Footiebusiness

Over the last couple of years, MLS has made a long string of significant decisions aimed at advancing the league and improving the quality of soccer on the field.  These have included the Designated Player rule in all of its iterations, the Generation Adidas program and recently, the mandating of team specific academies tasked with developing young players and retaining young talent in the league.  For those interested in the inner workings how those academy products become Homegrown players within MLS, Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com offers a great look at league rules governing these signings and how various teams work within those rules to sign local talent. McCarthy looks at recent signings in Portland, Philly and elsewhere to demonstrate the challenge of combining multiple academy models to fit one domestic league.

Perhaps the big soccer story Monday on both sides of the pond was Thierry Henry’s remarkable reintroduction to Arsenal at the Emirates in the Third Round of the FA Cup.  Just minutes after entering the match in the second half, the Red Bull forward scored the only goal of the game to advance Arsenal to the next round against Aston Villa while further cementing his legend in England.  For MLS, Henry’s dramatic return provides another shot of positive publicity.  All stories describing his return mentioned the Red Bulls and the two month loan from Major League Soccer.  Whatever the pros and cons of these short term winter loans, the league has found another way to generate publicity in the off season.

Finally, at last Summer’s All Star Game, Commissioner Garber mentioned (in response to a question from a journalist), that PPL Park was a likely candidate to host the 2012 version of the event.  This article in the Inquirer suggest that PPL remains a likely candidate for the event, along with LiveStrong, Sapute and BC Place.

The MLS Combine got under way on Friday with hopeful MLS draftees descending on the Fort Lauderdale areas to showcase their wares in front MLS coaches, executives and more.  MLS’ official website has really ramped up the coverage of the pre-draft events, including live streaming of all of the combine matches and video features.  The league also added an interactive social media contest for those following the combine online.  The Twitter contest offered fans an opportunity to win prizes from league sponsor sega.  For more on the business aspects of the combine, check out our interview with Buzz Carrik, now of ESPNDallas.com from the 2010 combine.  Mr. Carrick has become known as one of the MLS draft gurus and he provided some thoughts on the combine here.

In other news, ESPN2 will televise the SuperDraft starting at noon on Thursday.  Typically the network manages to cover the entire first round of the draft and provides insight into the players selected and the status of the league as the calendar turns to 2012.  Last year the draft coverage was hosted by the recently departed Rob Stone.  Also last year,the broadcast was presented by adidas, and commercial advertisers included McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Scottrade, the Post Office and AT&T.

We’ve long discussed the benefits of Major League Soccer’s Generation Adidas program that allows underclassmen to risk entering the SuperDraft before graduation while retaining the ability to pursue a college education on adidas’ dime if their soccer career doesn’t pan out.  Now comes this piece from Ives Galarcep (wearing his Fox Sports hat), suggesting that MLS is now diverting Generation Adidas funds to signing MLS Academy products rather than college undergraduates.  Galarcep’s article is a must read for fans interested in the signing of young domestic talent by the league.

In 2011, the MLS schedule was released in February.  MLS fans eager for league news got a surprising gift on Thursday when the league released the entire 2012 schedule more than one month earlier than last year.  For business junkies, the most interesting part of the release is probably the announcement of nationally telecast games. New MLS partner NBC will televise 41 matches over the season, including three games on over-the-air television.  All of the games on the NBC mothership will come at the end of the season and two of the three will feature New York fans.  The late season games give the network to leverage its Sunday Night Football juggernaut to promote the matches.  The first match on the NBC Sports Network will feature New York and Dallas.

ESPN’s package is reduced to 20 games but includes a number of games on ESPN rather than ESPN2.

Last year we linked to an excellent article by Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com that included  his interview with Mark Abbott and Brad Pursel about the dynamics and challenges involved in creating a schedule for MLS.  This is a fascinating and under-covered topic.  From a business perspective, the most interesting aspect of the interview was Mr. Pursel’s discussion of the three biggest priorities in setting up a schedule: “maximizing attendance, creating a television schedule to maximize ratings and balancing the schedule from a competitive perspective.”  It is telling that business factors are the primarily driver behind the schedule making.

The holiday season is over and now its time to turn our attention to our regular business coverage.  We’ll start 2012 with a potpourri of media related items.  First, longtime ESPN soccer personality Rob Stone has officially moved to Fox Soccer to serve as their primary soccer studio host.  He will be joined by former United States International Eric Wynalda who serve as the primary studio analyst.  Stone is a 15 year veteran of ESPN and has served in a variety of capacities at the network including roles as a soccer studio host and sideline reporter.  The hiring of Stone continues FOX’s strong move into the world of soccer.  Stone’s first duty will be on January 22, when FOX hosts live EPL coverage in advance of NFL football.  For more on the move, click here.

