More "blah blah blah" from Garber - "a powerful soccer nation"

From the KSL article about the Miller's buying RSL there was a quote from Garber. 

"The fact that we, together, can take this sport and combine the power of what makes sports so important and how it can enrich and improve lives," Garber said. "Particularly in a state like Utah that has such strong participation, speaks to the momentum and the vision and the opportunity that this sport, this club, and our sister club, the Royals, can have in just making our country a powerful soccer nation."

I can't stand Garber, never could even when I was a die hard "MLS can do no wrong" fan.

But he thinks MLS and the NWSL can make the US a powerful soccer nation. Dude, have you not been paying attention? The US is getting worse at soccer, not better!

MLS has been around almost 30 years! And women's soccer I have no idea, sometimes it is here and sometimes it goes away.

But over the past 30 years, with maybe one or two exceptions, the US has never gotten better at soccer on the world stage. We are always struggling to even qualify for the World Cup, last time we didn't even make it. 

And Garber keeps spewing this garbage about us becoming a powerful soccer nation. One can argue it is because of MLS and the lack of real competition that the US has never been, and most likely never will be a powerful soccer nation. 

Dude, get lost.

Oh, and by the way, the Utah Warriors are now in 1st place in Major League Rugby. How's RSL doing?

Bill Burr on women's soccer and basketball - *WARNING* - there are about 30 F-bombs dropped during this video

Deconstructing the American game and the problems so many thought never existed

(thesefootballtimes.co 10-30-17)

For the American game at large from every conceivable angle – nothing is what it seems. A diverse country with vast amounts of resources and a well-established sporting infrastructure has ensured these necessary elements – diversity and resource allocation – aren’t utilised to maximise the American game. From the outside, American football looks like a buzzing and thriving sport. In many ways, that is true. However, looking past the dog and pony show, unsettling elements are at play.

American football requires a shot of truth serum to make headway beyond merely being a participant in world football. That shot might as well be rattlesnake venom because American football is indeed snakebitten.

The prevailing perspective shouldn’t solely focus on the failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. Rather, American football must frame its expectations differently. The more apt conversation should be about why the US is not capable of challenging for the World Cup instead of merely not qualifying. That discussion requires addressing the plethora of issues and the lack of accountability from the top-down.

The US has coupled participation trophies as the ultimate reward instead of actual development in youth sports, mainly football, must own up to some unsettling realities. If qualifying for the World Cup out of CONCACAF, a region designed for the US and Mexico to emerge from, is a standard, then it’s clear mediocrity has become the standard.

It’s not enough to ask whether or not US Soccer – from a federation level – wants to merely participate or if it intends to actually compete on the world’s stage. Here’s why: for the last 25 years, American football fell into a cycle of congratulatory acclaim for triumphs on the men’s side of the game: hosting the 1994 World Cup, setting up Major League Soccer and keeping it afloat, and qualifying for seven consecutive World Cups since 1990. For all the good those milestones did, other countries within CONCACAF  improved too – largely due to the resources available within the US.

The American game finds itself at a crossroads whose intersection is the focal point where questions, accusations and troubling realisations have collided. For the first time in recent memory, issues that continue to hamper development now dominate all American football-centric discussions and debates.

Before change can occur, identifying the ills and shortcomings of the system must be addressed starting with the entities that dictate and run US Soccer, Major League Soccer, and Soccer United Marketing (SUM). This collection people and businesses controlling American soccer’s trajectory look determined to continue to resist the systemic reform and wholesale changes necessary to maximise the potential of American football.

Dissecting and analysing American football is an exercise in madness. Conversations and debates range from franchise models versus fan-owned clubs, playoffs versus single table league standings, promotion-relegation versus a closed system, and the type of athletes that play football to name a few. As relevant or idiotic as those arguments may or may not be, one element continues to be ignored: culture. Culture dictates everything when it comes to a sport like football. 

The United States has no shortage of resources, players, fields, minivans, orange slices and participants. What it doesn’t have is a true culture on a large-scale basis. Vital elements like self-play, recreation games, and street football are not woven into the fabric of society in ways that basketball, American football and baseball are.

From the earliest years, parents and coaches ensure any creativity is coached out of players. Youth tournaments are regionalised and nationalised when competition ought to be localised – an element that has turned a working-class, simple sport into a cash cow, money-fuelled business. By the time a youth player is established, the game functions like a chore or extracurricular activity more than it does a lifestyle. Parents demand results for monies paid to coaches with an eye on results over development.

Football is not part of the every day for enough of American society. Yes, there are pockets and players that live and breathe the game – and in many ways, they are the ones who lose out the most. Not enough kids dribble to the bus stop with a ball at their foot, nor do enough congregate at parks or in the cul-de-sacs across the country to play in unsupervised and unstructured environments. Where other countries have courts dedicated to and populated with aspiring players of all ages and ability levels living, breathing, and bleeding the game, the US continues to lock the gates, post the “stay off the field” signs, and ignore the fundamental aspect and form of football, which needs to start at home.

