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A good article in 442 ... illustrating MLS issues...
http://au.fourfourtwo.com/features/6692,notes-from-america.aspx
Trevor Treharne
FourFourTwo - October, 2010
Get more on: mls | aleague
HOW the US – another country dominated by its sporting pastimes – may have laid down the lessons that could save the A-League.
In the quite brilliant '90s Aussie film Two Hands, featuring the late Heath Ledger, the voice-over from Ledger's deceased brother notes, "If you're going through some shit in your life, chances are somebody else has gone through the same thing before you. And they've written about it".
For all the protests, the links between Australia and USA are closer than many locals would venture to openly admit. It is never more salient than when comparing football's position on the respective countries' current sporting landscapes.
The MLS has been running for nine years longer than the A-League and while it has experienced its own series of peaks and troughs, it has emerged from falling attendances and folding teams with healthy crowds and a league that will extend to a 20-team format by 2012.
The sporting similarities between Australia and the USA is defined by the two country's ‘battle of the ball games', with both nations entrenched in sports largely indigenous to that country.
The US is dominated by its ‘Big Four' - baseball, basketball, gridiron and ice hockey (yes, more of a puck than a ball, but you get the idea), while Australia is dominated by AFL, cricket, rugby league and rugby union. All eight sports are tied to that country's national identity - few nations in the world play the most popular sports in the US and Australia.
Incredibly, in April it was revealed that the MLS had surpassed both basketball and hockey in terms of average attendances for the 2009/10 season. While gridiron ran away with an average of 67,508 and baseball notched up 30,213, coming in above basketball (17,149) and ice hockey (16,985) was the MLS with an average of 18,452.
The 2006 World Cup final attracted more television viewers in the US than baseball's 2005 World Series pulled in on any single night, while the MLS is the 12th most attended top-flight football league in the world.
Plus, while football finds a place lower down the scale in terms of spectators in the US and Australia, it does top the charts in participation figures in both nations. The most recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that football outstripped Australia's ‘big four' ball games, while the same can be said of the US.
Since its launch, the MLS has introduced its fair share of beneficial initiatives alongside some costly mistakes. While the A-League is currently suffering falling crowds and an investment shortage (both issues the MLS has suffered and survived), an analytical peer over the Pacific fence could find the answers to the A-Leagues problems.
To review the transitions that have turned the MLS into a flouring league and source the potential lessons for the A-League, we enlisted the league's latest club CEO and the country's two leading football authors to find out more.
Build more football specific stadiums
While Suncorp Stadium holds 52,500, Brisbane Roar averaged 8,650 last season. That's 43,850 empty seats, or 83.5 per cent of the stadium. It didn't help on the pitch either as the club narrowly avoided the wooden spoon in ninth place.
"Nothing kills a sport more than a small crowd in the vacuous stadium," says Gary Hopkins, author of Star-Spangled Soccer: The Selling, Marketing and Management of Soccer in the USA. "MLS has spent the past 10 years getting its teams into 'correctly sized' stadiums, around 18,000 to 30,000 in size, and out of NFL stadiums. It now has 10 stadiums with more to come. Not that they had any option in the past but putting 20,000 crowds in 90,000 seat NFL stadiums very nearly killed the league as core fans were turned off by the lack of atmosphere."
"The old NASL, featuring Pele, Beckenbauer and company, played mostly in large NFL stadiums in which they weren't the primary tenant," says Beau Dure author of Long-Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer. "That's expensive, and the atmosphere
is generally poor.
"MLS started out the same way - stadiums don't just spring up overnight. But over time, most teams have built a place of their own. They may rent it out for concerts, American high school football games and so forth, but they get the revenue and control the scheduling.
"The process has been difficult in many cities for political reasons, as they are often unwilling to invest the slightest bit of money for infrastructure or land deals and typically, the club pays the cost of the actual construction."
The arrival of Melbourne Heart at AAMI Stadium, which they will share alongside Melbourne Victory, is a vital development for the game in this country. Next to join the league is Sydney Rovers. With 12,000 Sydney FC fans rattling around the 45,500 seater SFS every week, striking a similar deal in the Harbour City is important.
