Former New York Red Bulls managing director Erik Stover joins Cosmos

Well, there’s a familiar name.

Erik Stover — not to be confused with Erik Soler — joins the New York Cosmos as chief operating officer.

The man on his new appointment: “I’m excited to be part of the rebirth of the New York Cosmos. Seamus O’Brien and the rest of the board have a vision to build a proper soccer club in New York. We have a great legacy to live up to and I’m eager to get started right away.”

Why Stover? And why now?

Well, he specializes in making things happen. You know, like getting massive stadiums built and recruiting superstars to young leagues.

While working for the Red Bulls, Stover oversaw the construction and operation of Red Bull Arena, a $200 million state-of-the-art soccer stadium in Harrison, N.J. He also successfully recruited international soccer superstar Thierry Henry to come to MLS in July of 2010. When Stover left the Red Bulls in August of 2011, they had risen from the bottom of MLS in attendance to No. 4, which included a 150 percent increase in season ticket holders. For his accomplishments, he was honored with the 2010 MLS Executive of the Year Award.

Yeah, I can see how the Cosmos — a team desperate to get into MLS and (potentially, probably) working with the league on its fancy new Queens stadium — could use someone with exactly Stover’s skillset.