National Women’s Soccer League Heats Up

As I draft this column, I’m sitting in the athletic center at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts administering the final exam for my Sports Promotions & Marketing course (SM 203).  I taught two sections of the course as a guest instructor this semester and it was a blast.

The course was focused on creating demand for minor league and developing pro sports, so we came back frequently to my four years as a start-up consultant and later General Manager for the Boston Breakers of the now-defunct Women’s Professional Soccer (2009-2011).

The students’ first graded assignment this semester was a case study about the Breakers’ start-up phase in 2007-08.  At that particular time, WPS was trying to analyze the “mistakes of the past” (i.e. the failed Women’s United Soccer Association of 2001-2003) in order to create a sustainable business plan.  Today, a new women’s league – the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – is doing the very same thing.  Sadly, the subject of this latest autopsy is WPS itself.

Take a look at the case study and think about how you might answer the eight questions I posed to my students:

Download my Boston Breakers Case Study Here

After holidays at home with their families, many of my students are off to internships with the American Hockey League, box lacrosse teams, ski resorts and arena management companies during Endicott’s extended six-week winter break.

Unfortunately, none of my students are headed to work for the NWSL, which is ramping up operations this month for a spring 2013 launch after months of behind-the-scenes organizing.  It’s too bad, because during the past four months these 42 young men and 7 young women have likely devoted more time to analyzing the history, challenges and opportunities of women’s pro soccer than any other business students in the country.

As they sit here this morning scribbling away in their blue books about variable pricing strategy and permission-based marketing, I think to myself:

If one of these kids was headed off to sell women’s soccer, what else would I share with them?

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The first thing I would suggest to a young person learning the ropes with an NWSL club is to read Joanna Lohman’s recent blog “How To Market Our New Women’s Professional League.  Joanna was a player for the Washington Freedom and Philadelphia Independence in WPS.  She is perhaps the most articulate and insightful player voice when it comes to the marketing of the sport. Updating an eternal debate in women’s soccer circles, Joanna talks about the dream of a thriving Supporters culture versus the disappointing reality of a group sales-driven target audience of distracted youth soccer families.  Should teams:

• Keep targeting a proven audience that is demonstrably incapable of sustaining a pro league? OR
• Cultivate a totally-awesome-sounding-but-possibly-mythical tribe of urban, childless, pan-ethnic, hipster fanatics?

Joanna believes the NWSL has to make a bold all-in bet on fostering Supporters culture or else be doomed to failure.  I’m like 90% on board with Joanna’s direction, but I don’t entirely agree with her conclusion.  She’s created a false dilemma. Teams don’t have to choose between these two approaches.  In fact, they need to have both.  Neither audience is sufficient on its own.  Your stadium environment has to be inviting and thrilling to everyone.

Where I agree with Joanna is that too many inexperienced team operators confuse the idea of creating an environment “for everyone” with creating a “family environment”.  After all, families are adults + kids, right?  That’s everyone!  Not so fast.  Because “Family Environment” is a too often a  euphemism for a Children’s Environment.  And an atmosphere that bears more resemblance to Chuck E. Cheese than Old Trafford is bound to alienate passionate adult soccer fans.

Kids loved the Boston Breakers, but we probably did less for them than any other team in WPS, except MagicJack.  I believe that kids need to have the following experiences:

• A team to cheer for and believe in
• An opportunity to meet one of their heroes, even if they’re too shy to say a word
• A shirtful of autographs at the end of the night
• A fun, safe place to play before the game, with rides, contests and activities

They need these things because they may go home disappointed if they’re missing.  On the other hand, here’s what I believe they don’t need:

• One Direction, Biebs, and Carly Rae Jepsen on the stadium sound system
• P.A. announcers commanding them to MAKE SOME NOISE! every ten minutes.  Or ever, actually.
• An intern who can’t dance in a smelly mascot suit listlessly waving at them.
• Halftime youth soccer games that thrill 40 parents in the crowd and bore the piss out of everyone else

Do kids like all the things on this second list?  Of course they do.  But will they miss them if they’re not there?  No.  And these elements tend to annoy more sophisticated soccer fans.  You know – the ones who buy season tickets, and blog, and watch your blurry webcasts, and shell out for $8.00 beers and $80.00 authentic jerseys?  The ones you always say you wish you had more of?  Yeah, them.