In other media news, Comcast and Disney announced a 10 year deal covering a wide range of content, including various ESPN platforms.  Comcast is the nation’s largest television provider and this deal ensures that its subscribers will continue to have access to ESPN’s wide ranging of soccer content over the internet.  Staying with the television theme, a number of sources are reporting that Apple has expressed interest in grabbing the rights to English Premier League.  Whether the rumor has any legs remains to be seen, but it is hard to argue that a play for the rights by the i-pod maker would send shockwaves through the media and electronics industries.

One final note.  We’ve written at length about the San Jose stadium, including the possibility that the recent momentum could be checked by an effort to appeal the decision.  That appeal has happened, you can read more here.

Voting is closed and Sporting Kansas City’s remarkable re-brand is the big winner of the American soccer business story of the year according to your votes.  Sporting’s win speaks volumes about the power of social media, as the team effectively used Facebook and Twitter to get out the vote.  As we said in our posts about Sporting’s remarkable transformation, the team managed its re-brand with great skill both on and off the field.  The team adroitly handled the presence of Chad Ochocinco while driving buzz about its new stadium, its new name and its new identity.  Congratulations to Sporting Kansas City on being named the business story of the year in American soccer.

Before Sporting surged ahead, NBC’s new relationship with Major League Soccer was the early leader.  Now that the NBC Sports Channel is now live, the Peacock is continuing its soft push of MLS with its various promotional spots.  Soccer fans and business observers will carefully monitor the league’s new partner to determine how committed the network is to the sport and the league.

Interestingly, Twitter’s role as a soccer news source received the least amount of votes.  There is some irony in that vote total given that Twitter served as a significant gateway for those entering this site to vote. Twitter was the only repeat entrant in our story of the year contest and despite the low numbers of votes it is hard to deny the impact of Twitter and social media as bastions of information, fan outreach and soccer content.

Last week we gave you our  our take on the top business stories in the world of American soccer.  Now it’s time for you to cast your vote.  Don’t agree with our options?  Vote “other” and drop a line in the comment space with your choice.  If you want our take on the five finalists, read the summaries below the poll.

First Entrant

In their first season in Major League Soccer, the Portland Timbers generated fantastic local publicity while becoming a sensation in the national sports media for its passionate crowds, Timber Joey and national anthem. The team also featured great commercials with its Alaska Air partner that made waves around the web and was so successful at the gate that capacity was increased mid-season.  Newly renovated Jeld-Wen Field became an instant soccer retro classic (does that make any sense), while the team showed a strong ability to find corporate partners.  Team owner Merrit Paulson is a regular presence on Twitter, keeping fans apprised of transfer rumors and more. The team also generated enormous buzz with a clever billboard campaign that featured real fans plastered all over the City while immediately stoking the fires of their Pacific Northwest rivals in Seattle.  Of the two new teams in 2011, the Timber were the brightest on and off the field.

Second Entrant

Sporting Kansas City closed 2010 with a complete re-brand that included a name change and much more.  The team’s front office effectively communicated the change and the reasons for the switch to its fans and to the media.  Team representatives made themselves available to explain the new brand and the website effectively supported the message.  In 2011, the team moved into  beautiful new Livestrong Sporting Park and effectively paired the move with intriguing video tours, ticket sales options and more.  The team’s relationship with the renown LiveStrong charity generated a massive amount of publicity outside soccer media.  The team also efficiently handled the brief presence of Chad Ochocinco, generating more positive publicity for the club and team.  The team effectively managed its social media presence, ensuring that fans and media were kept apprised of important developments all season long.  Finally, the team shattered its own attendance mark, averaging more than 17, 600 for 2011.

Third Entrant

In August MLS and NBC  announced a three year television rights agreement that will put Major League Soccer on the Peacock and its affiliated sports channel from 2012-2014.  The three year deal is worth an estimated 10-12 million dollars per year and will replace the league’s current $6 million + deal with FSC.  As part of the agreement, NBC and Versus (soon to be NBC Sports Network), will air regular season and playoff matches from MLS and USMNT games.  Specifically, the cable channel will air 38 regular season games, 3 playoff games and 2 USMNT matches.  The broadcast network will show 2 regular season matches, 2 playoff games and 2 USMNT games in each of the three seasons.  All games will include pre and post game coverage.

