of risk.
The plane landed in LAX on Valentines’ day of 2020, symbolic date bringing permanently all of my family, my lovely wife and both daughters. They all patiently saw me doing round trips CDG-LAX every month for over 2 years, preparing and setting up the business, administratively, operationally, and building the company on the ground.
THOUGHTS & WORDS OF WISDOM
Starting formally the company in 2015, it took five years to find the right space to rent, large enough to hold several soccer fields.
The owners of that field, who leased to us, did not understand much of what we were trying to establish, but in their warm hearts of Greek and Turkish cultural heritage, they believed in our vision, shared the passion of sports and saw the positive impact for the community. They believed in us and our vision.
Another person who helped with our project, was our seasoned French commercial real estate broker, whom we met us while scooting for a soccer field in San Diego. He was intrigued by our organization and being a L.A resident for over 30 years, grasped the impact and interest that a large Latin population and increasing soccer interests would be in Los Angeles. And… he was right. We ended up being very successful creating the company in Los Angeles!
Sometimes, it takes a little bit of chance, meeting the right people who believe in our passion and visualize our project, and a lot of persistence, positivity, and constant searching until finding the perfect spot.
PATIENCE & DETERMINATION
We tried to set grounds in SF, Chicago, Miami, San Diego. It was too small, too big, too expensive, etc… money was lost, time invested amounted to empty results, hopes and goals were shadowed. Until that day of 2018, when we had the two lot owners to reserve the field until we came back in person to see it! Our passion and vision often spoke louder than our excel spreadsheets and power point presentations!!
ADVICE & TIPS
Urban soccer exists for twenty years in Europe. There are over 300 centers in Europe, it’s immensely popular. There is a market for it, a great demand. In the US- At least in LA, we needed to change the mentalities, start with a new vison. March 2020 BOOM! Covid confinement hits! Another challenge… Then, so many doubts came over us… “One step towards the Unknow…” Without family support, moral and financial, I’m not sure I could have faced all these challenges. Family helped to look at things with a perspective and helped me not thinking of it as a failure. The risks were 100%. But one can overcome and stay positive:
Never give up
Go until the end
Be persistent and strong willed
Believe in you!
With experience, talent, ownership of the project, Believe in your Vision!
“THE STRENGHT OF THE PROJECT LIES IN WHO CARRIES IT, WHO BELIEVES IN ITS IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY AND SUCCESS OF THE BUSINESS, AND ONE NEEDS TO BE READY TO GO ALL THE WAY TIL THE END OF THE WORLD IN ORDER TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!!”
“TRUST PEOPLE AROUND YOU, LEARN AND TRANSMIT THE SAVOIR FAIRE, KEEP PEOPLE MOTIVATED- HIRE PASSIONATE PEOPLE!”
Article and interview by Isa Simon, Los Angeles.
More about Sebastien Abonnel and LAB FIVE:
Website: www.lab-five.com
LinkedIn: LAB FIVE
LinkedIn: Sebastien Abonnel
Instagram: Labfivesoccer