Anyone who saw Fowler's Perth Glory debut in front of over 16,000 in the pumping 20,500 capacity nib Stadium can attest to the benefits. This is paired with the Perth stadium's 2004 redevelopment, which saw it shift from an oval into a football friendly rectangular shape.
Keep expanding (with caution)
In July 2008, a bid for an A-League side in Townsville was granted by the FFA. The man behind the franchise was Don Matheson, a local businessman, and his club would be North Queensland Fury. After a single season the club was said to be losing $50,000 a week and up to $6m in debt, prompting Matheson to walk away, leaving the FFA to pick up the pieces both financially and organisationally.
How on earth was Matheson given a licence to a franchise that he could leave after a single season? Matheson will claim he lost his fair share of coin from the ill-conceived and brief venture, but that's hardly the point.
"It is hard to get an MLS franchise," says Paul Barber, CEO of new MLS franchise Vancouver Whitecaps, who will enter the league next season. "They don't hand them out easily or cheaply - it is a massive, massive commitment. Not just financially either, you should see the bid book we put together to get this franchise in the first place.
"You have to go into a huge amount of detail on what our market was going to be like, how we were going to promote the sport, how we were going to bring fans into the stadium, how we were going to get sponsors, broadcasters, how we would run it from a customer service and community point of view.
"You have to credit MLS for the cautious manner in which the league has expanded, they could have had 30 franchises if they wanted. They could have had two divisions five years ago, but they have resisted that to keep the league financially stable. Growing steadily and slowly is a more sustainable model."
Barber says that due to the tens of millions of dollars of investment that has gone into landing the franchise, owners are in for the long-term as gaining a return is not an overnight plan.
The MLS launched in 1996 with 10 teams and extended to 12 teams two years later. But in 2001 the league had to trim back to its original 10 team format with Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion folding. It wasn't until 2005, nine years after its formation that it added franchises again and went back to 12 sides. In contrast the A-League will move to 13 teams next season, in just its seventh year.
This probably works as a two-pronged caveat for the FFA - new franchises need to be introduced steadily and by people who have a long-term vision for the club. With Sydney FC underperforming in a fans recruitment perspective (considering they hail from Australia's biggest city), you have to fear for the introduction of Sydney Rovers at this stage.
Get star backing
FourFourTwo ran its first ever 'Football Rich List' back in March 2009. We revealed some $11.5bn of worth within the 50 wealthiest people in Australian football. At the top of the tree were owners like Frank Lowy, Clive Palmer and David Traktovenko. Also part of that 50 were 13 players - the usual suspects of Kewell, Cahill, Neill, etc. - the guys who have taken advantage of the lucrative European football pay-day.
Many have flirted with potentially backing an A-League side, with Neill the most serious in his formal bid for the second Sydney team license. His attempts proved unsuccessful, as a bid led by businessman Ian Rowden, now known as Sydney Rovers, won the 12th licence. That was a shame as Neill's investment could have been a landmark moment for the A-League. Luckily Tim Cahill has now been rumoured to be interested in investing; let's hope he succeeds where his country's captain failed.
Having the right figurehead can be important. While having the richest man in the country in Clive Palmer backing the Gold Coast is encouraging, he has built a bullish and largely unlikable public persona that has alienated the Glitter Strip community. An inaugural season crowd average of just over 5,000 seemed to prove this. Even the indifferent Russell Crowe, co-owner of NRL club South Sydney, musters a more popular reaction wherever he goes.
Vancouver Whitecaps have amongst their backers NBA star and former MVP (Most Valuable Player - think, player of the year) Steve Nash backing the club.
"Steve's involvement is beneficial in two ways, the financial backing is obviously important, but we also get Steve's profile, which is phenomenal," says Barber. "Whenever he does anything, like promotion for the club, it gets a disproportionately high amount of coverage because of who he is."
Barber said Nash is an icon in North America and is a critical part of the Vancouver Whitecaps sell. "With someone like Steve you get the
whole package - financial support and a massive profile."
Nash isn't a stand alone. Mexican-American former boxer Oscar De La Hoya owns 25 per cent of Houston Dynamo, comedian Drew Carey part owns Seattle Sounders FC and most recently former player and now Honorary President Pele announced New York Cosmos were returning to join the MLS.
