From: MLINDROOS@FINABO.ABO.FI (Marcus Lindroos INF)
Subject: US Soccer Proposal (1/3,repost)
Organization: Abo Akademi University, Finland
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 09:15:58 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.24

This is a kind of "buyers guide" aimed at owners and executives
wishing to operate a major league soccer team in North America.
I have tried to include most of the important factors affecting a
new pro soccer league that would continue from where the old
North American Soccer League (NASL) stopped. Constructive
criticism, helpful suggestions and comments are appreciated.
---
The first thing to do is to not expect too much as the problems
will be formidable indeed. Don't even think about making money
until the 21st century. You'll have to set up a marketing
operation, run an efficient stadium, scout and develop players in
North America as well as overseas, perform all kinds of civic
duties.
  Still interested?
  OK, here is the good news. If the NASL is anything to go by, a
market for pro soccer exists - at least in some places. Teams
like New York, Minnesota, Seattle, Tampa Bay and Vancouver all
averaged more than 20000 fans for most of their existence fifteen
years ago. In 1984, soccer was by far the most successful sport
at the Olympics, again selling out most games. The next World Cup
in 1994 is expected to be even more successful. Today, we have a
lot of things the NASL didn't have, most importantly the "Pele
generation" of adult fans not knowing soccer is supposed to be a
"foreign sport", good US- and Canadian-born players and
hindsight. We know the smart moves that turned the NASL into a
major league for a brief period in the late 1970s. We also know
the dumb moves and the pitfalls that caused the league to fold
only five years after reaching the top. In other words, the time
has come for another try.

OWNERS-THE FIRST STEP:
Everything in American sports begins with the owners.
Unfortunately, as far as soccer is concerned most everything ends
here, too. No team can survive without solid financial backing
and enthusiastic ownership. Just look at the NASL, which had
teams averaging 20,000+ crowds in Seattle, Minnesota and Montreal
yet lost everything in the end because of mismanagement. One of
the main problems then was to find local millionaires knowing
anything about the sport and willing to invest money in it. The
same problem still prevails.
---
As if things weren't difficult enough already, the National
Football League and Major League Baseball (America's two biggest
pro leagues) now insist on exclusive ownership - no NFL or MLB
owner is allowed to own franchises in other sports. This is a
severe blow, for many of the NASL's competent owners were NFL
men. The league was founded by Jack Kent Cooke and Lamar Hunt,
both prominent NFL owners, while the Robbie family (long-time
owners of the NFL Miami Dolphins) controlled the highly
successful Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team. Apparently the new
league will have to get on without the financial help of these
people.
---
What kind of ownership is desirable? Corporational and
governmental ownership is not as desirable as having one wealthy
person own the team. On the other hand, the NASL's flagship
franchise, the NY Cosmos, was owned by a company (Gulf &
Western). The main problem with corporate ownership is that the
sports franchise tends to become a low-priority affair (there is
an unwillingness to hang tough if losses start to build up) and
that the team is run as a committee with disagreement as to what
coaches, players and executives the club should sign. One highly
successful NASL team (Montreal Manic) folded because the owner,
Molson Breweries, didn't know how to run the team. Foreign
companies (Mexican TV giants Televisa) and soccer clubs (mainly
British and Mexican) were no better. Top marks goes to a single
owner (or at most a partnership of two or three people) with
substantial net worth and personal commitment to soccer.
Financial stability is the keyword, the aggregate net worth for
for an ownership group's principals should be at least $100
million and the league should seek a long-term commitment from
any prospective owner. Even if all goes well, setting up a new
pro league will be very expensive and many owners will lose
several million dollars during the first five years. Still, the
owners will have to hang tough and keep their franchises in the
local communities for five years or so - no matter how many
problems there are.
---
Is finding owners willing to put up with all this impossible? No,
but it will be very, very difficult. Sports entrepreneurs do
splash out $80 million on a baseball expansion team despite
knowing it will take at least ten years before the investment
starts to pay off. But this is baseball, the traditional
"American pastime" and people (like European soccer team owners)
are prepared to endure hardships for their team. The soccer
league will be a lot cheaper to set up and run than major league
baseball, yet sports entrepreneurs will think twice before
committing themselves to it. If it doesn't sound fair it's
because it isn't.
---
To conclude, there are no shortcuts. Still, "ethnical" North
American millionaires might be worth a closer look. Some of the
main backers of Greek, Scottish and Portuguese pro soccer made
their millions in the US or Canada and trying to persuade them to
invest in soccer in their adopted homelands instead is a good
idea. The NASL did have a few English (Elton John) and would-be
English (Paul Simon!) owners. As for corporate owners, allowing
them to put the name and logo of the company on the team uniform
might make the league more appealing as a marketing tool. This is
where professional teams in Europe and South America get their
money. But where do we draw the line? Philip Morris Inc.
(Marlboro's parent company) annually spend $120 million on
Formula One racing - both supporting individual racing teams and
buying advertising space on billboards at the various racetracks.
It is entirely possible that big tobacco manufacturers would be
prepared to pay cash-starved North American soccer clubs millions
of dollars for the right to put their logos on the team jerseys.
Is this the right thing to do for a league trying to appeal to
kids and recreational soccer players?


