Former MLS commish: Target rowdies, not soccer moms
An interesting article I found where the former MLS commissioner Doug Logan says the league should target rowdy 18-35 males, not soccer moms and their kids, at their core audience.
http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/in...keting_ml.html
Finally, someone sees the light! I'm amazed it took them this long to realize this.
excellent, hopefully garber and other team owners pick up on this.
not a bad article... seems to make pretty clear points about the benefits of marketing to people who are already football fans.
this is why hes the FORMER comish, they dont like his ideas
Wasn't MLS considered a mickey mouse league before Garber stepped in and made various changes (for the better)? I don't think I would put too much stock in his words.
The funny thing is that during Logan's years MLS targeted exclusively soccer moms... Garber, despite his shortcomings, saved the MLS by recognizing, among other things, that you need to put teams in cities with fans.
I guess though that Logan has seen the error in his ways, because he's spot on.
I'm sure the issues people had with him being commissioner had nothing to do with him recognising the need to market to actual soccer fans.Originally Posted by Dirk Diggler
sounds to me like Logan just converted to the good side over the years.
Yeah in his days MLS went the opposite direction, but they probably had no idea what a supporters group was back then in america. And back then you didn't have as much soccer on TV and the internet was an infant, so you didn't have things to emulate.
very different world then compared to now. Logan just realizes it now.
Best line: "If you want a family activity, go to the circus."
Great article... I agree.
Feck
boy is hindsight 20/20 or what
B
I like this part in the comments section:
"and it's been suggested Toronto's entire 20,000 crowds are like that (skepticism invited)."
Amen! Someone who gets it, but then again, as stated above, is probably why they are a former commish.
Interesting to see MLS games get betting lines in Vegas. When I was there last year people at the sports books looked at me like I was from outer space when I asked them if I could place a bet on MLS.
This is some of the most ridiculous BS I've ever read. He's one of the main reason why the league targeted strictly to kids and "soccer moms" in the first place. Now he comes out and says exactly the opposite? Why does it have to go from complete one extreme to the other? Why can't there be a balance? Find me one league in the world where entire fans are made up of "drunen rowdies".
What this league needs is fans period. Whether it's rowdies or whatever, it needs to fill the seats. Talk about a knee-jerk reaction and stereotyping to the extreme. He didn't have a clue when he was in charge and the guy still doesn't get it.
Spot on.
Doug Logan was a cesspool of bad ideas when he was Commish ("Let's have shoot outs so that we don't have any tie games." "Let's have the clock count down and stop whenever the play stops, like in American sports."). Garber early on eliminated those stupid ideas. Under Logan, the league got driven down from a promising start in 1996 into near bankruptcy. Only some deep pocketed owners coupled with some deft money-making ideas from Garber saved the league.
The good thing is that not many people listen to Doug Logan about how MLS should be run any more.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
you can bet on pretty much anything these days though.
MLS lines are readily available at pretty much every sports book and have been for ages.
While I do agree in your assessment of the guy when he was commish, people do change their view, particularly when they see tangible improvements in another way of thinking and approach.
Soccer Moms n Kids?
I thought football was all about the Rowdys in the first place?!
When did this change?
Did we lose a war or something?
When I read the article I interpreted target as follows:
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True, and to his credit.
Doug Logan aside, the article was quite good (and the pictures of Timbers Army are well worth seeing).
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
Not last year they weren't......perhaps they used to be though........
I went to about 5 different books on the strip last year, including Mandalay Bay, and could not find one that would take an MLS bet.
It's a balance of both. I'm not saying 50/50...should be more like 70/30
but that balance is needed.
The "Keller do the Cobain" 2 stick (pic) is pretty funny...
I didn't interpret his views as being extreme, one way or the other. Rather, I think what he's suggesting is to make subtle changes to the game-day experience to make it more attractive to the more boisterous fans. Families will still come, and they should have their own sections in every stadium. But filling a stadium with soccer moms and their broods doesn't create an atmosphere that's attractive to those who are already soccer fans, and experience has shown that kids who grow up with soccer in North America don't necessarily become soccer fans when they grow up.
I didn't follow MLS when Logan was commish, so I have no opinion on his competence (or lack of), but the point he makes in the article reflects exactly what I think the league should be doing to be taken more seriously.
this has been said by the current owners (and their commissioner) too
Just look at what they are building in Seattle and Philly - Team that put the supporters up front.
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Wasn't it under Logan that Columbus was given a team?
TORONTO FC, 2017 MLS CHAMPIONS!!! (Still the greatest in league history!)
Subtle change???
"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."
There's nothing subtle here. He now thinks no families should be associated with footie. No wonder the guy now works at trek and field, and should remain there forever.
For a more balanced reasoning and counterpoint to Logan, which was posted on the same oregonlive website, read the following Q&A with Paulson (Timber's owner).
http://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/in...r_merritt.html
This quote pretty much sums up my point about Logan:
"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."
Oh and one more thing Carefree, when I said BS, it wasn't directed at your post but towards Logan. My beef is strictly with Logan and my genuine dislike for him as a commish. Last thing I would want to do is call you out like that.
That's on Lamar Hunt.Wasn't it under Logan that Columbus was given a team?
So is Dallas and KC. See a pattern??
However it'd be unfair to be 100% negative of Lamar Hunt's misguided view of soccer and it's impact on MLS considering he put up a lot of cash to get MLS off and running and financed 2 soccer specific stadiums...Columbus and Dallas.
I wonder if Logan would have rather been the commisioner now, instead of then when the financial backers of the league were "soccer is for suburban families and their little girls" believers
Wow. Anyone check out the guy in the green spandex one peice? I thought I looked like an idiot at the games. That guy has me beat 100x over.
Also, that giant lumberjack cutting down the Space Needle was quality. I'll definetly give them that. They definetly look like they got their shit together and will be great to have in the league.
Last edited by TFC Via Buffalo; 07-09-2009 at 02:15 PM.
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