Footiebusiness

Three weeks into the Major League Soccer season and most teams have now had their home openers.  Yet the need to sell tickets is just shifting into high gear.  Every so often, we like to take a look around the league to see what teams are doing to promote upcoming matches and draw fans to the park.  We’ll start in DC, where United is continuing is drive to bring college aged fans to RFK Stadium.  The team is offering $20 tickets for anyone who orders tickets with a .edu e-mail address.   At the door, those same seats will be $22 with a college i.d.  DC has long been on of the most aggressive teams in marketing to a younger audience and its efforts to bring college students (and entertain them with music and drinks) has long been part of that effort.

It’s not often we stumble into a ticket promotion in Seattle, but with the announcement that the team will host Chelsea this Summer, the team is offering a 4 game package that includes tickets to the Chelsea, Galaxy, Timbers and Whitecaps matches.  The team is opening all of Century Link Field for those matches and tickets start at $110 for the four games.

The Rapids are offering a Family Four Pack starting at just $49.  The package includes 4 tickets, 4 meals and 4 Coca-Cola products.  The package is offered by the Rapids and Coke.

Finally, the Crew are offering their own college deal and pairing it with a military i.d. discount.  The team is offering seats for its April 7 match against the Red Bulls for $15 in advance or $17 on game day.  The team is also offering an $88 deal for four tickets in conjunction with Pepsi.  The plan includes the tickets, an equal number of snacks, Pepsi products, hot dogs and a coupon for a free 2 liter.

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Before we take a look at MLS attendance from the weekend, a quick note on our “new” look.  The front page of Footiebusiness has been revamped to (hopefully) make things easier to navigate.  After more than three years with the same front page, it was time to make a few changes.  Hopefully it will be easier to access the Footiebusiness Twitter feed and soccer links while still providing access to the site’s content.  Check out the About the Author tab and note the addition of a “Contributors” tab at the top of the page.  Dave Laidig has officially been added as a Footiebusiness Contributor (I’m sure his family is very proud), and you can see some of Dave’s content under the Contributor tab.  The process of cleaning up the links has started as well, as some of the sites had been inactive for quite some time.  Feel free to send some sites worth linking our way and don’t hesitate to drop a line with comments on the new look.

On to attendance, where the weekend got started with a solid 38,300 at Century Link Field for the Sounders’ home victory over Houston.  The match was broadcast on NBCSN and drew some national coverage because of a derogatory term shouted by Dynamo midfielder Colin Clarke.  The theory that any publicity is good publicity will be tested by the league’s reaction to the event.

Elsewhere, more than 20k braved the rain at BMO field to watch TFC get trounced by San Jose.  Later on Saturday, Columbus opened its home campaign before a solid 18k plus, while the Revs, despite a doubleheader pairing, managed just over 12k for their home opener. Chicago also managed more than 18k for their home opener.  The Chicago and Columbus numbers are especially impressive, because both represent a 50% increase over the home openers in 2011.

In Salt Lake City, more than 20k packed Rio Tinto for a rare RSL home loss. Vancouver pulled more than 19k in the nightcap.  In New York, attendance was reported at just over 21k.

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Every so often, we like to take a spin around mainstream sports to see how certain outlets are covering the beautiful game.  We’ll start with Sports Illustrated, where, thanks to a Post Office snafu (“we apologize for the damage to your mail”), we just received our March Madness preview issued.  Tucked therein, was a two page MLS preview authored by Grant Wahl which focused on the influx of Colombian talent into the league.  The two pages also included Wahl’s predictions for 2012, include order of finish, champion and more.  Although the preview appeared before week two (or week three for me), the tw0 pages devoted to MLS in such a mainstream sports publication always provides good exposure for the league.

NBC Sports “Pro Soccer Talk” has rounded into form in week three of its existence. Steve Davis has been remarkably prolific, putting out loads of content on a variety of topics daily.  Davis has now been joined by former Foxsoccer.com chief editor Richard Farley to create a staff of two.  Farley hasn’t yet produced much content, but the addition of  a second set of eyes and fingers to the group such only serve to increase the available soccer content on the fledgling site.