There is a curious culture associated with the American game. As trendy, enthusiastic, patriotic and hip as it may be, this culture is also misguided. The culture dominating football is a strange coalescence of jingoistic, beer-soaked support that is incredibly fervent. However, no matter how overzealous the pageantry and patriotism may be, the critical element of authenticity isn’t there. Instead, it’s a chop and drop job of ‘mockney’ and capo-led chants spliced with traditional American sports rallying calls shoehorned into the global game. Fans can proclaim their team name and add “till I die” all they want – the dominant culture still lacks the elements that make passion for the game a lifestyle, not a seasonal thing. 

Make no mistake, football is still regarded as a niche sport in the US – this is by design. One has to wonder what would happen football if casual attitudes and platitudes were deprioritised. Accountability – on and off the pitch – would reshape football from the top-down. As it stands, the accompanying media and pundit teams tasked with covering the sport is largely-compromised, fearful of losing access for asking the critical questions of Major League Soccer, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), and really, of itself.

A lack of accountability and journalistic integrity has helped dictate the tone of a fanbase that is either conditioned to default to a just-be-grateful-football-exists-here stance, thus diverting and convoluting necessary elucidation of the system, national team programs, domestic leagues as outright attacks. It’s this misconception that has driven a pike into American’s fan base and history.

For some, football has always been part of the American sporting landscape with a rich history of the U.S. Open Cup and numerous friendlies, historic games and leagues that warred with other sports and football itself triggering the death knell for the game for extended periods of time. But for others, it truly began in 1994 with the World Cup in the US or perhaps in 1996 when Major League Soccer kicked-off. The disparate points of views are hot-button debates in any noted circle.

Presently, the state of American football should never have been defined by one game, but that’s exactly what happened. The fate or success of the game at-large shouldn’t rest on the shoulders of 11 players and a bullish manager that could not find a way to win when it mattered most, yet this is precisely what is happening.

Discussions revolving around this snapshot risk being disingenuous and ignoring the success and excellence of women’s football, which has been able to make winning a tradition and World Cup triumphs a standard. And there, too, the world is catching up.

Football hangs on tenterhooks as the philosophical clash between the status quo of American sporting ideologies that long baulked at a sport it deems foreign, soft and “un-American”. The complexity of the game is a frustrating case study of clashing philosophies gone awry in such bewildering and unnecessary ways.

There’s more to the American game than the USSF seems to recognise. The federation, with its surplus of funds, resources, labels and influence, governs a sport that is disjointed top-to-bottom. The lack of continuity between the federation and any feeder associations, clubs and leagues has shown that American football’s footprint is defined by warring factions and fiefdoms, all of which are looking out for their own business interests.

We indeed find ourselves in strange times.

The condition of the game has never been falsely greater than at the present. In many ways, the story of American football represents the parable of Daedalus and his ill-fated, arrogant son Icarus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The wings Daedalus made for himself and Icarus represent the power that comes with harnessing their utility. The United States and the powers at be claim to have the knowledge, infrastructure and the power to be successful.

In the mythological story, the instructions for Icarus were simple: resist the urge to fly too high to avoid the heat of the sun from melting the waxed coated wings and not to allow his level fall too low lest the sea foam to soak the feathers rendering flight impossible. The men’s national team attempted to soar high while dropping its standards far too low. The result was arguably the most ridiculous collapse in American football history.

Peeling back the layers, the inconvenient truth is that the USSF and the men’s national team, composed mainly of players from Major League Soccer, played the tragic character whose hubris clung like a wet cape. The team’s concentration, partly-deterred by a coach’s arrogance before the match, didn’t compete and execute. In more metaphorical terms, it flew too close to the sun and, in so doing, melted the paraffin wax that held its meekly-constructed wings together. American football, not just the federation and the national team, got burned.

On that fateful night in Trinidad and Tobago, along with far too many other performances during this past World Cup qualification cycle, the team was disjointed, unmotivated and unwilling to take control of the contest. As such, the ascension of the American game, the progress of the domestic game and national program that Sunil Gulati, Bruce Arena, scores of MLS pundits and media members, and loyal, league-serving fans claim has reached great heights over the better part of 25 years, seems less impressive.

And so, a quarter of a century and some change after qualifying for the 1990 World Cup – against Trinidad and Tobago, no less – it is American football’s ascension that’s matched by its plummet back to earth in a sobering and shocking reality. The fiery re-entry into an unforgiving atmosphere stings. And this hangover is going to last as long as the behaviours that caused it in the first place persist.

American football is plagued by many things. Revisionist history, protectionist practices, relying on the next youngster to save the American game, depending on a system that makes it possible for predominately affluent families to excel in, are but a few of the myriad of systemic issues. The most egregious issue, however, may be allowing the game to remain in total control by monopolists asserting that the current closed system is the best way. Perhaps two decades ago, that may have been the case – but the times have changed. The football world has grown more intertwined with business, and a generation of Americans are waiting for and wanting for a new system.

As the election for president of US Soccer approaches, the waiting and wanting of a new system will not be enough if Americans are not willing to work for change. The prevailing attitude that the closed system works is not wrong. It does work as a monopolistic business model. As a football model, however, it continues to impose a ceiling on itself. The US game continues to handcuff itself by not prioritising systemic reform.

The inconvenient truth of American football is that it is fuelled by enablers lurking in the shadows. These enablers pounce on every success, taking credit when it’s convenient while masterfully having excuses at the ready for every shortcoming whether it be the “newness” of MLS and a stable league in the US compared to foreign leagues. Again, American football has a richer history than many care to acknowledge, allowing apologists for the current system to baulk at talk of reform.

