Many of the individual members of District Ultras are not new to DC United, or to DC United’s historically active supporters’ group scene –  arguably the consistently strongest throughout much of the league’s 16-year history – but as a group they are a new addition to a scene traditionally powered by the well-known Barra Brava and Screaming Eagles groups.

Pitch Invasion asked Srdan Bastaic, one of the driving forces behind the District Ultras, where they had come from. ”Our core group has been around for much longer, handling all the tifo in the Barra for a long time, but as dominant as we were in, say, the 2005-2007 MLS period, by 2009 or so the supporter scene in US had become much stronger. It wasn’t just DC and Chicago anymore,” Bastaic said. “The DC atmosphere was already stagnating at that point and we wanted to be able to rival the new and old and improved groups. Successful groups need money to run and selling t-shirts and scarves to raise funds really wasn’t going to cut it at that point as it has in the past.”

Bastaic explained that this desire to take DC tifo to a new level and the required funding led to some intense discussions within Barra Brava. “So our tifo crew met, then tried to compromise and talk it through for several months and at the end we didn’t have a choice but to split into a separate group,” Bastaic explains.

This led to a breakaway group of tifo-mad ultras looking for a new section to call home at RFK, briefly floating amongst the other supporter group areas. “Nine of us walked and it was pretty funny for a few months,” Bastaic says. “We were all over the stadium, in the La Norte section one match, then in Screaming Eagles, then between sections. We actually did a few displays by walking into a section of regular fans and putting up these big 20 foot high banners, it was a pretty bizarre time.”

The District Ultras badly needed a space of their own. Bastaic continues, “Around the middle of the season, the DC front office figured we’re not going anywhere, so they gave us a far corner section in RFK. That’s when we started to grow, as people who were interested in our mentality had a stable section to come to.”

DC United versus Seattle, 7.15.10

DC United versus LA, 7.18.10

DC United versus Philadelphia, 8.22.10

DC United versus Columbus, 9.4.10

DC United versus Houston, 9.25.10

DC United versus Houston, 9.25.10

DC United versus Toronto, 10.23.10

That first year in 2010 – with a tifo display every game – was, as would be expected, something of an uphill battle since the District Ultras had to “build everything all over again from the ground up,” as Bastaic puts it. Relations with the club were also “rocky at the start”, though smoothed over as the front office came to understand the group’s purpose: “we’re on the same side after all,” Bastaic says. Support from DC’s Screaming Eagles – particularly helpful with tickets for away games – was a big boon for the nascent group.

In 2011, another smaller though older DC supporters group, La Norte, moved adjacent to the District Ultras, and the two groups have developed a strong relationship together. This helped the District Ultras reach a new level with their support in 2011.

DC United versus New England, 7.20.11

DC United versus Toronto, 8.6.11

DC United versus Salt Lake, 9.24.11

DC United versus Salt Lake, 9.24.11

DC United versus Salt Lake, 9.24.11

DC United versus Chicago, 10.15.11

DC United versus Portland, 10.19.11

DC United versus Kansas City, 10.22.11

Starting a new supporters group is a massive challenge, even for those with the experience of the District Ultras leadership. As DC United General Manager Dave Kasper mentioned on the recent Pitch Invasion podcast, DC United’s support may have to wait until the club moves to a new stadium before it matches the new standards set in MLS support in recent seasons, reclaiming the ground once held by Barra Brava and Screaming Eagles.

One suspects if DC’s support does take a fresh spurt forward, it’ll be in part from District Ultras’ imaginative tifo efforts: as Bastaic puts it, “We’ve got a good mixture of veterans and new blood, and we can really go anywhere from here, supporting our club and representing our city.”

Update: Here’s a roundup of District Ultras’ 2011 tifo efforts

All photos provided by District Ultras. Photos 7.15.10 and 9.24.11 by Neil Brandvold.

DC United Senior Vice-President Stephen Zack

In my second interview with influential, but beneath the radar figures in the U.S. soccer world, I asked D.C. United Executive Vice-President Stephen Zack 11 questions. Stephen has been twice honored as the MLS Marketing Executive of the Year and in 2006 received the prestigious Doug Hamilton MLS Executive of the Year Award.

I first met Stephen in 1997 during my “Tour de MLS” while investigating the dos and don’ts of MLS.  From Stephen and D.C. United I mostly learned dos.  At the time, Stephen was the best marketing person in MLS.  He has always impressed me with his knowledge, humility and marketing instinct.  His role with D.C. working with President Kevin Payne is critical and I always viewed Steve Pastorino’s role with the Chicago Fire as comparable to Stephen’s with United as they both began their MLS careers overseeing team marketing and grew their roles over the years.  When Pastorino left to become Real Salt Lake’s General Manager and AEG nixed replacing him, it left the Fire shorthanded and portended my later exit from the Fire.  I can’t imagine D.C. United achieving the business success they have enjoyed without Stephen Zack.

1. Can you describe your role with D.C. United, how it’s evolved over the years and the dynamic between you and Kevin Payne?

Stephen Zack: My background was actually in advertising, but I stumbled into the soccer world back in 1991 when I joined Soccer USA Partners, the entity in charge of US Soccer Sponsorship sales at the time.  It was during this time that I first worked with Kevin Payne.  My role with Soccer USA Partners was specifically in event management, as we staged over 40 US National team matches around the US leading up to World Cup 94. When our parent company invested in the initial start up of Major League Soccer, I had the opportunity to move to DC along with Kevin and another Soccer USA Partners employee, Betty D’Anjolell, to open the D.C. United offices and launch the team in late 1995.  When we came to DC, I took on the role of Director of Advertising and Promotions in keeping with my past experience in advertising.

From there, the position evolved into Director of Marketing overseeing our sponsorship sales and service departments.  After Betty D’Anjolell left the team following the 1998 season, I took on oversight of our ticket sales and operations departments.  In my current role as Executive Vice President, I oversee all aspects of the business operations of D.C. United.  Throughout this entire time, I have reported directly to Kevin Payne and we have formed a very efficient work relationship.  We have the same goals and philosophies regarding the D.C. United brand and work environment, but we also have very different styles which balance out very nicely.

2. Who were the people early in your soccer administrative career who inspired and taught you the most?

SZ: Aside from Kevin and Betty D’Anjolell, from whom I have probably learned the most, I had the opportunity in those early US Soccer years to work closely with Hank Steinbrecher, Sunil Gulati, Dan Flynn and other key figures in the soccer community.

3. Where do you find your best staff members for entry level and management positions?

SZ: Regarding staffing, we believe very strongly in promoting from within whenever possible.  Most entry level positions are filled by people who have interned for us and many of our mid - level staff members were once D.C. United interns.  We are very proud of our minimal turnover in staff and,  because of that fact, management positions do not open up frequently.  When positions do open up, we usually look to promote from within.  There are times that we hire from outside the company and usually utilize contacts and services to find the appropriate applicants.

4. What are your proudest achievements in your time with D.C. United?

SZ: While I was honored to be the recipient of the Doug Hamilton Executive of the Year award in 2006, I can’t recall what I did that year to deserve such an honor.  When I look back on 14 years with D.C. United, I am simply proud of everything we have done to get to where we are now – a team that has won more trophies than any other in the league, has a fantastic fan base, has an enduring brand that is well recognized and well respected in the community.  When I drive up to RFK Stadium, which is about to turn 50 years old, and I see our players displayed prominently on the outside of the building, I can’t help but be proud of everything we have accomplished while knowing we still have a long way to go.

