Is anyone out there aware that the Major League Soccer Playoffs are going on right now? Anyone? Anyone?
This is supposed to be the big-money-no-whammies portion of the American soccer season, is it not? MLS has reached the win-or-go-home phase, the moment when everyone is supposed to tune in and see who wins that shiny new Anschutz Trophy. After all, this league has spent all season downplaying its clubs’ involvement in the CONCACAF Champions League and the U.S. Open Cup, because hey, the MLS season is more important. Now it all comes down to this.
So where’s the advertising blitz? Did I miss it? Did Soccer United Marketing pass me over? Does MLS not want American sports fans to know that the playoffs are on? Do they not want anyone to see guys like Brian McBride, Sacha Kljestan and Dwayne DeRosario compete to become this country’s domestic champion?
Right now, the biggest stories in MLS seem to be David Beckham wanting to get out of his contract with the L.A. Galaxy and Landon Donovan wanting to give European football another try. We should be focused on the clubs that are in the playoffs, but instead, the focus is on two big names who want out now that their so-called superclub has utterly failed on the pitch.
Doesn’t that sound like a failure in marketing? MLS and SUM appear to have no control over their message right now. It might be a sign that the league has lost its way. Perhaps instead of giving big money to European stars that won’t attract casual fans, MLS should go back to its original mission — developing American talent. Right now, the top American talent would rather not play in the top American league. What does that tell you?
Oh, by the way, attendance is off this year. That might be a result of $4/gallon gas more than anything, but that has to be a concern, does it not?
Also a concern: ESPN is cutting deals to stream Carling Cup and Coca-Cola Championship games online, a sure sign that the WWL is moving closer to its goal of acquiring the broadcast rights to the Premier League. Once the ESPN audience gets a good long look at the English leagues, will it still care about the American league?
The powers that be in MLS seem to think so, and hey, they might be right, but that doesn’t mean they can just sit back and count on the audience to come to them. SUM needs to spend some of that Beckham jersey cash to make fans care about these playoffs. Otherwise, the audience will ignore MLS just as much as it ignored its own Champions League, and that’s no good for anyone.
13 responses so far ↓
1 dean // Nov 6, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I hope ESPN doesn’t get the streaming rights. My ISP doesn’t carry ESPN360 because they refuse to pay the extortion fees. Their business model is bunk. If they did, my non-sports fan neighbors would be on the hook to help cover the cost for my sports coverage.
Instead it should be a subscription service similar to Setanta, Aussie Sport TV, or MediaZone.
I also hear the broadband service is questionable. It has been known to drop when to many people connect.
2 Dave // Nov 6, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I would LOVE it if they offered a subscription service. LOVE it. =^)
ESPN is probably doing ESPN360 the way it is because if they opened it up to everyone, they couldn’t get away with demanding those huge fees from the cable and satellite TV companies. I don’t like the WWL’s current business model, either, but we’re stuck with it for now.
3 dean // Nov 6, 2008 at 3:34 pm
I actually read the article. I see Setanta will be supplying them with the content. At least I’ll still have access.
What I fear about ESPN360 is that they will push competitors out of the way for a service that might be second rate. I like Setanta, MediaZone and Aussie Sport. IMHO MediaZone is the best. They are now streaming content at 1200kps. I’m sure the other’s will follow soon. Not sure about ESPN360 though. If it is anything like the crappy NFL Sunday Night Football on NBC (which doesn’t expand to full screen), they can keep it.
4 dean // Nov 6, 2008 at 4:10 pm
BTW – You are right about MLS. It is a snooze fest when compared to the English Leagues. They can move as fast as a hockey game and are just as exciting.
5 Alan // Nov 6, 2008 at 5:14 pm
MLS is kind of hurting after the Beckham expirement failed. And with ESPN showing Champion’s league matches, World Cup and Euro matches in past summers, American audiences are realizing how bad this league is. As Dean said, MLS is boring and lacks flow. I’m not sure how you fix those problems, but MLS isn’t doing much to attract viewers.
6 woodpeck // Nov 7, 2008 at 5:01 am
True, MLS is dropping the ball here and its not all about Becks. Its their time to shine (no other sport is in the playoff mode) and getting the MLS message out is falling on deaf ears or is not even trying to get out. Our market didn’t make the playoffs but i wonder what if any hype is happenin’ in the markets that did? That aside, a continent wide AD strategy should be in place so that if you were a Columbus Crew fan in Portland (for example), you could still get excited.
7 Alan // Nov 7, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I watched a bit of the Chicago-New England match last night, and the place was packed. Real Salt Lake had good attendance in their home playoff match too, so I think the local markets are energized, but nationally no one cares.