Elements of Major League Soccer, from the media to messaging, is conciliatory, acting as an effective force channelling faux platitudes and pumping ridiculous narratives such as predicting MLS will be a ‘top five league by 2022’. Moreover, Major League Soccer and its messaging does a masterful job of convincing the casual American fan base that it must relent and submit to a totalitarian system built on centralised control — a bold triumvirate of the power structure of Major League Soccer, Soccer United Marketing (SUM) and the USSF.

American football is a paradoxical fabrication of a sporting ethos at war with itself. A partitioned ‘soccer-first culture’ is no longer silent; it’s aggressive in its expression of dissatisfaction. The overarching, general distaste for football by the mainstream public and media personalities continues to clash with dominant pockets of the game at odds with the stagnation and convolution of the domestic league structure and governance methods.

Many who grew up supporting MLS and football on every level – before the glitz and glamour, television deals, Eurocentric rebrands and a slew of other marketing strategies – have morphed into a subculture demanding change.

Today’s fan, player and coach has access to the global game and a higher standard of play. Where a generation or two ago young players could only dream of watching the best players and teams every weekend, today’s audience sees at a molecular level. The effect places pressure on the domestic leagues, especially MLS, to raise the quality of the product on the pitch.

The debate as to whether Americans like MLS or not is off the mark. Americans prefer foreign leagues over MLS and want the domestic product to maximise its potential and improve. Again, culture is everything. Young players grow up dreaming of playing abroad, not in the US. Ironically and predictably, this leads to a predictable us versus them narrative where MLS fans and the media have twisted the narrative to frame those who criticise MLS as agents that ‘aren’t helping the American game’.

In the US, people have mistaken participation in football for quality. The truth is that the current system isn’t constructed to produce the requisite talent to dominate on the global or regional stage frequently enough. Of course, there are outliers, but it can be argued that those players and coaches developed despite the system, not because of it.

American football is still too off-the-pace with the global standard and mired in false equivalencies to such an extent that its reality is skewed and full of misnomers. The term “academy” and the flippant use of labels creates a false sense of quality. Major League Soccer is not a major league. It’s not nearly competitive enough on the field with top club sides residing in CONCACAF let alone compared to top European and South American teams.

Young players grow up siloed in grandiose categories of lie-ridden semantics that define the cost-heavy family and player-funded youth system. Many actually believe if their club team is called elite, premier or select, that it is, which is not only an outright misappropriation of the perception and terms – it’s a marketing ploy to fuel the industry that is youth football.

Examining why on the men’s side the US failed to qualify for the last two Olympic cycles and the 2018 World Cup is essential and painstaking. Factors such as pay-to-play, affordable and available coaching education, the absence of an open and connected tiered professional system (promotion-relegation), the refusal of the USSF to incentivise and reward player development by way of solidarity payments and training compensation, the reliance of the restrictive collegiate system at a crucial age range, all play a pivotal role. Identifying and listing the obvious and not-so-obvious elements contributing the latest failure of the national team only tells part of the story.

There is enough blame to go around for failing to qualify for the World Cup in such a ridiculous manner. This latest fail point is merely a symptom of attempting to shoehorn a truly global game into a restrictive and Americanised schema. The outright refusal to pump more resources, focus attention, improve education and a put a substantive presence in the country’s underserved communities, be they rural or urban, has resulted in a dependence on the typecast suburban-centric archetype of the American player.

Furthermore, the type of player produced at the US Soccer Development Academy level is technically and arguably tactically more talented and superior than any preceding generation, yet that same type of player has neither the compete level nor the creativity to find a way to win, as evidenced by consecutive Olympic qualification cycles before crashing out against a Trinidad and Tobago team playing for pride.

This fault falls less on the players and more on the system by which these players were produced and promoted. Make no mistake, the system’s business motivations suppress the player and coaching development and total advancement of football on the field. The industry that is American football is predicated on appeasing cheque-signing parents, producing coaches that value results over development, and shielding the sport from true criticism.

Many are asking what is necessary to change the landscape and fortunes of American football and those involved are not asking the wrong questions – they are having the wrong conversation. There is unlikely to be a single solution that operates as a panacea for all the ills and deficiencies of the domestic game from the youth to professional levels. If there is one, it is a truly open system where player development becomes an industry. Where investment in all tiers of the game is not a Ponzi scheme but a truly open and free market. Additionally, incentivising player and coaching development must be key drivers. Creating and fostering football as a cultural pillar is paramount.

So, what does progress really look like?

Looking at Germany, Belgium and even Iceland’s reboots are helpful, and elements of those models can be implemented in the US, however, wholesale copy and paste comparisons will not work. Perhaps shifting expectations to more realistic levels is the first step forward. Instead of labelling anything related to American football as “world-class”, the USSF should aim to make the necessary reformation steps to help the current and future generations.

The American game has been found out. It needs less marketing and more implementation to correct the false sense of entitlement throughout the system. Results-wise, the American standard of play and player is falling behind at the senior level. At the youth levels, be it with the national team or at clubs, American players remain competitive until around the age of 17 or 18. Here, yet another imposed ceiling in the form of a restrictive collegiate system where little-to-no development can occur only hampers coaches and players. Without a cohesive nine-month college system, the 18 to 22 age range continues to be shanghaied.

