At the WUSA site press room, a story about trying to get more youth team support. Here is a paragraph from the story: "We're looking for them (youth soccer players) to attend all games," DiCicco said. "We're looking for them to attend mid-week games, weekend games, day games, night games. Obviously if you're in Columbus, Ohio we're not very convenient to access. But every youth team within an hour or two of a WUSA stadium needs to get out to a game this year." http://www.wusa.com/press_room/341834.html Has anyone seen the April Heinrichs letter that it talks about?
If they REALLY want this to happen they ned to make the games more afordable and accessable on a single or family ticket basis. The "group" ticked sales will only have limited impact as many teams, particularly rec teams, never get together for anything away from the field but some/many parents from rec teams would take their kids if it was afordable and they feel safe doing so. BTW: The perception of safety may have little to do with the reality and stats are meaningless. Teams must activly create a safe feeling enviorment and must go out of their way to address any, even ming, concerns. Each team must address this in ways that fit their area and fan base but it must be addressed and no one program will have the desired effect alnoe. The lack of creatitivity that I have remarked on in US soccer extends to the league officials as well. They need to realize that marketing ideas from other (men's) sports will just not work very well with their fan base and they (The league and the teams) need to get creative and find ideas that will work. DiCicco's words are just words without creative actions to back them. It kind of seems that he, and many in the WUSA, are blaming the fans for poor attendence rather than trying to find a fix for the problem. It seems like the corporate American view of, "Blame someone" rather than trying to fix the problem(s).
DiCicco's initiative called Youth Energize the Stadium (YES) Oh, boy. More Screaming Mimi's in the crowd, popping up like a Jack-in-the-Box to see who else is in the crowd while their parents/chaperones babble away on cell phones. I am sorry to sound so negative, but the primary purpose of these games is entertainment, not education. If you want to teach them soccer, put them on a field with a ball at their feet. Then TD has failed from the start. Players do not get better by sitting on their butts. Only the very few true "students of the game" will improve from watching the games, and those folks are most likely in the stands already.
AYSO has it's home here in Hawthorne, 15 minutes away from the new Home Depot Olympic Training Center and Home of the Galaxy. A pre- season game or even a National team game would go off real well here. AYSO Is supporting MLS it would be Great to get them involved in WUSA.
I have mixed feelings about this. The more fans that put their butts in the stands the better...whether they be screaming Heather Mitts PTHs to the so called hardcore purist fans to whatever. But after reading this late last night I felt that the league is really, maybe not intentionally, "dissing" their adult sports fans. For the past several seasons I have seen a very youth-centric approach by the leauge in their promotion. It would be nice if in some way they can acknowledge their adult fan base. Oh well. Home Depot does get a USWNT game later this year. September I believe. Y'all may also snag the WUSA All-Star match this summer too.
Ape's letter... This might be the wrong forum, but a concept in April's letter really bothers me. She says to watch players playing your position. In fact it is one of the first things she says about becoming a better player. Wendy also said how " amazing " it was that we had every player able to play two positions. Have we become like American Football where everyone is a specialist? Will we have designated penalty kickers who come off the bench to kick a touchdown? Possibly our problems with predictability begin with over structuring positional roles within playing systems? God, I hate to sound old, but when I began playing forty years ago, everyone could play anywhere, with the possible exception of GK. Who came up with the stupid distinction of "offensive" and "defensive" midfielders! I think that is where the slide started. I worry that putting young players and fans into pigeon holes will limit their vision of the game. Go back, kids. It's a trap.
if im for or against this depends on how they implement it. if they just get more butts and keep the league alive...im all for it however if they do this as a paper publicity stunt and dont make much of an effort, then im against it. if they dont ailinate their current fans, im for it if they feel that adult fans are a flaw that need to be prometed around...then im dead set against it If the Volvo Driving Soccer Moms (thank the lord for creating Everclear )leave us alone and get into the game like any other sporting event id be glad for the program getting new fans if they act like a$$es and start thinking that the people who paid for a game not a babysitter are nothing but trouble, then the league hasnt gotten its point across as a serious league and i doubt that any new fans would have been earned. if they are doing this to get a good root fanbase for years to come, im for it if they start pretending that adult fans do not exist and arent needed for the league's well being, there wont be a league next year.
