Major league challenge

The 2010 World Cup has once again brought the spectacle of Soccer into millions of US homes. Business Management asks: can the MLS ride this wave of interest, or will Americans’ innate aversion to the sport continue to hinder its expansion?

It’s an American marketer’s dream scenario: young, good-looking, ethnically diverse friends attend a sporting event together, dressed in denim and Hilfiger, slurping Coke and chowing down on hotdogs as the pre-game entertainment pumps out the latest US chart blockbuster. Then the whistle blows, and the crowd go wild.

This scenario could happen pretty much anywhere in the world, yet one major difference sets the US apart - the sport the rest of the world will be watching is Soccer, while in the States it is most likely to be American Football, Basketball, Baseball or Ice Hockey.

Soccer has never been big business in the USA. For a nation born on a belief that its 'Manifest Destiny' has been to expand its boundaries over vast areas, Americans have been quick to capitalise on their post-war political and economic dominance to spread their cultural influence throughout the world. Yet Soccer is the only worldwide phenomenon that has remained immune to the threat of an American rival and has, in fact, shown signs of pushing against the grain and gaining a stronger foothold in the States.

There are a number of reasons for this. With much of America's cultural dominance coming post-WWII, the US was able to exercise its greater economic strength and more refined marketing techniques in order to gain an ascendant market share in a range of industries, particularly popular music, film and snack food. The world was happy to accept, too; these exciting new products augmented their own lifestyles and, if never fully usurped, often complemented other cultures' own products, diets and artistic output. 

However, in a sporting sense, America missed the boat. Soccer was already well established as the world's most popular sport long before WWII. The first World Cup took place in Uruguay in 1930. Before that, British missionaries were spreading the message of 'the beautiful game' to South America, Africa, Australia and the Asian subcontinent before the turn of the 20^th century. In effect, the British got there - both culturally and physically - first.

"If you look at Soccer in the USA, just a mere matter of 20 years ago there really wasn't any infrastructure around the game," says Kathryn Carter, Executive Vice President for Soccer United Marketing, a subsidiary of Major League Soccer (MLS) that is responsible for the league's marketing and promotion. "If you reference Europe, South America and even Mexico, there's a tradition around the sport that's generations and generations old."

Soccer's image problem

American society draws its strength and innate confidence from a level of insularity that is uncommon elsewhere. As the most influential and powerful nation in the world, America is not used to being told what to do, or what to like. But as the iconic silhouette of Michael Jordan grabbing some 'air' fades into the memory to be replaced by David Beckham's tattooed torso, has the US finally faced up to the fact that Soccer is never going to be bowed or beaten?

"We don't have to teach people about Soccer today," says Carter. "20 years ago you probably did, but today people understand what offside is; they understand what a great play is. So many people over many generations have played the game, yet before there was no product, other than kids playing the game at school."

Ah yes, those fabled 'Soccer Moms' have come to characterise the sport more than any other figure, and perhaps stigmatise it too. Sporting fandom in the US is a very macho, blue-collar realm, so the image of middle-class, SUV-driving moms carting their precious brood off to Soccer practice does not sit easily with the traditional sensibilities of the American sports fan. American kids play Soccer at school through to college level, at which point it is dropped for one of the traditional 'Big Four' - Basketball, Ice Hockey, American Football and Baseball. This cultural anomaly will take time to evolve, but Carter is confident the MLS can play a big part in changing attitudes.

"We work with a number of youth organizations but, in order to make the MLS work, we recognise that you have to really cater to the soccer fan who probably did play [as a child] and sees fandom as something different to participation. This is our best opportunity for success," says Carter.

The MLS franchise is certainly growing in strength, particularly since the arrival of David Beckham at LA Galaxy in 2007. "There are now 16 MLS teams playing in 15 different markets with billionaire ownership and nine, purpose-built soccer stadiums," says Carter. "From our perspective, the buzz factor that we see going on right now around MLS, around our teams, around our clubs in their local markets...is at a level that is, quite frankly, at an all-time high."