The most obvious element is the scarcity of professional teams and a professional system that should have no fewer than four or five tiers covering the American landmass; it’s no surprise the American game is at risk of falling further behind.

For all the reported commercial success of Major League Soccer, the standard of play and the standard of the player produced has plateaued. MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, is on record stating that the league continues to lose money year after year. The league’s formation hinged upon many promises, one of them being the development and advancement of the American player and the men’s national team program.

MLS has marginalised the American player in a multitude of ways in the pursuit of commercial success and in an attempt to popularise itself to a subsection of new-to-football fans. For example, if a team had a $30 million payroll in MLS, it’s likely three well-known, ageing, domestic or international players are making $27 million while the rest make peanuts. As hyperbolic as that example may be, it’s what has happened.

Major League Soccer, the NASL, and USL, NPSL, and PDL levels require cohesion. There has to be a pathway between the professional and semi-professional levels for players to improve in. Reform is as necessary as it is unlikely with the current powers at be in place. Football in the United States is a business, and it has run amok.

Time will tell whether the American game can learn and evolve. The best case scenario is taking advantage of the time before the next cycle lest that time take advantage of US Soccer. From a leadership perspective, it must throw the ego out. American football has far too many con men operating as confidence men. The time for change is long overdue. The players, resources and potential exist. The task is recognising that problem exists and addressing it immediately, collaboratively and effectively.

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2017/10/30/deconstructing-the-american-game-and-the-problems-so-many-thought-never-existed/

FC Barcelona to open academy in New York

The club is expanding its US presence

(by Parker Cleveland starsandstripesfc.com 10-22-17)

The U.S. youth development system is poised to add a new member, FC Barcelona. The world soccer giants have announced that they will open a youth training center in Long Island, New York. The news comes on the heels of Barca opening an academy in Casa Grande, Arizona and its nationwide programs in cities throughout the country. Youth academy players will be trained by coaches from La Masia, Barcelona’s famed development system in Spain.

Barca has joined with Prospect Sports Partner, LLC in order to pursue the project. PSP will essentially construct the 10 field complex and the two organizations will share the revenue. The initial contract for the Long Island academy will be for 10 years with an option to renew the contract for another 10 when it expires.

The team has yet to fully release details, but its facility in Arizona includes dormitories as well as a high school. According to the team, every player that graduates from its program in Casa Grande either earns a college scholarship or professional contract. In addition to being a potential pathway to playing for Barcelona in Spain, the academy is a member of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy system.

Barca has repeatedly shown their interest in developing soccer in the U.S. In addition to the academy in Arizona and announced on in New York, the team has approved plans to have a team in the NWSL. The expansion of the Barcelona footprint in the states illustrates the potential for the continued growth in the country and the commitment that the club has to being a part of it.

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https://www.starsandstripesfc.com/2017/10/22/16514886/fc-barcelona-to-open-academy-in-new-york

The explosion of soccer on TV

(by Greg Lalas mlssoccer.com 8-24-11)

This may be an apocryphal comment made by European visitors and remembered by American soccer fans always looking for the silver lining, but there’s a significant symbolism to it:

You can watch more live soccer on TV here than in Europe.

It’s probably true. Today, US audiences have their choice of three soccer-specific channels, a regular presence on the ESPN networks and four Spanish-language channels that regularly show live matches. Then there are the various satellite channels, such as RAI (Italy), TV5Monde (France), TV Globo Internacional (Brazil) and that glorious section of DirectTV dedicated to the beautiful game.

Plus, starting in 2012, NBC and the new NBC Sports Network will join the party when they begin broadcasting MLS and US national team games.

In a typical week these days, a US-based soccer fan gets to choose from upwards of 50 live matches on cable TV alone (i.e., not on satellite).

Life was not always so clover-filled for soccer fans. Two or three decades ago, finding soccer on the tube was as likely as finding a baseball game in Uganda.

CBS broadcast the NASL for a few years in the 1970s, including airing Pelé’s debut for the New York Cosmos in 1975. The lead broadcaster on the 1976 Soccer Bowl was Jon Miller, whose voice eventually brought him an induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Miller was also the play-by-play man for a network called TVS — a group of affiliated channels akin to today’s Comcast network — who covered the NASL in 1977 and 1978.

ABC broadcast the NASL in 1979 and 1980, with Jim McKay on play-by-play and longtime Soccer America writer Paul Gardner doing color commentary.

And after that, for all intents and purposes, the game disappeared, particularly on the national level. The fledgling ESPN and USA networks showed a few games here and there, including random indoor games and the occasional FA Cup final, but for the most part, soccer fans were forced to find satellite dishes at the local Irish pub or make due with PBS’s brilliant Soccer Made in Germany.

Yes, at one time, PBS was the champion of soccer on the airwaves.

How things have changed. And soccer fans are taking advantage of this bounty.

The 2010 World Cup 2010 between Spain and the Netherlands was viewed by 24.3 million people in the US and another 5.8 million in Canada. Nearly 13.5 million people tuned into ESPN for the 2011 Women’s World Cup final between the United States and Japan.

