Better late than never I suppose. A fresh new start to marketing can start with the NYRB match at Hofstra and carry that into the longer fall season.
New Cosmos stadium key to modern edition of former NASL super team http://www.soccerwire.com/news/pro/...-to-modern-edition-of-former-nasl-super-team/
In a bigger picture Emirates has chosen Cosmos as their First US soccer affilate Sponsor. Aside from being the Jersey sponsor and as we found out this summer much more to the Cosmos. This stadium on the border of the city that never sleeps, the Big Apple, The major media center in the world being affilated with the Stadium with some big naming rights deal could become the hub for all of Emirates clubs to call home base as they come for a summer tour of the US and Canada. Could we see the Emirates cup in NYC. Could we see the Cosmos host a B side of PSG, AC Milan etc. during the NASL break preseason as a pre cursor to the main event at Giants stadium. could it be in addition to the Arsenal London Cup. London and NYC you do not get much better than that.
I would love to see all those things... First we need to get the stadium approved. In order to do that an increase in attendance is a must. In the past I was a bit skeptical about a Raul signing, now I wouldn't mind. I feel it would help sell some tickets, and that's something we need at this crucial time.
Raul would come on a free, but how much would his wages cost? $5m per year was mentioned somewhere on these boards, which is an astonishing amount for someone who has been playing the Gulf for the last 2 seasons. Let's say it's a more realistic $1.5m, which is more likely to move the dial in terms of attendance and media interest; $1.5m on an over-the-hill former great, or $1.5m on a full court press sales, marketing & PR campaign? Second, if you don't spend the money on a marketing campaign, how will anyone in New York know that Raul is playing for the Cosmos in the first place???? New York is a crowded media marketplace, and not every sports fan knows who Raul is. Those who do, know he's past it, whereas Frank Lampard and certainly David Villa aren't. Btw: Raul a) doesn't speak much English, and b) isn't much of a media whore even in Spain. There's a limit to his ability to work the Manhattan-driven media, even if the said media do decide to pay attention to a) a former great, who's b) playing for a minor league team that's c) playing out in the Long Island boonies.
A couple of things: you may have your sports confused when you call the NASL a "minor league" Cosmos are not a farm team to anyone. With your extensive topographical knowledge of NY just how far from NYC do you think LI is? Finally for argument sake let's say that 1.5M figure is spot on. I do agree that is way too much for a second division team, because seriously it's way out of the norm, how much can one guy do? ...but the way I see it the Cosmos have to double down for that stadium, bring in a big name and spend another big amount wisely in marketing. Yet still the stadium is not guaranteed, but at least you gave it you best shot. They say they'll spend 400 M on the stadium, what's another 5m to get you a better chance at it.
WOW 400 million. maybe they should cut it back to 300million and begin a major marketing campaign in the NYMetro. Bride some politicians maybe to get the stadium OK'd. There are some great SSS going up for half as much as 400 million.
Absent pro/rel, any team that is not a member of North America's recognized major league for a particular sport is usually referred to as minor league - certainly on these boards. The Charleston Battery or Minnesota United are nobody's farm teams, but nobody - not even their own executives - would say with a straight face that they're not minor league. I have no "extensive topographical knowledge of NY," but I do know enough of NY to know that Hofstra isn't in the 5 boroughs, and if it's not within the 5 boroughs, it's NY, not NYNY. Granted, this is not set in stone, but even if you can somehow persuade the Manhattan media types to regard the Cosmos as non-minor league, they will still be far more likely to treat the Cosmos as provincial than not. It's the same with media cities the world over; in London they say that "eskimos begin at Luton." To give a Cosmos-specific comparison, Getafe municipality is a part of the Madrid Metropolitan area, but is not part of Madrid city so, while Getafe FC are very much part of the Madrid media market, nobody in the Madrid media regards them as a Madrid team. Meantime, there is no local media market for them to be the focus of, even though Getafe is a significant industrial hub and a college town with a highly-ranked university. Despite their much better La Liga record, they're still a club much lesser in stature than Rayo Vallecano, which is - proudly - a barrio team for the residents of Vallecas district of Madrid city. As for Raul changing