The Sweeper: FC Dallas Marketing Fail Continues
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Average attendance in MLS in week one of the season was up from 2009. At the top end, an impressive 36,241 saw Seattle’s opener against Philadelphia.
But as has been noted across the blogosphere, at the bottom end FC Dallas reported a crowd of just 8,016 for their home game against Houston, who brought a decent number of fans to Dallas themselves.
It’s not news that Dallas have a problem attracting fans. Average attendance in 2009 came in at 12,441, a decline of almost 5% on 2008, but this comes with an enormous asterisk: that average number was inflated by almost 3,000 thanks to a double-header at the Cotton Bowl with a friendly between Mexico and Colombia that attracted over 50,000.
So in reality, the 2009 home opener for Dallas was about par for the course in recent times (and that Cotton Bowl crowd also tells us, quite obviously, that there are plenty of people in the Dallas region who do like soccer who are not regularly attending FC Dallas games).
Many point to the location in far-out Frisco of Dallas’ stadium, Pizza Hut Park, as the reason for Dallas’ attendance woes; however, the fact that more people used to go and watch Dallas games there and don’t any longer isn’t a good sign. And of course, it tells the lie to the claim that all MLS teams need is their own stadium to succeed in attracting fans.
The fact is, it’s just obviously not worth the time or expense for soccer fans to go to Frisco and watch FC Dallas play. Match Fit USA notes that the team second from bottom in week one’s attendance chart, the Columbus Crew, have the same owners as Dallas, the Hunt family (MLS largely owes its existence to the late Lamar Hunt). Columbus, of course, have a winning team and also their own stadium:
Last year FC Dallas started terribly and used a late-season push to get themselves in playoff contention. Winning is always a draw, and it’s possible that the fans stayed away because the team was poor to start the year. That conclusion might be reasonable if the ownership of the club didn’t have such a poor track record, both in Dallas and Columbus; the Crew are in the midst of a trophy winning streak yet have failed to crack the top half of league attendance the last two seasons. Dallas’ problems on the field combined with Pizza Hut Park’s location is a double whammy; but even bad teams and those playing in massive American football stadiums far from their natural base can draw more than 10k.
Where we go from here is, of course, the problem. In a franchise system without promotion or relegation one answer to solve the problem of a team in a sinkhole as deep as Dallas’ dragging down the rest of the league is to move the team, an unpalatable solution from a fans’viewpoint.
It’s possible to recover from disasters like these; in 2003, the Fire opened with an even lower crowd than Dallas’ in 2010, for quite different reasons, but you see the point. FC Dallas, though, are in the midst of several seasons of marketing fail in their own, rather nice stadium.
MLS has talked up Seattle and Toronto’s success in selling itself to “football fans”, the young male demographic, as its prime marketing strategy in this era of the league. Dallas, indeed, were one of the originators of this strategy in an unsuccessful way, with their renaming from the Dallas Burn to FC Dallas in 2005. Dallas also introduced membership in an official supporters’ club that has also been a failure, already rebranded from “Hoops Nation” to FCD Nation.
The fail has kept on coming. In December, we mocked FC Dallas’ abysmal “We are NOT spectators” marketing campaign.
This is a prime example of an MLS marketing foolishness: what succeeds somewhere is seen as a simple strategy for another team to follow, regardless of the nuances of the local fan culture, the history of the sport in each region or the prospective fanbase. Instead, there’s a powerpoint and some poorly paid graphic designer on their first job out of college is assigned the task of coming up with something that is supposed to mean something to people using a cupcake cutter vaguely copied from success elsewhere in the league.
It doesn’t take a lot, but it does take something to make people open their wallets and travel out to Frisco to watch an MLS game, and FC Dallas’ front office just can’t figure out what the hell that something is.
Quick Hits
- Various responses to yesterday’s news of the Labour Party’s proposals for increasing fan ownership in English clubs: why the co-operative approach to football could work and why it couldn’t, on what FIFA might say and why putting fans at the heart of the game makes sense.