USA Today continues to offer solid soccer content, the trick is finding it on the website or in the paper.  On the site, the soccer tab has been relegated to the ranks of “other” rather to holding down a spot on the main page.  Nevertheless, the stories are varied and high quality.

Brian Straus continues to generate solid content on the suddenly soccer friendly Sporting News.  MLS Power Rankings, international stories and other soccer headlines are easily accessible on the site.  This represents as significant change from the days of old when TSN seemingly worked hard to avoid any mention of the sport.

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Following their inaugural broadcast, the folks at NBC Sports expressed some low key optimism after the television ratings were released.  Following the release of ratings from the network’s second broadcast, NBC Sports PR was shouting from the roof tops.  The second broadcast averaged 124,000 viewers, a 50% increase from the first match.  Even more impressive, the viewership increased when only the game (rather than the pregame) is included in the sample.  Most importantly, the most highly rated 15 minute segment was the end of the game where viewership peaked at more than 210k.  The ratings are especially impressive when compared with FSC’s numbers from last year.

Keeping with the television theme, MLS will have four nationally televised games this coming week.  The NBC Sports Network will open with a Seattle home game on Friday night, the first prime time broadcast for the league’s new partner.  TSN will follow on Saturday afternoon with Toronto hosting San Jose for the Reds home opener on TSN.  ESPN2 gets back in the MLS business with a Sunday afternoon home opener from Red Bull Arena and Galavision will conclude the weekend with a Sunday night broadcast from LiveStrong Sporting Park.

Finally, Lionel Messi broke Barcelona’s all time scoring mark on Tuesday at the tender age of 24.  Typically, this site doesn’t cover European soccer and certainly doesn’t focus on individual achievements.  However, Messi’s accomplishment is notable from a business sense, because mainstream sports sites felt obligated to cover the event.  CNNSI an USA Today’s sports sections put Messi on their front pages.  It is fairly remarkable that soccer has reached the level of popularity where the feats of a 24 years old Argentine playing in Spain is news in the States.

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Perhaps the biggest business story of the weekend was the sub-8000 crowd at the Home Depot Center for Chivas’ home game on Saturday night.  Chivas isn’t the first team to suffer indignity at the gate in the last couple of years (New England and Columbus have certainly put up some attendance stinkers lately), but the Chivas experiment has certainly risen to the top of the list of trouble spots.  Having already reduced their maximum attendance figure almost 10k per game, the team undershot their new cap by more than 11k.  Chivas USA is already a second citizen in their own stadium and in the eyes of most of their fans and owner.  Is the team long for Los Angeles?  Is a move to San Diego in the future?  What about a rebrand?

What is remarkable about Chivas’ current situation is the progress the team was seemingly making over the last couple of years.  We’ve long commended their aggressive marketing department for finding creative ways to put fans in seats at the Home Depot Center.  Creative promotions, giveaways and outreach programs have been a hallmark of Chivas’ marketing.  Can it be saved in 2012?

For fun, below is an interview we did with Chivas’ Director of Marketing Alex Gallegos three years ago:

Footiebusiness.com: What is Chivas doing differently for marketing in 2009?  How has the economy changed/impacted those efforts?

Alex Gallegos: We have instituted a ton of different programs either marketing, community or sales based, they are as follows:

All You Can eat Section
Stimulus mini- 5 game plan

Practices in the Community

Partnerships with the City of Hope, Special Olympics and the American Lung Association

School of the game

Band of the game

Family and kids packs

All aimed at community involvement, affordable entertainment and fan development

FB: In 2009, many teams in MLS seem to be struggling at the gate.  Yet Chivas seems to be doing quite well, and to date, numbers appear to better than last year.  To what to you attribute that success?

AG: A stronger market presence, diversified advertising avenues

A sales dept that is more veteran and versed in the soccer sales ways

Leadership from our CEO Shawn Hunter

A great team that makes it easy to highlight what we do on the field and off

A stronger presence in the community

Great media and corporate partners

FB: How have Chivas utilized online avenues such as social networking sites, SUM’s new online ad network, etc… to market the team?  Do you find that these efforts increase interest in Chivas or impact attendance?