PLAYERS - THE FOREIGN CONNECTION:
1.SIGN GOOD FOREIGN PLAYERS: This is vital if we want to give the
league credibility. With big, long-established baseball, American
Football and basketball leagues competing for the sports dollar,
soccer had better be BIG and GOOD if it is going to survive. Look
at the APSL, this was supposed to become a major league sometime
in the future but hasn't progressed an inch during its five years
of operation. Far from it, all clubs but five have folded and
most good US internationals are playing in Europe. The fans have
stayed away as well. Why? Because the APSL is no good! There are
no stars to watch and playing standards are so low most Americans
with ambitions prefer to gain experience by playing overseas.
That's sad because, for the first time ever, there are truly good
North American soccer players. US midfielders John Harkes and Tab
Ramos are valued at $2 million while Eric Wynalda has been a
scoring sensation in the German Bundesliga, and there are other
promising players waiting in the wings. The solution? Import a
few European and South American stars to give the league
credibility and appeal. The NASL went from obscurity to front
page exposure in a single year when they signed Pele for $4
million in 1975. As we will see, the key here is to sign the
right players.

2.SIGN A MIXTURE OF YOUTH AND EXPERIENCE: One of the NASL's
biggest mistakes was handling out a lot of fat, guaranteed
contracts to aging, over-the-hill foreign players. It was
horrible, almost all of the so-called stars were 33 and over and
had been out of top soccer for years. Most weren't prepared to
put anything back in and consequently managed to alienate the
fans. Why watch soccer if most of the big names are just in it
for the money? On the other hand, building the league around
young, inexperienced unknowns (local or foreign-born) is no
solution either. As usual, a combination of the two plans works
best. Young American and Canadian players who will grow with
their respective teams, should form the backbone, with a couple
of well-known GOOD foreign veterans thrown in for stability and
marketing reasons. Certainly, signing "legends" such as Pele,
Franz Beckenbauer and George Best was a smart move back in the
70s. These three (and others) were well-known and well-liked by
the fans. A truly great player remains a significant contributor
even at 33, even more so in the NASL where individual skill was
more important than "work-rate" and teamwork. But the Bryan
Robsons and Franco Baresis that might move West this time will
not be as many as their NASL-playing predecessors.
  How many foreign-born players do we need? Back in 1980, The
NASL permitted 13 foreigners per team, although "only" 8 were
allowed on the field. Most observers felt this was way too many,
especially considering how expensive it was to import players
just to have them on the bench. The solution was to import
truckloads of fringe players from the lower divisions of European
soccer. The APSL permits only three foreigners - not quite enough
for a major league. The obvious compromise, if we continue the
NASL's "one foreigner less every two years" plan would be four
non-North Americans per team. That is nine down from 1980. The
best North American players will have somewhere to play while the
foreign "star" names guarantee that the league stays competitive.
Actually, finding good local players might be a problem during
the first few years but the significant number of former indoor
league players having dual citizenship (Tatu, Preki etc.) helps
the situation somewhat.

3.AVOID CONSTANT TURNOVER: The biggest thing in establishing
soccer is continuity. Don't turn the team upside down every year
the way most NASL teams did. Mike Flanagan was elected NASL Most
Valuable Player for New England in 1978, yet he didn't return
from Britain the next season. Teams changed, owners changed,
players changed, cities changed . . . all this seriously hindered
soccer's progress in the NASL years. We want owners, players and
team officials that will grow with their clubs. No hasty
decisions and impatience, please! The APSL is the organization to
emulate here. They demanded a four-year commitment from all
interested owners when the league was formed. As a result, the
few people who do get franchises are prepared to hold on to
soccer's long-time interests rather than abandon the league as
soon as the losses start to build up. 