- MLS apologizes for the poor condition of the new site they launched just last week, in what’s been a digital disaster for the league.
The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
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- WHATS WRONG WITH FC DALLAS? – FOLLOW-UP « Goodman Browne on the Pitch
- MLS 2010 Season, Week 1 | Modern American Soccer
“We are not spectators” seems to have been ironically accurate.
There is no “one” factor that drives or sustains attendance (and, eventually, profitability, which is the endgame). Anyone who has ever said “all” you need is your own stadium is an idiot. But it’s really difficult to get to the endgame without being able to capture and keep the revenue that is generated at your games.
That is only part of the puzzle, though. It’s a complicated recipe. But most fans don’t have the attention span to listen to that, so they bumper-sticker things and go on their way.
It sounds like there is a soccer culture in Dallas, but is FC Dallas simply underestimating the work that it takes to market a product, or is there something else going on? The team has historically played well, so it isn’t as if it is a team that the fans can’t get behind.
Is it inconvenient to get to the stadium for most fans? Is the atmosphere (strict rules/security) keeping away fans because they think they can’t have fun? Is it just because FC Dallas had a bad 2009?
I’m from Chicago, so I don’t know what it is like to be an FC Dallas fan. How frustrating is it to be a fan? Is there anything that the owners/management can do to fix that? Those are questions I’d like answers to.
From what I’ve heard from the few FC Dallas fans I know — so this is admittedly anecdotal — management/security seems to make it as difficult as possible to be a dedicated fan there, particularly if you’re one of the dreaded “hardcore” types that scares away the family crowd.
Ownership is making money hand over fist hosting non-MLS events (youth tournaments, concerts, etc)…given that context, maybe they see fans at FC Dallas games are more a liability than an asset.
It is sad to hear that Columbus had the second to worst attendance in MLS. I was at the match and it was by far the most spectators I have ever seen at a football match in America (in person). The supporters section was sold out and people were standing in any free space they could.
I guess it hurts me that the Crew does so poorly because the product on the pitch is indeed spectacular. I will be the first person to point out shortcomings in the games of clubs I love, but Columbus is really a good team that plays very attacking and viewer-friendly game. I still can’t believe that Schelotto is 37 and still can do the things he does (he was outstanding on Saturday). It sucks that there is a club with a great stadium and a great team and they still can’t get people in the seats. They have great promotions, they are active in social media… I just don’t know what else they can do. I guess it will just take time.
Great points. I watched this game on tv and wondered how the heck that fixture could only muster such a small crowd, many of whom were Houston fans. Just imagine what the attendance will be on the 10th vs Columbus at night. What a shame.
The problems with FCD have many far reaching tentacles. 1) Frisco is more than 30 miles from the city center, and the fastest way to get there are toll roads. That is why they cannot charge for parking. 2) FCD chased away the entire Hispanic market and many of the regular market with their disastrous move to Southlake 5 years ago (even further away than Frisco). Hispanic market has not followed to either locale. Club actually had buses that went to Hispanic supermarkets and brought them to PHP, but that stopped 2 years ago. 3) Subpar teams for the last 3 years. Made playoffs 3 years ago, out in 1st round, didn’t make last year. This year doesn’t look to go at the moment. 4) Management has pissed off the fans by raising ticket prices for the last 3 years. My tickets alone have gone up from $920 for 2 tix to $1100 for the same 2 seats for the same amount of games. Has the level of play gone up? Have we won championships? No.
The pusuit of the almighty white suburban soccer mom dollar has failed. Lesson to all other clubs out there. Build in or near the city center.
well the best anwser to this problem is the HUNTS. They do not know how to market soccer and need a total revamp of there marketing for Columbus and Dallas. If i was in charge i would hire one of the seattle or toronto PR guys and rebuild the marketing system in those cities. Columbus and Dallas can be successful Soccer Cities, they just need to Promote and market better. No more nickel and dime BS.
