*sigh* I guess I would have to accept this abomination also, if it were the only way to stay competitive. I would skip the inevitable friendlies however. The average American sports fan has heard of ManU. period. At least that would have been true a year ago today, I gather the American soccer consciousness has notched up just a tick since then. So it's possible that 5% of American sports fans could name the EPL Big 4. I very much doubt that "hypothetical person" could name more than that, however. Barca and RM at the outside. Bottom line is, ESPN is going to have to raise that consciousness several more notches before, e.g. Bayern or Newcastle would have any cachet here. just imo of course.
It really depends on what you are looking for in a partnership. I'm not so convinced the big clubs will give you that much as far as the soccer team goes. Sure, they'll provide you with some form of instant credibility with the general media and some cross promotion, but I'm not sure that this type of partnership will be much more then a quick high. I guess it depends on what you are looking for, a hook-up or a long term relationship. Now, as for Sevilla... The club is possibly on the biggest upswing of any club, anywhere. This is a club that about 12 years ago was on the verge of being relegated to 3rd division due to debt. The club now has the books leveled and getting ready to refurbish their downtown stadium with concourses, skyboxes, et al. They've increased season ticket holders from 32,000 to 41,000 in about 3 years. They have a great training ground on the edge of the city. Their B team is fighting to get promoted to 2nd division, joining Real Madrid as the only clubs with teams in the top two divisions. Sevilla has possibly the best scouting system in the world of soccer. Monchi and his army of scouts turn up the best talent in the world at bargain prices. -Batista signed for 2 million Euros, sold for 25 million. -Dani Alves brought into the youth teams, considered by many as the best right back in the world today. -Sevilla beats Betis to the best local talent by 2 years. They stole Reyes from a Betico family; Sergio Ramos, Navas... If you can develop a partnership that allows you to tie into the Sevilla scouting system you'll have resources no other team in MLS comes close to. Need an attacking midfielder? They have a whole database of them that aren't quite up to Sevilla's level but would excel in MLS. And at a low price, too boot. Even if Sevilla is not so "well known", the sister city thing is big. How big? Think "The Plaza" big. Sevilla's biggest avenue into the heart of the city is Kansas City Avenue. Incidently, it leads to Nervion Plaza and Sevilla's Sanchez Pizjuan stadium. The draw between the two cities is something to market around. For all you fun loving Wizards fan, Sevilla is designed for fun. Some people work to live, others live to work, Sevillianas work to earn enough for the next party: 22 Dec - 6 Jan, Christmas/New Year's/Three Kings Day Late Feb, every town has a carnival. Instead of matching up to Easter directly, some vary so they can go to about three weeks worth Easter week, the prosessions. Dudes marching through town at all hours in hoods and gowns that would remind you of the KKK: This is deeply religious, with some going barefoot, wearing chains and dragging crosses. Of course, for the rest of us, we watch their suffering and head back to the bars until the next group comes. Late April, Sevilla Feria, big festival of drinking, eating and dancing for about a week straight Late April through May, same type of Fairs in other neighboring cities. Jerez is the best. Summer, vacation on the beach. Sep - Oct, more fairs in neighboring cities Throughout the year, Tapa fairs, pastry fairs, bread fairs, neighborhood fairs, you name, there isn't a reason too small Back to Christmas Robb, you really need to make the training trip to Sevilla. Great city, great team to associate with (I'm not talking about that other, ugly green team), and at least one great fan. Also, great weather for spring training, not like RSL has to work with in Madrid. If time permits, maybe the team could visit the two local US military bases; visit with the GIs and their kids, embarrass our want-to-be athletes, that sort of thing. With enough planning maybe some of your faithful fans can make a vacation of it. I can show you the coolest castle in Europe, at the discount price of 0 Euros. No, this is not something you'll see in a Disney feature film. You can dine in another castle close by that has soccer players pictures all over the wall. Wouldn't it be great to have a picture of the 2008 Wizards on the wall for all to see? One more thing, since I'm on my soapbox. The headquarters at Morón Air Base has a display for the sister cities of Kansas City and Sevilla. In the display they have a Chiefs cap and a Royals cap. They really need a Wizards cap. If you would like to send the base commander one drop me a PM. I'll gladly give you his office address. OK, enough of my bandwagoning. Thanks for the ear.
