Dynamo/MLS on TV... $$$$

Which is what I just said above.

 

Free MLS Live is a good idea. But waiting until people have already started paying to announce it is pretty poor execution.

 

Not sure they even knew the renewal date was happening. Frankly, that likely isn't on many people's radar on the business side since that process is run by Chris on the IT side at MLS.

 

You can't go to the Dynamo or MLS site or apps without the MLS Live ads appearing on the side or bottom screaming the price and I only got 3-4 renewal emails. Team had to know what the discounted renewal date was.

 

So is the free MLS Live because of the CSN Houston fiasco? So now the FO is back to paying for people to watch their games.

 

Pretty sure if you poll 19 team executives you would be lucky to get one answer with knowledge of the date.

 

I received an email on 1/15 about the auto renewal date. If the front office wanted to know I'm pretty sure they could find out. If they really didn't know and weren't willing to spend 5 minutes to find out then that says a lot about how much effort they put into their jobs.

 

get real. You think anyone in any FO follows MLS subscription timelines? How many things occur at your company that you don't know about even though they may have an ancillary relationship?

 

They likely know about MLS Live. It may have been a last minute decision that had to go through an approval process, where certain emails that say "Approved" were needed. They likely gambled a bit that people would be grateful for this $50 perk, and most had not renewed yet. I'm sure that the FO are very aware of the number of MLS Live subscriptions each year. Personally, I try not to get mad about gifts, or even losing $50 on this sport.

 

Yay, procrastination paid off! I was contemplating whether to renew or not and my card number changed so the renewal did not go through and was waiting until the 19th(?) to decide.

 

I doubt they follow it but the information was available and I do think they could have found the answer pretty easily.

The fact is the front office has a history of making decisions that reward people for waiting until the last minute for stuff which also means the fans that sign up early miss out or pay more than others. They improved on that with the renewal process last year but still have a long way to go.

 

Fair enough here. I think they were just excited about offering it to people. I also think this issue impacts almost no one outside of us here.

 

I am actually 100% certain they are not; or rather it is buried is some marketing report. Remember how MLS runs their business.

Your point on approvals is a good one.

 

If the FO doesn't pay attention to the statistics on who, and how many people are buying the subscription to watch their leagues matches then I am speechless. Maybe it's not as important as I thought. I figured it to be a good bellwether on the growth of the sport. Most people do not watch live matches at the stadium, and there is a growing number of people that use online media instead of television to watch sports.

 

I am sure they have those numbers in totality. I didn't mean to imply MLS doesn't track viewer and demo data. I am also sure the details are in some weekly monthly report. I am also certain the MLS live breakout is of minimal importance to local business. They get no revenue and have no incentive to push that product particularly at the risk of TV ratings. (I also think numbers are small enough to not matter). MLS Live is an afterthought locally.

 

I agree, I don't if affects a large percentage of people, and the people it does affect are going to be giving them their money anyway.

And like I said earlier I think it's a great idea it just could have been executed better. I also think there's a good chance something gets worked out for those of us affected by this.

 

how can it be an afterthought if there are people like me that have decided mlslive makes more sense fiscally than season tickets?

 

You're right. Football, and managing the club, selling tickets, and finding partners are a priority. Being single-entity, they likely do not need to worry about those things. Sometimes I forget how small this market, and league is. They just cannot afford to market certain things that could bring in revenue, and improve the sport for more people.

 

Afford sure, but also one of the downsides of centralized revenue is many things are on MLS central to do not a local FO. The Houston FO is not in charge, impacted directly, or incented to spend time on things like MLS Live. In fact if they tripled subscriptions locally, they only get 1/19th of the "profit" if there is any.

 

BY THE WAY...MLS issued me a refund for those that complained before asking.

 

That's basically just what I said. They are part of MLS, and need not worry about marketing MLS Live. But it doesn't mean that they lack the basic understanding of an MLS Live subscription.

My point is that viewership of the MLS matches by paying subscribers, may be something of interest to them. I don't care that they gave out free subscriptions, and think its nice on their part though, and don't understand any anger directed toward them for this gesture.

 

Oh I agree with that. But there is a difference between understanding the analytics and keeping track of implementation details like renewal dates as some imply they should know. They have no incentive to keep track of operational details of something they don't run.

 

That, and they likely get a free subscription to MLS Live, and don't have to worry about buying a subscription.

 

Correct