4.SPEND MONEY - SENSIBLY! Good soccer players, though not as
overpriced as their baseball-playing cousins, don't come cheaply.
Young, promising British (non-English), Scandinavian, South
American and Eastern European internationals usually sell for
$500,000 - $1 million. Most transfers involving good players
already on pro teams are in the $2 - $3 million range. After
this, the sky is the limit. Juventus Turin paid $24 million for
Italian star Gianluca Vialli, and few German national team
players are sold for under $3 million. We would be crazy to start
competing with the Italians, but every team should be prepared to
pay $1 - $2 million for individual players. That way, we can have
a top-class league with as many "names" as any ouside Italy and
still keep expenses within reasonable levels. Look at the
Japanese, they paid $1.5 for Gary Lineker's signature. Not much
for perhaps the best English player of his generation only barely
in his 30s.
---
However, don't spend money recklessly. Some NASL teams threw away
lots of money on expensive players and were forced to fold
because of lower than hoped-for attendances. Soccer is business,
not a toy. Do spend $3 million on that player if you believe it
will help your team, but be prepared if average gates still
remain at 10000 afterwards. Bad business decisions and
unrealistic expectations killed the NASL - not declining
attendances. 

5.SIGN BARGAIN PLAYERS: The easiest player to sign is someone who
has been written off as a bad apple. Eric Cantona is one of the
most promising players on the French national team.
Unfortunately, he has a long history of clashes with referees,
team-mates and coaches and was off-loaded to Leeds in the English
1st Division for a bargain $900, 570 5 0 360 arc stroke7$was an expensive failure for Inter Milan in 1988 and consequently
went to unfashionable Auxerre in France. There, he was one of the
league's best players and was brought back to Italy after a
strong showing in the 1990 World Cup. The new pro league will
have to become a major player in the international transfer
market if it is to survive, always on the hunt for bargains and
favorable player loans. The NASL stumbled over some quite
outstanding players, only to let them move to European clubs for
nothing and achieve fame elsewhere. Hugo Sanchez, then a
promising 21-year-old was brought over by the San Diego Sockers
in 1979. They foolishly let him move to Spain after two seasons,
where he became perhaps the best striker of the 1980s. If San
Diego had bought his rights, then loaned him to Atletico Madrid,
they could have received millions for him a couple of years
later. Same goes for Peter Beardsley, the English international
who played for Vancouver before becoming a name in the English
Football League. Liverpool paid Newcastle $2.5 million for his
signature. How much did the Whitecaps get? Virtually nothing.
Yet, smart player deals can keep even low-budget teams with
attendance problems alive. Beardsley and Sanchez could have
brought their teams thousands of new fans if they had stayed,
millions of dollars if they had been sold at the peak of their
careers (preferably to another North American team of course).
---
Then there is Diego Armando Maradona. The greatest player of his
generation and the one athlete that probably comes closest of
being a household name in America. Spain's FC Seville paid $7.5
for his services, although signing him would appear to be a
foolish move at first sight. Isn't this the person who was voted
third-most disliked person (after Saddam Hussein and Madonna!) in
Italy last year? Having a guy whose career was suspended because
of cocaine abuse playing in drug-soaked America doesn't appear to
be a smart move either. But Maradona was generally respected and
well-liked by his colleagues and it now seems like the strains of
being a star in soccer-mad Argentina and Italy put too much
pressure on him. And, even at 31, this guy really can play. In
Miami (where he currently lives) or Los Angeles, Maradona is just
another star and won't have to be afraid of receiving the  same
kind of attention he got while playing in Italy. Sure, he doesn't
speak English, but then Pele didn't either and he learned pretty
fast. Too bad no US club was prepared to sign him, at $7.5
million he was a bargain for Seville of the Spanish league.
Maradona promptly paid back as gate receipts from his first home
game totalled $3.5 million alone. Seville (traditionally one of
the smaller clubs) was offered lucrative TV and sponsorship deals
and almost certainly will make a huge profit this year. An
American team could do the same if given the chance.