The deal will make MLS one of the primary sports primaries on the re-branded NBC Sports Network which will debut at the start of 2012.  The deal is obviously a coup for MLS which now moves from a network in less than 40 million homes to one almost 80 million homes.  Games on NBCSN are more readily available in HD and are typically placed in a more prominent line-up location than FSC, which is typically relegated to a special tier and a high number designation. Games on NBC’s broadcast outlet  will reach almost every American home and will mark a return to over the air telvision after a multi-year absence.  NBC has also promised to promote its MLS coverage across multiple programs and broadcasts and these promotions have started with ads on Sunday Night Football and other NBC properties.

Fourth Entrant

When FIFA put US television rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup’s up for bid, it was assumed that ESPN or NBC would be the big players for English rights.  Yet when the bids were in, neither the Worldwide Leader nor MLS’s newest partner were left standing.  FOX outbid NBC and ESPN to claim the rights for approximately $450 million dollars.  The Spanish language rights were won by Telemundo for an estimated $600 million.  The combined $1 billion bids shatters FIFA records and confirms both stations as primary player in the soccer broadcast arena.  The package includes rights to the Womens’ World Cup events in intervening years and rights to various youth World Cups.  In 2005, ESPN paid $100 million for the English-language rights to the 2010 and 2014 games. Univision paid $325 million for the Spanish-language rights.  US rights are the most expensive in the world.

The network is also aggressively pushing its EPL property.   As we have reported, the network has seen great ratings from its re-broadcasts of the EPL and the live telecasts promises to generate an even larger audience.  FOX’s broadcast of Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat of Chelsea on Nov. 20  delivered a 1.1 household rating, with 1.67 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.  Two weeks after the January 22 match on Championship Sunday,  the network will offer live coverage of Chelsea and Manchester United as part of the lead-up to its Superbowl telecast.

Fifth Entrant

Few sports fans are as devoted to social networking sites as soccer supporters.  Because of the lack of soccer coverage in mainstream media, soccer fans are forced to the web to follow their favorite teams and games abroad.  Twitter has provided the perfect vehicle for fans to keep track of live matches, interact with players and journalists and discuss the beautiful game 140 characters at a time.  Anecdotaly, Twitter use among soccer follower has exploded in 2011, with even technophiles recognizing the value of Twitter as a source for information on the beautiful game.

This is our last installment in a series of post setting out the top business stories in American soccer from 2011.  We have looked at Portland and Kansas City while also discussing NBC’s entry as a soccer broadcaster and FOX’s big play for World Cup television rights.  We will set up a vote to select the top story early next week.  For now, here is our fifth and final entry for the top story. For entry number five, we will borrow from 2010′s top stories and look at Twitter.

Entrant Number Five

Few sports fans are as devoted to social networking sites as soccer supporters.  Because of the lack of soccer coverage in mainstream media, soccer fans are forced to the web to follow their favorite teams and games abroad.  Twitter has provided the perfect vehicle for fans to keep track of live matches, interact with players and journalists and discuss the beautiful game 140 characters at a time.  Anecdotaly, Twitter use among soccer follower has exploded in 2011, with even technophiles recognizing the value of Twitter as a source for information on the beautiful game.

Twitter makes our top stories list for the second consecutive year.  The medium has seen continued growth and has become a necessary companion for any fan of the beautiful game in the United States.

Over the next couple of days (and in no particular order), we will present the top American soccer business stories of the year.  Early next week we will conduct a vote to see which of the entrants you think is the winner.  Yesterday we looked at the arrival of Portland and the re-birth of  Kansas City.  Today we will look at the broadcast world, where NBC has replaced Fox Soccer as the second tier broadcast partner of Major League Soccer.

Entrant Three

In August MLS and NBC  announced a three year television rights agreement that will put Major League Soccer on the Peacock and its affiliated sports channel from 2012-2014.  The three year deal is worth an estimated 10-12 million dollars per year and will replace the league’s current $6 million + deal with FSC.  As part of the agreement, NBC and Versus (soon to be NBC Sports Network), will air regular season and playoff matches from MLS and USMNT games.  Specifically, the cable channel will air 38 regular season games, 3 playoff games and 2 USMNT matches.  The broadcast network will show 2 regular season matches, 2 playoff games and 2 USMNT games in each of the three seasons.  All games will include pre and post game coverage.