5. Did the Nationals move from Montreal create real competition for sponsor dollars, media coverage and ticket sales and if so, how does DCU differentiate its offerings?

SZ: I cannot say that the Nationals move to DC had any major impact on our business from a sales point of view.  We had quite a few logistical issues to overcome while we shared RFK Stadium with them and competition for media attention was difficult in their initial year in DC.  Our sales, however, did not suffer in any regard.  We believe that soccer, and MLS in particular, has greater appeal to a younger demographic, while baseball’s demographic continues to age.  We did not need to change our marketing or differentiate our offerings as we already offered great value, great atmosphere and a quality team.  While the Nationals had all the hype in their first year, they were the ones that had to adapt once the initial love affair was over.

DC United's Hall of Tradition has recognized those responsible for the team's success.

6. DCU’s brand is as strong as any in American soccer.  What have been the keys to developing and maintain it?

SZ: Early on we had determined that we wanted D.C. United to represent traditional, authentic soccer.  We strived for that in the determination of our name and the development of our logo.  We reinforced this ideal in our advertising with the original tagline, The Tradition Begins.  While players have changed and success on the field has varied, the message always remains the same.  We are a real soccer team with real traditions.

7. What did DCU do…or not do…to cultivate its supporters culture?  What role did management play in the growth of Barra Brava, La Norte and Screaming Eagles?

SZ: Before we had even opened our offices in DC, we were aware of a group on the internet that had been formed in the DC area to support the new team. I don’t recall if Big Soccer existed at that time or exactly what method they were using to communicate but we reached out to the “leader” of this group and asked if we could speak with them.  I was able to speak with Matt Mathai who would become the original president of the Screaming Eagles.  I recall he sounded nervous when we first spoke as if we were looking to shut down their activities.  Quite the opposite.  We wanted to work with them to help us promote the team and grow their support.  Shortly thereafter came the Barra Brava and then La Norte.  In all cases, we work directly with their leadership to help them grow, to provide them with the ability to support the team the way they want while at the same time, helping D.C. United to grow as well.

DC United's Blackout marketing campaign has successfully promoted MLS Playoffs for more than a decade.

8. DCU has always done better than the norm with post-season attendance.  What have been the keys to getting those crowds?

SZ: In the earlier years, we may have managed to get by on the success of the team on the field, but we realized later on the need to market the playoffs and not just assume people would come. We created the “Blackout” concept to promote our playoff games to set them apart while encouraging our fans to wear black.  While the concept likely does not seem very original now as many other teams are using this type of  “wear the colors” theme, it was new in MLS when we launched the program in 98 or 99.   We also backed them up with appropriate advertising and media buy.  It is a mistake to assume that just because you are in the playoffs, people will come.  You need to promote the event.

9. Early on, DCU was dependent on Salvadoran and Bolivian players to secure large crowds from those communities.  What did you do to try to retain that audience when those players left and how successful was it?

SZ: I don’t think I would agree with the use of the word “dependent”, but it was clear that certain communities found it more appealing to have representation on the team by players from their home countries.  We have actually had a Bolivian player on our team for all but one year and have had various players from Central America on and off over the years.  We always try to put the best possible team on the field as we believe that, in the end, a successful team on the field is more important than a player’s country of origin.  We have had years where we have had players of note from key countries, but the team’s performance fell flat.  We did not see increases in attendance during those times simply because of one or two players on the team.  We consistently try to promote the quality of soccer that we play in hopes of bringing in fans of the sport not of key players.

10. Can DCU be profitable at RFK? If not, will the team be forced to move if it doesn’t secure a better stadium situation in the next ten years?  How would DCU’s marketing efforts change with a suburban stadium?  What role, if any, have you played in the team’s efforts to develop a stadium?

SZ: Under current terms it would be difficult to be profitable at RFK Stadium. It might be possible to remain at RFK long term with some key improvements and different terms with the District.  While I am not involved in the day to day process of finding a new stadium solution, I can say that we have not given up on finding an acceptable solution in the Greater Washington DC area and I expect that one will be found.  If that solution were to end up being in a suburban environment, I do not believe our marketing/message would change.  We would likely need to review the media used to get our message out as well as how to maximize sales to the area surrounding the stadium.  That is all hypothetical right now as we remain focused on our current situation.

11. Are there lessons for other MLS teams in the business success of Seattle and Toronto or are the market differences such that it’s not replicable?  What are the growth areas for MLS teams in the next five years?

SZ: I have no doubt that every team in MLS would like to replicate the success that has been achieved in Toronto and Seattle.  While some of their success can be linked with the timing of their entry into MLS and and their specific stadium benefits (size, location, amenities, etc.), it is clear that the marketing behind these teams was beyond compare.  They each worked closely with their parent/sister entities (Maple Leaf Sports/Seattle Seahawks) to maximize efficiencies and reach.  They each had solid brand development and  strong marketing programs behind their respective launches.  

Of interest to most other teams in MLS is the success that both these markets have had in selling to the young adult market.  It is this area that is seen as a major growth area for MLS.  While teams will always have marketing programs aimed at the youth soccer market, long term success requires an increase in sales to the casual and hardcore soccer fan.  We need to find a way to convince both the casual fan and the fans of the EPL and La Liga who do not attend MLS games to become our fans.  New and improved stadiums and quality play will help that process as will greater knowledge and use of digital/social media marketing tools. MLS must try to capitalize on what is expected to be unparalled coverage and interest in the 2010 World Cup and translate that into greater interest in the sport and MLS in particular.

Peter Wilt writes weekly for Pitch Invasion. Follow him @PeterWilt1 on Twitter.

There are a few things that have been detrimental to the image of MLS this week, including Alexi Lalas’ face appearing every time I open the MLS homepage. High on my list would have been MLS moving the Fire’s away playoff game at New England to Sunday from Saturday, just two days after they had scheduled it for the original date in the first place. Apparently someone at MLS head office went to Walgreens and figured out what all the scary looking decorations they were selling were for.

I digress, but only because rarely do we see MLS worry about its image when it comes to accommodating supporters who already had travel plans for a game a few days away. Instead, it busies itself handing out an absurd fine to DC President Kevin Payne, who a few days ago made some petty but fairly truthful comments about the play of certain MLS teams to Soccer Insider:

You look at the way Real Salt Lake played when they came here [a 0-0 tie in May] and sat 10 guys behind the ball. You don’t have to do that. Sometimes that is the best way to get a result — if you don’t care about the product, if you don’t care about advertising your league. Long term, who wants to watch that?

Now, as we commented, Payne’s comments were a rather poor effort at covering his own backside for a team incapable of playing good football and winning this season. But certainly, even a hardcore MLS supporter and Direct Kick subscriber like myself has trouble finding the motivation to track down a San Jose-Colorado game in July even when my television is starved of the beautiful game.

A couple of days passed and MLS sent out a press release saying “Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber today fined D.C. United President Kevin Payne $5,000 for public comments deemed detrimental to the public image of the League.