6.CO-OPERATE:HAVE THE LEAGUE SIGN PLAYERS!
This is a classic method used by new up-and-coming leagues
struggling for recognition and star players. The World Hockey
Association's Winnipeg Jets signed star player Bobby Hull in 1973
and when they failed to come up with the money, they received
financial help from other teams and the league itself as
everybody knew that Hull would help not only the Jets but
everyone in the WHA.
---
The American Basketball Association went even further, signing
players by itself and pooling its resources to pay them. It would
sign stars from the rival NBA to league contracts so that if a
player signed with an ABA franchise and that team went out of
business, he would still be paid by the league. The ABA also had
the famous "Dolgoff Plan," a kind of annuity that players would
collect long after their playing days were over. The ABA teams
paid into this fund for ten years or so, and in 20 years the
thing  could be worth ten times the original sum. As only
financially stable companies were used, the players were
guaranteed a secure income even decades after the ABA folded. The
new soccer league will have to come with similar cost-saving
schemes if it is to survive, the player-pool looks particularly
attractive. Mismanagement was one of the NASL's biggest problems,
having at least one competent group of scouts and agents signing
good players, then distributing them to teams with enough money
to sign them is a great idea. While the franchise owners will be
real "soccer people," it is still a good idea to assist
individual franchises in picking the "right" players, coaches and
executives. Another plus is that it will give the league added
credibility in the eyes of the world's top players, who no longer
have to worry about signing for a "Mickey Mouse" operation or at
least worry about the financial aspects. Another possibility is
to persuade companies to pay the transfer fees in exchange for
endorsement contracts. Japanese companies have started to sign
star players from Europe, then giving the athletes to local teams
sponsored by themselves. 
---
Co-operation should not be taken lightly. No league is stronger
than its weakest franchise, and lack of democracy has put many
leagues in trouble. NBA owners were infamous for not looking
beyond the two inches of their faces and the league almost went
out of business before their new commissioner, David Stern,
managed to put pro basketball on the right track again. Today,
the NBA is a happy family where teams consult each other on
issues such as marketing (i.e, if a team comes up with a great
idea it tells other league members about it) and individual
franchises try to persuade local sponsors to support franchises
in other cities as well. In contrast, the NHL has pretty much
been about 21 greedy owners choosing a quick dollar over
long-term investments that would have helped hockey in the long
run. Most important of all will be sharing income between the
strong and weak franchises. Put simply, the New Yorks playing in
front of sellout crowds will have to help the Atlantas by giving
up some of the gate receipts, local TV and sponsorship money.


PLAYER DEVELOPMENT - DISCOVERING LOCAL TALENT

1.ESTABLISH A STRONG MINOR LEAGUE SYSTEM: This is something the
NASL neglected, only Seattle and Vancouver bothered to carry
reserve sides. Why should they? With almost all stars being
foreign, developing local talent was a waste of time and money.
The new pro league won't make the same mistake as no more than
4-5 players will be foreign. Therefore, player development will
be important. The minimum requirement is a minor league system
akin to basketball's Continental Basketball Association, where
the players not quite good enough for the NBA are being kept in
reserve. As in the other major sports, these "farm" teams would
receive most of their players and modest financial support from
the pro league. Again, baseball (with its extensive minor league
systen) is the role model, in fact there are many amateur and
semipro soccer leagues playing at the very moment. All we have to
do is somehow integrate them into the new system.

2.SIGN NON-COLLEGE PLAYERS: Like the other major sports, North
American soccer depends on the college system for player
development. Almost all promising basketball, American football
and baseball teenage stars are discovered by a college, offered a
lucrative scholarship to play for the school's sports team while
at the same time receiving free education. Young, well-educated
and good at sports - the American dream. Once they've graduated
(usually when 21-23 years old), they're free to sign for a pro
team. Unfortunately, what works for the other sports might not
work for soccer. The college system is heavily geared towards the
middle and upper classes, those who can afford to put their
children in college. Consequently, this is where most of the
players on the American soccer team come from. Except Hispanics,
there are few players coming from nonwhite and working-class
homes and almost no blacks - the sources that produce most of the
players in other countries. Baseball, Am.football and basketball
get around the problem because the colleges (who'll do anything
to assemble good sports teams) also sign many poor and
underprivilegied kids who can play - even if they aren't "college
material" in the first place. College soccer, unfortunately,
doesn't receive that kind of attention and there aren't too many
good players coming out of it, basically white, Anglo Saxon
middle class athletes not big or good enough to make it in the
big American sports. 
---
Ignored by the college soccer programs, there are the poor "inner
city" kids living in L.A., New York, Houston, Miami... Most of
these are of Hispanic descent, mainly Mexicans and Central
Americans. They are poor, speak little English, have no school
education - and love soccer. Most of them are no different from
their brothers living in the slums of Rio, Buenos Aires, Mexico
or Naples as far as soccer ability is concerned. Yet most go
unnoticed, they are never signed by local or foreign pro teams.
The new US league must find a way to discover these players! The
pro teams will have to set up "Anderlecht systems" in their home
cities to help, sign and develop underprivilegied kids. This is
what Belgian giants Anderlecht have been doing for years, signing
poor 15 and 16-year-olds showing promise from South America and
Africa, providing them (and their parents) with food and
education in exchange for a contract with one of their junior
teams. Major league baseball's "academies" in the Dominican
Republic work in the same way. "Our" system would be a lot like
these two, except we are only interested in local players. The
advantages are obvious, it would strenghten the local connection
between team and community, give grateful minorities something to
root for, not to mention the financial aspects. Running a couple
of junior teams in the local city leagues and providing financial
support for the players is far cheaper than having to sign a
dozen European or South American athletes, the way the NASL did.
---
Naturally, we do not want to ignore the college game in any way
just because of the local programs. All kinds of players will be
needed, big-name foreigners (some at the end of their careers
perhaps), up-and-coming foreigners, American & Canadian college
products, inner city kids...


