The recent signing of Marcello Gallardo got me thinking (I know, I know--always dangerous). The original justification (and what was probably used to sell the Hunt Group on the DP program) was that it was about selling tickets by adding marque players. And if you look at past threads here on BS, you've noticed that often times discussion of possible players to be added involved comments like "yeah, but just how many more tickets would he sell?" or "he's not worth a DP slot because Americans don't know about him" or comments of that ilk. Now Gallardo maybe an atypical example. DCU was probably especially low-key because despite never making a big deal of Veron, how that played out probably meant the organization didn't want to trumpet anything until he was signed, sealed and delivered. Plus, as good as Gallardo is (and he is good and he is DP worthy), he's clearly not a marque player in terms of world coverage ala Beckham, Veron, Blanco, Zidane or Denilson. Those guys (for one reason or another) have more name recognition in North America and for what it's worth probably fit the original DP stereotype of "selling tickets". OTOH, when you hear some of the names being thrown around as possible DPs (especially if you exclude Mexicans who may not be a big name internationally but certainly have some marquee value in the States), guys like Gallardo, to some extent Angel (who was a sub at Aston Villa when NYRB purchased him), Zurawski and many of the other DP's likely to be signed in the next year may reflect what we might call "stealth" DPs. Some of these guys aren't going to sell a lot of tickets but can constitute major talent upgrades for the league and improved credibility by serious fans. More importantly, rather than adding a player to sell tickets, it may be more about adding a player because he's just a really good player (and let's face it--that seemed to be the only criteria used by NYRB in signing Angel--they wanted a veteran finisher who'd get the job done). We keep hearing talk about Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Shevchenko or guys with big name clubs (Eidur Gudjohnson) but maybe the trend for the next couple of years are these kind of DPs who serious fans know about and respect, but aren't that glitzy, probably won't hail from La Liga, Serie-A or the Premiership (of course there will be exceptions).
The Crew hope to improve their attendance with the Zurawski signing. Not that there are large numbers of fans coming to see him specifically but rather that the team will be better and draw more American fans.
DC already has solid, consistent attendance in the league, and I don't think there is anybody in the world DC could realistically get at this point in time that could lead to a significant bump in ticket sales...not necessarily 30, 35, 40k plus per game like Beckham, but maybe 22-25k. I think there are less than ten players in the world that could give you close to Beckham type attendance...three of them have "Ronald" in their name, maybe Henry, or Zidane who is like 80 but would still sell tickets. But none of those players are coming here soon, although many have said they would like to play here. There was talk about Andriy coming to DC in a year or two, but I don't think he could amount for that much of a ticket sales bump, especially since he isnt at the top of his game right now. From what I hear from our FO and from fellow fans, it seems for the above reasons, coupled with the disappointment of the past 3 seasons, DC's priority numero uno is ON-THE-FIELD. We'll gladly take players without as much name recognition like Moreno, Gomez, Emilio, Fred, or even Gallardo as a DP if it will lead to Cup #5. For a team with more attendance issues, the desire to sell more tickets probably factors in a little more.
Isnt that the idea of MLS marketing these days, marketing to the true fans? going after players who are good but not necessarily brand names that real soccer fans actually recognize? i know i have heard dallas mention this change in approach and i thought i heard garber say something similar
depedns on your definition of 'true fnas' or 'real soccer fans'. (in my book, true fans or real soccer fans would already support their local teams no matter what) I thought the idea is to do marketing to the 'already enough soccer fans' (Beckham was a special case so that he brings in beyound 'already enough soccer fans' and even brings non-soccer-fan general public. I think we need a couple of those, too by the way) I didn't recognize Gallardo, I needed to do some search on him to appriciate the signing. (but then I'm already a fan to bother to care and do search) I'm not sure if he would appeal to most of 'already enough soccer fans'. Gallard will certainly make the already DCU fans happy, and help the team bring in a trophy, but I think we need little bit more than that in terms of brand name recognition actually to convert those 'already enough soccer fans' to MLS fans. DCU averaged around 17K last season, I hope we can bring it up to 20K, but I doubt that signing Gallardo as DP would help much. Veron would've done the job in that sense.
Great post, as usual. Nothing succeeds like success. In my view, nothing sells tickets like a winner. btw, I'd love to see Gudjohnsen's reception in NY or DC. In fact, I'd hope the State Dept. "drunkenly mocks" this idiot just in case he has stones to apply for a US visa.
Also, I'd think the popularity of players like Toja in Dallas proves that a lot of people are paying attention and would give the owners the confidence to recruit for talent and not just fame.
I would consider both Angel and Reyna as "stealth" DPs. Neither one was going to improve attendance because of their star power. No, not even Reyna. When The Fire courted Blanco, they did it because of his playing ability. They were floored by the celebrity factor. Not saying they didn't expect some, but it was well beyond their expectations. So I think the the number of stealth DPs is probably higher than you give credit for.
The definition of "stealth DP" is inherently fuzzy. Returning Americans probably fall into a completely separate category. For instance, I doubt that if Brian McBride were to return, he'd get on the cover of SI, be interviewed by 60 minutes and have a TV show starring his wife entitled "Returning to America" in which Victoria Beckham meets her and explains how the States have changed in the past couple of years. And yeah, Blanco isn't a big name internationally. But the single biggest reason MLS keeps looking at Mexicans (Luis Hernandez, Hugo Sanchez, Damian, etc.) is in an attempt to tap into Mexican fans. Because the Mexican players are to this hemisphere what Italian and English players are to Europe: overpriced in relative to their talent. But my point here is not to nitpick about who's stealth or not, only that originally the program was supposed to be about marquee players who sell tickets. And now it looks like we may have gotten totally away from that.
I think you're inflating the idea that marquee players were just to sell tickets. You're using Beckham as an example when we all know he's the exception to the rule. I think the DP rule is to generate news to some extent, and improve the quality on the pitch. If we subtract Beckham from the equation I think we'll see most of the DPs are very similar to Gallardo.