I don’t particularly feel sorry for Payne being knocked down a peg, but it’s typical of MLS to waste time worrying about how the league appears instead of working on improving what it actually is.

Update: maybe it was worth MLS doing this, just to see Kevin Payne eat humble pie.

I deeply regret some of the comments I made in an interview published earlier this week. In trying to explain the, sometimes, unfair expectations on the Head Coach of D.C. United, I made critical comments of Colorado, New England, Real Salt Lake and the League. Those comments were unprofessional. I have great personal regards and professional respect for my colleagues at those organizations and for their ownership and fans. I have apologized to those teams and individuals privately and now do so publicly

Big Story
DC United’s club president Kevin Payne has never lacked for chutzpah, and after a season in which the team launched a website called “We Win Trophies” but have failed to make the playoffs for the second year in a row, arguing that DC had at least earned some kind of a moral victory for their style of play is quite something. “We don’t want to play like Colorado or New England, which most of the season sat with eight or nine guys behind the ball. How many people go to watch Colorado or New England play? That’s a problem for our league,” Payne told Soccer Insider.

“We can’t play like we’re a team desperately trying to remain in 14th place in the Premiership. Our market isn’t there yet. They want to see something that is entertaining, and D.C. United has always had a way of playing. Given a choice, we would rather attack than cynically defend. You look at the way Real Salt Lake played when they came here [a 0-0 tie in May] and sat 10 guys behind the ball. You don’t have to do that. Sometimes that is the best way to get a result — if you don’t care about the product, if you don’t care about advertising your league. Long term, who wants to watch that?”

Payne’s comment might have more to do with the fact he’s feeling the pressure of living up to the standard himself and DC set in the early years of the league, as the club has won just two trophies since 2000 (the MLS Cup in 2004 and the US Open Cup last year), after dominating in MLS’ first four seasons, winning a remarkable five major championships (three league titles, one US Open Cup and one CONCACAF Champions Cup). While the cynical play of many teams in MLS is a concern marketing-wise, there is actually no bar to playing good football and winning, as Columbus has showed two years in a row. DC simply aren’t good enough these days and that has much more to do with the personnel decisions Payne’s leadership has made than whether or not they’re trying to play pretty football.

Worldwide News

• Speaking of failure, Toronto FC supporters “won’t stand” for continued ineptness on the field, writes Paul James in the Globe and Mail, warning owners MLSE face a backlash and “should prepare themselves for an onslaught”. Despite the club’s profitability and packed stadium, TFC have yet to make the playoffs in three seasons in MLS, quite an achievement in a league that still manages to reward mediocrity (New England and Real Salt Lake are both entering the playoffs with a negative goal difference). This issue has been bubbling under the surface for a while in Toronto, as everyone there knows MLSE have been happy to see their hockey team, the Maple Leafs, achieve little while selling plenty of tickets. Is James right, and will TFC fans force MLSE to act, unlike the Maple Leafs soporific suits who pack the stands come what may?
• Who is running Rangers?  The financial crisis in Glasgow continues to deepen, and impact further on the playing side. Rangers are $50m in debt and haven’t bought a player since the summer of 2008, with manager Walter Smith questioning who was running affairs, with Lloyds Bank’s “business transformation specialist” on the board.
• Meanwhile, Twohundredpercent updates us on the crisis at Liverpool (yes, we should have a moratorium on the use of the word ‘crisis’ here on PI), looking at the battle between the growing protesting group led by the Spirit of Shankly and the club’s ownership, asking as we did last week if Liverpool are the next Leeds. “SOS, the acronym surely no accident, have combined with ‘Share Liverpool FC’ in providing more detailed analysis of Liverpool’s finances than they are given credit for, certainly by the club, who accuse them of un-necessary ‘scaremongering’.”
• Alex Ferguson is facing the music in his ongoing war of words with referees, charged by the Football Association and now being accused by senior referees of not understanding the laws of the game.
• Blogistuta comments on an interesting hire by Roma, who have given the brilliantly named job of Coordinator and optimizer of human resources in the sporting area to a higly successful volleyball coach. I always find this sort of cross-sport recruiting interesting, so let’s see if he can reinvigorate a struggling club.
• Jamie Carragher is back to his best according to Rafa Benitez, who apparently didn’t notice the rapidly aging centre-back practically running backwards in his effort to keep up with Michael Owen’s zimmerframe run to goal on Sunday.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

The 1998 Chicago Fire MLS Cup and US Open Cup championship team included many talented hard working players with good character including Piotr Nowak, Frank Klopas, Lubos Kubik, Chris Armas, Diego Gutierrez, CJ Brown and Jesse Marsch.

Last week we discussed the keys to assembling and retaining good personnel for a successful front office.  This week, we will take a similar look at building and retaining a successful team in Major League Soccer on the field.

MLS’ strict salary budgets, weighted lotteries, drafts and allocations have made it a very difficult league to stay near the top or the bottom of the standings for long stretches.  Incompetent, lazy or ignorant decision making can certainly make the latter an exception to the rule, but staying on top requires the right combination of several factors including a little bit of luck.

This column will focus on retaining a strong core, but I do want to mention a few keys to assembling a strong team in the first place.  As in the construction of a front office, the key to assembling a good soccer team is to surround yourself with talented, hard working people with good character.  Include players you have worked with personally or are recommended by people you know and trust.

Experience Mix – While the senior living 2009 Los Angeles Galaxy is doing its best to prove me wrong, I believe that a successful MLS team needs to have a balance of young and veteran players.

Once assembled, retaining a good roster is just as important as putting the roster together in the first place. The following are ways to retain a good roster:

Fair Compensation – It is very important to reward young players who outperform their initial contracts with offers for a new contract at a higher salary in exchange for an extended commitment to the team.  It sounds simple, but too many teams take advantage of young players who outperform their low end contracts, refuse to renegotiate and then lose them on a free transfer once the options run out in four years.

Rewarding these players not only retains the services of your most talented young players, it also sends the right message to their teammates and players throughout the League that yours is a team that treats players well.

After the Fire  won MLS Cup and the US Open Cup as an expansion team in 1998, we were faced with the decision to either exercise all the options and bring most of the same players back at 3% increases. . .or we could extend the contracts while rewarding many of the young players who outperformed their meager contracts like Chris Armas, CJ Brown, Diego Gutierrez, Zach Thornton and Jesse Marsch.  By taking care of this young core of the team, we kept them together, allowed them to grow together and compete for and win championships for the next eight seasons.  It meant that under the strict salary budget, we couldn’t afford to keep some of the older players like Francis Okaroh, Lubos Kubik, Frank Klopas, Roman Kosecki or Jerzy Podbrozny more than one or two more seasons, but the future was in the young core.

When running a team, it’s not always easy to even know what it is the club is doing that’s working to retain players.  So I thought I’d ask one of the veterans of those Fire years.  Here is a first person account from Diego Gutierrez, one of the players who experienced the process first hand as an expansion pick by the Fire from Kansas City in 1998:

I remember the early Fire years as some of the best in my career.  It is important for the coaching staff as well as the management team to create an atmosphere where players not only feel part of things, but also feel like they are part of something special.  That was the case with our Fire teams of ’98, ’99, 2000, and 2001.  Those teams had a number of guys who had come together and had morphed into a band of brothers, a group that would win together and lose together.  We knew about each other’s business, as much as it is healthy of course.  We knew about each other’s families, our aches, our pains and our joys.  If there was a birthday, a wedding, a loss of a loved one… our locker-room was special…We shared much more than just a place to play.  We brought our families together, and we all became identified by the crest.