The deal will make MLS one of the primary sports primaries on the re-branded NBC Sports Network which will debut at the start of 2012.  The deal is obviously a coup for MLS which now moves from a network in less than 40 million homes to one almost 80 million homes.  Games on NBCSN are more readily available in HD and are typically placed in a more prominent line-up location than FSC, which is typically relegated to a special tier and a high number designation. Games on NBC’s broadcast outlet  will reach almost every American home and will mark a return to over the air telvision after a multi-year absence.  NBC has also promised to promote its MLS coverage across multiple programs and broadcasts and these promotions have started with ads on Sunday Night Football and other NBC properties.

Entrant Four

When FIFA put US television rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup’s up for bid, it was assumed that ESPN or NBC would be the big players for English rights.  Yet when the bids were in, neither the Worldwide Leader nor MLS’s newest partner were left standing.  FOX outbid NBC and ESPN to claim the rights for approximately $450 million dollars.  The Spanish language rights were won by Telemundo for an estimated $600 million.  The combined $1 billion bids shatters FIFA records and confirms both stations as primary player in the soccer broadcast arena.  The package includes rights to the Womens’ World Cup events in intervening years and rights to various youth World Cups.  In 2005, ESPN paid $100 million for the English-language rights to the 2010 and 2014 games. Univision paid $325 million for the Spanish-language rights.  US rights remain the most expensive in the world.

The network is also aggressively pushing its EPL property.   As we have reported, the network has seen great ratings from its re-broadcasts of the EPL and the live telecasts promises to generate an even larger audience.  FOX’s broadcast of Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat of Chelsea on Nov. 20  delivered a 1.1 household rating, with 1.67 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.  Two weeks after the January 22 match on Championship Sunday,  the network will offer live coverage of Chelsea and Manchester United as part of the lead-up to its Superbowl telecast.

Over the next couple of days (and in no particular order), we will present the top American soccer business stories of the year.  Early next week we will conduct a vote to see which of the entrants you think is the winner.  We’ll start with two entrants today, one in Portland and the other in Kansas City.

First Entrant

In their first season in Major League Soccer, the Portland Timbers generated fantastic local publicity while becoming a sensation in the national sports media for its passionate crowds, Timber Joey and national anthem. The team also featured great commercials with its Alaska Air partner that made waves around the web and was so successful at the gate that capacity was increased mid-season.  Newly renovated Jeld-Wen Field became an instant soccer retro classic (does that make any sense), while the team showed a strong ability to find corporate partners.  Team owner Merrit Paulson is a regular presence on Twitter, keeping fans apprised of transfer rumors and more. The team also generated enormous buzz with a clever billboard campaign that featured real fans plastered all over the City while immediately stoking the fires of their Pacific Northwest rivals in Seattle.  Of the two new teams in 2011, the Timber were the brightest on and off the field.

Second Entrant

Sporting Kansas City closed 2010 with a complete re-brand that included a name change and much more.  The team’s front office effectively communicated the change and the reasons for the switch to its fans and to the media.  Team representatives made themselves available to explain the new brand and the website effectively supported the message.  In 2011, the team moved into  beautiful new Livestrong Sporting Park and effectively paired the move with intriguing video tours, ticket sales options and more.  The team’s relationship with the renown LiveStrong charity generated a massive amount of publicity outside soccer media.  The team also efficiently handled the brief presence of Chad Ochocinco, generating more positive publicity for the club and team.  The team effectively managed its social media presence, ensuring that fans and media were kept apprised of important developments all season long.  Finally, the team shattered its own attendance mark, averaging more than 17, 600 for 2011.

Overall a pretty quiet holiday weekend in the world of American soccer. We’ll start in Philly, where the Union have hooked up with a local confectioner to add a new sponsor to the team’s list of brands.  Goldendberg Candy Company, the maker of Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews will have signage and other brand opportunities at PPL Park.  Fans should also expect on-site sampling opportunities during the season. The company is now owned by Just Born brand, which is based in Bethlehem, PA.  Goldenberg is a Philly company and has been around for more than 90 years.

While we don’t typically cover transfer  news here, it is worth noting that MLS teams have continued to fill out their rosters for 2012, both through the signing of internationals and the inking of players obtained through the re-entry process.  A number of teams have managed to keep themselves relevant in their local markets by adding and subtracting players throughout the month of December.  Once the curtain goes up on the league’s main transfer window in the January, droves of new signings, international intrigue and trade rumors will keep fans interested until preseason starts at the end of the month.

Keeping with the transfer discussion, we have studiously avoided the “will he or won’t he” David Beckham saga. Without delving into the gritty detail, it bears noting that Beckham’s 2012 destination has been a hot topic ever since the Galaxy raised the trophy in November (and before), and thus MLS has continued to garner substantial media attention from their out of contract star.