things, Charlton Athletic, the team for South-East London were in D2 in the early 80s and were in serious financial difficulties, with declining attendances and a stadium that (urgently) needed expensive renovations to meet safety codes. They decided to fill the stands first and signed a big name to persuade the fans back - Allan Simonsen who had lost out to Bernd Schuster and a newly-arrived Diego Maradonna for the then-two foreigner places at Barcelona. At 30 years old with 200 BL and 100 La Liga appearances, he was at the peak of his powers and a major coup for Charlton, media attention very much included. Attendances spiked before regressing to the mean within 3 months, as fans realised that Simonsen alone couldn't carry a team that had been cut to the bone to afford his fee and wages. Revenues declined and they could no longer cover Simonsen's wages, so he left Charlton and Charlton left The Valley to become Crystal Palace's tenants. A decade later, Richard Murray became Chairman and reorganized the commercial and footballing sides of the club. With better management, Charlton were able to repair two sides of their stadium to code and returned to The Valley just in time to ride football's post Italia 90 recovery in popularity. A refurbished stadium and a long stretch in the EPL followed. IMO, the lessons for the Cosmos are simple and prosaic. As a minor league team in a struggling-but-emerging sport in the world's premier major league sports market, with a formidably resourced direct competitor about to start operations, they are facing major relevancy challenges. In the circumstances, their financial and human resources need to be focused on a competent and very creative Front Office that defines a distinct identity, a media presence that promotes that identity, and fills or near-fills Hofstra for the next 3 seasons, thereby displaying their relevance to New York City and Long Island football fans in ways that are distinct to NYCFC and NYRB. IF (and only if) if they can achieve that consistently, does stadium discussion amount to more than plans for diving into a sinkhole because there's newly-restored vintage auto at the bottom. Then you build a 4-stand stadium of 15k capacity and fill/near-fill that consistently, before filling in the corners to reach 18k, at which point your relevance is no longer in question, for the simple reason that you'll be a sports business phenomenon.
Having to go on extensively to prove your points takes away from them. Having said that you got a couple of good ideas. I have to disagree with you about NALS being referred to as a minor league on these boards, that is why it struck me when I read it. Hofstra is 15 min ride from Queens NYC. In Comparing any other country's footballing history to that of what we have here now is apples to oranges, no pro/ rel here. Cosmos are already on a path, I too would have liked a smaller stadium and better attendance. What will you have them do pull their offer? Change it? Not sure if that would help at this point. The future for this club is uncertain at this time, no matter what I'll ride it out, I'm there at every game part of it is cultural ,call it second division, call it minor league, call it what you will .
i think would start taking opinions about Cosmos situation seriously from people in NYC & Metro area. U know those who know. AS is most opinions are just that opinions, not facts.
If you prefer, I could do a Kenn Tomasch and call people who (I think) are wrong idiots, and leave it at that . Maybe not on the BigSoccer NASL boards, but certainly on the rest of BigSoccer. In this context, 15 minutes from Queens is in the category of "close, but no cigar." When I was in college, it was called "compare and contrast." I've learned far more about why and how football took root in some countries but not in others from reading Americans debating on BigSoccer than I've learned from all other sources combined. In any case, those other leagues have succeeded, whereas America's first two efforts to create pro soccer leagues failed. The usual approach is that something can be learned from the successful, but other people's mileage may vary You're entirely right, I have criticized rather than created, but if my money were riding on this, I'd be focusing on a) dropping the whole THE NEW YORK COSMOS thing. Going toe-to-toe with the Red Bulls and Man City will only bleed $ and psychological energy as the contrast between the glory days of selling out Giants Stadium and today becomes impossible to ignore. b) talk about the (lowercase) Cosmos and focus on the real heritage of the Cosmos, which is putting soccer on the American map, and how the owners wanted to revive the heritage rather than see it die. That leads into talking about continuing to bring soccer to the people and the grassroots (which hints at lower ticket prices than NYRB and NYC). c) position the Cosmos as the Rayo