Retired Chicago Fire veteran Diego Gutierrez says "It is important for the coaching staff as well as the management team to create an atmosphere where players not only feel part of things, but also feel like they are part of something special."

All of this was tremendously important when it came time to do new deals.  If somebody had a great contract, we got happy for them.  We just knew that by helping the team succeed and succeed collectively, in the end our individual turns would come.  I had the opportunity to make a couple of jumps and explore Europe in the prime of my career… but I have to tell you… I was happy that my young family was content and thriving under the circumstances at that time.  Money was important, but not as important as my wife’s happiness and the tranquility of playing in the place that I loved.  There are many reasons for players to want to test the market (mainly financial), but in reality if you are happy, if you are developing and growing as a player and you have no issues with what you take home, well, it’s tough to argue with that.

In time my turn came, I got my bigger contracts, but I feel like I had the best of everything.  I remained with a group of guys that I loved, we won constantly, and I absolutely loved going to work.  That is the way it is supposed to be.  Peter and Bob created a working environment where honesty and sincerity were paramount, they were the foundation of everything we did.  It kept the place sacred, it kept doubt from ever penetrating anything we did.  If a guy was frustrated with playing time, we talked it over, put it on the table and dealt with it.  As a player, you can’t ask for more.  If your coach and your President/GM are bringing in the right people, they are honest with you and you know where you stand, there are no obstacles for you to go out and do your best.  I think it is safe to say that you play your best when you have peace of mind.  By our results, I think you can judge we were all pretty much at peace.  But if you let those frustrations and doubts into the dressing room that’s when issues start appearing and the whole thing starts to crack.

US National Team Coach Bob Bradley's communication skills are an important part of the success he's enjoyed throughout his coaching career.

Diego’s comments are very generous to me as the training environment was certainly much more Bob Bradley’s doing than mine.  Here are some of the things Bob did well that helped us keep our core together:

Regular Communication – Bob Bradley is a great example of the importance of effective communication with both a team and with individual players.  He is very clear in his messaging and makes certain every person involved with the team knows their role within the team including trainers, doctors, administrators and equipment managers. Bob speaks with individual players regularly to give them a chance to understand what they need to do to contribute to the team and to improve. He does the same to the group as a whole, so everyone is on the same page.  He keeps any team issues in house and creates an all for one mentality.

Reward Players For Success – Players who work hard in training during the week and are successful in training need to be rewarded with increased roles on game day.  Besides being a good indicator of helping out the team when it matters, rewarding good training efforts sends the right message to the rest of the team that they must prove themselves every day.

Respect All Players – Favoritism to certain players or using certain players as whipping boys does nothing to build team chemistry and can easily fracture the delicate balance of a team.

Transparency, Trust and Responsibility – Those same concepts that are critical to building a team culture in a front office are critical to building a good environment for the on field team as well.

The Importance of Keeping the Core

The most successful teams are those that keep the core of the team around for long stretches.  A consistent roster maintains the culture and of course creates connections on the field.  Several teams come to mind: DC United, New England, Houston/San Jose, Columbus and Chicago.  Not coincidentally, these same five teams are the top five teams in MLS regular season points both the last five years and the last seven years.

Here’s a chart of the top five team’s point totals the last five seasons:

Here’s a list of the coaches (in bold) and players they’ve been able to retain for the last five seasons (and four of last five years in italics):

Each of the five most successful teams has retained at least one member of its coaching staff and a core of at least six players over the last four years.  On the other hand, none of the five worst performing non-expansion MLS teams has retained a single coach or more than five players for each of the last five seasons.  Here is the current list of the four and five year coaches and players with the five worst performing non-expansion teams:

The theory that teams that are able to retain their coaches and core players are the ones that succeed can, of course, be explained away by saying that it is the success itself that causes the teams to retain their coaches and players, and teams that aren’t successful to fire their coaches and get rid of their players.  There is certainly much truth to that, but the above charts also make one think that even the worst teams would benefit by being more patient with their better players and coaches.

An example is the 2005 MetroStars who elected to give up on Bob Bradley in his third year as MetroStars Head Coach.  More patience might have given them the following as a base to build on in 2006 and beyond:

Instead, a couple years later, the likes of Bob Bradley, Eddie Gaven, Ante Razov, Michael Bradley, Amado Guevara and Tim Ward became names like Mo Johnston, Dane Richards, Dema Kovalenko, Danny O’Rourke,  Edson Buddle and Chris Henderson.  And then a couple years later, all of those players except Richards were replaced by other names.  Marvelle Wynne and Jozy Altidore were added as draft picks, but of course later Jozy and Michael were sold to European clubs and Marvelle was traded to Toronto.  A case can be made that the new players individually were or were not better than those they replaced, but I believe the turnover itself prevents the team from building cohesion as a unit.

Would New York have added to their trophy case in 2006 through 2008 if they had held on to Bob Bradley, Eddie Gaven, Tim Ward, Ante Razov and Amado Guevara and added Wynne, Altidore, Juan Pablo Angel and others?  In theory they would also have included Seth Stammler, Carlos Mendes, Mike Magee and Jeff Parke.  Ante and Amado are obviously past their prime now, but in 2006 and 2007 they could still be impact players.  I’m certainly biased, because of my friendship with Bob, but it really seems that a little patience would’ve been rewarded in that case and I suspect in others as well.

I think the main lesson is the importance of retaining the core of your team and many of the points above can help a team achieve that.

Peter Wilt writes weekly for Pitch Invasion

Youth development is often considered at the level of the US Soccer federation, but what progress has there been this year from MLS and its clubs?

It flew under the radar, but MLS’ Board of Governors’ decision in July to allow clubs to sign two “homegrown” players from their academies who would not count against the 24-man roster limit this year (though nor can they play in league matches) is starting to bear fruit (last year, a few clubs faced dilemmas over whether to sign an Academy player who might not be able to contribute to the first team, risking losing them abroad).

Last month, DC United signed their first player from their youth academy, goalkeeper Abdul Hamid. Last week, the Red Bulls followed suit as they signed youth academy product Giorgi Chirgadze and just this week, FC Dallas announced the signing of Bryan Leyva, a Mexico U-17 international from their academy. This is definite progress, with MLS’ participation in US Soccer’s Youth Development Academy structure obviously now paying off. All three had been linked with clubs abroad.

On the other side of the coin, U.S. U-20 coach Thomas Rongen this week criticised MLS for abolishing the reserve league in the last offseason, which he says has restricted playing time for young players, partially explaining why he has less than he’d hoped in his U-20 World Cup squad. “You rely on their development with their respective clubs and situations and not too many of them are getting first team playing time, and since there’s no reserve league some guys aren’t getting enough games, or games at all, and that concerns me.”

With the academies strengthening and finally producing MLS-quality players, a return of the reserve league (or other integration of a true developmental league) is critical to increasing the flow of players into senior rosters, allowing them playing time and more opportunity for first team coaches to assess their readiness for MLS play and keep them match fit. MLS clubs have made progress with their academies, and the league now needs to cement a structure to integrate them into the professional system.