Much of soccer’s growing popularity in the United States can be attributed to the success off the US men’s national team. The numbers don’t lie: The USMNT’s 1990 World Cup opener against Czechloslovakia was watched by about 858,000 people on TBS; their round of 16 match against Ghana in 2010 drew more than 15 million on ABC.

Based on the North American Soccer Almanac’s survey, soccer fans here are consuming more soccer than ever in more ways than ever.

Fully 56 percent of respondents say they subscribe to particular TV channels “specifically in order to watch soccer.” Nearly 40 percent of respondents say they watch four or more matches a week.

They are also watching matches online or on mobile devices. Eighty-nine percent of respondents say they watch soccer online, while more than a quarter of respondents now catch matches on their iPhones, Androids and other mobile devices.

In short, soccer was once nowhere to be found. Today, you can find it — literally — everywhere.

Football's fight for fans in the U.S

(by Roger Bennett espn.go.com 8-1-11)

I recently met an avid American soccer fan who had fallen for the game after the 2006 World Cup. Searching for a team to support, he originally pledged allegiance to then-Premier League champion Chelsea, but Gareth Bale's swashbuckling displays encouraged a transfer of his affections, and he recently morphed into a Tottenham fan.

On a trip to England last month, the fan was explaining his defection to a London cab driver who listened patiently before responding, "Can I be honest with you Guv'nor?"

"Yes," he replied.

"You can change your wife. You can change your underpants. But you can never, ever change your team."

The cabbie's rules may be right in Europe, where the club you support is passed through the generations down the family bloodline. But it is not true in the U.S., where a spike in television ratings has catalyzed an anarchical glut of curious new fans desperate to define a rooting interest. Teams are often selected for the most random of reasons: distant family ties, a haircut similar to a star player or a childhood vacation spent by chance in Blackburn.

The big European clubs are well aware that the 2010 World Cup has increased the sport's popularity in the U.S., fostering a lucrative market. Witness America's recent transformation into a vast continental training ground for leading European clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Juventus, culminating in the delirious All-Star spectacle showcasing Manchester United.

The Europeans are not only here to shake off the preseason rust, or to cash in their appearance money (Manchester United is reported to be bagging an estimated $9.2 million in appearance fees from its tour). Their ultimate goal is to grab curious Americans' attention and hook them on their club brand for life.

Manchester United estimates it has more than 6.5 million fans in the U.S., a number it would like to grow precipitously. Other than trumping the MLS All-Star team, or playing a glorified training session against a fellow giant, what longer-term branding and marketing strategies can the club employ to seduce new American fans?

Or, more simply put, what will make the difference between an American fan choosing Manchester United or Manchester City? Or Barcelona, Real Madrid or AC Milan, for that matter. I solicited the opinions of two marketing agency founders, Jon Cohen, CEO of Fader and Cornerstone, and Ian Schafer, the CEO of Deep Focus, as well as Boston Red Sox executive vice president and COO Sam Kennedy, who has been processing these issues since New England Sports Ventures' acquisition of Liverpool FC in 2010.

1. Stop the anarchy: Develop an overarching brand

Soccer, in the words of Schafer, remains an "outlier brand," but one loaded with potential that is, in Jon Cohen's eyes, "making giant strides every year." Schafer marveled at the success of Citi Field as a soccer venue. "Greece almost filled it against Ecuador [this summer]. Something the Mets aren't close to doing," he said.

A critical barrier for soccer is the inherent inefficiency of the every-team-for-itself approach. The NBA's growth in China, by contrast, is the product of a league-wide growth strategy, as is the NFL's attempt to hook the British on gridiron football. But in global soccer, anarchy reigns. Every club is participating in a gold rush of narrow self-interest in which no one takes ownership of the overarching brand. Cohen identified the dangerous blind spot created by this approach: "No entity is responsible for explaining how all the pieces lock together -- Copa America, Gold Cup, Europa Cup or Champions League all make sense when you have dedicated yourself to the sport, but to a newer fan they can be bewildering."

2. I am the lore: Selling heritage and fandom

What makes a club unique? A history of storied achievement, legendary characters and epic rivalries. "Americans enjoy sports as a platform for storytelling," explained the Boston Red Sox's Sam Kennedy, "we love to tell tales about heritage, history and tradition."

But for domestic soccer clubs, communicating their celebrated pasts to a new American fan base is an uphill struggle. "History and heritage only mean something if a sentimental connection exists," Schafer said. "If we can't harken back to a simpler time we experienced ourselves, it does not amount to much."

"European geography is not an American strong suit," Schafer added. "We're largely unaware there are actual places called Manchester and Liverpool, but the clubs have the perfect fallback position in their brand name and logos -- it's all about 'United' and 'The Reds.' The clubs should simply find ways to show fans what we can be part of."

"There is nothing more powerful than genuine, credible fan passion," Cohen agreed. "We have some of it here -- the Garden, the Yankees bleachers -- but soccer has a unique intensity that never stops." Both men believe the clubs can do more to educate Americans about the culture surrounding the game. "Fan passion remains an underutilized commodity," Cohen suggested. "A club's chants and rituals are eminently marketable. They should film game action twice. Once with the players seen through the fans' eyes, and again the other way round, like the kind of multiple angles NASCAR routinely used to portray a sense of the same race."