AG: We have had or launched myspace, facebook, txt message, viral video and online ad programs. We are analyzing twitter and launched mychivasusa.com all to give our fans a better place to congregate, tell more fans and spread our word for us. It is helping little by little.

FB: What unique challenges does Chivas face as one of two teams in Los Angeles?  Most teams just compete against teams in other sports, while Chivas must compete against the Galaxy in their own stadium.  How do you deal with the further segmenting of the potential MLS fan base?

AG: We simply identify what makes us Chivas and let the consumer make the choice, we’re not trying to make anyone chose a side,  we’re open to anyone that likes soccer, that likes entertainment or that wants a fun environment and experience for their family.  We touch on things like our game atmosphere, price affordability, access to our players, community programs, customer service etc…

FB: Is it inconsistent/challenging for teams to target “hard core” supporters, non-soccer sports fans and families?  How do you resolve those inconsistencies/challenges?

AG: We make a lot of invites, we have a lot of guests that we invite to our games on us.  We do this so that they can experience our games and make the decision to come back on their own, more often then not they love our games and really are receptive to coming back and telling their friends. Were building fans through multiple programs, one fan at a time.

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Before we get to the attendance, perhaps the biggest business story of the weekend emerged on Friday when it was announced the Los Angeles Galaxy have re-upped their relationship with jersey sponsor Herbalife.   The Sports Business Daily story reports that the new 10 year deal is worth a reported $4.4 million over 10 years. Here is a link to the team’s official press release video.   The deal is remarkable for its length and long term security and provides an important indication that the business community believes that the Galaxy brand will have staying power beyond David Beckham’s tenure in Los Angeles.  For reference, the recent Fire deal with Quaker (also an iconic brand), is a reported $8million over 3 years.

On the attendance front, it was a weekend of great highs and troubling lows.  On the top end, Montreal opened its MLS home schedule before almost 60k at Olympic Stadium on Saturday afternoon.  Later that day, Chivas USA failed to top 8k at the Home Depot Center, a troubling number for a franchise we highlighted 2 years ago for their success in achieving reasonable crowds in a environment.  Elsewhere, San Jose played at AT&T Park before more than 21k in a rather dull affair against Houston.  Kansas City hit its 19,777 number in their home thrashing of the Revs.  At the same time, Dallas drew 12,200 for their second home game of the season.  In Seattle, more than 38k witnessed the Sounders victory while 16,700 were at Rio Tinto for RSL’s win over New York.

On Sunday, Philadelphia opened its home schedule with its first 19k plus sell out of 2012.  The game was broadcast on the NBC Sports Network.

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Hard to believe the second week of league action is already here, but the weekend provides another round of home openers and thrilling story lines. None is bigger than the first ever home game for the MLS franchise in Montreal.  The Impact open the home portion of their schedule on Saturday afternoon with an anticipated crowd in excess of 53,000 expected at Olympic Stadium, the team’s temporary home.  The game will be nationally telecast on TSN and is one of three nationally televised matches on the slate for the weekend.  ESPN is the only national television partner without a match during the weekend.  18 of the league’s teams will play on Saturday or Sunday.

Elsewhere, ESPN2′s ratings for the riveting Monday match in Portland are in.  The match drew an average of 337,000 viewers and a rating just over .2  The numbers are down over last year’s opener but are not overly disappointing for a match not featuring Los Angeles or Seattle.  However, the game is significant increase over the ESPN2 average for 2011.  Also recall that the opener last year was on ESPN.

The Washington Post’s Steve Goff is reporting that DC United has signed a two year lease to remain at RFK Stadium and will limit capacity at the stadium to just under 20k.  The upper levels will be tarped and the team will attempt to sell sponsorships for the covers.  The deal also includes a promise to provide certain improvements to the stadium which will be paid for through a ticket fee surcharge.

Finally, ESPN offers this 47 movie devoted to David Beckham’s time in Los Angeles.

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Over the last couple of days, various sources have releases the amount of viewers for the opening weekend of Major League Soccer.  In Canada, the news was great.  According to a press release from TSN, the combined Canadian viewing audience (RDS and TSN) exceed 540k on average.  That is a great number for the opening match.  The first match included to Canadian franchises, so whether those numbers will continue remains to be seen.