Worldwide News

• The New York Times has perhaps the most convoluted explanation of why diving isn’t good for football ever written. I’m all for a little academic insight into sport and some intellectual peroration — the author of the piece is grandly titled as the president of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport — but I’m not sure one needs a PhD to conclude that “Soccer does not flourish when diving occurs. . .Perhaps, the more diving is condemned, the less players will be inclined to use it.” Well, yes. You don’t say. The bigger question is how we get to that cultural point in the sport, aside from NYT opinion pieces.
• David Conn reminds us why he’s the best journalist in English football, with a fantastic three-part feature on the engimatic ownership behind Manchester City’s fortune. And there’s an excellent pictorial review of Manchester City’s transformation on the Guardian as well. Meanwhile, City claim their focus is now on their youth academy.
• When is scoring a boatload of goals (81 goals in 93 league starts) not enough for a first-choice striker? When you’re Rangers’ forward Kris Boyd, left-out of Champions League play by Walter Smith for his lack of all-round contribution and fear that he’s a flat-track bully.
• What would happen to American soccer if influential anti-immigration lobbying organisation FAIR had had their way in the past thirty years of their campaigning? As the debate on immigration reform heats up again in DC with FAIR lobbying Congress this week on their near-zero immigration platform, Imagine 2050 considers the potential impact on diversity in soccer.
• There could be more upheaval in USL, with reports coming out that the Cleveland City Stars may be moving to Elkhart, Indiana. The Stars’ sudden promotion to USL-1 was a bridge too far for the club.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter. Many thanks to Richard Whittall of A More Splendid Life for holding down the fort in my absence earlier this week; he’ll be back sweeping up at the weekend.

Would you believe it: how about an expensive marketing campaign focused on the history of a club and the sport, promoting an actual competitive domestic match — in American soccer.

So much of this “summer of soccer” in the U.S. has been huff and puff about games that don’t matter (aside from the $$$), with the series of high-profile friendlies sweeping the nation featuring Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea et al. These are all well and good, but the point of a competitive sport is, after all, to win trophies: and DC United’s marketing campaign for the upcoming U.S. Open Cup final to be hosted at their stadium hammers home that point with some verve.

We Win Trophies

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup — America’s oldest cup competition, founded in 1914 –  is sadly neglected by US Soccer and MLS in terms of promotional dollars and ideas; despite the drama it provides, the fairytale upsets for lower-league teams, and the attractively simple knockout format, it’s never received the marketing buzz it deserves — and hence, attendances are usually pitiful.

DC won the bid to host the final on September 2nd this year at RFK Stadium against the Seattle Sounders, whose own marketing machine this year has been quite the marvel — partly prompting DC President and CEO Kevin Payne to pump some serious cash (by MLS standards) into promoting the game to prove DC remain the standard-bearer for MLS as they look to add another trophy to their cabinet.

DC’s campaign has gone into overdrive for the final focusing on the club’s history of success. The first hints of it came with some simple but effective teaser marketing in the form of a sticker campaign across D.C., with an enigmatic rendering of the actual US Open Cup trophy (enigmatic given so few people actually know what it looks like!), the date of the match and “peel here” on the front — with the reverse side simply reading WeWinTrophies.com.

As you can see, Wewintrophies.com itself is masterfully simple, on-message, and easy to share virally — everything almost every MLS website hasn’t been for years (Seattle’s set a new standard recently, with DC’s main page also a vast improvement over many others). Tellingly, DC aren’t missing any of the tiny details either: even their Twitter icon has that same image of the cup and the date of the game on it. And popular urban news website DCist.com is completely blanketed by an advertising background with the same imagery promoting the game.

WeWinTrophies.com makes abundantly clear DC’s history as the most successful team on the field in MLS history. It includes an open letter from Kevin Payne addressed to “Washington, D.C.” playing this angle up. Payne writes “Since our first season in 1996, D.C. United has won 12 major domestic and international trophies and is firmly established as the most successful organization in the history of U.S. professional soccer.” (Some may quibble with this final statement: paging Kenn Tomasch!). It’s an old adage, maybe, but nothing sells like success, and seeing history (albeit only since 1996) touted in MLS is a welcome sight.

This isn’t a cheap campaign based only on stickers and a website, though. United also splashed out on a full-page ad in Sunday’s Washington Post printing Payne’s open letter to the city. The selling point Payne emphasises is success and city pride: “I know not all of you are D.C. United fans,” Payne ends the letter with. “Many of you aren’t even soccer fans, but a challenge has been issued and we expect all sports fans in D.C. to meet it. Join us at RFK. Hear the songs of passion. Feel the stadium bounce. Stand up and cheer. Stand up for another championship. Stand up for D.C.”

DC United vs. Seattle; or, Kevin Payne vs. Adrian Hanauer

Dig deeper into the letter, and it’s clear that the motivation for this angle of the campaign is fuelled by the feud between Seattle and DC over the decision of US Soccer to award the final to DC following their secret bidding process.  Tellingly, Payne writes:

Our opponent, Seattle Sounders FC, is new to MLS. They’re in the midst of a great inaugural season and have developed a large and passionate fan base. The Sounders, and its fans, have said that Washington, D.C. and its fans do not deserve to host the match at RFK. They insisted the match should be played in Seattle.

For 14 seasons, our fans have been the standard by which other fans in Major League Soccer are measured.

For 14 seasons, our fans have brought unmatched energy, enthusiasm and passion to RFK Stadium and Major League Soccer.

And now, after 14 trophy-filled seasons, it is time for our fans – for all D.C. area sports fans – to remind everyone who the best sports fans in the country are.

Payne’s motivation to prove this is pretty obvious, following his public spat with Seattle boss Adrian Hanauer, who criticised US Soccer for awarding the final to DC, and not to his expansion franchise with their legion of fans at Qwest.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was frustrated and somewhat skeptical of the process,” Hanauer said. “I don’t think D.C. has played a game in the Open Cup on the road in two years. They had a road through all lower-division teams to get to the Open Cup Final. I’m not in the know … enough to be able to raise any real issues, but I’m frustrated and I wish U.S. Soccer would explain why one bid wins over another.”

Hanauer then really stuck the knife in, suggesting if Seattle hosted the final they’d have packed their stadium with 30,000 fans and pointedly predicting DC would fail to attract a strong crowd.

“Our fans deserve some answers,” Hanauer said. “And, by the way, U.S. Soccer has been trying to raise the profile of the U.S. Open Cup. A game in front of 10,000 fans at RFK I don’t believe is going to raise the profile as much as a game in front of a sold-out Qwest Field.”

Hanauer was probably wrong when he said Seattle would have sold-out Qwest: as US Soccer obviously knew, scheduling issues in Seattle meant that had the game been there, it would have to have been played on a weekday afternoon. But it’s true that for last year’s final, only 8,212 showed up at RFK to watch DC win their last trophy.

