He was a man who wanted you to call him by his first name only. Not Mister, not President, not captain, or owner, or savior. He wanted you to remember his name. It was the first thing he told ACF Fiorentina fans when he stepped off the plane as their new owner in 2019.
"I don't need titles. You don't have to call me Mister. Just call me Rocco."
Rocco B. Commisso, the Italian businessman turned billionaire sports team owner, whose purchase of the New York Cosmos and North American Soccer League in 2017 set forth some of the most chaotic chapters of US Soccer history, died on the morning of January 17, 2026. He was 76.
The cause is currently unknown. ACF Fiorentina, the Italian Serie A side that Commisso owned, said in their statement that he had been in a "prolonged period of medical treatment".
His death comes six months after his Cosmos returned to the spotlight, setting to relaunch in USL League One later this year. He was no longer the majority owner, a title now held by Paterson businessman Baye Adofo-Wilson. But Rocco still held some ownership.
It is currently unknown what will happen to his minority stake in the new USL League One side.
"I'm local, local, local"
Born in Marina di Gioiosa Ionica, Calabria, Italy, Commisso migrated to the United States at age 12 and found a life in The Bronx. Over the years, Commisso would grow into a typical New Yorker: Loud, brash, and proud beyond belief.
Playing soccer throughout his youth, Commisso eventually earned a scholarship to attend Columbia University. Commisso would call it the "biggest break in my life." Through his tenure with the Columbia Lions, Commisso was named to the All-Ivy Second team three times between 1968 and 1970. In his senior season, as a co-captain and striker, Commisso helped lead the team into the NCAA Tournament for the first time.
In a first-round game on the road against Buffalo State University, Commisso became the first Columbia player to score a goal in the NCAA tournament. Tied 1-1 through four extra times, the Lions were declared the winner by virtue of having more corner kicks during (1970s college soccer rules were weird).
The soccer stadium at Columbia University still bears the name Rocco B. Commisso.
That love of the game never left him, and in 2017, he had the chance to continue that future with the New York Cosmos. In January of that year, Commisso purchased a majority ownership stake in the team and all but saved the struggling lower division club from bankruptcy.
"I'm from the Bronx. My kids grew up in New Jersey. My team is in Brooklyn," Commisso said in a 2017 interview. "I'm local, local, local. That's the message I want to send out."
He knew it would be a challenge. The Cosmos' league, the Division II North American Soccer League, was losing teams and money. Many felt that the United States Soccer Federation was against the league, and Rocco had no issue making that thought known. But the prospect of owning a team like the Cosmos was too much to pass up, even to a man who turned down a chance to own pieces of AS Roma and AC Milan, and who was a die-hard Juventus fan.
"In those Pelé and Chinaglia days, I used to go to the Cosmos games. It was an electric atmosphere, and I became a fan of the Cosmos. This iconic team was like nothing the world had ever seen before or since," Commisso said in 2017. "Part of the reason why I am getting involved with the Cosmos: 1) to save the franchise, which was almost in bankruptcy; and 2) to put my imprint on the future of American soccer."
Commisso was able to steady the ship in 2017, moving the Cosmos from Long Island to MCU Park (now Maimonides Park) in Coney Island, the same baseball stadium that Brooklyn FC now calls home. In his first year with the team, the Cosmos returned to the SoccerBowl (the NASL league final), before losing to the San Francisco Deltas. However, the league was officially stripped of Division II sanctioning following the 2017 season, thus beginning years of legal battles against the USSF and Major League Soccer.
Business life
Following graduation from Columbia, Commisso began his business career at Pfizer Pharmaceutical before he went on to spend ten years with Chase Manhattan Bank (now J.P. Morgan Chase).
A few years and roles later, Commisso eventually found himself working in media at Cablevision Industries Corporation, eventually becoming a CFO and director. In 1995, he started his own company, Mediacom Communications Corporation.
The company grew from a player in the local New York market to become the fifth-largest cable television provider in the US. With that, Commisso became a billionaire.
“People in this industry know I have a lot of voice,” he said to soccer writer Michael Lewis in 2017 when speaking about his media and soccer jobs. “Even though I have a lot of voice, nobody has been able to shut me down at my age. Everyone else is gone, but I’m still around. So, I plan to do my bidding at the right time, to project my club, to protect my investment, to protect my players and everybody who works for the Cosmos.”
Fiorentina faithful
In 2019, Commisso returned home to Italy when he purchased Fiorentina for $170 million. For him, it was a return to the sport he loved, away from the leadership of the United States soccer system.
If the Cosmos were a test of Rocco from USSF, The Purples were a test from the hardcore Italian fans.
"I get more criticism here than in 1,500 communities in the US," Commisso told CBS in 2023.
Taking over for the team in the middle of a 2018-19 season where Fiorentina was in 19th and at risk of relegation from Serie A, Commisso stepped in and did two things: Spend a lot of money, and try to implement long-term strategies to survive.
He wanted critics to know that first part, telling the team's website in 2023 that he had invested more than $400 million on Fiorentina over his first four years. But to Rocco, spending more didn't mean spending too much. Like his time fighting Major League Soccer in the United States, he wanted smaller clubs to avoid crashing into debt from overspending.
That spending led to the second point, sustainability. Rocco focused on the future, putting $87 million towards constructing the Rocco B. Commisso Viola Park near Florence. When it opened in October 2023, it came with nearly a dozen training pitches and a new home for ACF Fiorentina Women.
The team has still not won a Serie A title since 1968–69, though under Commisso, finishing positions have improved. The last four seasons have seen the club finish in the top ten each year, enough to earn spots in European tournaments, with the 2024-25 season seeing the club finish in 6th in its best finish since 2015–16.
Fiorentina reached two UEFA Conference League finals (2022–23, 2023–24) and one Coppa Italia final (2022–23) during Commisso's tenure as owner.
The legacy he left behind
Rocco B. Commisso will go down as one of the most polarizing, controversial figures in US Soccer.
For some, Commisso was a savior. The man who swooped in at the 11th hour to save the New York Cosmos from destruction. Who attempted to continue a fight against the millionaires and politicians controlling a sport like a business when others wanted it to be a community.
During a 60 Minutes Interview in 2023, Commisso described himself as a hustler.
"In the good sense of a hustler, because it could have a terrible sense, right?" Commisso said. "A hustler has never, you know, always tried to find a way to achieve a certain objective. Hustle, hustle. Don't give up. Don't take no for an answer."
On the other side, many will believe Commisso was a con man. Someone who spoke big and didn't follow through with both the Cosmos and Fiorentina. Who cried foul when his own actions came back to haunt him. Who would waste a fortune to fight a meaningless fight against USSF when the cards were stacked against him.
To those people, they might consider Commisso a 'spinner', something he also described in that 60 Minutes interview.
"A spinner is a bullsh*t artist. I know plenty of those guys. I have a pretty good idea what the hell I'm dealing with," he explained. "My mother gave it to me when I was born."
Whatever you called him, Commisso left an impact. One where the team he helped saved left ripples across the United States for years to come. One of which will be seen when the Cosmos take the field in Paterson, NJ, this March when they debut in USL League One.
You can call him crazy. You can call him brilliant. But you did always call him Rocco.
