[Paul. A]

We obviously need to build on attendance for US soccer. So I was thinking on who makes up the fans of MLS? I guess this is not an easy answer. But I was thinking about myself and family who played soccer a lot but we never really went to pro games. My uncle has played semi-professionally in Britain and travelled to other countries to play, but he doesn't go to pro games. We did watch games on TV though all the time. OK, our local team was not Liverpool but Cardiff City.

And I know this is America. But where do we win fans. I guess we need to win support of soccer moms here, but do players make the best fans? I bet in the UK some of the best soccer fans have never played much. Where do you think we can win most soccer fans for MLS?

[GoHawks4]

I always thought the fans were real, now they are made up? ************.

J/k

I'm a 14 year old male from the Chicago area. I go to about 2-3 games a year. I buy merchandise from lots of things, not only MLS. I have a jersey. I play as a hobby.

[Godot22]

I think it's pretty clear that fans don't make the best players. There's millions of soccer players in the US. How many reasonably serious MLS fans are there? Maybe 100,000?

Fans of other leagues who haven't already gotten the message simply aren't interested--if the World Cup didn't convince expats and so-called "Eurosnobs" that MLS is not a joke league, they are simply not open to being convinced. In any case, apart from the Mexican League fans, they are irrelevant in the long term--there's not enough of them to make a serious difference. As for MLS-agnostic fans of the Mexican league--why would they pay money to watch MLS when they can watch the teams they love for free?

The fact is that essentially everyone who seriously cares about soccer in this country has already made up their minds about whether or not to support MLS.

The next wave of fans will come from the general population of American sports fans--people who are neither friendly nor hostile to the game. People who have never really seriously given any thought to caring about soccer (as a spectator sport) one way or the other.

If I knew how to sell MLS to them, I wouldn't be sitting on my butt, procrastinating about writing a paper, and making windy pronouncements with too many adverbs on some Internet message board, I'd be working for MLS and making pretty good money doing so. But off the top of my head I'd suggest emphasizing the following points:

* Watching soccer is fun.
* Watching soccer is a distinctly different experience from what you get at typical American professional sports events.
* Because you watch soccer, you're not actually required to renounce interest in any other sport or become a pseudo-European microbrew-clutching poseur or become a car-smashing Visigoth, despite what the no-neck Sports column disgorger at your local paper seems to think.
* Did we mention that watching soccer is fun?

[Paul. A]

A good post!

[monster]

After yesterday I am convinced that drunk crazy people make up the soccer fan base.

[Sachin]

Invite fence sitters to watch matches in the supporters section. I randomly sold a bunch of tickets in La Norte to a group coming to their first ever match. They loved it and now come to every match and are asking about season tickets.

A fun, rowdy, yet safe supporters section will help sell lots of tickets. In DC, we're lucky that DC United recognizes that and helps us out.

Sachin

[jmeissen0]

i go beyond that sachin... i have done anything i can to get people that HATE soccer to come to matches with me (and the fence sitters)... once there, i get them liquored up and take them into section 8

after that they are up for returning and bringing more with us... it also helped that i use to throw awesome tail gates at soldier field (i miss tail gating)... but at least there is a bar across the street and free parking in naperville


i think there has only been one non-road game that i have gone to that i haven't brought at least one new person with me... everyone has loved their experience, everyone

[442]

Here's my two cents:

MLS has always tried to woo everybody and their mother to be a soccer fan. 'We'll get the soccer moms, we'll get the latin Americans, we'll get the Eurosnobs...' Also, they take such a soft approach to soccer haters or neutrals. 'Please try our sport, you won't hate it, we promise.'

I say screw that. If I was D. Garber I would tell anti-soccer media and fans they could bite me if they don't like soccer. I would go to every MLS team in the country and hold a post-match town hall meeting. I would come to bigsoccer, I would write a column for Soccer America and I would say the same thing each time: 'If you are here/reading this you are a soccer fan. You are the only people I care about. I am going to make this game special for you. We're going to get small, intimate stadiums, you are going to have access to players and coaches, we are going to have the best give-away items in pro sports. Your neighbors are going to be jealous because you are having such a good time. If they want to come and join you great, if not, that's their loss. They are uncultured swine who are probably too stupid to enjoy the beauty of soccer anyway. But listen to me carefully. Don't ever be defensive about being a soccer fan. Jim Rome doesn't like soccer? Who cares? Joe Butface who writes for your paper doesn't like soccer? Who cares? Guess what? I don't care about him, so why should you? Soccer fans are the only people I care about.'

It's time the leadership of MLS strap on a pair, make some hard decisions, and focus on what matters - soccer fans right now, not "potential" fans.

[NYfutbolfan]

Originally posted by 442
Here's my two cents:

Soccer fans are the only people I care about.'

It's nice to know that someone cares...sniff,sniff.

[NYfutbolfan]

Originally posted by 442
Here's my two cents:

MLS has always tried to woo everybody and their mother to be a soccer fan. 'We'll get the soccer moms, we'll get the latin Americans, we'll get the Eurosnobs...'

I say screw that. It's time the leadership of MLS strap on a pair, make some hard decisions, and focus on what matters - soccer fans right now, not "potential" fans.

I used to try to be a soccer crusader and try to convince others to try the sport. I hit a point somewhere awhile back, where I said screw it. I don't work for MLS or the USSF and I'll probably never make a penny off the sport. Hopefully, I'll be able to enjoy MLS for decades to come, but that'll have alot more to do with the next generation discovering the beauty of the game than anything I'll ever do.

I hope that MLS presses the right buttons, the SSS's get built, the US Nats continue to shine, MLS continues to produce solid players and superstars and over time (probably the next 6-10 years), MLS will become the league that has the US's smallest but 5th major sport.