The comments from Hanauer, in his first-year as an MLS GM, enraged Payne, who has been (on and off) leading DC since the first season of MLS in 1996. “I was surprised and disappointed and offended,” Payne told Soccer Insider. “Adrian uses the word ‘skepticism’ to describe the process, which seems to be implying that it wasn’t on the up-and-up. Which is really an outrageous implication. . .Adrian has no knowledge of what we bid or didn’t bid; my guess is that we bid more aggressively than they did. I appreciate that Seattle’s fans are great. Our fans have been great for 14 seasons. It’s really unseemly for Seattle to suddenly show up in MLS and everything should be handed to them.”

Payne went on to say that DC would “promote the game aggressively.” He has been proven true to those words: as we can see with this campaign, United are pulling out all the stops to ensure the crowd is significantly larger than the 10,000 Hanauer predicted would show-up at RFK.  DC  are spending “significantly more” than on the 2008 campaign, their marketing department told us.

If it takes a bit of a feud and a smart marketing campaign to raise the profile of the U.S. Open Cup and get a strong crowd out for a nationally televised final in D.C., then this is all to the good. A little juice and bitterness does wonders for fueling interest. And if DC can make money on the final thanks to their marketing (as Payne believes they will), then perhaps that might, just might convince US Soccer and MLS teams to invest some money to make some money by promoting the tournament as a whole with further similarly smart marketing campaigns next year.

Blog of the Day

The blog of the day in American soccer has to be one made by an anonymous author on a popular US-blog ripping the US Soccer federation in a quite wild, spectacular, and absolutely unsubstantiated fashion. I don’t link to anonymous authors, so you’ll have to find it yourself if you want, but lets just say this kind of blogging nonsense from someone who somehow managed to get accredited by CONCACAF to the Gold Cup damages the entire circle of American soccer blogging. Sure, there are real issues with US Soccer, but this was an absurd way to address them.

Not only did this puerile but popular post lead to America’s soccer community wasting half the day discussing the piece’s problems, this kind of sub-conspiracy-theorist gutter blogging does damage to those of us who would really like to explore the problems in US Soccer and to gain accreditation to future events. Will CONCACAF be so willing to give a blogger a media pass at the next event if they read the nonsense that resulted from this?  Will US Soccer be as willing to open up to bloggers who want to actually investigate (and not just speculate on) their internal workings? Sure, we can hope everyone sees the difference between them and us, but we’re all hurt by this in a small way.  And I’m sorry I’ve had to give it even more coverage by even writing about it here. Onto real news and interesting writing:

Americas

• A disappointing result for DC United in the CONCACAF Champions League, as they’re held to a 1-1 draw by Firpo of El Salvador at home. Except for the DC players, it didn’t even feel like home — goalkeeper Milos Kocic said “Today, we felt like we weren’t playing home. We felt like we were on a neutral field. I was screaming, I was yelling at guys, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, this is our field.” Does anyone know what the attendance was? (I can’t find it listed it on the DC site).  Even more depressingly for DC, Firpo only qualified for the tournament after replacing CD Chalatenango, who messed up their registration. Even more depressingly for MLS, DC have long been one of the teams to really take CONCACAF games seriously.
• Bad news in Argentina, as the continual debt crisis is threatening the start of the new season next month, according to Argentine Football Association president Julio Grondona. “There is no doubt that the beginning of the tournament is at risk because several clubs have very big debts.” Clubs have been unable to pay players, who have lodged a complaint through their union. The problem, Grondona said, is that fewer and fewer players are assets of the club that can be sold to make revenue — “The invention of… agents was a misfortune,” he said. “It can’t be that a person owns 30 percent of a player and another 40 (percent). It seems like we’re talking about cows.”
• Eric Wynalda has replaced Steven Cohen on U.S. show Fox Football Fone-In; I don’t think that will make the show much more watchable, but it’s no great shame for American soccer if we have to hear less of Cohen’s nonsense about Hillsborough, and his general lack of knowledge/interest in MLS made him an odd choice for a national phone-in anyway.
• Excellent round-up by Melissa on the playoff situation across women’s football in the US, including the odd nugget that the Washington Freedom have a chance to win both the W-League and WPS.
• This media conference call with US Soccer boss Sunil Gulati is not very interesting, but I like the way he gently explains just how dumb Sepp Blatter is when he makes comments about MLS needing to play a Western European schedule.  “In principle, both [MLS Commissioner Don Garber] and I agree that would be a good thing, but we’ve also explained to the FIFA president that temperatures in Chicago are not like the temperatures in London or Paris in January. They’re more like Helsinki or Moscow. So the challenges are a little bit different. … We can foresee being on a European-type calendar, but also pointing out that not everyone plays on that calendar, primarily for those weather reasons.” Just pointing that out, Sepp, ‘cos it’s not bleeding obvious….

Europe

• Villa manager Martin O’Neill expresses his frustration about being leapfrogged by Man City due to their outrageous spending. Nothing new there, but he also notes one reason why their league title challenge will be bolstered by coming from so far back in the pack — they have no European football to drain and distract them all season. Not to mention they are finally signing defenders.
• Good piece on Dynamo Moscow’s search for Champions League glory (or even mediocrity) from the ever-excellent Jonathan Wilson at the Guardian. It’s interesting that Russian teams have been very successful in the UEFA Cup since the big money started rolling into their coffers, but that any success in the Champions League has eluded them. Obviously, the competition is much tougher in the latter, but you’d think there’d be some improved performance — though as Wilson points out, the scheduling is hardly ideal for Russia with the group stages kicking off just as they end their long summer season. He also notes something interesting – “no side from any of the seven largest metropolitan areas of Europe – Istanbul, Paris, Moscow, London, St Petersburg, Berlin and Athens – has ever won the European Cup.” A fact worthy of a book on its own.
• ESPN will air MLS in the UK on its new international football channel, starting next month. It’ll be interesting to see what the reaction is; we all know here there is a spectacular range in the quality of play and stadia from game-to-game. As Richard Whittall wonders, will this mean UK-based journalists make more or less fun of MLS now they can actually see it?
• Interesting piece by James Waterson at When Saturday Comes on the aftermath of Scarborough FC’s collapse a few years ago, and the two competing non-League clubs that sprung up after them — dividing the supporters’ base, with Waterson concluding that “Scarborough United remains a very distant prospect”.
• In Italy, Paul Grech takes a look at Pisa AC’s latest financial collapse — a torrid rise, fall, rise and fall again.
• At the Guardian, Rob Bagchi suggests owner Mike Ashley might have “squandered his opportunity” at Newcastle and it’s time for him to walk away. Uh, you think?  Is this a reprint from a year ago?

Comments made by former MLS Commissioner Doug Logan to the Oregonian in this regard made waves recently. “Soccer audiences at their best have got to be a little dangerous,” Logan said. “It’s three guys with a beer cursing at the guy on the field. It’s not a family activity. If you want a family activity, go to the circus.”

Logan further criticised the reliance of MLS teams on group ticket sales to youth soccer groups. ”Success at the gate has to have a tribal following and not just a van of soccer-playing kids who come to one game a year,” Logan said. “If your business model depends on youth soccer, it won’t be enough.”

This might seem an obvious statement to fans outside the U.S., but for years, soccer marketers in MLS have mainly been all too on message that the sport is a family-focused activity based on appealing to youth soccer. In recent years, that’s begun to change league-wide, and Logan was recognising that, albeit clumsily.