As part of NESV, which owns Liverpool, Kennedy is grappling with strategies to tap into the game-day experience and take it one step further. "Nothing beats attending a game in person," he said. "My first game at Anfield was life-changing. I was mesmerized."

With Liverpool as close to New York as New York is to Los Angeles, NESV is examining ways of tempting American sports aficionados to experience the passion and choreography of an English Premier League game live. "Television is good, but actually being at Anfield is unlike anything in American sports, and I have seen World Series games at Fenway," Kennedy said. "The sustained intensity of the passion makes Anfield a cathedral in the world of sports."

3. There is an I in team: Market the players first, and the teams will follow

While team affiliation may be the ultimate goal, the elite skill and human charisma of individual players are an easier sell at the outset. "Take a Messi and put him at the level of a Kobe, or put Wayne Rooney in the same commercial spot as Amare," Schafer urged. "This is where the hidden hand of powerbrokers Nike and adidas come into play."

Cohen concurred: "The powerhouse athletic brands establish sport's iconography and play a key role in telling the stories of the athletes they deem to be important. The teams need to ride that endorsement muscle to break out a crossover star we can relate to."

"David Beckham could have been that crossover star," Schafer suggested, "but he 'crossed over' too far -- too much fashion, not enough performance."

Both marketers believed one man has what it takes to break out in the United States -- Wayne Rooney. "He is a character that young people can connect to because he appears to transcend the sport," Schafer said. A tailor-made communications strategy built for the U.S. market is key. "When Rooney reads the Top 10 List on Letterman via remote from Old Trafford," Cohen said, "we will know Manchester United are serious."

4. Brand transference: Let the magic of others rub off on soccer

Brand transference is a standard move in any marketer's playbook. The transfer of an existing brand's positive standing to introduce a less familiar product, such as what William Shatner did for Priceline. The "spectacle approach" is an effective strategy that often works for sports, according to Ian Schafer. "I would have Manchester United play the Yankees at baseball and soccer in an athlete-to-athlete doubleheader or at the very least," he said, "put Chicharito out to throw the first pitch at a playoff baseball game." (This approach sounds great conceptually, though the reality did not work out too well for Manchester United's Gary Neville.)

The strategy can work in reverse. The European teams could import role models from the American sports pantheon who have a genuine curiosity about soccer. "America needs more athletes like Steve Nash who can articulate a sense of wonder around the sport," Schafer said. "Manchester United need to get Chris Paul and dump him in a fan section at Old Trafford," Jon Cohen proposed, "then sit back and capture his reactions throughout the game."

Sports figures are not the only alternative ambassadors who can be used to message a team's rituals and customs. "The world of music has barely been tapped," Cohen said. "The number of bands who influence their fan bases and are crazy for soccer is staggering -- Blur's Damon Albarn and his love of Chelsea, for instance." Manchester City dabbled with this strategy during its 2011-12 jersey launch. Not everyone is an Oasis fan, but the extra buzz the team received by involving ex-lead-singer Liam Gallagher in a slightly surreal video was priceless.

Perhaps the most prominent and controversial example of this approach was LeBron James' acquisition of a minority ownership in Liverpool. Schafer was skeptical about the synergy of the deal. "Something smells wrong. We had never previously heard LeBron liked the sport -- never mind had a connection Liverpool," Schafer said. "I would love for this to be real, but he is going to have to prove it, and LeBron is not exactly known for being loyal to cities."

Kennedy explained the process from inside the deal. "This was LeBron's idea. He has watched a lot of global soccer on ESPN and has become intrigued," Kennedy said. "For him, this was simply an opportunity to invest in one of most important clubs in the sport."

Cohen agreed LeBron carries baggage, but sees an easy solution. "If we can get him to some matches, LeBron can show us his passion and demonstrate this is more than a press release."

5. Become America's team: Integrating U.S. talent into the squad

Global soccer's approach to conquer the Asian markets has been very straightforward. Signing Asia's finest players -- Park Ji-Sung at Manchester United, Lee Chung-Yong at Bolton and Ji Dong-Won at Sunderland -- has proven a tried and tested way to trigger a fan frenzy.

The lack of apparent depth in the U.S. game -- aside, of course, from goalkeepers, Clint Dempsey and Stuart Holden -- presents a challenge, but not a fatal one. "You only need to see what impact Landon Donovan's 10-game cameo had for Everton's profile in the United States to glimpse the possibility," Cohen said. "America tunes in."

You can easily envision possibilities. MLS teams could build on the type of commercial partnerships clubs like the Colorado Rapids have struck with Arsenal, and loan young American stars such as Omar Gonzalez, Andy Najar and Tim Ream to train in England during the MLS offseason. "The MLS may not like their young talent playing year round," said Cohen, "but they will love the statement such moves make, bringing some global exposure to the league, its talent and respective teams."

Any European club eventually signing Juan Agudelo, even just on loan, may find it hard to overpay. It would be buying American eyeballs as much as goals and assists.

6. Partnering with powerhouses: The strength of major league joint-marketing deals

When Manchester United and the New York Yankees struck a pioneering joint-marketing deal in 2001, the relationship fizzled before the two giants could truly derive a benefit. But the time may now be right for more clubs to develop cross-promotional partnerships with leading American MLB, NFL or NBA franchises.

