The Timbers used real, diehard Portland fans for their "No Pity in the Rose City" campaign.
What happens on the field does not drive demand for MLS teams. The relationship between a team’s record and ticket sales in the MLS is much less elastic as it is in the MLB or NBA. Take for example the Portland Timbers (6-10-3): they’re second-to-last in the Western Conference, yet are posting the 5th highest attendance out of the league’s 18 teams and have a wildly loyal and proud fan base. A look into their marketing efforts and American disposition to the sport helps explain why this poorly-preforming team is one of this year’s biggest success stories.
This Timbers ad is completely fan-centric as it does not show a single player. The viewer has no idea who the face of the team is, but they do know what they’ll experience if they attend a match. Contrast that with an NBA ad and one is quickly reminded how important star players are to teams and the league itself. Since most MLS teams lack the crowd-drawing names like “Beckham” or “Henry”, focusing on the fan experience in their marketing is extremely appealing.
This “fan-centric” advertising should not be viewed as a handicap or necessary evil derived from soccer’s inability to market itself as a sport. Rather, it is an asset. The earlier mentioned Timbers ad and footage from the Sounders’ opener highlight something that no other sport in the US has: the irrationally loyal, highly-energized fans. Whether it’s entire sections linking arms or scarf-adorning fans marching to the game, there is something mysterious about soccer and the camaraderie between its fans that non-attenders want to know more about.
Americans’ curiosity in soccer fandom is certainly tangible. Our limited-and possibly skewed-exposure to the sport through media like Nike’s Write the Future, the book How Soccer Explains the World, and movies like Green Street Hooligans leaves Americans fascinated by soccer without a real, firm understanding of the sport, which is understandable given its late blooming here in the states. This curiosity manifests in a variety of ways: 35% of students abroad attending their first match, the heightened viewership of the 2010 World Cup, and FIFA 11’s place as the fastest growing video game in North America.
Granted the Timbers are located in the soccer hotbed that is the Pacific Northwest and Portland is not saturated with a NFL, MLB, or NHL team, their 2011 season proves how important the fans are in soccer. They determine a team’s reality because they — more so than in other sport — determine how others view the team. And that’s why the Timbers are one of the MLS’ most popular teams and not just a 6-10-3 team.
Jack O’Hara is a Stone Ward intern and will be a senior at Providence College in the fall. He is our resident expert on Indycar, opera, and all things Austrian.
The Fans: Soccer’s 12th Man
The Timbers used real, diehard Portland fans for their "No Pity in the Rose City" campaign.
What happens on the field does not drive demand for MLS teams. The relationship between a team’s record and ticket sales in the MLS is much less elastic as it is in the MLB or NBA. Take for example the Portland Timbers (6-10-3): they’re second-to-last in the Western Conference, yet are posting the 5th highest attendance out of the league’s 18 teams and have a wildly loyal and proud fan base. A look into their marketing efforts and American disposition to the sport helps explain why this poorly-preforming team is one of this year’s biggest success stories.
This Timbers ad is completely fan-centric as it does not show a single player. The viewer has no idea who the face of the team is, but they do know what they’ll experience if they attend a match. Contrast that with an NBA ad and one is quickly reminded how important star players are to teams and the league itself. Since most MLS teams lack the crowd-drawing names like “Beckham” or “Henry”, focusing on the fan experience in their marketing is extremely appealing.
This “fan-centric” advertising should not be viewed as a handicap or necessary evil derived from soccer’s inability to market itself as a sport. Rather, it is an asset. The earlier mentioned Timbers ad and footage from the Sounders’ opener highlight something that no other sport in the US has: the irrationally loyal, highly-energized fans. Whether it’s entire sections linking arms or scarf-adorning fans marching to the game, there is something mysterious about soccer and the camaraderie between its fans that non-attenders want to know more about.
Americans’ curiosity in soccer fandom is certainly tangible. Our limited-and possibly skewed-exposure to the sport through media like Nike’s Write the Future, the book How Soccer Explains the World, and movies like Green Street Hooligans leaves Americans fascinated by soccer without a real, firm understanding of the sport, which is understandable given its late blooming here in the states. This curiosity manifests in a variety of ways: 35% of students abroad attending their first match, the heightened viewership of the 2010 World Cup, and FIFA 11’s place as the fastest growing video game in North America.
Granted the Timbers are located in the soccer hotbed that is the Pacific Northwest and Portland is not saturated with a NFL, MLB, or NHL team, their 2011 season proves how important the fans are in soccer. They determine a team’s reality because they — more so than in other sport — determine how others view the team. And that’s why the Timbers are one of the MLS’ most popular teams and not just a 6-10-3 team.
Jack O’Hara is a Stone Ward intern and will be a senior at Providence College in the fall. He is our resident expert on Indycar, opera, and all things Austrian.