Yet Logan’s comments were curious in that he himself was MLS Commissioner during the period of its launch years that most of its teams — DC and Chicago excepted — were attempting to sell the sport solely as a family activity, and doing little but alienating the 18-34 adult demographic in their pursuit of the youth soccer crowd: which led to most MLS teams cracking down on anything that might potentially alienate their own stereotyped view of a sensitive soccer mom, who’d be frightened away at the mere hint of a swear word.

We can all get along

While he did not address the league’s past failures, it seems that what Logan really meant to do was point to the fact that MLS teams do now need to market more to adults who like to drink beer and come out to matches with friends to support their team week in-week out, rather than solely to families and youth soccer team groups — especially if the aim is building a strong season ticketholder base. What he failed to acknowledge was that this doesn’t necessarily exclude attracting families and children elsewhere to the rest of the stadium, and that many of them can also be passionate  fans themselves.

In a recent interview on du Nord, the Fire’s former President and current Red Stars President Peter Wilt explained that the two demographics can co-exist, with some effort to grow understanding on both sides.

The two most important audiences in American soccer are suburban families, which are traditionally conservative and sensitive to vulgarities and rowdy behavior, and young, urban, male, passionate fans who like and partake in extreme behavior. It’s two extremes that are oftentimes seated side by side. It’s ironic that they have this dichotomy while their end goal is the same: supporting the team they love to victory.

Throughout my time with the Fire, the key I found was communication. I get most credit for my dealings with Section 8 — with the young, urban, passionate fans — but I spent just as much time dealing with the suburban soccer community. It’s important that both constituencies understand each other and that they’re empathetic to each other.

Interestingly, this was a similar point to one made by Portland Timbers owner Merrit Paulson in an interview also published in the Oregonian this week, in which he deliberately played down the ‘danger’ of American soccer when asked about Logan’s comment that soccer support needed to be “a little bit dangerous.”

I disagree with that, strongly. I strongly disagree with that. That sort of plays to the worst stereotypes. But I understand the point, and I just think he’s trying to make the point in a flamboyant manner.

And the point that I agree with is a model that just targets soccer moms and youth soccer is an inherently flawed model. Those people spend their lives going to soccer games every weekend. Trying to target them for season tickets is the wrong way to go.

Now, the reality is, you’re going to get some of those folks. One hundred percent, you need a family environment. I don’t know if you could see a better family environment than Seattle right now. It’s one big party.

But in my mind, soccer is about the new America. It’s a younger demographic, by and large. The 20- to 30-somethings, more urban, is definitely a sweet spot. But families and sports fans and suburbanites are very much a target. And it’s a really unique sporting experience. I don’t think it needs to be dangerous.

What I’d say to that is, we have a section of our supporters, the Timbers Army, which adds to the ambiance, adds to the atmosphere, and I would not suggest that families sit there, with kids. So you need to have different environments for different people. And that’s part of the show, the Timbers Army.

So I would agree with him to the extent that there’s probably a section that’s not a family-oriented section. You get a lot of the European flair here — especially in Portland, even more so than in Seattle, in terms of the standing and the chanting and the synchronized chanting.

It’s never been clear to me why it’s been so difficult for so many MLS executives at the team and league level to figure out that the two demographics are not mutually exclusive, as Wilt and Paulson explain. One section or even end of ‘rowdy’ fans isn’t going to put-off most families attending in the rest of the stadium; in fact, the unique atmosphere that supporters’ groups engender is only likely to improve the spectacle and differentiate a soccer game from the other sports youth groups and families attend.

Kevin Payne, DC United’s supremo, figured this out back in MLS’ inaugural season, 1996, and ever since, DC has had strong support and solid attendance.  I interviewed Payne last year, and explained how they facilitated the supporters’ groups who created the most passionate support in MLS at the time. “The biggest difference between our approach and the rest of the league was that we set out from the beginning to appeal to people who already cared about soccer, whether they were American fans of the game or came from another country with a love for the game,” Payne said. “We thought there were enough people like that to be successful. Part of our philosophy was not expecting to attract non-believers.”

Unfortunately, the rest of the league largely ignored this approach, aside from expansion team the Chicago Fire under Wilt, who in 1998 launched to strong attendance numbers and worked with the Barn Burners and the Polish Ultras ’98 (later standing in Section 8 together) who helped develop the Fire’s identity as a club with their tailgates, tifo displays and vibrant support.

In neither DC nor Chicago, despite the existence of strong supporters’ groups, were families and youth soccer groups sidelined as a result or scared away en masse. That’s not to say there was never a balancing act or some explaining to do by the front office, but all it takes is good communication and an effort by the club to connect with both sides.

Again, though, much of the league ignored this success, presumably petrified that the perceived ‘danger’ of supporters’ groups would scare off their dwindling youth soccer crowds. Obstruction to supporters culture based on a customer service rep occasionally receiving a few emails complaining about a curse word or because of the myth that youth soccer groups who come a few times a year would inevitably develop into an adult fanbase on their own dampened the atmosphere and slowed season ticket sale growth. Without a large base of season ticketholders, MLS teams were constantly scrambling to group sales, ticket giveaways and promotions to half-fill the stands at the expense of building an identity as a club people would believe in and support through thick and thin.

Payne’s absence from DC’s leadership from 2001-4 and Wilt’s firing from Chicago in 2005 (by an AEG executive who had never attended a Chicago Fire match) hardly helped matters. But Toronto’s arrival in the league in 2007 kickstarted their approach again with a successful launch with a largely adult supporters base who were already into soccer, an echo of Payne’s approach in 1996.

Toronto’s successful season ticket drive created a bandwagon wholeheartedly leaped on by expansion team Seattle this season, who have over 20,000 season ticketholders in part thanks to their Scarf Seattle marketing campaign. Nearby, Paulson in Portland seems to have the right approach, recognising the base of organic culture the Timbers Army that already exists provides, and planning to grow from that when the team joins MLS. 2010 expansion team Philadelphia have done the same thing, working closely with their supporters group, Sons of Ben, who had thousands of members even before the team had a name and an MLS franchise.

Toronto fans celebrate their first ever goal

Meanwhile, MLS has begun to encourage existing teams to follow this approach, including at teams that have long had very weak supporters’ sections. Brian Bilello, COO of the New England Revolution, told footiebusiness.com earlier this year about the change of emphasis in their marketing campaign, with a new “Defend the Fort” theme aimed at supporters:

The primary reasoning behind the Defend the Fort campaign is to grow the number of season tickets in The Fort, our supporters section. While we’ll do as much as we can to grow the supporters section in general, we feel that season ticket growth is the key because those fans are the most passionate, most involved and have the biggest stake in the game, so to speak. So we didn’t want it to be where people are coming two, three or four games and sitting in that section, but rather growing a base of fans who are here every single week. That will drive the energy in the building.

Whilst this is welcome, hardcore soccer support can’t be generated solely out of a new marketing campaign. MLS front offices can do much to facilitate supporters’ groups, but in many places there is a lot of damage teams will have a hard time repairing, if they even try. The years of neglect and obstruction to supporters’ groups at teams like Dallas and Colorado mean it might never be possible for strong supporters groups to develop there.