Vallecano of New York soccer, a barrio team that represents Queens, Brooklyn and the Long Island suburbs, mainly Nassau and Suffolk counties, and focus your sales, marketing. promotion and PR efforts on these districts. There's about 8 million people in those counties/boroughs. There may be a fanbase of 10-15k to be found there with the right marketing. d) the marketing campaign should be guerilla-style, relentlessly grassroots. Schools, ethnic clubs, ethnic soccer teams, festivals, soccer camps, etc. Local, local, local because you'll never have the resources to break through in such a crowded media market as New York. e) use good ideas wherever they've been found to work. One idea that comes to mind is the Sounders' "scarf this city" campaign where IIRC a Sounders scarf was put in every mailbox in Puget Sound. It got people talking about the Sounders, who they were, why soccer was so great/awful/etc. Maybe that would work in Queens, Suffolk and Nassau. Maybe it wouldn't, or is too expensive, but the idea could lead to other ideas. f) when assembling the roster, look for players who have started acquiring coaching licenses, so they can do real coaching at soccer camp. The American pay-to-play method of youth development stinks, but at least the kids will get value for money. Do it right, and there could be a reasonably useful revenue stream. g) send the players out to put in appearances everywhere at everything. Player appearances for the opening of an envelope if it can move tickets. h) stop the compensatory bluster about $200m stadiums in $400m developments; it's just ridiculous until you have an 8k average attendance. Just my 10 cents worth. At this stage I've said probably too much on this topic, so I'm out of this thread. I hope the Cosmos succeed, but I think they are now in in serious trouble. I wish you guys luck, and lots of it.
This editorial at Newsday.com (paywall) gives a bit of hope for Cosmos Stadium at Belmont. Apparent NYS has to make some decision by next spring on Belmont, Aqueduct & Saratoga Racetrcks going forward. While Saratoga will be fine, most care it needed by the other two tracks. Rebuild Belmont Park for the long run - Editorial - Newsday newsday.com -basically called for quitting horses at Aqueduct -creating a smaller heated grandstand, for yr round races @ Belmont & pushed it as an entertainment hub -Cornell Uni. recently opened horse Med. Clinic @ Belmont - spoke about needs to develop 36 acres surrounding tracks -mentioned stadium as an option, very few other choices besides housing. - So there is hope, but I still believe state can offer Aqueduct as an alternative (my assumption, I like that, ) All in all stadium is on the radar, it is not being ignored by next season we will know yay or nay Hopefully the Cosmos will have a presence at the race tomorrow, I am already disappointed that they have choosen this wkend to retire #9 when they have all summer left to do that, rather than some type of tie-in with the race (100+ thousand people are expected at track tomorrow. I am somewhat disappointed in org. (Erik Stover) here. NY likes big events, NYRB, new Cosmos don't get it. I'm afraid NYCFC & Tim Parnetti gets it. He's an area guy having sheperd Rutgers to the BIG 10
First I am not a fan of the current Gov. of NYS. BUt Facts are by April 2015 NYS has a binding agreement that they have to make some decisions on their 3 state own racetracks (Belmont, Aqueduct, & Saratoga). The races at these tracks provide the race feed nationwide were bettors do their betting. Saratoga is safe. The major decision will be between Belmont & Aqueduct. The Belmont Stake isn't going anywhere. So it is safe to assume Belmont racetrack will be renovated and given the debactle of this weekend failed handling of 100+ thousand leaving the Belmont, one can assume Belmont will be renovated. Question is what of the 36 acres around Belmont, will they be Apartments, Big Box Stores, Full Casino, or Cosmos Stadium. BTW, Everything is political, because the majority of us are sheeples. So we wait ......
With the race track still being there surrounding it with more entertainment like a Soccer stadium, Casino, resturants, Hotels, etc. would seem to make sense
As much as the tepid Spring attendance hurt the stadium effort, I think the win over the Red Bulls (and two consecutive strong turn outs) helps restore positive momentum
From an outsider looking in it seems like a new stadium would draw better crowds but to get that stadium they need to get better crowds at Hofstra. I would think having a SSS on the near outskirts of the 5 boros actually in NY would allow for better international scheduling without having to go through the total Yankee Stadium make over
Dear NYS EDC, With great press and fanfare for soccer. Now would be a great time to announce the approval of New York Cosmos Stadium at Belmont racetrack. Thank you in advance. Sincerely, JSpech