The startling rub about the idea of getting star backing is that it now seems to be the perfect time for such support to be fourth-coming for the A-League. The 'Golden Generation' of Socceroos are all nearing retirement, with many likely to return to our shores looking for the next challenge of their careers. Coaching awaits some of them, while others will be hungry to stay in the game in other capacities.
12 of the 13 players on our rich list are all approaching this stage (we have excluded the 27-year old Scott McDonald) - Lucas Neill, Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill, Vince Grella, Scott Chipperfield, Mark Schwarzer, Craig Moore, Zeljko Kalac, Brett Emerton, Mark Bresciano and Josip Skoko. Even a man with a questionable affection for the game, Mark Viduka, could be looking to invest, or part invest with former colleagues, in an A-League side.
Then you have the non-Australian investors. Perth Glory's Robbie Fowler was the fourth richest footballer, tied with England and Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand, on last year's FourFourTwo UK rich list. His worth was estimated at just under $50m, mainly through some shrewd investments in properties in England's North. From here you also have all the non-football backers from other sports or show business.
The key is making the A-League seem an attractive proposition for these returning Australian stars looking for their next investment at home. With them comes fiscal backing, an increased media profile and someone for casual fans to feel attached to.
Hosting the World Cup
Out of Australian hands after presenting the 2022 bid book and showing round the FIFA suits at the end of July, but winning hosting right for the world's biggest sporting spectacle could dictate the future of the A-League.
The MLS was launched off the back of USA 94, as requested by FIFA ahead of awarding the finals stateside, with the league starting proper in 1996. The finals two years prior had stoked the fires of interest.
The USA also nailed their hosting rights in the most perfect manner. The tournament's average attendance was just shy of 69,000 - breaking records that had stood since the pre-all-seater stadia days of the 1950 World Cup. Even when the World Cup extended its format in 1998 from 24 to 32 teams (resulting in 64 rather than 52 games) the total attendance of 3.6m for USA 94 wasn't surpassed.
Despite a far more modest population in Australia, the insatiable thirst of our public to consume world-class sport in whatever form would surely rival such figures. Take the 110,000 spectators at the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic games as testimony to that.
"The 1994 World Cup created an enormous buzz and indeed convinced many investors that soccer could work in the USA," says Hopkins. "However the MLS didn't launch until two years later and much of the impetus was lost.
"However, in 2022 the league will have 24 teams, 24 soccer-specific stadiums and a 26 year of 'history' ready to truly capitalise as soon as the final whistle blows. So it is huge for the USA.
"It would equally stimulate further interest in US Soccer over the next 12 years in the build up to the World Cup, building increased confidence that soccer is both here to stay and importantly a profitable sport to be involved in," says Hopkins.
It seems Hopkins and his fellow Americans are thinking exactly the same as us about the vital 2022 World Cup bid. Considering 2018 will almost certainly go back to Europe, USA and Australia are the frontrunners for 2022, with Qatar probably the third most likely option at this stage. Is the MLS or A-League set to benefit from the FIFA nod for hosting rights of a tournament some 12 years away still? The hosting decision date - December 2, 2010 - is quite possibly the most important date in the history of Australian football.
Socceroo success
Like landing the bid, it is difficult to rely on the results of the national team for success, but that doesn't lessen its importance, as the MLS has shown.
The biggest resurgence in MLS history was sparked by the national team's performances at the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea. The USA beat the likes of Portugal and rivals Mexico en route to making the quarters. Four months after the 2002 World Cup finals, the MLS Cup (the US soccer Grand Final) set an attendance record as a sellout crowd of 61,316 saw Los Angeles Galaxy win their first title.
Will a valiant effort by the Socceroos during the group stages of South Africa be enough to give A-League crowds a shot in the arm?
"The USA's performances at 2002 were important but more in instilling confidence in investors than flooding the MLS gates," says Hopkins.
"2006 was a poor World Cup for the USA but MLS was not impacted. South Africa 2010 was the highest rated and most watched World Cup in US history and the team's performance has earned it respect around the world and at home."
Hopkins says that MLS gates are now up in the wake the USA reaching the knock-out stages in South Africa, but he offers a warning that domestic success must stem from something more solid and predictable than intermittent international success.