It’s a shame it’s taken so many at the top of MLS so long to realise all this, exemplified by Doug Logan’s comments ten years after the end of his tenure as MLS Commissioner. What MLS has long lacked is not just snazzy marketing campaigns or “danger”, it’s the mere facilitation of supporters’ culture, despite the examples set in DC and Chicago and more recent expansion franchises. This does not mean the exclusion of everyone who doesn’t want to stand or sing or drink. Family sections and supporters coexist quite comfortably and safely in European stadia in various places: you can have atmosphere without alienating a family who comes to support the team as well.

What MLS needs to appeal to the 18-34 demographic is not danger in itself, but simply smart, far-sighted leadership by MLS executives and supporters’ groups who can work together to grow soccer culture bottom-up.

Despite being the antithesis of the stereotypical geek — Peter is gregarious to the max — his twittering, blogging, facebooking and forum-posting is becoming legendary in the world of American soccer.

Unlike the football brass in England, Peter’s every word is not plastered all over the papers by default. Instead, it’s through the drip-drip-drip of blogs and tweets that the Red Stars CEO plans to get the word out about his team to fans, whether he’s tweeting about his latest signing or twitpicing his “beer goggles” incident.

On the morning of March 10th, one of the leaders of the Chicago Red Stars supporters’ group, Local 134, tweets that she’s got confirmation of the details on the bus down to St Louis for the club’s inaugural match.

Minutes later, Red Stars CEO Peter Wilt “ReTweets” the news to all his followers:

RT @nikhak: Details for bus to Red Stars match on April 4th in St. Louis confirmed: http://tinyurl.com/ddb7y5
2:58 PM Mar 10th from txt

An earlier exchange in the day saw Wilt twittering back and forth with one of his own players, as he “ReTweets” her own update on her way to LA.

RT@nspilger: In stretch limo on way to airport. Ballers! http://twitpic.com/1z3wy . Safe travels to FLA Red Stars! C u @IYSA expo March 21!
4:01 AM Mar 10th from TwitterBerry

And this tweet from Wilt comes directly after his update that he was responding to my questions about the Red Stars focus on new media.

Listening to Mirror in the Bathroom on XRT whilst reply to @TomDunmore for new @PitchInvasion article on promoting Red Stars w/new media.
3:10 AM Mar 10th from TwitterBerry

I was asking Peter about this as the Red Stars have probably made a more extensive effort to reach out to fans through new media such as Twitter, blogs and more traditional web communications tools like forums and regular sites than any other professional club in the world.

Wilt believes this has been a success.

Tweeting and blogging has worked as two-way communication, which has both allowed us to get our brand and messages out to interested audiences and importantly has allowed various audiences to connect with the Red Stars and tell us what they want and don’t want. Twitter is an invasive medium that allows us to reach a small and targeted audience in a very direct way. Blogs allow us to craft messages creatively, address specific issues and provide information in a much more detailed fashion than traditional media.

Our audiences are receiving little if any information on the team or League from traditional media, so we must fill the gap online. Fortunately, our main targets – kids and young adults – live online. If we had to rely on traditional media support and traditional advertising, we’d be sunk – no one would know about us and we wouldn’t register on anyone’s radar.

New media has allowed the Red Stars to become relevant to thousands of people before we’ve even kicked a soccer ball. We are hopeful that this will translate into a larger initial audience, which will then virally spread the team’s messages and grow our audience from thousands to tens and even hundreds of thousands over time.

This marks quite a change from the last professional soccer team Wilt launched in Chicago. Almost twelve years ago now, Wilt headed up the launch of MLS’ first expansion team, the Chicago Fire, who were armed with a six figure marketing budget to make a splash in Chicago’s saturated sports market.

In 1997, we relied on a massive traditional marketing campaign to brand and promote the Fire. We spent close to a million dollars plus leveraged media in 4Q97 on TV, radio, print and outdoor. The “Jimi Hendrix Stand By My Fire” campaign blanketed the market and literally bought the team credibility.

Without the resources for a similar campaign with the Red Stars, and thanks to the spread of the internet in the intervening time, new media is the affordable path to creating buzz.

In 2008 and 2009, new media applications allow the Red Stars to be more efficient with a MUCH smaller advertising budget (less than 10% a decade later) and a much smaller sales staff – one person in sponsor sales and four full time (plus two split-time) in ticket sales. Specifically, we use bulk email blasts, individual email communication and on-line ordering to streamline the sales procress. The team and League website, blogs and plethora of on-line forums and social networking sites have become our platforms for promoting and branding the team.

This means a constant stream of updates, and one that it is starting to become a focus of WPS league-wide.

Does this stream-of-consciousness tweeting ever become a problem, in terms of TMI or simply over-saturation?

The danger of over Tweeting and blogging is similar to over-saturation of any medium. Too many messages can dilute the message and cause your audiences to skip messages altogether. It’s important that we expand the audience we are reaching – increasing our email database, adding Facebook friends, Twitter followers and Red Stars website hits. Part of that is managing the flow of information. We try to limit our email blasts of the Red Stars Insider to one per week. While our hard core fans may want more information, sending it more than that will result in subscribers not clicking through or unsubscribing.

Similarly, use of Twitter, blogs and SN sites needs to be managed thoguhtfully as well.

I’ve regretted posting internet forum messages, Tweets, blogs and emails just as I’ve regretted verbal and hand written comments. I try to read and reread my posts before sending, while keeping in mind the perspective of every potential reader. Nevertheless there are times I have offended people, published private information and put others in difficult positions. I try to avoid that, but if you communicate often enough, you’ll likely make bad judgments occasionally.

The Red Stars efforts extend beyond Wilt, as they have encouraged all their staff to get into blogging and twittering, with much of the emphasis coming from their original Director of Online Marketing Amanda Vandervort, who was a few months plucked from Chicago to head to the WPS head office and take this new media energy league-wide as Web Coordinator.

This emphasis in WPS marks a considerable difference in marketing focus from the efforts of the previous professional women’s league in America, the WUSA. Marcia McDermott, now Red Stars General Manager and once a coach in the WUSA, explained the change with new media a “point of emphasis” in WPS.

Social media was not emphasized in the last league, but I don’t think there was the same technology then. We had a website, but it was pretty limited in its interactive nature. It was more about creating content.

Of course, it’s not the technology itself that drives this interactivity — engaging the grassroots takes a strong and deliberate effort. Whilst WPS drips with social media almost to the point of over-proliferation, MLS’ efforts have been sadly half-hearted in new media thus far. Given their own limited space in traditional media, it seems like a massive opportunity lost for the men’s professional game in the U.S.

As an example, take the grandly titled and loudly announced “The Commissioner Speaks” blog on the MLS site launched last year (and folks, it’s not really a blog if it’s just a static page though, is it?): this hasn’t been updated since September 5th and it reads like a press release edited to death.

It should be said that a few MLS teams do have decent blog presences (props must go to DC United’s Behind the Badge), but for the most part, they have pretty sorry efforts. Given the resources they could muster and the interest there would be in new media efforts given the paucity of traditional media coverage, it’s a baffling state of affairs. Expansion teams Philadelphia and Seattle have shown the buzz that can be created online to help them do that most important of things: sell tickets.

Existing MLS teams might have larger marketing budgets for traditional media than nascent WPS teams, but in these trying  times, surely they could learn a lesson from @redstarsceo in grassroots marketing.