THE STADIUM:

1.GET A STADIUM CONSTRUCTED FOR SOCCER:
As anyone knows, the lack of good soccer stadiums is one of the
biggest problems facing the sport. In far too many cities, a
soccer team will have to make do with a domed stadium possessing
an artificial playing surface. AstroTurf's negative impact on all
sports is well documented, yet baseball and gridiron football
grin and bear it because it is much easier to maintain than real
grass - particularly indoors. However, soccer cannot. No team can
be expected to run on carpeted concrete for 90 minutes on a
regular basis. Add to this the fact that many stadiums primarily
constructed for gridiron football are too narrow for soccer and
it is clear that something must be done.
----
The league has no choice but build new stadiums for soccer!
Otherwise, roughly half of the games will be played on carpets
like in the NASL days with devastating consequences for the
health of the players and the game in general. Nice and tidy
stadiums possessing full-size playing fields and real grass
should be the norm. The snag is, some of these stadiums will have
to be built by voter or legislative approval so the stadiums will
have to be inexpensive. Better to look at 30,000-seat stadiums
that should be big enough for all but the most important and
sought-after games. One possibility is to persuade a private
company to build as soccer stadium, then name the building after
the sponsor to show some gratitude. The domes should not be
completely abandoned, however. Playing indoors does have some
advantages, weather is no problem no matter how cold it is
outside. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------

MARKETING:

SOCCER & THE KIDS: As a participant sport for kids, soccer is
more popular than any of the "big" established sports! Therefore,
converting them into lifelong fans of the game should be a first
priority. An aggressive promotion campaign stressing soccer's
strengths as THE sport for kids is given. Soccer is fast, simple,
does not require size (unlike basketball), strength and is
(according to a Swedish survey) seventy times less dangerous than
football, where several people are killed or left permanently
paralyzed because of on-the-field accidents - every year. No
wonder soccer is popular. Getting TV exposure on Saturday
mornings, after the children's cartoon programs, is a great idea
pro basketball already has tried. The pro organizations should
also build new soccer fields and update older ones in their home
cities, so the kids have somewhere to play. Another important
thing would be to cooperate with the local soccer programs as
much as possible. The NASL used to invite local boys & girls
teams to play short warmup games before the match. The idea
behind this was of course to force their parents to come to the
stadium as well. Having a weekly "faces in the crowd" section in
the match program, introducing a number of new teenage players is
another thing deserving a closer look. Another is offering
discounts for registered players, or even let kids in for free on
"Fan Appreciation Nights." Or we could give season ticket holders
a free soccer ball - the possibilities are endless. Products
aimed at youngsters (i.e. collector cards of the stars in the pro
league) is necessary if soccer is to gain a foothold.
---
What else can be done? We can send some of the star players
(local and foreign-born) to the countless soccer camps for kids
that are being held across America every summer. Excellent "role
models" fluent in English or Spanish who know how to deal with
children should be widely available. With only one match on
weekends, the players have plenty of time to spread the gospel.
We could also send some of the biggest stars, all excellent
speakers, on a PR tour to schools throughout the home states or
provinces of the teams. Don't you think a kid who has met, say,
Jurgen Klinsmann or John Harkes is person would like to come and
see them play?


