Footiebusiness

On a day of international friendlies for teams preparing for the World Cup, probably no team performed before more fans than Mexico in its victory over New Zealand.  The performance was remarkable, not for the result, but because it is a remarkable circumstance where a national team playing at a neutral site against an unremarkable team can draw more than 90,000 fans.  Only Mexico playing in the United States could draw such a crowd for a non-competitive event.  Perhaps most amazingly, if the US had been playing at the same time in the same city, the crowd likely would have been 20k.

In other business news, MLS has made it clear that it has an interest in foreign investment dollars.  According to this article, Don Garber recently met with representatives of Manchester City to discuss the possibility of investing in MLS.  Garber’s quotes suggest that MLS is looking to foreign teams to invest in expansion franchises.  Given the amount of interest from local investors, it is surprising that the league actually has an interest in associating with foreign teams. This is especially so in light of how poorly the Chivas branding worked out.

Finally, the USSF has announced that it will team with First Lady Michelle Obama for a free clinic as part of her recent anti-obesity initiative.  “During the event, the U.S. Soccer Foundation will announce a new and ambitious partnership with the National Alliance for Hispanic Health that brings together the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s Passback Tour and the Alliance’s ¡Vive tu Vida! Get Up! Get Moving!™ the nation’s largest Hispanic family health lifestyle event series with over 15,000 participants annually.”

Just a couple of quick notes on ESPN’s broadcast of the USA/Holland match and some other ESPN broadcast notes.  First, the match was preceded by a 15 minute studio show featuring Alexi Lalas and Bob Ley.  Ley brings a professional voice to ESPN’s soccer coverage and he is a better studio fit than Rob Stone.  Ley disappeared from ESPN soccer for a number of years but has recently returned.  While no longer doing play by play, he adds a certain gravitas to the studio show that makes it seem more professional and less like friends discussing soccer in a living room.  Especially for the World Cup, formal is better.

The actual broadcast was somewhat choppy, with camera angle problems and significant stumbling from John Harkes on a number of items.  However, ESPN did a better than usual job of promoting MLS within its national team broadcast, and signiifcant time was devoted to pimping the ESPN2 and ESPN MLS openers at the end of March.

The booth team also did a good job (as didottom line) of noting the future USMNT games on ESPN, including the Czech Republic and Turkey matches in Hartford and Philly respectively.  Both games will be shown on ESPN2.  Interestingly, it took ESPN some time to add Hartford as the location, although that long rumored news had been confirmed for some time.

There was a good mix of national advertisrs for the game, including the postal servcie and Gatorade.  Gatorade also bough screen time in the upper left hand corner.  It will be interesting to see how well those screen ads sell for the World Cup.  Those can be valuable properties during highly watched matches.   ESPN also heavily promoted the England/USA game, which will be a weekend contest on ABC.

We spent yesterday in Orlando, the land of Disney, Sea World and most recently the Wide World of Sports preseason MLS tournament (won by New York).  Looking around the Disney area, there was little mention of the games, and none of the locals seemed to have any knowledge that it was happening.  However, Orlando is not an MLS city,  and most of the folks we spoke to were not from the area originally and mostly focused on their tourist industry jobs.  However, the lack of recognition about MLS and this mini-tourney got us to thinking about our Dallas interviews from last Spring.   Read our interview below and think about how this would play out in your city.

We have discussed the attendance woes in Dallas on a number of occassions.   With a fairly new stadium in Pizza Hut Park, a local population in Dallas that plays soccer en masse, premier online, independent coverage and a long history as an original team in MLS, FC Dallas would seem to be an obvious choice for success at the gate.  Yet, the team is averaging just over 9k and attendance is dropping fast.

The big question is of course, Why?  There are theories about front office ineptitude, poor performance on the field or a suburban stadium too far from downtown Dallas (does anyone actually live in downtown Dallas??).  We were in Dallas this week and performed a bit of marketing reconissance to check on efforts to promote FC Dallas  in Big D.  We asked everyone we met, from cab drivers to waitresses to business assoicates about FC Dallas and Pizza Hut Park.  The results of our anecdotal survey were pretty dramatic.