Stadiums enable profit from attendance not necessarily drive attendance itself. With MLS’s profit sharing structure, the numbers show that stadiums impact the bottom line not attendance. I believe in 2008 FCD was in the bottom half of the league in attendance, but had one of the better bottom lines.
The problem with FCD isnt just the stadium location, that just compounds things. Its been management that has settled for mediocrity; not just on the field but in the stands. This could be because they have a stadium and no logger bleed money (still lose money but not bleed it).
The bad part is, once you get so far it becomes hard to climb out. Once you are looked at as no longer a legitimate sports team in your market you will suffer. I am only in DFW a few times a year but FCD is non existent. Not in the news (besides a small courtesy article) and not in advertisements and no one in FCD gear.
MatthewN: I agree about Columbus. The supporters who came to the Fire games are numerous! To hear that they have poor attendance blows my mind.
As for FC Dallas, based on some of the comments here, it sounds like the customer was misidentified and ignored. How does FC Dallas win them back going forward?
“It’s possible to recover from disasters like these; in 2003, the Fire opened with an even lower crowd than Dallas’ in 2010, for quite different reasons, but you see the point. FC Dallas, though, are in the midst of several seasons of marketing fail in their own, rather nice stadium.”
One minor point. You mention “quite different reasons”, but do not explain the difference and you really should not create such false impressions.
In 2003, the Fire had a lower opening day attendance because in 2002-2003 the Fire played at Cardinal Stadium in Naperville. At the beginning of the season, the stadium only had a capacity of 5,000-6,000. As the season progressed, the capacity was gradually increased. It was not that noone wanted to go to the game; it was, as I recall, sold out.
That is hardly what one would call a disaster.
That’s the point though, xtomx. A crowd that low for the Fire can certainly be seen as a disaster for the league regardless of the context; there were considerable questions marks over the future of the Fire and it took epic work to make Naperville work for the club to survive.
FC Dallas, on the other hand, show no signs of being able to do anything like that despite being in a superior stadium situation (Naperville is not much further from Chicago than Frisco is from Dallas, and Cardinal Stadium was obviously nothing to match PHP).
As a Revs fan, whenever I think the Krafts have hit a new low, their old pals the Hunts hit a lower one. Is it any wonder the Inferno and Midnight Riders are such good friends?
Oh, by the way, they stole that “We Are Not Spectators!” theme from the Revs equally pitiful “Pride & Passion”/”Defend The Fort” campaign complete with seldom-visited Ning network website.
My sympathy to FCD, we’re know what you’re going through.
Denilson was paid 32M because he was regarded as one of the most promising players the game had seen, sad to say, it didn’t pan out.
The stadium location might have kept older fans from attending, but I happen to live closer to the new stadium and my family and I go to games regularly because of it. It’s located in one of the fastest growing areas of the entire country, so there’s no reason why new fans couldn’t be persuaded to go. The population is there. Actually the reason is 100% the marketing. It’s non-existent. I can’t say they have an easy job though, I don’t even know many people that like soccer, let alone have even heard of FC Dallas.
http://soccer.dozix.com/ – football strategy
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I live in Fort Worth and I can tell you exactly what is happening. FC Dallas does does not market at all, especially to Fort Worth. The only reasons the Rangers have been able to get by with their attendance is because of their location. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington is smack dab between Dallas and Fort Worth, a 20 minute drive from either city. FC Dallas is located 30-45 minutes North of Dallas, and over and hour from Fort Worth! There is a huge market for soccer in DFW but the owners are just missing it entirely. North Texas is the second largest soccer hot spot in the entire nation. I know people that are extremely interested in going to an FC Dallas game that never will because it is so far away. If they played in between Dallas and Fort Worth, people that don’t even give a care would probably show up occasionally. It is a terrible drive, I know because I played club on the fields just outside PHP. Bottom line, locate that team near the ballpark and you get 20-25,000 on average per game.