SOCCER AND WOMEN:
No country has more girls playing the game than the US. In fact,
soccer is more popular among girls than among boys, suggesting
Oscar Wilde was right after all ("Football is all very well for
rough girls, but it's not a game for delicate boys!"). The
womens' national team also boasts something their male American
counterparts won't win in the foreseeable future, namely a world
championship.
---
The new pro league must take this into account as well. Baseball
& co. are notorious for the lack of women and minorities holding
important jobs, so soccer can do a lot better in this respect.
Soccer should make great efforts to provide opportunities for its
followers. There is no reason why women wouldn't make as good
coaches (junior AND senior), referees, talent scouts and
administrators as their male counterparts. If a girl (for
example, a former US international) is interested and good enough
for the job - hire her! The message should be that there is a
place for women in this sport other than the cheerleaders squad.

SOCCER AS A MARKETING OPPORTUNITY: Everyone knows that soccer
players make up a huge group of consumers. Yet television and 
corporate America, despite pouring billions of dollars in pro
baseball, football and basketball every year, by and large
continue to ignore this segment of the sports market. Their lack
of interest for soccer is one reason why no national league has
materialized since the NASL folded in 1985. Therefore, a PR
campaign aimed at these groups will be necessary, stressing the
impressive size of the American soccer community (two million
registered players) and the possibilities it offers the business
world. In this age of global entertainment, sports like
basketball and pro football try to sell themselves overseas as
well. Soccer is light- years ahead of the rest is this respect,
and a significant number of the stars in the new pro league
should be household names overseas and in Latin America too.
Therefore, sports equipment manufacturers and the like should be
made aware of the fact that getting John Harkes', Rudi Voller's
or Gary Lineker's endorsement for a product not only sells in the
American soccer community but also in Europe  - an area with five
times the population of North America. 

SOCCER AND MINORITIES:
A vital task for any US soccer league trying to survive is
getting fan support from the local ethnic communities. This can
be difficult. The foreign-born fans do know and care more about
the game than does the average American and Canadian, but also
seem to be very discriminating. That is, the ethnic fan will
watch players and teams from his own country but won't watch
anything else.
---
The NASL was not very successful in this respect, partly because
they apparently did not know enough about the local sports
markets they were operating in. San Antonio, for example, has the
country's second-largest Mexican population (52% of all San
Antonians speak Spanish), yet the local NASL franchise didn't
sign a single Mexican and opted for a monolingual nickname
("Thunder"). This certainly wasn't the only reason why the
Thunder folded after just two season, averaging only 4000 fans,
but it must have helped.
---
The Cosmos was the role model of the NASL, they signed well-known
and well-liked players with strong local appeal. The Italians had
Chinaglia, the Germans had Beckenbauer etc.. While I am not
saying that the GMs of the pro league should assemble their teams
with a demographic chart in hand, it certainly helps to sign
foreigners with the local market in mind. That is also true for
nicknames. "Cosmos" is a generic nickname, meaning the same in
English, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian...

SOCCER AND THE MAJORITY: For all the marketing aimed at kids and
women, the league will not survive unless we manage to attract
their dads and husbands as well. White, American- born males aged
20 -40 make up the majority of sports fans. To make matters
worse, there seems to be a longing for "traditional" values in
America at the moment. As conservatives like Pat Buchanan and Pat
Robertson are talking about "feminazis," preaching isolationism
and tougher measures against illegal immigration, soccer's
"foreign" reputation could turn out to be a problem. Meanwhile,
all-white, tradition-rich, nostalgic baseball is right up there
with God, apple pie and Chevrolet as "America's Game." In an era
where a significant part of the Anglo-Saxon middle class seem to
view their new Asian and Latin neighbours as a threat, the last
thing we want to do is to allow baseball to market it self as the
"pure" American thing for those concerned about "values."
---
While there is no easy method for selling soccer to new fans,
particularly those thinking that soccer is "a silly foreign sport
for women and minorities," one way might be to market it as a
slightly different experience. These days, there seems to be
growing resentment towards the overmarketed, overhyped and
overanalyzed "established" sports. Indifferent, mediocre baseball
players that can't pitch, field and run are pulling down $1
million annually. Despite this, both American football and
baseball players repeatedly disappoint their fans by refusing to
play unless their demands are met. In these days, sacred American
values such as honesty and work ethic seems to have gone the way
of Babe Ruth. The owners and executives are no better. Despite a
deafening PR machine aimed at winning new fans, NFL owners often
hold their loyal fans as hostages by demanding favorable stadium
and TV deals - otherwise they threaten to move the team to
another city. Baseball, despite its reputation as the sport for
the people, continue to raise ticket prices and move from
national TV to high- priced local pay-per-view channels most fans
have no access to. Both leagues have had embarrassing cases of
drug misuse, gambling, harrassment of female reporters and other
public relations nightmares.
---
In the light of this, it seems that soccer should sell itself as
a simple, down-to-Earth sport. A truly international sport, so
big it doesn't have to pretend it is a worldwide affair, the way
baseball and football overhype their sports with arrogant "World
Series" and "World Championship" claims. While attending a soccer
game should be fun and entertaining to the new fan as well, some
of the excessive marketing ploys baseball & co. regularly use
could well be left out. Instead of the arrogant millionaire
approach taken by pro baseball players, soccer players should be
pleasant and accessible towards their fans - particularly to the
kids that play the sport themselves. To sum things up, an ounce
of modesty, a dose of humility and a tablespoon of innocence
might be what not only soccer but the American sports scene in
general needs.

