I was checking out an MLS game on TV this afternoon and became very sad. Not because of the game itself—I enjoy watching soccer—but because of one team’s jerseys.
Unlike most professional team sports, soccer doesn’t fill up large stadiums here and thus doesn’t get a lot of revenue in the States. If we had more soccer hooligans on our side of the pond who would get hammered, vomit on themselves, then beat the crap out of each other in bars for wearing the wrong colors… but I digress. My point is that to get some extra cash, enabling owners to give out contracts large enough for players to build pools they can fill up with money and swim in, they’ll get sponsors that plaster their logos on the front of the team’s jerseys.
For example, the New York Red Bulls. Can you guess what’s on the front of their jerseys? That’s right, it’s a giant cursive “G” to represent General Mills.
Okay, maybe not. In this game, it was New York (with Red Bull logos) playing against D.C. United. Can you guess what’s on the front of the latter team’s jerseys? That’s right, it’s that VW inside a circle to represent Volkswagen.
I’m not kidding. D.C. United, a team located in our nation’s capital, is sponsored by a German car company. I can only imagine what the motivation was on both sides of that deal. It’s possible that Volkswagen is owned by a bunch of soccer hooligans who want to force American bars to sell German beer (Tastier going down and coming back up!), but it could be part of a trade agreement instead: we’ll put your logos on our jerseys if you send us cars that the players can fill with money and drive in.
Shawn – association football (AKA soccer is an international sport. It’s no big deal that D.C. United is owned by Volkswagen. There are several English Premiere League teams owned by American’s. Arsenal’s stadium was built by Emirates airlines. Most European teams have sponsors on their jerseys.
Soccer is a free flowing sport which doesn’t have the artificial breaks put into other American sports which allow for advertising. Putting a Volkwagon Logo on an MLS Jersey allows for advertsing without having to have the game interupted every few minutes for advertising.
I lived in Europe for eleven years. Soccer is a game that’s attended by families and is very safe. Fan violence is soccer is overblown. There is an equal amount of violence in U.S. sports and and equal number of thugs and youth gangs in the United States. It’s far safer to go to any European soccer match than visit most large U.S. city.
Also because soccer is such a large sport – comparing reports of violence are like trying to compare crime reports for Two Egg Florida to the crime reports for New York City.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the World. Soccer is played in almost every country in the world. The World Cup, played every four years, is the most watched sporting event in the world. The 2006 Men’s World Cup was aired by a total of 43,600 broadcasts across 214 countries and territories. The 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany had a total cumulative television audience of 26.29 billion (24.2 billion in-home and 2.1 billion out-of-home viewers). That’s around a quarter of the World’s population.
In regards to attendance at MLS games – you have to look at this in historical perspective. There was a dark ages for soccer in this country for over 30 years until after the 1966 World Cup. Professional soccer came around after the 1966 World Cup and grew significantly until the league went bankrupt due to overexpansion in the early 1980s.
Let’s keep in mind that Major League Soccer is only 12 years old. Keep in mind that were no fans watching MLS games in 1995 because the league wasn’t in existence yet. Attendance at MLS games is on the rise as the league averaged 16,770 fans per game in 2007 rivaling MBA and NHL (comparatively, in 2008, the NHL averaged 17,308 per game and the NBA averaged 17,394 per game).
The Sports Business Daily recently reported that attendance for MLS as a whole was up 5.9% over 2007 early in the season and had increased to 10.6% mid July 2008 over the 2007 for the same point in the season . The biggest games in this season are yet to come. I’m expecting MLS to end it’s season at > 17,000. Based on the more conservative 5.9% growth rate with an average at. Attendance of 17,000 for 2008 – by 2018 average attendance will be 81,351. This isn’t an unreasonable expectation. This could be significantly accelerated by bringing in additional designated players. Most games for Kansas City Wizards is currently playing in facility which only accommodate 30,000 in attendance. It’s highest attendance was 72,000 against L.A. Galaxy in 2006 in a double header with FC Barcelona vs Club America. The average Houston Dynamo home attendance for the recent Superliga tournament which placed the top 4 MLS teams against the top 4 Mexican league teams was 19,000.
Please pardon my error. D.C. United isn’t owned by Volkswagon. Vokswagon is a sponsor. Ownership is led by Victor MacFarlane and William H.C. (“Will”) Chang, D.C. United Holdings is a venture that owns and controls the operating rights to D.C. United of Major League Soccer (MLS). MacFarlane is the founder and managing principal of MacFarlane Partners. Chang is the chairman of the global investment firm Westlake International Group and one of the owners of the Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants. The New York Red Bulls are owned by Red Bull, a company based in Austria that manufactures and markets an energy drink. Red Bull, which also owns a club in Salzburg.
Oh, sure, rain on my parade with factual information… jeez…
I absolutely grant you that I was playing with stereotypes when introducing the “soccer hooligan”—I was thinking about Mike Myers’ representation from Saturday Night Live when it popped into my head—but like you said, it’s bound to be more prevalent in Germany solely because of the numbers.
While you may be correct that attendance at soccer matches is increasing, consider how many teams play in MLS compared to other professional sports. Minnesota has a WNBA team, fer cryin’ out loud, but soccer? Nope, just semi-pro and I haven’t been to a Minnesota Thunder game in years. (Incidentally, does the Sports Business Daily mention how much those numbers increase during the appearance of popular international teams versus the regular league games?)
But that’s mostly nitpicky stuff and isn’t meant to deflate your argument at all. I still have one very important question that you didn’t address: does German beer taste better going down and coming back up?
I can’t argue that German beer tastes better going down then coming up. I’ve tasted it both ways.
Although MLS hasn’t caught up with NFL and MLB – it’s getting there. It’s very close to NBA and NHL. Here’s how MLS attendance stacked up in 2007 against the top soccer leagues in the World at this point in time:
Country Avg. Att.
Bundesliga (Germany) 37,644
English Premier League 34,459
LaLiga (Spain) 28,838
Clausura (Mexico) 25,379
Ligue 1 (France) 21,817
Serie A (Italy) 19,711
J.League (Japan) 19,081
Eredivisie (Holland) 18,052
Campeonato (Brazil) 17,461
Primera (Argentina) 17,363
Major League Soccer 16,770
Scottish Premier League 16,194
Turkish Premier Super 14,058
A-League (Australia) 14,042
I hope you have had the opportunity to attend some MLS games yourself. You’ll help increase the attendance and they are always much better in person than on television.
I lived in Europe for around 11 years and had to opportunity to watch a number of games in person but some of the best games I’ve attended (in any sport) have been at MLS games. I went to the Houston Dynamo vs Chicago Fire game on Sunday evening at Robertson Stadium in Houston. There were slightly over 22,000 in attendance. It was a sea of orange and a very exciting game.
I agree with a lot of what Jonathan said. Granted, I’m not a really big fan or anything like that. I’ve only been to one MLS game in July and I thought it was great! TV does not do justice to the sport at all. I’ve actually been trying to get someone to go with me to the Galaxy’s game on Saturday–but most people I know are like “soccer?”
I enjoyed the last game so much that I’m even considering going solo on Saturday. I sometimes attend hockey games by myself (yet another underrated sport that’s better in person) so I’m kinda thinking “why not?”
And yes, during the last game I had to sit through a zillion Herbalife ads–during which time I kept asking myself “what exactly is Herbalife?”