We have been here before, of course. The ill-fated North American Soccer League (NASL) was first conceived in 1968, yet it was not until the mid-1970s that it attracted global recognition, thanks in no small part to the arrival of three aging superstars of the game - Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and George Best. Interest in these alien sporting 'stars' peaked at 40,000 fans per game, yet overexpansion of the league and a withering interest in the sport ultimately sounded its death knell in 1984.

How, then, is the MLS any different? While it has its aging superstar in David Beckham, it also has a much more sophisticated marketing arm, and instant media beaming the game to a greater number of viewers. But it is also lacking an American hero, and overseas competition from the English Premier League (EPL) and Spain's La Liga is strong. In such a tough market, how can the MLS be expected to compete?

A new kind of fan

Soccer is a simple sport based upon two equal halves of play. It is low scoring, often tense and deeply tribal. Feverish support adds atmosphere to the cauldrons of Europe's finest stadiums. There is no need for pre-, mid- or post-game entertainment, the drama is there: on the pitch and in the stands, which is something Carter recognises. "We've been looking at how our core fans are consuming the product. They're really engaging with us at a level that they never did before.

"Whether that means they're coming to the stadiums and painting their faces, or they're coming up with the chants and cheers you see around the rest of the world, it's a different type of consumption than what we saw previously; we're really starting to recognise avid fans that live and die by their team's performance on Saturday."

This improved relationship between the MLS and the local Soccer communities is key to its continued growth and strength. For all the millions of Soccer lovers in the States, if they do not believe in and support their own league, there can never be wider acceptance of the sport. "If you're willing to paint your face and you're willing to learn the songs to sing on behalf of your team," concludes Carter, "if you're willing to be that 12^th man, then you're much more likely to buy a shirt, to buy a season ticket, to come on to the website and read more articles - this is something we can monetize."

The timing could not be better. At the World Cup in South Africa this summer, there were more ticket buyers from the US than any other country. The US also paid more for broadcasting rights than any other country. The US also has more registered Soccer players than any other country. The scene is set. The desire and appetite for the sport is there. The MLS just needs to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity.

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Biography

Founded in 2002, Soccer United Marketing (SUM) is the preeminent commercial soccer company in the United States. SUM holds the exclusive rights to the most important soccer properties in the nation, including: all commercial rights to Major League Soccer; the United States Soccer Federation and all men's and women's national teams; promotional and marketing rights to Mexican National Team games on U.S. soil; and marketing, promotional and broadcast rights to the prestigious eight-team Mexican club tournament - InterLiga. In addition, SUM holds the English-language broadcast rights in the U.S. to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. SUM managed the marketing and promotion of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the region's premier soccer tournament for national teams, and the highly successfully Real Madrid American Tour in July 2005.

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The MLS in Numbers:

110 - Price in dollars of a Beckham LA Galaxy jersey

77 - Average ticket price for an MLS game

3 - The number of 'overpaid' players each MLS team can recruit that contravene strict wage caps

10 million - Beckham's annual salary, the highest in the MLS

20,100 - The lowest annual salary for a player in the MLS

15,894 - average attendance in 2009

16 - Years the MLS has been in existence

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The New Messiah?

Does the MLS need an American superstar on which to hang its hook? If so, here are the potential frontrunners:

Jozy Altidore

Currently playing in the EPL for the less-than-glamorous (and recently demoted) Hull City, Altidore actually belongs to the Spanish team Villarreal. A powerful forward, this 20-year old will be hoping for a positive World Cup in order to raise his profile.

Michael Bradley

This 22-year old midfielder is the son of the national coach (Bob Bradley) yet it is his dynamism, not nepotism, which has made him the beating heart of the US team. He plays in Germany, but could be headed to the EPL if he impresses at the World Cup.

Brad Guzan

Following in the footsteps of a proud line of US goalkeepers, Guzan is a promising young player who plies his trade for Aston Villa of the EPL, where he is understudy to his compatriot Brad Friedel.

And the one that got away...

Freddy Adu

Highly-touted at the turn of the Millennium as the player that would put the US firmly on the Soccer map, Freddy's nascent excellence was all but burnt out by his early 20s, prompting plenty of observers to scoff: 'much Adu about nothing'.