2.MARKET REGIONALLY, NOT LOCALLY:
A small detail that undoubtedly will not be ignored by the new
soccer league, but nevertheless deserves to be mentioned. Except
NY and maybe LA, there aren't enough fans for a pro soccer team
(or almost any sport for that matter) to survive by depending on
hometown fan support only. Instead, it is necessary to get
everyone within 200 miles of the stadium and preferably the
entire state/province involved. The league had better emulate
gridiron football and European soccer and play few (2-3 home
games per month), highly-publicized games almost exclusively on
weekends so that as many people as possible turn up. Foolishly,
the NASL preferred to play as many games as possible during the
outdoor season (late spring, summer, autumn) which meant some
teams could have as many as three home games a week. 
---
Other sports routinely use offseason "caravans" for promoting
their teams in the home state. Baseball's Kansas City Royals, for
example, have their players and executives -all good speakers-
travel across Kansas and Missouri to appear at dinners, civic
clubs, schools, senior and charity events. Montreal's baseball
team, the Expos, had their manager speak with 500 amateur coaches
and generally tried to get the entire province interested in the
team and baseball before playing their first season.

3.MARKET YOUR LOGO/FIND A CATCHY NICKNAME:
Increasingly important with every new pro sports team that joins
the major leagues as the competition is tough already with 107
pro sports franchises in operation across the US and Canada. A
nifty logo and a great nickname can give even a lesser sports
team lots of publicity. When the San Jose Sharks joined the
National Hockey League in 1991, both the owners and the league
were determined to give hockey a high profile in what was thought
to be a difficult market. Therefore, great care was taken to come
up with team colors and a logo that would "sell" instantly. The
Sharks executives consulted a commercial advertising agency for
developing various designs, then had them thoroughly tested on
people before settling for a distinct gray, black and Pacific
Teal (a kind of mix between green, blue and gray) jersey and a
logo featuring a shark biting a hockey stick in half. Sharks
collectibles sold like crazy, only basketball's Chicago Bulls did
better and this in a country where hockey is very much a minor
sport.
---
The licensing department will be extremely important because, as
the Sharks showed, a great design combined with good marketing
can do a lot to help a new team catch on with the fans. Even
soccer's image problem in the States will not be much of a
hindrance. And this is big business: the average baseball team
pulls down a cool $9 million from products wearing its logo. One
of the important factors behind pro basketball's rise in the late
1980s was that their commisioner managed to turn NBA Properties
Inc. (the company that sells NBA-licensed products) from a
company that had difficulty in breaking even into a success story
that brings the league $700 million annually. There is no reason
why soccer can't do the same if two conditions are met. One, the
marketing must be first class - Major Indoor Soccer League
products were rarely seen on the advertising pages in US sports
magazines. Equally important, the product (in this case the logo/
team jerseys etc.) must be appealing to the public!
Unfortunately, many NASL/MISL teams weren't really exciting in
this respect. At least NEWSWEEK, in a recent article, reported
that exotic, foreign soccer jerseys/pants are rapidly becoming
something of a fad in America so the new league had better join
the fight soon. 
---
There should be no shortage of sportswear manufacturers willing
to support an ambitious soccer league. The NASL had a lucrative
deal with international giants Adidas who manufactured the
official league ball and most of the team uniforms in an effort
to enter the North American sportswear market.
---
As for team nicknames, ownership (usually arranging a naming
contest to get suggestions from local fans) decides what the
franchise will be called. The MISL and NASL had a habit for
selecting silly names like "Crunch","Manic","Blast" and "Attack."
All names more appropriate for pro wrestling than a "serious"
sports league. The same rules apply as for any other North
American sport, the team name should sound great and catch on
with the fans while containing a local flavour if possible (e.g.,
"Sounders" as in Seattle's "Puget Sound" area, "Cosmos" as in
NYC's "Cosmopolitan" image). Or "Golden Bay Earthquakes" - "it's
like an Earthquake/taking control/there's nowhere to run/there's
nowhere to hide!" Such is the stuff legends are made of. 