"There is a buzz around the sport at the moment, but ultimately for the core fans the 'club' must stand on its own two feet and engender loyalty and support in its own right," says Hopkins. "So the answer is yes, of course the success of the USA national team helps, but ultimately for the other 47 months, when there is not a World Cup, the 'club' must resonate."
Sign major marquee players
"For TV ratings, excitement and quality of play, you do need stars. And maybe more than two per team," says Grant Wahl, author of The Beckham Experiment: How the World's Most Famous Athlete Tried to Conquer America. Despite Wahl's star endorsement and the fact that Beckham's arrival had a positive financial impact on LA Galaxy, drawing sold-out crowds, additional owners and sponsors plus an increase in merchandise sales, his book largely chastised Beckham's arrival and labeled the experiment a failure.
A-League clubs have two marquee slots - an Australian and other marquee.
That's 22 spots open to the 11 clubs. Only eight of them are filled, with only two non-Australian marquees - Robbie Fowler at Perth Glory and Paul Ifill at Wellington Phoenix.
In this country, more than 80,000 came to watch Beckham's LA Galaxy in 2007, while over 40,000 watched Tim Cahill's Everton in Sydney this year. Where are these fair-weather fans the rest of the year? While the average A-League attendance was a paltry 9,796 last season, it was 10,482 when Fowler's North Queensland Fury was in town.
While not a overly-colossal spike (it would have been higher had Fury not have played away at Gold Coast in the first game after Clive Palmer closed three of their stands, resulting in a protesting season-low crowd of 2,616 turning up for Fowler), it showed the interest is there if the stars are too.
If every A-League side had a marquee of Fowler's status, we could assume such an uplift in all 172 A-League games and that's nearly 180,000 extra ticket sales (at $20 a ticket that's nearly $2.4m in additional ticket revenue). Over 16,000 packed into Perth's nib Stadium for the opening game of this season, some 6,814 higher than Glory's average last season.
Not only are A-League clubs failing to use the marquee system fully, when they are it is a case of aiming too low - Jade North, Mile Sterjovski and Josip Skoko as marquees? Virtually pointless.
Engage the ex-pats
Lining up alongside former Arsenal and France forward Thierry Henry at the New York Red Bulls next season is another new signing that is arguably just as important to the success of the MLS - Mexican Rafael Márquez. The former Barcelona defender is approaching 100 caps for the national team, a team heavily supported by Mexican MLS fans.
Elsewhere, Polish Americans make up 6.7 per cent of Chicago's population, that's 182,064 people. When Chicago Fire formed in 1997, it instantly tapped into the city's diverse ethnic make-up by signing Polish players Piotr Nowak, Jerzy Podbrozny and Roman Kosecki, alongside Mexican Jorge Campos and Czech Lubos Kubik. They won the MLS Cup in their first season.
Chicago added Polish stars Tomasz Frankowski and Lider Marmol in 2008. Their crowds surpass 21,000 in the play-offs and have a season average that would only be matched by Melbourne Victory in the A-League.
"The MLS uses players from everywhere and appeals to a fan base that are not necessarily USA fans," says Hopkins. "For example, the Hispanic influence in American soccer is huge with Mexico and Central American soccer fans big followers."
Few countries in the world have such cultural diversity as Australia. While overzealous Balkan rivalries defined much of the former NSL, has the shiny new A-League gone too far in the other direction, pushing many passionate fans away from the game? We need a middle-ground to maintain the A-League stable and regenerate interest from ex-pats who have felt alienated by the A-League.
The majority of Australia's key ex-pat communities are from football-mad countries - European nations like Greece, England, Ireland, Croatia, Turkey, with a healthy spread of Asian residents.
Again, Fowler in English-laden Perth is a smart move which is working, but why don't Melbourne Victory or Heart have any Greek players in their roster? Why do Sydney FC have no Croatian or Turkish players and only low profile Asian players - Hiro Moriyasu has never represented Japan, while Byun Sung-Hwan has just two caps for South Korea?
While it would be foolhardy to swallow these MLS lessons whole, it would be churlish to ignore them. Why disregard a successful model in a comparative nation?
Let's hope the FFA agree with us...
This article appeared in the October 2010 issue of FourFourTwo magazine. To buy back copies of this issue call 03-8317-8121 with a credit card to hand.
