"MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=487388&root=mls&cc=5901 Here's an article today suggesting that MLS needs to change the target audience from the suburban crowd to the urban crowd.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Dear Mr. Davis, Whatever. Sincerely, The Los Angeles Galaxy FO (1997-2007).
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Yeah, I noticed no mention of LAG's box office success. I guess its easier to make an argument when you can ignore any facts that don't happen to fit your pre-conceived notion. In any event, thanks for this guidance. It only comes after the league's investors have spent about $400 million on stadia. Guess they should tear them down and move now.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN I can't stand Urban Outfitters. Me likes Chili's better. Stadiums downtown can bite me. I want easy interstate access and a good location that can get me back out of town the quickest.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Well, despite him basing his whole argument on anecdotal evidence, I agree with him completely.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN He acts as if Chicago, Dallas, and RSL wanted to build stadiums in the 'burbs. Not a very well researched piece.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN When will it get through to these people that MLS didn't want their stadiums to be out in the boondocks, but sometimes that ended up (Dallas, for example) being the only place that all the players came together to make a deal happen. Look at all the wasted time in D.C. trying to force an urban deal on a mayor that wants to torpedo the whole thing! It is a crime that DC United isn't already enjoying a world-class stadium. When the cities and attendant agencies cooperate, you bet we want an urban site. If they don't cooperate, "NEXT!". ...And DC United shoud rename themselves Northern Virginia United or Maryland United.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN MLS needs to start banning Uncaring Families and begin embracing Passionate Young Urbanites, who are so intensely Passionate that they can be "lifelong fans" of several different teams in a row. We all know the type! They have so much Passion they have to spread it around a bit! Also, many Passionate Young Urbanites are true fans: the hard-core motherf*ckers who find any excuse to stay home on game night, because one small thing might be imperfect or "mickey mouse" or out of place. These guys are your true base, the ones who really love you. I mean, I ultimately agree with the view that MLS shouldn't cater to its own misguided impressions of what "the family crowd" wants, especially at the expense of individual adult fans. But why do articles like this have to engage in grotesque stereotyping? We have all seen families that follow MLS teams as obsessively as any single adult fan.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN This is true. SSS downtown correlate to the urban crowd. Those are where the hard-core fans are and they are the target of the advertisers. Males between 22-35 or so are the money makers. That is why the TFC model is such a huge success. RedBull Park looks like it may be the next big thing. Suburban stadiums, like I have said, need to go. Urban stadiums need to be made more often.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN but... but... we already want all of our staidums in urban downtown areas... with metro access and all...
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Seriously. What's amusing about this is he's so critical about MLS's outdated way of thinking when his whole "urban" world view is such a 70's east-coast concept (along with the current phantasy of urban planning schools). Partly, this reflects the false dichotomy of the MLS fanbase as being either 20-year-old men in supporters groups or soccer moms and their brood. It's a false dichotomy because you can have both groups. But the "di" part is also false. The most coveted group is probably 35-55 year old men. Why, because we have money to spend. Now, it's a hard group to get to change, which is why advertising is targeted at a younger demographic. But look at successful sports leagues. This is the group that buys the season tickets.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN I could not agree more with this article! I for one think the example of reaching out to the urban part of our society is a grand idea. I received an invite to Streets to Fields which benefits Harlem Youth Soccer. Going after the city inhabitants is a good untapped resource of talent. This Street to Fields is a great project and is supported by, Pres. Bill Clinton, Uncle Phil, NY's Governor, Pele, and Beckham. Attracting the burb's soccer mom's and dad's is great but the MLS should also not alienate a part of our society that will attend matches if you embrace them. I think the clubs of the MLS should start reaching out to the city dwellers get involved in charities and out reach programs. Make the players become household or apartment known names because the good they do in the community.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN This article reminds me of many discussions on BigSoccer when people come up with great ideas to spend other peoples money. Can anyone even tell me what the best way is to reach out to the urban part of our society?
