Wednesday 12 Feb 2020

That athletic article about how FCD is marketing to Mexican fans is important. Basically, they're selling a mini-package for (IIRC) Pulido, Chicharito, and Vela. That seems like very short term thinking. There will be local newbies who are inclined to root for FCD, and it's going to be a bad experience to go there and see a bunch of fans rooting against the home team. (That's assuming the outreach is a success. If it's a failure, it's a failure.)

My daughter's soccer team arranged an outing to see Courage FC, the local women's league, and perennial contender. They were playing Orlando featuring Alex Morgan. The stands were full of little girls screaming for Alex. To me as a soccer fan, it was a shitty experience that made me not want to go back.

 

Soccer marketing in the US has always been a study in gathering up the low-hanging fruit.

 

Yeah, that was the late '90s all over again. Come out and see [opposing star] instead of rooting for your local team. Of course, that carried through the Beckham years through Zlatan and surely will be a big deal for whoever the next big name is.

And speaking of bad, 1990s era icons, that article where Lalas predicts the Revs could be relevant has been talked about since, well, 1996. He was the guy they'd market in the hinterlands, and while he was instrumental in being the "face of the franchise," even the clueless Revs realized by 1997 that being a "star" and being a player who could help you win were two very different things.

They always would say that if they had a winning team in NE, they'd draw 30,000 fans. Finally, when the team did become good, attendance was at its lowest ever, mostly due to the horrible setup of the new stadium, where parking cost more than the cheapest ticket and all the fans were on one side. Fortunately those problems have been addressed, but the tone-deaf Krafts thought that if they built it, people would come, no matter what.

 

That's not a thing unique to soccer in America, though.

I remember attending Angels games with my dad in the '80s when Gene Autry had opened up his wallet and the team had All-Sttas at almost every position...and it still felt like a road game whenever the Yankees or Red Sox were in town.

 

These things are definitely not mutually exclusive.

 

Not to mention it happens all the time in other major american sports leagues and also happens in soccer games around the world.

 

Agree!... Few years ago, Atletico Mineiro played in Medellin. The great Ronaldinho was playing for them and the stadium was PACKED. The fans were still rooting for the home team, but i bet a lot of people was also wanting to see Ronaldinho play (including me) with their own eyes.

 

Sounds like every time the Galaxy played Real Madrid, Man United (when they were good), Barcelona etc.

it’s frustrating

 

Haha! I was going to use the Ronaldinho example too in Liga MX. Nobody supports other teams because of that, but it sure boosts attendance and it is OK

 

That makes all the difference.

 

To be fair, they are really just making people buy that ticket to the SKC game. Even if they didn't do this those two LA games will sell out with people that likely aren't there to root for the team. FCD is damned if they do or damned if they don't in this situation because regardless of what they do here people are showing up for those games in order to root for an opposing player. The only way to counter that would be to sign their own big name Mexican but you'd then just have people showing up to root for a home player and not necessarily the team (and they would probably mostly leave once that player is gone). The only hope you have with the three pack is that you get some on the fence people to come to three games and they actually enjoy what the home team does. And I think you have a better chance of doing that if someone actually comes to multiple games and doesn't just go to the Chicharito or the Vela game. I think it won't work, but it wasn't going to work if they just let people buy individual tickets to that game either.

 

I was standing behind the goal back in the SRO days of 77, no such thing as safe standing at Lockhart. We cheered like hell when Pele was introduced, but we were rooting for the Strikers. Not mutually exclusive. If FCD beats the crap out of their heros, the people showing up for the the visitors might decide to like and respect and support the home 11.

 

I don't think Dallas area residents will show up to those games in a Kansas City jersey and support them.

Most probably they will be driven by curiosity to the stadium and while rooting for the player, being either neutral or supporting their local team. And if they have a good time they may come back later.