From: mallon@hsi.com (Dan Mallon-Kraft)
Subject: Re: Japan (& soccer in the US)
Organization: 3M Health Information Systems, Wallingford, CT
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 22:34:13 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.130132.25762@abo.fi> MLINDROOS@finabo.abo.fi (Marcus Lindroos INF) writes:
>Perhaps the fact that buying advertisement space in a soccer league is far 
>less expensive than baseball & co. will become an asset? Same goes for
>television, ESPN will drop baseball unless their contract is renegotiated and
>everyone seems to be losing truckloads of money on their current deals with
>baseball and pro football. Bill Sage (the APSL commissioner) said there has
>been some interest from the corporate sector, but that no one will spend any
>money unless there is a detailed business plan. Both Alan Rothenberg and the
>American Professional Soccer League are currently working on this and expect to
>have them ready sometime next summer. My guess is that lobbying by the American
>soccer community could be very effective indeed.    

Ok, I'm feeling in an upstart kinda mood at the moment.

Before I give my 'proposal', I just want to make a point about attendances
and United States residents being interested in soccer.  I grew up playing
baseball and football and then got into soccer later in my youth (11 :-)

I don't really like to watch either of them on TV.  I always hunt around
the stations to find soccer.  College, Mexican, Italian, English, Scottish,
whatever it is, I'll watch it even when I don't have a clue what the 
announcer is saying.  I watch it because I love the game and want to see
it played at it's highest level.  Do you think that the youth of today
who all love the sport don't feel the same way?  We're growing up and we
need our thirst for soccer quenched.   It would be a hell of alot better
to not have to hunt around for a remote station that carries games and
arm yourself with a (insert foreign language) to English dictionary.

So, with that in mind, what do I propose we do?  Get addresses for major
corporations that are sponsoring the World Cup, networks, and soccer
federations in this country and we start writing letters.  First order of
business is letting the USSF know we want a league.  Second order of 
business is to tell the retarded networks like CBS that show infomercials
at 1:00 on Saturday afternoon that we'd prefer to see soccer.  Third
order of business, we write the sponsoring corporations and tell them
that we're so happy they're sponsoring the growth of soccer in the US,
that we are going out of our way to buy their products.  Fourth, write
the companies that don't sponsor the growth of soccer and tell them 
that even though we like their product, we won't buy it until they 
start supporting the sport we love.

Is anybody with me?  Are you tired of seeing baseball well after the
season is over?  I am.  Are you tired of 6 or 7 college football games
on Saturday afternoon?  I am.

A soccer league needs money, but it will die without the support of
the populace.  Let's not be apathetic, let's get out there and demand
satisfaction!!

I have the addresses of NBC and ESPN.  I need ABC, CBS, Sportschannel,
and any other station you can think of.  I don't have any addresses of
any of the sponsoring corporations (but I'm sure they're not hard to
get) and I don't have the address of the USSF (ditto).

I would be glad to draft letters to these organizations and have others
tear them apart.  Anyone want to join me?

Dan