4.MARKET YOUR STAR PLAYERS:
This might sound self-evident but it isn't. The National Hockey
League has traditionally been blessed with classy, intelligent
stars like Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull who always have time for
their fans and are great spokesmen for their sport. Yet
mimanagement on behalf of the league itself has prevented most
hockey players from becoming real household names south of the
49th parallel. Pro basketball, a sport that according to some
observers was having an image problem because there were "too
many" black players, came up with a program to learn its new
players how to cope with fan attention and how to deal with the
press. Apparently the results have been good as basketball's
biggest stars tend to be the ones most cooperative off the court
as well. Curiously, both baseball and gridiron football are
infamous for the unpleasant prima-donna habits of some of its
players - yet they continue to get most of the attention from
journalists and fans alike!
---
Soccer, like hockey, will have to work hard to create a fan
following among ordinary Americans. The essential thing is that
people must care about the participants, and they will do that
only if they recognize the players. As noted earlier, the new pro
league will have to send its stars (both local and foreign-born)
to youth soccer games, charities and the like to get in touch
with "the people." Having foreign players who are able to talk to
the audience only through an interpreter is a bad idea, and
consequently the NASL tried to sign British players and others
able to communicate in English right away if possible.

5: MAKE SURE THE LEAGUE GETS ATTENTION FROM THE PRESS:
This is most likely going to be the league's biggest hurdle,
other than finding interested franchise owners. At the moment
there's virtually no newspaper coverage for soccer, in part
because there isn't much to write about as long as there is no
pro league but still. Never is the difference between the haves
and the have-nots bigger than in the sports pages. While the
tiniest rumor, the most obscure over-analyzed statistics and the
most insignificant news in baseball and pro football are taken up
and blown out of proportion by the press, soccer struggles to
find room at the bottom of the page. But don't blame the press
only. The big problem is that there are too many sports already,
with two baseball leagues, three other pro sports leagues and
college football and basketball fighting for media attention. As
it is, the attention soccer does get is almost always negative
(lack of scoring, crowd violence, Maradona's drug suspension
etc.).The NASL was frequently overlooked even while Pele was
still around, although the fact that soccer has been a popular
participation sport for twenty years now should ensure there are
more sportswriters knowing anything about the sport than before.
---
The PR department of the new league will have a lot of work to
do. In fact, getting publicity when launching the league will be
so important that temporarily BUYING advertising space in major
sports magazines like SPORTING NEWS and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED should
be considered. The ABA teams used to have someone write short
game summaries, the send them to the local newspapers so the team
would get some publicity even if the papers couldn't send a
reporter to the game. Cooperating with existing soccer magazines
(SOCCER AMERICA and SOCCER INTERNATIONAL for example) will be
vital, and an attempt should be made to increase the distribution
to  all parts of the States. Currently, far from all newsstands
sell soccer magazines. The league should take care of the basics
by making a full-color yearbook & media guide featuring schedules
for the forthcoming season, team rosters and analyses, player
profiles, stats for previous seasons and the like. Countless
independent companies publish yearbooks for baseball and pro
football, but minor sports such as hockey and soccer must do this
themselves. Trying to capitalize on other local sports events
(the NBA finals, college basketball's Final Four tournament) by
scheduling a soccer game, then inviting the hundreds of
sportswriters covering the other sport to come and watch before
the "main attraction" is a good idea.
--- 
As for the individual clubs, they should offer fans attending the
game a possibility to read about the team by selling a good match
program. British clubs are famous for doing exciting, full-color
magazines filled with interesting and informative facts. The best
English Premier League programs list both the home side and this
week's visiting team (including player-by-player portraits, stats
and photos), columns by the chairman of the board, coach and team
captain, readers pages, "Commercial Chats" (ads for team jerseys,
umbrellas, baseball caps etc.), reviews & previews of recent and
forthcoming matches and a folksy look at the local youth scene -
all in full-color. These sell for only $2 and would be even more
important in North America as it would make the fans forget about
the (anticipated) lack of coverage by local newspapers.  
  
EOF