I think I have an idea that could get a little more exposure for some MLS teams, and fans can do it themeselves. When I saw the Galaxy were playing a recent graduate of my university, I finally saw a way to get some of the thousands of members of my school's So Cal alumni club to go to a game. The draw could be a fairly rare situation, however. My school is Syracuse University, from the other side of the country, and Chris Aloisi is the first Syracuse player to play in MLS. So the two degrees of rarity are part of the draw. I'm from the area, but most of the So Cal club members are people originally from all around the country or world who went to Syracuse, then settled in L.A. for their jobs (many in the TV/movie industry), so they get to go watch a new guy who came across the country for his career. Oh, and there's the new stadium factor. I sent the club a long email about the player, with a link to the Syracuse University athletics article about the big debut, how great the stadium/experience would be, and the Galaxy contact info. so they could get group tickets and avoid Ticketmaster charges. I know that a situation like this is rare, but I think it can work in more common situations. Lots of MLS players are from the NCAA, so you can certainly appeal to a local alumni club to come and cheer on their fellow alumnus. It will probably yield small results, but it costs a team/fans nothing to send a very targeted email, and you can do it focusing on the players the team already has. Examples: The Earthquakes are only just beginning, in announcements and the new Free Kick program, to point out they have THREE players from Sant Clara University. They should also mention Ching from Stanford. Can you imagine if you got like 1/10,000th of the local alumni from those two schools to come out? I read press releases at my job all the time, and I have some experience with stuff like this, so if anyone else likes the idea, I'll share the letter I wrote. Again, the results may be small, but the effort is incredibly targeted and very cheap.
The Galaxy tried this a few years ago with some schools, but didn't have much success. It's a good idea in theory, though. If you have a group of active alumni in the area that are looking for events, it's worth a shot.
Ronér went to Stanford too. And I think one or two others as well perhaps. The Quakes played a friendly against SCU earlier, and have a special SCU nite for them later this fall. I don't think anything's ever been done WRT the Stanford connection though.
It's good that the Earthquakes are working that angle. I'll bet a consistent effort will eventually win some new fans.