Oh, boy! YES? NO? YES? NO? I wish I had mixed feelings about the YES Inititiative. Mixed feelings would be an improvement. I've had mixed feeling about much of the WUSA marketing the last couple of years. From the beginning I thought that it was geared entirely too much toward PTH and their parents. Heaven forbid that de WOOSA market their actual product, which is exciting soccer. Truthfully, if I hadn't been a fan before the WUSA started, nothing the WUSA marketers have done would have gotten me interested. The YES Inititiative raises over-targeting PTH to an art form, which I think is a mistake, but that's not even the reservation I have about it. It just seems so incredibly boring. I can watch soccer all day, but if I were a kid, and somebody told me to watch soccer so I could become a better player, I don't think I'd be interested. Good goodily moogily! I can hardly wait. I know that the WUSA has something more exciting to offer than an educational experience. Too bad the preaching is just boring, "be a good little 'student of the game' preaching. The WUSA is great exciting soccer, but they make watching it out to be a chore. Whatever happened to the idea that going to a game is fun? It doesn't sound like fun. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me the YES Inititive is excitng. Please. The good news is that the season is just around the corner and, if people want, they can ignore attempts to make it all seem incredibly boring, and go to games for no other reason than to watch good, exciting soccer. Bring your friends and have fun. Hopefully, the third season will be as exciting as the first two were. What do you mean "start"? From the beginning WUSA marketing has been targeted exclusively at PTH and their parents. Anyone who is interested in the WUSA as a sport has essentially been told to jump in a lake. On WUSA broadcasts, when they show shots of the crowd, have they ever shown anyone over the age of twelve? The message is: Our fans are under twelve. No one else need apply. I have always thought that the WUSA has the potential for a nearly universal audience. Their marketing has been exclusively targeted toward a very narrow audience. I want the WUSA to succeed as much as anyone, which is why I hope WUSA marketers will wake up and start marketing and believing in their product, which is exciting soccer.
I agree with the mixed feelings. The Beat season tickets are clearly largely adult true soccer fans. The PTHs are usually in the cheap seats, in little hordes, dressed in their soccer uniforms. They often don't watch the game, but scream when T-shirts or mini-balls are lobbed into the stands, and go wild when Mia is in town. They need to be developed as part of the fan base. The Beat players do a good job of going around to youth leagues and holding clinics etc.. Economically, the league needs both adults and youth. Right now, the adult fans shouldn't be ignored.
charge fans consist of 4 fanbases...the NC + SB Fanbase which is the hardcore soccer fans, they useally are older men and women and are very passionate about their team, they consist of id say 1/2 of the season ticket holders the second is the dedicated family people useally in the VIP sections and ND. they are families but they are also passionate charge followers and a fanbase the charge have done well converting these one time PTHers and their parents into loyal repeat buyers and STHs and make up most of the other half of the STHs the 3rd are the group sales teams who are useally crowded into empty slots in general admission, NEand SF and are most generally Annoying, alot of the time they dont even sit in their seats and just hang out in the fun zone all day (they should make like the power and shut that thing down once the game starts) Dr. Lane pretty much accuratly described them the 4th are special to the charge and useally are in NC and NB...these are college types who actually get into the game but are more there to see heather tie her shoes. and then theres g4m whos a class by himself as the other charge boardsters can attest to :-/ this program seems to be fearing that there isnt enough of type 3 and too much of type 1...type 2 i think, while im of the school that attendance can never not be improved on by a team that this is the wrong way to do it...group sales only equals one game, and promotes one game, building a loyal fanbase (which btw i think the charge did a good job of) takes more of an effort than just this kind of narrow minded targeting... another trend that im leery of is it seems to me that the league is dictating how teams should be marketed...this is a fatal mistake even for a single entity league...different markets have different demographics, different expectations for sporting events, different budgets, and most importantly different fans and orginizations. It seemed last year each team was able to carve out a small niche for itself to market themselves, now i sense things are going back to the tight single entity model where the beat entertainment expirience is no different from that of the power and is no different than that of the Charge...thats a loser...philly fans even the PTH just want the soccer, and philly has been pretty renagade player wise to accomplish this, entertainment expirience...2 words...the duck (who the fans finally petitioned to have fired and won, hes outta here ) now just from the looks of the websites which many had variance of...it looks like every team is marketing themselves the same way pretty strictly...this isnt good...may i point out the SIW gaffe that the league shoved down the teams throats...many didnt want it...many men were being called real women and so on. to be successful you first must maintain your supporters, dont see this happening becauise WUSA still thinks its main supporters are PTH, they arent. those are group sales people, REAL fans of the WUSA so far (in terms of those who will buy season tix and build a fanbase) are grown adults of upper middle class and advanced age who may or may not have a family to bring with them IMHO. but let us be ignored while they fiddle with the kid while the league burns, eh Nero Dicicco.
