DC United front office, or lack thereof

Several global brands are jersey sponsors of MLS teams, though, both now and in the past. Target (for more than one team), Etihad Airways, General Electric, TikTok, Motorola, Red Bull, Hyundai, Volkswagen (as a past DC United example), Acura....

 

If you want to grow the brand, partner with someone like FlyingJ (ok, maybe not them) or T&A https://www.ta-petro.com/. Not based in DC, give them a super discount like $750K/yr. but they have to dedicate merch in all their rest stops. Shit, give them a sleeve sponsor for pennies, but require the merch.

I had Buc-ees https://buc-ees.com here before, but they’re too hyper local.

Thx,

Jay!

 

I've always thought that it would be better to have partners that cross promote the club instead of just exchange of cash and maybe some tickets for them to give away to people who won't use them.

Yeti sells Austin shirts on its website. Something like that is huge.

 

For a lot of these brands, it's just brand awareness. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned looking at what's advertised on the metro and that's basically the same thing, hence Leidos the last few years. For the publically traded companies its about visibility. SKC was sponsored up until this year by some kind of mutual fund company. Other than appliances, which are not GE's core business by a mile, sponsorship doesn't make much sense unless you look at the investor awareness aspect of it. Not DCU, but it always struck me as curious that Siemens was the evening fireworks sponsor at EPCOT and GE before them when I was younger.

The better brands are going to want to be associated with the more successful teams. Thus our crypto sponsor. The shine is definitely off our 4 championships, 15 years down range.

 

For the record, GE no longer makes appliances. The "GE" branded appliances are made by a Chinese company Haier who paid a license fee to use the "GE" name on appliances made at the former GE facilities in Louisville and other Southern states. Been that way since 2016.

 

I've seen a lot of talk elsewhere that advertising in sports is basically throwing money away. As a soccer fan, I have to disagree. For a lot of companies, I know them firstly (and in some cases, only) from their jersey sponsorships. If I was an advertising executive, I'd suggest that getting your name on an athletic uniform is way better money spent than print or broadcast or youtube. Those fückers at Red Bull have figured this out.

As a side note, I would never, ever buy DC merch that had scummy corporate grifters seeking government handouts like Leidos pasted on it. And Leidos is a billion times better than the current sponsor. So I guess it'll be another few years before I buy anything from the team.

 

Leidos is a garbage company! Did not buy anything DCU with Leidos on it. Back in 2014 when they split off from SAIC, Leidos fired 700 employees two weeks before Christmas. I saw that first hand.

 

Did anyone else have the thought that the reason DCU went with XDC is to have the DC connection in the names? That was my first thought when I saw the new sponsor.

 

I would have preferred United Airlines

... or even the now-defunct-scam-company DC Solar

 

or United Bank.

 

I considered that, but figured there would be issues with Eagle Bank Arena

 

Kind of interesting. Goff indicated that Levien committed to more roofing at Audi Field. In response to another tweet, he followed up to add that he thinks Levien meant the existing roof and roofing over additional sections. Think that's the first indication that they're at least considering expanding the roof. Not that I think it will happen.

Few leftovers from interview ...

Asked why DCU training center is smaller than others in MLS, Levien says, "We're in phase 2. We have multiple phases to go." Enclosed field among projects.

More roofing at Audi? "We’re going to do it." No specifics yet. Sportsbook opens "in May"

— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) April 27, 2022

 

We'll see, said the blind man.

 

My first thought was I'd never heard of them and someone was probably getting a kickback or something like that.

 

Apparently during the STM Meet Lucy and Danita event a couple of weeks ago they also said the roofing would be completed.

 

They have an intern scouring all the Home Depot's for duct tape, now!

 

Let me know if they have the discovery rights. I'm always looking for crap I can't find in HD, and at this point it's just easier to make a deal.

 

My ticket rep told me they would look into the leak in the roof over our seats.

Does anyone really think that will happen?

 

Where is my holding breath emoji?

They're all full of shit. Around the time that we signed the crypto bros on board, Danita posted something on Twitter about NFTs and creating value for STMs and I asked she thought any of us wanted that stuff and when STMs were getting their annual gift for this year or last and a few days later when I prodded her on the post, I got a text from some rando phone number that STMs gifts would be coming. I responded that they missed the point of the tweet without a response. I wish I'd kept the text/number.

Saying they'll do the roof, when prior to covid they said it cost a million just to bring in the crane and that it was likely never happening is just blather that isn't going anywhere with the hope that no one remembers. And Levien saying it and never following through means nothing and does nothing to harm his reputation with the fans.

 

them "looking into it" or actually fixing the problem?

Sure, they will look into it - they already have. And we already know the answer to the rest of the question....

 

I believe there is a faucet in one of the bathrooms that has been running like forever. If they can't find a plumber they certainly can't fix a roof.

 

I remember my first visit to Audi, it was a March game when it was still pretty chilly so people were getting out of the wind during half time. I'd gone through Union Station to get there and use the bathroom there where all of the faucets have always run ice cold even from the hot taps.

In the men's room on the side opposite the supporters running the tap led to scalding hot water and since our hands were ice cold from the chill, it was painful. I quipped aloud "Well i guess we know where all the missing hot water from Union Station bathrooms has gone." And there were a fair few who got it and laughed. It was a very 'DC local' moment.

 

Audi Field basically is just a glorified NCAA Division II football stadium. But, sigh, it's all we have . . .

Meanwhile, Nashville FC is all set to open it's brand new soccer specific stadium that seats 30,000. Sigh.

 

Aside from the first year and a half, whenever have we been close to capacity?