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MLS 2010: Seattle v. Philly – Five Things Philadelphia Can Learn From The Sounders About Expansion
Welcome to Goal.com's MLS opening day coverage.
By Zac Lee Rigg
Mar 22, 2010
When Major League Soccer kicks off the 2010 season, current expansion club Philadelphia Union will face off against 2009 expansion side Seattle Sounders FC. Goal.com kicks off its extensive coverage of the match with a breakdown of five lessons Philadelphia can learn from Seattle.
Certainly, Seattle didn't do everything right its first year in MLS. “I wouldn't presume that we have it all figured out,” Sounders general manager Adrain Hanauer admitted to Goal.com over the phone Monday. But the club set a record for average fan attendance in North America and was one of two MLS clubs to turn a profit. Philadelphia would do well to note some of the things that went right.
1. Market creatively.
Soccer is the sport of the Internet in America. With major media sometimes maliciously shunning coverage of the sport, fans are used to relying on a series of blogs and Web sites off the beaten path. They don't blink an eye to utilizing obscure and sometimes expensive TV channels. So traditional advertising is out.
Seattle, from the get-go, approached marketing outside the box. Before the team had even kicked the ball in official play, the Sounders passed out scarves that were strewn across the city. Drew Carey headed a viral Internet campaign which gave season ticket holders a democratic say in the running of the club, including allowing fans to vote on the name of the team itself.
The soccer fan in this country is a strange beast. She can be reached, but it requires a more oblique approach.
2. Provide a positive soccer product.
Seems simple enough. Seattle offered a winning team. In fact, it was the most successful expansion team since 1998 when Bob Bradley's Chicago Fire won the MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup. Last year, the Sounders mimicked the Open Cup win, but fell in the first round of the playoffs. Still, considering the two expansion teams before Seattle (Toronto FC in 2007 and the San Jose Earthquakes in 200 cool have yet to reach the playoffs, making the postseason is, in itself, a success.
Besides winning, Seattle offered what Hanauer called “the right type of soccer product.” Coach Sigi Schmid set out to forge a team with flair from the start, and his team, funneling play through the wily feet of former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg, provided an expansive, pleasing game to watch.
But the experience doesn't stop with what goes on on the pitch. Qwest Field became among the best places to catch a soccer match in the United States thanks to frenzied fan support. The club initially limited the amount of seats available, cramming fans into the lower bowl, which helped elicit a more raucous atmosphere. The club had to notch up the total allotment of seats twice, but by then the fans had created a strong enough atmosphere and demand that it never spread numbers too thin.
3. Listen to the customers.
“Have good people and listen to your customers. Have good people in the organization and listen to your customers,” is essentially what Hanauer's thesis boiled down to.
This point may seem self-evident, but judging by the amount of clubs which cram fans in awkward stadia, make them travel vast distances out of town, don't upkeep the pitch properly, or play a version of soccer closer to slug-ball, perhaps not everyone would find it so immediately apparent. From democratic voting, to naming, to utilizing the Internet, Seattle let its fan know they had a say.
Philly has already done a commendable job of building around the preexisting Sons of Ben. A continuation of that policy will do the organization a world of good.
4. Exploit any lack of success in town's other sports.
Seattle's cause was helped no end by a lack of other sports teams, especially winning sports teams, in the city. When the Sonics moved on out to Oklahoma City, that left the town with the Mariners and the Seahawks. Neither of which are very good just now. So when the possibility of a winning team came along, Seattlites didn't blink an eye at what sport it played.
Philadelphia's lot is not as forgiving in this area. The Union will have to contend for space in the sports fans' psyche with the Phillies, the Eagles, the Flyers, the Sixers, and even the Independence. The Phillies have two straight World Series appearances, and the Eagles are a perennial playoff team. So jostling for space will come harder for Philly, though even Hanauer is aware of the battle to earn soccer prominence in the States.
“We're huge believers that for soccer to grow in this country, you need the best people working at it, day in day out,” Hanauer said. “It's a super complicated and challenging sport to grow in this country. It's just not in the sports fans' natural psyche like baseball, football, basketball are. So you need really smart people working at the problem every day.”
If Philly fans can get one or more of the other teams sent to Oklahoma City, that may help.
5. All the small things.
“There are 20 other little pieces of the puzzle that came together at the right place, right time,” Hanauer stressed. Running a sports franchise is not a clean-cut business, especially in a sport with such a tenuous hold in the country like soccer.
Finding creative, positive solutions to the multitude of problems as they arrive will make or break Philadelphia. By the same token, getting bogged down in the tiny details will derail the organization as well. But keeping track of the big pictures while dealing incisively with small problems will go a long way.