"If I were running Barcelona after their Champions League triumph," said Cohen, "I would have taken a giant billboard outside of the San Francisco Giants stadium and launched a 'Game Recognizes Game' campaign. Barca could develop a relationship with the Giants, honor their World Series achievement, and bask in Americans' glow."

Liverpool's shared ownership with the Boston Red Sox offers an intriguing array of cross-promotional possibilities, but Kennedy disclosed that NESV is not rushing into anything. "Our goal is to expose Liverpool to New England slowly," he said. The English team's games are replayed on New England Sports Network, and a sprinkling of Liverpool merchandise is available at Fenway Park's concessions stands. But for Kennedy, it is important to respect the differing histories and traditions of the two teams. "It is illogical to say because you have grown up cheering for Boston teams your whole life, you should automatically become a Liverpool fan," he said.

7. America's next top model: Utilizing team style

"There was a fleeting period in the late '80s when soccer style crossed over," Schafer reminisced, conjuring a time when baggy Umbro soccer shorts accompanied by a pair of adidas Sambas were summer camp de rigueur. It's an era which feels quaint when compared to the sophistication of today's apparel marketing. "Soccer needs a classic Air Jordan strategy -- a team-related sport line that can be worn on the street."

"There are few finer ways to communicate a love of soccer than through fashion and style," Cohen said. "Logos and jerseys carry a real allure to Americans."

Cohen encourages teams to distribute their shirts to culturally influential Americans. "Barca should have put their iconic jersey on Lil Wayne when he played Bonnaroo," he said, "and while Manchester City were in Los Angeles, they should have opened a pop-up store to launch a limited edition of Manchester City Umbro-wear designed in collaboration with [cult sneaker-store] Undefeated. Approached that way, soccer has a real possibility of gaining broad urban appeal."

Kennedy revealed clubs are incentivized to experiment with strategies like these. "Soccer merchandise is extremely lucrative compared to the U.S. major leagues, which handle the marketing on your behalf and take a percentage of the revenue for doing so," he said. Soccer has no such middleman.

While there has been a noticeable proliferation of team jerseys worn as fashion statements, Schafer believes they are not yet at the level they could be. "The jerseys remain the equivalent of a fad like a trucker's hat or a hipster's ironic T-shirt," he said. "The message they convey is 'I am worldly' as opposed to 'I live and die for the sport of soccer in general and this team in particular.'"

8. Bring the mountain to Muhammad: Play a game that matters in the U.S.

This year's sold-out MLS All-Star Game at Red Bull Arena was one of many exhibition games to draw a sizable crowd with a frenetic atmosphere. But on the field, is impossible to disguise the fact the European clubs are playing during their preseason downtime. "The teams let their starters play for 30 minutes max and then their reserves fill the field," Cohen said. "To really make us care about their storylines, they have to play games here that mean something."

Schafer suggested, "They have to find a way to make the U.S. the world's stage, soccer-wise. A league game would be good, but Americans like nothing more than loser-goes-home tournament play. Let's have the Champions League final at Giants Stadium."

The idea may seem radical, but in 2008 the English Premier League flirted with the notion of scheduling a "39th game" in places as far flung as Australian, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Sepp Blatter blasted the plan, declaring it to be "nonsense" and "an abuse of football," but with FIFA, as we have seen in the past year, every idea is possible, especially the farfetched.

For all the variety of the above ideas, Liverpool's Kennedy was resolute in his belief that one simple strategy can trump the rest. "Winning is the best strategy," he said. "There is nothing -- nothing -- that sports fans love more. That is our No. 1 goal."

World Cup final sets ratings record

(si.com 7-12-10)

NEW YORK (AP) -- World Cup television viewership rose 41 percent over four years ago for English-language telecasts in the United States, with Spain's 1-0 overtime victory over the Netherlands setting a record for a men's soccer game.

Sunday's game in Johannesburg, which gave the Spanish their first World Cup title, was seen by 15,545,000 viewers on ABC, according to fast national ratings. The previous high was 14,863,000 viewers for the United States' 2-1 overtime loss to Ghana in the second round on June 26.

An additional 8,821,000 million viewers watched Spanish-language coverage Sunday on Univision, according to Nielsen Media Research, bringing the total to nearly 24.4 million.

ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 averaged a 2.1 rating, 2,288,000 households and 3,261,000 viewers for the 64 World Cup games. The rating was up 31 percent from a 1.6 four years ago, while households increased 32 percent from 1,735,000 and viewers rose from 2,316,000.

The increases had been higher while the U.S. remained in the tournament. Through the first 50 games, the rating was up 48 percent, households increased 54 percent and viewers rose 60 percent.

"We always expected that the presence of the U.S. team would provide us with these big spikes," John Skipper, ESPN's executive vice president of content, said Monday. "The TV rating is only a little piece of the story. One of every three people watched on something other than the television at their home, either watched in a bar, or on their phone, or in their office on a computer."

ESPN paid FIFA $100 million for rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, while Univision spent $325 million. With the next tournament scheduled for Brazil, where most of the host cities are only one hour ahead of EDT, the possibility of some prime-time telecasts could boost ratings again. South Africa is six hours ahead of EDT.

FIFA has not yet set 2014 game times.