I think at the heart of the Seville debate is the question of what we would want KC to accomplish from a partnership. Is a loose federation with a worldclass team which may bring in some recognition value and a few friendlies better, or is a close partnership with a less known and less rich team more advantageous, in that it would have a better chance of helping KC on the field? To put it another way: If LA gets name recognition and high-profile friendlies from Chelsea, while KC would could perhaps get reserve players on loan and (very probable) a foot in the door for South American scouting, which of the two situations is better? I think if we can trust a "mid-major" European team to give us a real edge tactically and with scouting, and/or be willing to send players over who need first team experience, it may be the best deal for KC at this point in its history.
Well both of those 2 have different pros to them. From a business stand point, it's more favorable to have a partnership with a bigger club, one that has a decent following or is a major band wagon team here (Chelsea, ManU, Liverpool, etc). From the perspective of the play on the field, you'd want one where you're more likely to get players on loan and training purposes.
Fantastic post. Plenty of info on why a team like Sevilla would be better than one of the EPL's "Big 4". I actually found myself a little excited at the possibility. As Kuhnscoot said, the instant name recognition of a big name EPL club would go a decent way from a marketing standpoint, but only for so long. Now, drop a couple of AM's and a striker on our team that we get first dibs on, and we could win some more games. Winning games fills the seats, and winning championships fills them more. I believe it was said in another thread that most casual sports fans follow those teams that are constantly good and win championships. Having ManU back our team gives us a name to stick with us, but if we're still missing the playoffs, the casual fan may not want to watch.
Well I guess we've reached that point where we've opened it up a bit thanks again to jersey discussion. It has ran it's course for a month of stickied suggestion, and now it no longer is so carry on. (e.g. Open Season)
But really, what would you prefer, a good friendly or a partnership with more substance. Of course, that's assuming you can't have both. Plus, with the KC - Sevilla connection, I'm not so sure you can't equal up on the business side anyway. Especially with the way Sevilla is playing right now. The press is starting to mix the words "Sevilla" and "triple" in the same sentences now. It's never been done in the Spanish league. After I got a good ear ringing from my wife, I think I need to clarify something from my last post. Hour for hour, Andaluces work as hard and produce as much as anyone. But they will never lose the will for a good time.
I think some joint advertising with the Royals would be great. Combo tickets with a marketing campaign centering around the tag line of "Bleed Blue" would help both clubs while reducing the cost of advertising for both organizations. I know that an all you can eat night was mentioned, but how about making weekday games a discounted beer night. When I was in college, everyone used to go out to the $1 beer nights at Minor League baseball games. I too, think that the Latino fans are going to be a key part of MLS's future success. Just look at the ticket sales when we played Chivas at the end of last season. I think there were almost as many Chivas fans at the game as Wizards fans. I'm sure all those fans didn't travel all the way from California. MLS plays preseason games in other countries. How about getting those other country's teams to play some preseason games here. Of course, this will be easier when we have a dedicated stadium. Have special events discounting tickets for anyone wearing Wizards apparel or better yet give discounts on apparel to anyone with a ticket stub. Get more merchandise to the sporting goods and box stores to help legitimize the team. Play up the fact that we have players on the National team. I barely heard anything about the fact that Wizard players participated in the World Cup.
Get Garmin as a sponser for the Jerseys. They are a Kansas City based company and the global positioning electronics market is booming. They have great advertising and they are throwing a lot of advertising dollars around right now. They even had a Super Bowl ad. I think that they have the most Global/International brand of any of the big companies in KC, which fits right in with the soccer mentality.
Hmm, is "global recognition" an important element? Maybe, maybe. If, that is, we start playing meaningful games outside our borders. Then this becomes a real factor. For now national recognition will do just fine, and I will have to say that Hallmark and Sprint have Garmin trumped in that department. Of course, the other thing is that this is not our decision to make. Fortunately we can let the sponsor worry about whether the deal makes any sense or not. All we are concerned about is the size of the check, and secondly that we aren't sponsored by a company named, oh say, Bimbo. Or Dick. Oh, speaking of sponsors, here's a don't (apologies to the negativity police). Please don't sign a long-term naming rights deal only to find out that the naming rights are going for 10 times more several years later. The Colts are getting a brand new stadium after only 25 years, largely because they signed an overly long, underly lucrative sponsorship contract. Great for them, but I'm guessing we would probably not get a new stadium in that scenario.