Almost everyone we met had heard of Pizza Hut Park, but nobody had every been there.  Most associated Pizza Hut Park with the Roughriders, a Double A baseball team playing at Dr. Pepper Park in Frisco, TX (same location as Pizza Hut Park).   We spoke with season ticket holders for the Mavericks, Stars and Cowboys, all of whom knew nobody that had seen an FC Dallas game, yet almost everyone knew about the team.  Everyone we spoke with was shocked that FC Dallas struggled to fill the stadium; they all mentioned how popular soccer is in Texas.  Interestingly, almost everyone we spoke with knew where the stadium is located, knew how to get there and said it was “close.”

We saw no advertising for the team, whether on signs, buses, television or newspapers.  There was no evidence of FC Dallas merchandise at Dallas-Forth Worth airport and we heard no commercials on the radio for upcoming games or events.  The team is marketing through its website; pre-game happy hour anyone?  Other marketing efforts are certainly being made (our trip was pretty quick), yet they were not apparent.

Our survey was obviously informal, yet it was instructive.  In recent trips to Kansas City, Washington and other MLS cities, we have seen evidence of the local soccer team in a number of different media.  People were aware of the local franchise and some had been to games.  In Dallas, the team’s impact on the sports consciousness was minimal.

The question is of course why.  If you have any theories, let us know.  Why is this once proud franchise struggling on the field and at the gate?

What to say?  The eyes of the American soccer fan are focused in only two directions right now:  South Africa (and by extension Amsterdam) and a bargaining table in New York.  The “deadline” for CBA negotiations has come and gone and there is no deal, no strike and no lockout.  What does it all mean?  Everyone has a different opinion.

Some say the players are holding the strike option for the most opportune time, right before the season or mid season.  Others think that the players don’t have the votes or the will to strike, while others think that the threat of a strike can do real harm to the owners because it will slow the ability of teams to sign sponsors.  Regardless, we are now one month from the season and there is no labor agreement and no labor peace…yet the games go on.  We will keep monitoring the situation, but for now….

Some final notes on the PPL/Union deal:  The stadium will run completely on renewable energy, the first MLS stadium to do so.  According to the Philadelphia Daily News, the field’s turf will be Patriot Bermuda grass, a dense, high-performance turfgrass known for its ability to remain lush in extreme conditions.  The paper also reports that more than 10k season tickets have now been sold.

TFC continues to do it right. The Reds are one of the teams participating in the inagural Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic.  They are televising the pre-game tournament going on in Orlando providing their fans a glimpse into what the season holds.

As we discussed a couple of weeks back, PPL will be the naming rights sponsor for the new Union stadium on the Chester waterfront.  The deal was just officially announced.  The agreement has been announced at $20 million dollars for the life of the deal and the new facility will be called PPL Park.  In addition to stadium naming rights, PPL will also get hospitality events and experiences at the stadium, TV and radio advertising, signage boards and sponsorship rights in the youth soccer programs in which the Union have a foothold.  Given Pennsylvania’s recent de-regulation of the power industry, PPL is making a calculated gamble that now is a great time to enter the world of sports marketing. Despite economic conditions, the deal compares favorably with those of other MLS stadiums.  Dick’s Sporting Goods Park is a 20 year, $30 million dollar deal, BMO is 10 years and $23 million and Toyota Park is 10 years and $7.5 million.  The outlier is the 10 year $70 million dollar deal for the Home Depot Center.

The article also mentions that season ticket sales are almost at 10k with about one month until the season starts.  Individual game tickets are also now on sale for the home opener with tickets ranging from $28-$100.  The new stadium will open on June 27 after the first set of games will go forward at the Linc.

The Globe and Mail has an intersting story on the financial plans of midfielder Dwayne DeRosario.  The article provides some interesting insight into how a forward thinking athlete can plan for his financial life after the sports career ends.  It is pretty infrequent that athletes discuss their finances so openly and it is a credit to DeRo that is so forward thinking and willing to share.

Finally, you can take your pick of dire CBA news, from Grant Wahl to Jeff Carlisle to Andrea Canales.  Since a fair amount of what we do here is cover the media that covers soccer, it has been interesting to monitor the “big” names in American soccer press cover the CBA negotiations.  In some ways, the livlihoods of these scribes depend on the viability of MLS while their success in many ways depends on their sources within the game   As a result, there are some competing interests at play as sports journalists are forced to cover an unfamiliar topic while relying on agenda driven information.