"We do know that we have the advantage of the time zone and we will get prime time games, so we have every confidence that we will see another fairly significant ratings increase in '14," Skipper said.

And looking ahead, the 2022 tournament could be in the United States. FIFA's executive committee will vote Dec. 2 on the 2018 and '22 sites, and while the first is expected to go to a European nation, the U.S. is favored for 2022.

The only World Cup game with more U.S. English-language viewers than for Spain's win Sunday was the 1999 women's final at the Rose Bowl, when the U.S. beat China, a game seen in 11,307,000 households and by 17,975,000 people.

Sunday's match received an 8.1 rating on ABC, up 6 percent from the 7.7 for Italy's penalty-kicks win over France in the 2006 final. This was the fourth-highest rating for a men's World Cup game behind Brazil's penalty-kicks victory over Italy in the 1994 final at the Rose Bowl (9.5), Brazil's second-round victory over the U.S. in 1994 (9.3) and this year's Ghana-U.S. match (8.5).

The U.S.-Ghana game narrowly edged the final in households, 9,455,000 to 9,389,000.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale finished with the highest average tournament rating on ABC/ESPN at 3.9, followed by New York and Washington (3.6), and San Diego and San Francisco (3.5).

Viewership for the final on Univision was up 49 percent from 5,903,000 for 2006. Sunday's game was the third most-watched program on U.S. Spanish-language TV, trailing Argentina's win over Mexico on June 27 (9,405,000) and the finale of the novella "Destilando Amor (Essence of Love)" on Dec. 3, 2007 (9,018,000).

Univision averaged 2,624,000 viewers for the tournament, up 17 percent, and 1,625,000 households, an increase of 11 percent.

America embraces Beautiful Game

(by Greg Lalas si.com 11-24-09)

SEATTLE -- On Sunday, as Qwest Field swirled with glitter and noise at the end of the MLS Cup final, I couldn't help but think of Paul Caligiuri.

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of Caligiuri's so-called "Shot Heard 'Round the World," that looping goal in Trinidad that sent the U.S. national team to the 1990 World Cup in Italy -- the Yanks' first trip to the big dance in 40 years.

It also, I would argue, catalyzed America's modern soccer movement, or whatever you want to call it. A year earlier at the 1988 Summer Olympics, former U.S. captain John Harkes recalled to me recently, the Beautiful Game was so mysterious to Americans that a reporter in Seoul asked him to explain what a goal kick is.

This wasn't simply a lack of knowledge; this was almost willful ignorance. Why should I care about the rules, even the basics? No one in America cares about this foreign game.

There was some truth to this -- if America only existed in the mainstream. There were plenty of outcasts who cared. They cared more than anything. They played in leagues and pickup games, and they followed the international game as best they could.

It wasn't easy back then. They had to wake up at the crack of dawn, lie about their age, and sneak into Irish pubs to catch the FA Cup on satellite TV. They traded grainy VHS tapes of G'olé and Tor! Total Football, paid the import price for the '86 World Cup sticker-book and stickers, stole their parents' car to go to a jam-packed soccer store like George's in Lathrup Village, Mich., to buy a pair of Copas or Patricks.

They were the ones who celebrated "The Shot" and screamed in anguish when Tab Ramos and Peter Vermes nearly scored against Italy in the World Cup the following summer. (I still clench up nervously when I think about Ramos' free kick.) They understood what it meant to go to the World Cup, especially with the biggest sporting event in the world coming to America in 1994.

"We woke up a nation of semi-soccer fans," Harkes said. "It solidified the decision to hold the '94 World Cup here. Really, the 1990 World Cup was the first platform to prove to our country that we could compete on the world stage."

Prove to our country. It's heartbreaking to think about a 22-year-old player wearing his nation's jersey, standing with his hand on his heart for the national anthem, and feeling that his own countrymen aren't behind him. But Harkes is right. For all the U.S. soccer players' attempts to compete on the world stage these past two decades, they have really been trying to compete for the hearts and minds of Americans.

Which is why I thought of Caligiuri when Real Salt Lake captain Kyle Beckerman lifted the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy at the end of the MLS Cup final. Because here was the fire ignited by Cal's goal -- passionate, knowledgeable fans (and not only fans of the competing teams), international superstars, a full press box, serious analysis of the game on national TV, an all-night party in Seattle's Pioneer Square.

Beckerman, for my money, was the best player on the field on Sunday. Maybe not the most valuable in terms of earning RSL the trophy -- but over the 120 minutes, no one was more consistent or dominant in his position. The dreadlocked beast was, well, a beast.

"We played our hearts out," the skipper said. "We played our style of soccer. I think it's fun to watch. It's definitely fun to play. The star for us is the whole team. When we play well, it's because everyone is playing well."

Beckerman has to be a serious contender for the U.S. squad next summer in South Africa. Which is what this is all about in the end: competing on the world stage, as Harkes put it.

Twenty years ago, American soccer players had to "prove" themselves to their own country. After seeing Sunday's game in front of an electric crowd, we can safely say: mission accomplished. If the sold-out MLS Cup final -- and really, Seattle's embrace of the Sounders and the league all season -- proves anything, it's that Americans now believe in this game and believe that American soccer is important.

There's still a long way to go before we prove it to the rest of the world, but no one can say that Americans don't care. And no one is asking what a goal kick is anymore.