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN There's also a considerable difference between the nature of the location of stadiums for Dallas and RSL and that of Chicago. You can throw a rock into the city limits from the stadium grounds, and it's nearly abutting the largest concentration of hispanics in the middle part of the country. But it should have better transit connections.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN As someone who runs a team (albeit at a much smaller scale than MLS) I agree that urban marketing worked much, much more for us than suburban marketing. When we were marketing in the hip urban part of Buffalo (yes there is, Elmwood Village, so don't scoff) our attendance was much higher than when we tried to bring in the youth teams and their families (even well in advance, we started our ticket drive with them in February and started the urban marketing in May). The numbers didn't lie for us either. We'll let you know how year 2 goes, but we are stepping up our urban marketing, we now play in the stadium we were suppose to be in last year (off of the light transit line in Buffalo too!) have 4,000 seats all under a roof and play in a totally refurbished stadium (went under a $9million reconstruction this year). So we'll see how this year goes in terms of our marketing for an amateur level team. I do agree with this article, as this was a trend we noticed last year. Families could give a flying F*** about coming down consistantly. They came once if they didn't send their kids to our camps (came again if their kids did come to camps because they wanted to see their new "hero's"). Our base of fans that purchased everything, came to after match get together's and all that came from the urban core. Some were single's, some were married. It was a great mix and hope we can expand on that.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Teams that build a stadium in an urban enviroment with access to mass transit get an A+ in my book, teams that build a stadium in the burbs get an A in my book.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Isn't Urban Outfitters big with the wealthy, white suburban crowd? Good premise, but horrible article based on anecdotes and generalizations. He could at least quote someone who knows what they are talking about.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Well, my problem with the piece is that he conflates "stadium location" with "marketing focus," when they're more separate than many people assume. Take Steve Davis' local team, FC Dallas. The conventional wisdom on BigSoccer assumes that the reason why the crowds are so different between PHP and the old days at the Cotton Bowl is purely down to location, when in fact it's two separate things. Yes, the team moved to PHP in 2005, but their entire marketing focus changed in 2004. When Greg Elliott replaced Andy Swift as GM after the 2003 season, the marketing focus went from being about a 50/50 split between the urban and Hispanic fanbase and the families and groups to about 80/20 towards the families and groups. And the crowds at the Cotton Bowl in 2004, despite its location two miles east of downtown, reflected that. They were smaller and whiter. And with the move to PHP, they've gotten larger, but they're not appreciably different, demographically speaking. It's the reason why I think that stadium location is something of a red herring. Teams in this league don't get demographics based on stadium location, they get crowds based how they market themselves. This much should be obvious from the Burn's crowds at the Cotton Bowl in 2004 and the Fire's crowds at Toyota Park in 2007 after Blanco arrived. TFC doesn't get the crowds that they do because their stadium is downtown, they get the crowds that they do because they made a conscious effort to go after a different demographic than other MLS teams do. Edit: I have no idea how things would be different at PHP if the team did things the way they did from 1998-2002, but I'd like to see them actually try it.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Judging by the responses a) Steve Davis touched some sensitive suburban nerves, and b) 5 out of 10 BS posters don't read an article at the head of a thread pefore posting on said article.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Researched? It had nothing to do with that. He was just MERELY pointing out of where success is made and where it is not. Trust me, I know because I live in Atlanta. We probably have one of the biggest metro areas in the US. Everyone congregates at the center of the city for sports, concerts, and parades. If it's on the outside, somewhere in the metro area, how are you going to get those twenty, thirty somethings out there? Folks, there is a REASON of why there are CITIES. They are merely just a place for people to gravitate to. I mean just think about. It costs MORE to live in the city than it does out in the metro suburban area. The people in the city are going to have MORE money than the people in the metro area. So they can afford a full season pass, they can afford to go to away games. Besides, rail lines are becoming more important as a form of transportation. It's not that people who take the rail line are poor, they just want to save money. We live in a 'best money you can buy' society, so saving is just as important as the game itself for those families on the outside of the city. Great article though. I hope MLS is listening or I'll go up to Garbage and punch him in the face.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN I wouldn't say that is true. That is generalizing. Hell, I will go ahead and generalize those '35-55' year old men. If they arn't married, they are probably gay. If they're not gay, they're probably pretty damn poor. If they're not poor, then who the hell knows who those guys are. Maybe they're life-long gangsters of the The Bloods in LA There, do you get my point on generalizing?
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Your ideas intrigue me. You strike me as a poster who's not given to mere slogans, but puts deep thought into what you write. Tell me, where in Dallas would you have built Pizza Hut Park and how would you have paid for it?
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN Sure, I'll take the point on generalizing (although given your previous post, it's the pot calling the kettle black). Go to the expensive seats in an NFL game. Who do you expect to see more of? 22-year-olds or 40-year-olds? The average 40-year-old may have less discretionary income than the average 22-year-old (although I don't know that that's true) but the dispersion is certainly much higher for the 40-year-olds. And if you're looking at selling expensive tickets, you want to aim at the wealthy tail of the distribution.
Re: "MLS needs to target urban crowd" -ESPN I guess it'd be around downtown and paid for the same way it was done for American Airlines Arena ---------------------------------- Seriously, I think it all depends on the market as to where a stadium should be targeted. For example, a suburban stadium in Houston would slow down momentum tremendously, but it could work for Philly better.