At the Breakers from 2009 to 2011, every element of game production was designed for the enjoyment of adult soccer lovers.  This included everything from the Afro-Brazil samba band, to the professional entertainers at halftime, to the creation of a permanent Pillars of Excellence installation to honor retired Breakers stars such as Maren Meinert, Angela Hucles, and Kristine Lilly.  We even excluded youth groups from sitting in our most desirable midfield seating sections.

That was just our philosophy.  I’m sure it had its flaws as well.  You have to develop your own.  Whatever that is, I suggest you memorialize it in careful detail, like we did for our sales & marketing staff:

Download the Boston Breakers (WPS) Ticket Sales Manual Here

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So now our hypothetical NWSL staffer has considered the case study, read Joanna Lohman’s manifesto, downloaded a proper ticket sales manual, and perhaps even started to think about his or her own personal values about marketing.  (Whether your boss agrees is a different matter, but part of being an intern is deciding how you will do things differently when your day comes).

What else would I put in my imaginary care package for this young man or woman?  Here’s two things:

1. A copy of Jon Spoelstra’s Ice To The Eskimos: How To Sell A Product Nobody Really Wants.  This is an industry bible, along with Spoelstra’s earlier Marketing Outrageously.  Spoelstra was the President of the New Jersey Nets during the Dark Ages of the Derrick Coleman era.  He has plenty of great advice for low-budget/no-budget minor league operators as well.  All of our Breakers account execs read this book.  Get it on Kindle for $9.99.
2. The phone numbers of Los Angeles Galaxy Senior Manager of Ticket Sales and Service Heather Pease and Columbus Crew Director of Ticket Sales Brett Zalaski.  Consummate sales people who sold a very challenging product in WPS and used their success to make the leap to great jobs in Major League Soccer.  If you’re an NWSL executive and you haven’t been on the phone to pick the brains of WoSo sales leaders like Heather and Brett yet, you are missing a huge opportunity.

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NWSL Odds & Ends

Here’s ten impressions and crystal ball predictions for the NWSL after this week’s league announcements:

1. Thorns F.C. draws the best numbers since WUSA.  That means better than the 6,298 per game claimed by Los Angeles Sol in 2009.
2. The Breakers will sell out the entire season at Somerville’s Dilboy Stadium for a second consecutive year.
3. The appointment of Cheryl Bailey gives the NWSL a top-flight administrator to make the trains run on time.
4. I don’t buy FC Kansas City President Brian Budzinski’s claim that his club is drawing “huge interest” from senior National Team players, unless he means Mexicans and Canadians.  Only two USWNT players were willing to go to St. Louis in WPS allocation in 2008, just one of whom is still active.  FCKC’s unknown head coach won’t help compensate for a general lack of enthusiasm about playing in Missouri.
5. More than 50% of USWNT players will select Portland or Seattle as their preferred destination in allocation.
6. Sydney Leroux headlines a list of surprising allocations, sent to Kansas City, Boston or Western New York when her lack of seniority keeps her out of a coveted Pacific Northwest allocation spot.
7. The Boston Breakers will have the largest contingent of non-North American imports, due to the club’s long-standing ties to Australian players.
8. Here’s hoping that 2014 sees a place for Charlie Naimo and Paul Riley in America’s top league.
9. After Year One is in the books, the national federations will demand more control in return for their subsidies.  In particular, the federations won’t tolerate sending players to franchises with under-qualified, unorthodox or revolving door coaches.
10. I no longer buy into the cliche “if it fails this time, it’s never coming  back”.  There are now and will continue to be plenty of people willing to invest in the women’s game, particularly as the price has come down.  The problem is that up until now, it’s been more attractive for new money to let everything die off and start all over again than it has been to buy existing clubs and take on their problems.