Afternoon Delight: Growing the MLS (Part II)
By Andrew Stoltzfus at February 8, 2012 | 11:00 am | Print
While the first part of my Growing the MLS series dealt exclusively with expansion, part two will be a collection of other ideas that I believe will help the MLS market itself to the great US public.
Marketing
- The power of Video games – FIFA is one of the best selling video games of all time. Soccer fans the world over love it for it’s in depth take on the world’s game. From the transfer market, to scouting 14 year olds, and bringing the glory of earning silverware for your favorite team, FIFA lets gamers live the dream of being in control of hundreds of teams world wide. MLS has to use this tool to its full potential. Vancouver became the first MLS side to have their authentic stadium in the franchise in 2012 (the EA sports design studio is in Vancouver) and MLS should look to capitalize on that. I’m not going to pretend to know what amount of money will make it happen, but MLS should offer to write a check to make sure that the MLS experience on FIFA is the most authentic that it can be. If that means paying for an extra designer or two to make sure that every MLS stadium is authentic with its own true to life supporters groups, that would be great for the league. The true glory is in playing in the UEFA Champions League, but with this added level of authenticity in the MLS gaming experience it will intice not only US soccer fans, but also those around the globe to at least try a season in MLS if they had not previously. The more attention MLS gets, even in the gaming version, the better.
- Academy setup – Every MLS team has their own academy setup and the race to find the best Homegrown Players is on. However, the bigger this setup gets, the better for the game. Having local talent playing for the first team will grow even more interest from the local casual soccer fan. Even if you don’t have a clue about soccer, if you hear about a kid who just graduated from the high school down the street playing for a professional team (of any sport) you’re going to make sure you get to a game during the season to see it for yourself. It takes money to make these Academies what they need to be, but it get the most out of them, they have to be residential so that the trained staff can make the most of the raw talent available to them. It’s easy to see why the US lags behind the major powers in international soccer when you see that their best young talent is on the field for more than an hour a day, every day of the week from a young age, when our players are playing 3 days a week for less than an hour until they hit high school, then its every weeknight, but only for a part of the year. This not only will help the MLS, but will help US Soccer as a whole. Residency programs will also also teams to scout outside their immediate are and bring in kids from across the country. More competition for young talent, will lead to increase (and better) scouting, which will lead to a better crop of young players.
- International Friendlies – While some MLS fans hate to see the break in the season where a team plays 2 or 3 friendlies against European teams going through their preseason, it helps the league grow. As much as we all would like to think of the MLS as a juggernaut capable of matching the efforts of the other US pro sports, the MLS is still a growing league in its teenage years. The Philadelphia Union average a little over 18,000 a game last year. However, for the Real Madrid friendly 57,305 were in attendance. That means there was three times the average Union crowd. It is safe to say there were a healthy number of people there that had never seen the Union play before. It is that idea that will help this league grow. Offer something to the casual soccer fan that will get them out to see the local team for the first time, and try to get them hooked. If only 1,000 people came out to see another game the rest of the season that had never seen a Union game before that friendly, that’s an extra 125 a game the rest of the season and another couple $1000 made a game off fans who would not have gone out to a game otherwise.
- TV deals – The move away from Fox Soccer and to the new NBC Sports is a huge step for the MLS. It takes MLS away from the hardcore soccer fan that will shell out another couple bucks a month for a soccer specific channel and takes it to a network that will make it available to the random person flipping through the channels. This is the attitude that the league must continue to take. Make the game availble so that it can be “stumbled upon.” If we want our league to grow we can’t be the exclusive pub dwellers that soccer fans used to be. We need to be the face painted drunks yelling at the ref along with the face painted preteens waiting for the autograph of the player who made them love the game. It takes all types.
Look for the third and conclusion to the series next week with a look at how to increase the MLS’s stature outside of the US and Canada.