Dare I say, its like Arena Football?
8 Dave // Nov 7, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Alan: Actually, hockey’s been much the same way lately. The arenas are packed, but unless the playoffs are on or there’s video of a huge hockey fight somewhere, we really don’t see that much of it.
Or perhaps football, like politics, is local, and support for your local club always outweighs the national outlook. In this country, anyway.
9 Ludwig // Nov 7, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I’m a recent MLS convert and I agree that they could be doing more in terms of marketing their league. David Beckham paid off I think in terms of raising “top of mind awareness” of MLS, but now perhaps at the risk of lowering the league’s reputation in the wake of the AC transfer. MLS really has to compete for the hearts and minds (and dollars) of Joe Sixpacks to be more than a minor league.
MLS has stiff domestic competition from pro basketball and football. Basketball’s mostly continuous format mirrors soccer in many ways and I’ve read that this is why soccer will never take off here. I’ve also read that Europe’s immense losses in WWI and WWII have turned them off to violent shows of force seen in rugby and American football. Whereas the US’s minimal losses and quick victories (due to our late entry) is why we love a good war and football is so popular here. At best these are superficial judgements and they don’t quite hit at the heart of what’s going on. I think acceptance of soccer in the US can only go up as we get more and more immigrants that come from soccer cultures and the sport continues to be the game of choice for youths.
My grandfather’s and father’s generation exposure to soccer was limited at best, whereas I played on a team at the age of 4. Change is coming, but MLS will need more time to build a grassroots system of support for soccer that predominates much of European society.
10 Will // Nov 7, 2008 at 3:30 pm
@ Ludwig:
Don’t talk about the grass roots too much, or Dave will do another post regaling us with the glories of the Carolina Railhawks.
@Dave:
Just kidding, for the most part. I will be very interested to see how pro soccer in the US continues to develop, and a healthy USL lets those of us who want a local pro side to root for hedge our bets.
11 a different Dave // Nov 8, 2008 at 4:15 am
Part of the problem with playoffs is that MLS over-relies on block sales of tickets to youth soccer leagues. This is a cheap and easy way to market, but it requires lots of lead time and is difficult or impossible to do during the playoffs when there is very limited lead time since you don’t know when and where a match is going to be played until maybe a week in advance. This limits attendance to the true fans who are following the team closely and who don’t need to be reminded about when a match is going to be held.
Also, Dave, when talking above average drop in MLS attendance, you need to keep some factors in mind, which most people who aren’t following MLS closely don’t know: for instance you have to take into account that in 2008, unlike in 2007, you have two teams, San Jose and Kansas City, playing in tiny temporary 10,000+ seat stadiums, which pushes down the average.
I expect the average will go up a bit in 2009, with RSL drawing higher averages with their new stadium, and it should go up even more in 2010 when Red Bull Arena opens in Harrison NJ. San Jose and Philadelphia’s stadiums are approved and work will start next year; at some point Kansas City and DC and New England will get their stadiums approved and built. And so on.
New SSS won’t always result in higher average attendance (see pathetic FC Dallas for example) if the SSS is in a bad location and the team does nothing to market itself, but on the whole the prospects for MLS are positive. It’s foolish to look at a one year dip in attendance and draw overly broad conclusions from that.
Also Dave I think you are grossly exaggerating the Euro Snob effect. The people who won’t watch MLS because it isn’t as good as the EPL, weren’t watching MLS when the EPL was not available on their TV, so MLS isn’t losing any more fans if these people suddenly do have access to EPL on their TV. Increased elite level soccer coverage on ESPN means more soccer fans in the USA; it may not mean more MLS fans but it certainly won’t mean FEWER MLS fans.
All MLS needs to do, frankly, is to continue to exist at a reasonable level, and let nature take its course. Teams like FC Dallas, if AEG chooses, can coast along with minimal average attendance and still break even. Teams that put in more effort and have their own SSS can make money. But it takes a long time to build up the large loyal fan bases that keep fans coming to games with minimal marketing and a losing team. A team that has only been around for a decade doesn’t have that kind of following, and isn’t going to have that kind of following for a long time.
12 dean // Nov 9, 2008 at 3:49 pm
“Or perhaps football, like politics, is local, and support for your local club always outweighs the national outlook. In this country, anyway.”
Not in Detroit anymore. I think the fans here have pretty much had it with the Lions. The last two home games have been blacked out, and no one really cares.
13 dean // Nov 9, 2008 at 3:53 pm
“because it isn’t as good as the EPL, weren’t watching MLS when the EPL was not available on their TV”
I’ve been watching MLS for the last several years, and will continue to do so.