Perhaps most remarkable, the press release indicates that more than 2.5 million Canadians watched some or all of the game.  Per the press release, “TSN, along with RDS, are the official broadcasters of Major League Soccer (MLS) in Canada with a national broadcast package that includes 36 games featuring Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC. TSN also has live coverage of 22 games featuring U.S.-based teams, along with exclusive Canadian coverage of the MLS CUP Playoffs, the MLS Cup 2012 and the MLS ALL-STAR GAME.”

At the same time, the NBC broadcast averaged 82,000 viewers.  For context, ESPN averaged just under 300k viewers for its broadcasts last year while FSC averaged just under 70k.  While those numbers appear disappointing, they are acceptable within the realm of the NBC Sports Network’s early struggles to attract viewers.  Per the Sports Business Daily, “[d]espite heavy promotion on the NBC broadcast network and a focus on higher-quality shows, viewership for NBC Sports Network is down 21 percent on a total-day basis from January 2011 to January 2012. In January 2011, Versus averaged 78,000 viewers. In January 2012, the first month of NBC Sports Network, that figure dropped to 62,000.”  The one program doing well on NBSCN is live NHL, which now occupies almost every night of the network schedule.

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Once again, Footiebusiness Contributor David Laidig back with a great look at an item of interest to soccer fans. Thanks to Dave for another great piece.

The use of analytics is rising in sports, and is a quiet revolution in soccer as well. Using analytics – or
quantitative based analysis – in soccer is nothing new. In fact, in the late 70’s, the manager for Dynamo
Kyiv would post targets of specific game behaviors (such as tackles, interceptions, headers on goal,
and types of passes) for his players, with the targets reflecting the style of play and tactics adopted for
that particular game.1 However, for the quantitative analyst – or Quant – obtaining this data remained
challenging and labor intensive. But in spite of this difficulty, efforts continue with the goal of applying
empirical analysis to tactics, strategies, revenue streams, and maximizing value under a salary cap
or other cost restrictions. For the fan, the last example is the first that comes to mind. Indeed, the
term Moneyball still remains a shortened definition for unearthing market inefficiencies in sports. An
attractive concept – even without Brad Pitt – for MLS teams with less purchasing power than teams in
established European leagues. But the Quants are gaining visibility and influence within the world of
soccer. And behind this trend are new technologies yielding new data and a growing class of soccer
analysts that bring their own perspective to the beautiful game.

Evidence of the Soccer Quants is undeniable. For example, MIT recently hosted the Sloan Sports
Analytics Conference where, for the second year in a row, soccer was the focus of its own session.2
There, interestingly, the biggest data-driven teams were listed as Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, and
Manchester City in England and Dortmund and Hamburg in the Bundesliga.3 And considering that
soccer is a sport that has embraced new media, it is heartening that several outlets provide a forum
for discussions of soccer analytics.4 Even twitter heralds the Quant trend as Gavin Fleig, Head of
Performance Analysis for Manchester City, recently offered to answer public questions via twitter for an
hour while on the train to a Man City fixture. And yes, I kicked myself for watching my kids instead of
my twitter feed.

Some have incorporated this trend towards analysis in innovative ways. For example, the EPL Index
allows fans, for a small subscription fee, to access a wide variety of game statistics.5 And not only is
access available, but fans are encouraged to post the results of their analyses on the site. The result
is a mix of organic social media with quantitative analysis. This not only strengthens public ties to the
league, but also advances the knowledge of the game. In the United States, such access to data is not
widely available. MLS does offer insightful chalkboards for its games, thanks to its partnership with Opta, but the aggregation of such data is time intensive and the information provided is more limited.
However, in spite of difficulties, the appetite for quantitative analysis continues unabated. A recent
example illustrates how grass roots pursuit of quantitative analysis sheds light on fundamental business
decisions.

MLS has recently published a Performance Index, sponsored by the league sponsor Castrol, summarizing
the 2011 season. This Castrol Index assigns a number for each player; a number intended to represent
that individual’s contribution to the team’s wins. Benjamin Leinwand and Chris Anderson used the
Castrol Index and player salaries in their analysis suggesting that the MLS market undervalues defensive
play, and overvalues forwards.6 Using Leinwand and Anderson’s result, teams would be justified in
second-guessing a high-priced Forward contract, and may decide to emphasize Defenders.

