Does it seem like a wasted opportunity for the Earthquakes to NOT have a Spanish version of their web site? (... at least, not that I can find.) I'm not for pandering to any group. But I am for smart marketing. It would cost very, very little in the grand scheme of things to have a Spanish site. It would open doors to all kinds of low-cost marketing programs. Plus I bet there are people who read these very boards who could do the job. MLSnet.com does has a Spanish version, so someone must think it's worthwhile. I would like to hear from those of you who speak Spanish as a first language if you think a Spanish version of sjearthquakes.com would help the Quakes gain Latino fans -- and help the long-term health of the franchise in San Jose.
Hell, check out the Raiders web site. Not only do the Silver-and-Blacked-Out currently provide Spanish, Chinese and German site translations, I read somewhere that they're soon adding Russian.
It's something that's not within the control of the Earthquakes FO since control of the individual club websites is now under the control of the main MLSnet.com site provider. Bajoro, ask yourself this...do any of the other clubs offer their sites in Espanol?
http://fc.dallas.mlsnet.com/MLS/dab/espanol/ http://chicago.fire.mlsnet.com/MLS/chf/espanol/ http://dcunited.mlsnet.com/MLS/dcu/espanol/
Considering the fact that 99% of Russians here don't give a flying [censored] about baseball - this is funny.
The Raiders are not a baseball team, so I guess Alexi proves his own point. Thing is, the Raiders also have attendance problems, and they're reaching out to fans of other cultures.
And really, considering all the violence and bloodshed and turmoil and pain and suffering that the Russians have experienced over the course of their history, shouldn't they be the obvious foreign choice to become RaiderFan?
Hehehe I always confusing these two sports: the one with strong men in tight pants and helmets, and the one with fat men with bats.
I think a Spanish translation of the Quakes website would be a help to Spanish speaking fans. Now Spanish isn't my first language, but I used to teach ESL in Mountain View and I had plenty of Spanish speaking students who didn't know much about the Quakes, but were at least vaguely interested. (This was a pretty low level class, so reading a website or newspaper in a foreign language was a bit of a stretch for most of these students.) If MLS is doing Spanish sites for other teams, what's the chance that they will do one for the Quakes? It seems like a natural, you given the huge Spanish speaking population here that MLS has always wanted to reach out to. . . . Well, maybe. Baseball is played in a park. Football is played in a coliseum. War Memorial Coliseum. LONG LIVE THE QUAKES!! (F_ck AEG and MLS!) - Mark
1) Thanks to ElJefe for his timely response. I am perplexed, however, as to why the Galaxy don't have a Spanish site 2) As to whether or not it's within control of the FO... I'll bet you anything it's a service they can 'buy' from the league office. 3) Mark, thanks for your story about the ESL class. 4) This is just one more thing that irritates me about the 'marketing' effort put forth by the Quakes. - In Chicago, you have Peter Wilt, regarded as the class of MLS GMs, with a Spanish site - In Dallas, you have a franchise with a huge Latino population, rebuilding from a couple of disasterous years, with a Spanish site - In DCU, you have the class of the league as far as Latino support, with a web site. - In LA, no web site... but then, they're nearly at capacity attendence anyways - Chivas, naturally... San Jose? Nah, no Spanish web site. What's the message? This goes beyond the promotional aspect of marketing, and straight to the issue of what product we're going to present. I don't think you can be a serious soccer business in this part of the world without making an effort to offer some basic outreach to this huge segment of the market.
It puzzled me as well, especially since they have consistently had a strong presense in more traditional electronic media. Then again, as you pointed out, they do sell out the joint a lot.
Not to mention that Chivas's site comes up that way by default: http://chivas.usa.mlsnet.com/ or http://cdchivasusa.com/