YES or No I am all for more people in the stands. This league needs people buying tickets in order to survive - That is an obvious point. I have sent emails to some of the families I baby sit for suggesting they check out at least one game this season. Each family I emailed has at least one daughter playing soccer and some of them have two or more daughters playing and/or parents coaching. I included links to the WUSA site so the parents could see what the league is all about and I offered my help in any questions they have. My concern is that the girls will not really enjoy the game. One of the girls I baby sit for is ten years old and pretty mature. She has a poster of Mia Hamm in her room. When I saw that I started talking to her about the Freedom. She knew that was who Hamm played for but she did not know anything else. I was telling her about the games. She said she was not too interested in watching soccer because she really likes to play and watching might be boring for her. Now who knows -She could go to a game and love it. But I am wondering if the other girls I baby sit for (all younger than her) would feel the same way. Watching a ninety minute game might be too much. I know a lot of people complain about the little girls who scream for Hamm and a select few other players. And at times I too (even as a college student getting ready to teach elementary school) get tired of the kids jumping around not paying much attention. But if these children fill the seats then I am more than glad to put up with them. And who knows after a game or two of screaming and jumping around - some of these girls might decide to sit down and learn from the game. We need people buying tickets so the league can earn money. These young girls are a big part of the future of the league - as players and as fans. So for now I am just glad they (their parents) are buying tickets. Sorry this is rambling. I hope it makes some sense.
SIW gaffe? Do you mean Sports Illustrated for Women? I started to read that after I got it from the WUSA and I liked it.
Re: YES or No What is this? A literate, well thought-out response instead of a misanthropic rant pointing out perceived inadequacies and slights against "true" soccer fans? Someone should yellow card him.
Re: Re: YES or No Thank you for the compliment. One note - and it is just a minor one - I am a her not a him
I've been "stewing" over which place to put my first post and decided this is the best spot. Let's not dissect this too much and channel the energy towards supporting this iniative and the League. I am rather heavily involved in youth soccer, particularly girls, and I can attest that in most cases (not all) that the reason why teams/players don't do anything "soccer" together other than play on Sundays is due to lack of promotion. This has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it? What I'm saying is go out and promote this initiative- contact the team nearest you and set something up. Charter a bus. I'll bet with a little effort you can help sell tickets. I'm gonna do it and the Charge are the closest team to me. And I use the term "close" loosely, it's about 300 miles from here to there.
Another Letter from Tony at the WUSA site: The USA Women's Soccer 'Win Forever Vision' http://www.wusa.com/press_room/343117.html
whaaaa Does tony really think sitting on your butt watching a WUSA game does more than certain drills?
Wow If you think that's bad, think about how mad Brandi should be. Of course maybe watching really good soccer on TV WAS better than Tony's coaching. Doesn't anyone proof read this stuff?
Here is the second part of Tony's series on player development. http://www.wusa.com/press_room/344615.html
Part III should be intresting, player selection, how the hell is he gonna put an air of fairness on ODP and USSF's political garbage. Also physcological stuff is WAY overrated in the womens game, if you got talent, you got it, why do you think roy keane still is a big dog for man U.