However, the Castrol Index is highly correlated with minutes played, especially for the group of players
with less than 1800 minutes (20 full games). The number of minutes played contributes nearly 90% of
the variability to the Castrol Index for players with less than 1800 minutes. For the players with 1800 or
more minutes in 2011, their time was not related to the Castrol Index score – suggesting that the Index
is measuring something else besides playing time for this group.

Thus, by looking at the Castrol Index from another perspective (i.e., its relationship to minutes played),
one can better utilize the information by accounting for its limitations. For example, one might target
players that over perform based on minutes played (but still fall behind the league leaders that get
regular playing time). And an analysis of market efficiency using the Castrol Index should begin by
looking at players with significant playing time, or risk losing the value of an objective performance
measure.7 And with more questions than answers, active debates and the opportunities for teams to
gain advantage will only continue in the future.

As a lawyer who negotiates contracts on a regular basis, I understand that every negotiation is tied to an
underlying assessment of value. I recommend that front office types learn the language of the Quant in
order to better support their technical staff, and make their business more efficient.8 Brad Pitt may play
you in a movie.

1 Jonathon Wilson, Inverting the Pyramid, p. 244.
2For an insightful report of the conference from a soccer perspective, and an interview with Drew Carey, Zach
Slaton’s SSAC entries at http://www.abeautifulnumbersgame.com/ are a must read.
3 Id.
4A few of my frequently checked sites include:

http://www.abeautifulnumbersgame.com/

http://www.thenumericaladvantage.com/

http://socceranalysts.com/

http://transferpriceindex.com/blog/ and
http://www.futbolforgringos.com/ (for analysis of tactics with a quantitative flavor).
5http://www.eplindex.com/
6See full article at http://www.soccerbythenumbers.com/2012/02/how-efficient-are-player-salaries-in.html
7And all of this was done by stat-loving fans looking to avoid real work.
8For reference, the mating call of the Quant is “who wants a Guinness”?

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At 3:00 Eastern on Sunday, NBC kicked off its three years of MLS coverage on Sunday with a live broadcast from Frisco, Texas.  As we often do for big soccer telecasts, we prepared a business blog of the event.  Generally, the reviews of NBC’s fist broadcat were extremely positive.  Both the booth and studio teams drew high reviews and production values were first rate.

The broadcast started with a voice over promo for soccer on NBC and followed with a high production value introduction.  The live broadcast quickly moved to the field with White and Martino doing a stand-up pitchside.  The studio team was also on-site and Robbie Earle and Russel Thaler provided some good insight into some of the competitive changes facing the league in 2012.  The first set of ads came from the Marines, Dick’s, 5 Hour Energy, Panasonic and Gillette.  Both the Panasonic and Dick’s spots included MLS content.  The broadcast then came back for a quick look at starting line-ups before going to back to a set of ads for Continental Tire, KFC mycleanpc.com.

The broadcast returned with an on-field interview with Henry, an area of focus from NBC this year.  Other ads included E-Trade, Belvita, Wrath of the Titans, Subaru, Kingsford and choicehotels. Continental Tire sponsored Kyle Martino’s keys to the game. Panasonic was the first on-screen advertiser.  There was some choppiness to the broadcast in the 30th minute both we replays and some of the live footage. Arlo White announced Sleep Inn as a partner in the 32nd minute.

Halftime ads included the Marine Corps, 5 Hour Energy, mycleanpc.com, Buick, Allstate and other repeats.  Earle and Thaler were solid during the halftime show, providing good insight and a solid highlight package.  More game highlights from the night before would have been appreciated, but the analysis of the first half was solid.   The “story” focus was apparentl, as the broadcat kept coming back to the Red Bulls’ rookie goalie.

The second half continued the strong performance with the ususal suspects from the sponsors’ bench coming on screen.  Notably, FC Dallas’ new electronic signs were evident throughout and generally added to the professional atmosphere.  The postgame show was generally well done.

Overall, it was a great first effort by the league’s new media partner.  We will check back in later in the season to see how the network has changed its coverage.

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