That's a great idea! And that, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a Garmin employee.
I agree that Hallmark and Sprint have a bigger Global brand, but hallmark doesn't advertise much and Sprint has been backpedaling in the cell phone market over the last year. They will be spending s lot of money in the next year, but it will be to improve it's technology and push specific features, not the brand name. Garmin's market is about to explode with the cost of devices coming down. This is the best time to approach them with a sponsorship deal as they will be pushing hard to excellerate their branding and increase their market share before other companies jump into the mix.
Hallmark is doing terribly financially, I dont see them doing any sponsorship. My dad works for them and he told me recently that he wouldnt be surprised to see them go out of business in a few years. I think Garmin would be a good choice if you are going for local companies. Sprint is an embarassment, please dont go that route.
How does that negate the fact that Sprint is an embarassment? Just because they dropped a bundle to have their name slapped on the side of the new arena....they'll just layoff a few more thousand grunts to cover the cost.
I guess I disagree on what constitutes an "embarassment". Haliburton and Enron are embarrasements. Sprint/Nextel is a typical large corporation.
I have had my work life negatively impacted by Sprint's complete incompetence as a company twice in my professional life. They are an embarassment because they are terribly ran company that cant seem to do anything right. I know some people on this board probably work there but that is how I feel because of my experience with them.
I will second that emotion. They have no clue how to manage people whatsoever, pretending to be a progressive employer, when really they don't give a damn about you. I contracted with Sprint twice and both times found myself doing a job you could probably program a software package to do much faster. They lay people off so randomly or for such nakedly political reasons that everyone knows no matter who they are they could be gone tomorrow for no reason at all, and so they have no reason to develop themselves or anyone else. Sprint is a total joke and their product sucks. They merged with Nextel to get their walkie talkie feature and their "best in industry network." As soon as they merged, Nextel's network went into the toilet, and they instantly went from the lowest churn rate in the industry to one of the highest. They deserve whatever they get as far as I'm concerned.
Regardless how you feel about them (Sprint) personally (and whats been said is indicitive of any company their size - layoffs, just a number, incompetent managment etc...) if they buck up to be the primary sponsor for the team then I think we all accept it as a positive. In addition to being good enough to be the primary advertiser for the new KC arena, they're good enough for the NFL, they hold the primary advertising tag on all of NASCAR as a whole. Fact is Sprint is already involved heavily in sports as part of their marketing approach why would the Wizards walk away from them as a primary sponsor (if it happened). They are a major player with sponsorship opportunities regardless of the personal "embarassment" tag some have slapped them with here.
You are right, they shouldn't if Sprint writes a big enough check; one of my posts from yesterday says as much. I was just commiserating. While I wouldn't feel good about it, I would accept that you can't say no to the highest bidder, particularly to a brand as recognizable as Sprint. "Embarrassment" is the right word in the sense that I am embarrassed and disappointed at the way they conduct themselves, but not in the sense of people pointing and laughing at our jerseys. No, that would be an overstatement because most people of the world don't have a full appreciation for the steaming bowl Sprint really is.
Just noticed this. I think I've stumbled upon the name of our new arena... EDIT: Of course I mean the Sprint Center, not the Wizards stadium. Oops.
To stray away from the "screw the corporate world!" arguements, here's something i think should be changed, and for hte love of god, changed before the season gets here. DO NOT PUT THE CAULDRON WHERE IT HAS BEEN RELOCATED. I think this for several reasons: 1. Thanks to this, we are no longer able to heckle opposing players (some in good fun, of course...) 2. You watch any other club games around the world and typically, the large areas of supporters tend to be on an end, or behind the goal. Everyone knows that the cauldron is always the bluest, most vocal, and most densely crowded area of arrowhead on gamenights (except for that one unforgettable game where tickets for the chiefs game included wizards tickets), so why don't we put it back where it was? or even better yet, put it DIRECTLY behind the goal and remap the yard. Of course there would be a little complication thanks to the chief's band area, but hey, everytime we score, our fan support would be right there on camera, showing everyone watching that we're a legitimate supporters club.