News and Features

September 23, 1996

Fanning the interest in soccer

New marketing book aims to help coaches take game's popularity to another level

BY GARY T. BROWN
STAFF WRITER

Soccer coaches will have a chance for a crash course in marketing this fall, and the folks at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) and Soccer America magazine will provide the textbook.

The two organizations put their heads together during the past year and produced "How To Market College Soccer," a cookbook-style guide designed to help coaches keep attendance growing as fast as the sport itself.

The book, sponsored in part by a grant from the Soccer Industry Council of America, provides the basics of marketing college soccer, selling sponsorships and developing resources to help the sport shake its nonrevenue tag. It is divided into 11 sections and includes basic marketing strategies, examples of successful promotions and tips to improve sponsor sales.

Born from a concern that college soccer has entered a crucial stage of development, the book is the result of work by the NSCAA Special Committee for Marketing and Promoting College Soccer. That committee is chaired by Old Dominion University men's soccer coach Bob Warming, who was instrumental in bringing the concern initially to the attention of the NSCAA.

Warming was a member of the NSCAA's Division I men's soccer committee, which in 1994 urged the association's board of directors to find a way to help coaches bring an already popular sport to the next level. He and Joe Morrone, men's soccer coach at the University of Connecticut and chair of the Division I men's committee, helped convince the NSCAA that the time is right for a marketing binge.

'Crucial period'

"The committee came to us with the idea that college soccer was facing a crucial period," said NSCAA Executive Director James A. Sheldon. "There was a lot of momentum from the 1994 World Cup, but we also were facing challenges from the new professional league (Major League Soccer) and just where the sport was heading on campus. Was it going to become a revenue producer or was it always just going to have that minor support label on it?"

The Division I men's championship, at least, was flirting with financial solvency at the time. A three-year residency at Davidson College produced three sellouts for the championship, then the 1995 final at Richmond attracted a record 21,319 fans.

"The championship came close to making money in 1994," Sheldon said.

"Then last year in Richmond, we got in the black. The Division I men's

committee urged us to think of something that would help Division I soccer reach its full revenue potential. Being a revenue producer is a key to a whole lot of things -- a bigger championship and more respect on campus, for example."

Warming noted that the United States has earned a reputation for developing great players but not great spectator interest. He

believes, however, that Major League Soccer's initial success at the gate earlier this year indicates that college soccer can follow suit.

"Major League Soccer has proven already that people will come to see soccer games -- and pay to do it," he said. "No other pro league in its very first season averaged 20,000 in attendance. To take that momentum generated by MLS and transfer some of it to college campuses -- we felt we could derive a great marriage between the two entities."

Coaches' task

The NSCAA marketing committee, however, also realized that soccer -- unlike basketball or football -- has no separate marketing resource base.

As a result, the task of marketing inevitably will fall to coaches.

"We realized that on a lot of college campuses, the coach is the only full- time person devoted to developing the soccer program," Sheldon said. "But the coach is a coach and in many cases doesn't have the skills and background to do the marketing work."

So the committee scoured the nation for people who do possess those skills.

Lynn Berling-Manuel, publisher and editor-in-chief at Soccer America, organized a survey of the top 30 college coaches (based upon game attendance), athletics directors at successful soccer institutions, manufacturers and other sports marketing personnel for feedback on how to build a strong fan following.

"We interviewed everyone we could think of inside the sport that we thought would have something to say," she said. "It turns out that a lot of people had something to say -- distilling it down to something useful, helpful and practical was the challenge."

The committee leaned heavily on coaches for input. Berling-Manuel said that in most college soccer marketing success stories, the coach usually was the catalyst.

"We found that so frequently soccer coaches, because they're seeing what other sports' coaches are doing, assume that marketing is somebody else's job," she said. "That may certainly be true in basketball and football, but for soccer, if there's going to be an advocate for the sport at the school level, it will be the coach.

"There are many programs that are very successful, but without a doubt, in each case there was a coach who provided the leadership at least in the beginning of the marketing -- and it may have been that after some success is achieved the school steps in and gives a lot of help, but almost without exception it is the coach who leads that process."

Making a case

Berling-Manuel, who compiled the manuscript for the book, said part of the challenge is selling coaches on why marketing is part of their job.

"If a coach wants to be successful in his or her career as well as for the school -- if they don't take charge of it, probably nobody will," she said.

"The purpose was not to tell the coach, 'Hey, you've got to do all this stuff,' " Warming said. "It was to give them a method to mobilize other people to help them get the things done that will make their programs successful at the gate."

Morrone, whose soccer program at Connecticut generally is regarded as one of the most successful gate attractions at the college level, said the marketing manual may be just the right tool to keep the turnstiles clicking nationwide.

"We'd like to think that every coach knows how to administer programs and to promote," he said. "But that's not the case. Soccer, like any other sport, has people in it that have different kinds of strengths -- you need to have something in writing to help those coaches who really don't know how to sell the game."

Many believe that selling the game is more important now than ever before, despite the groundswell of interest in soccer at the national level.

Youth soccer is stronger than ever, women's collegiate soccer continues its dramatic growth, and the new professional league is proving that spectators aren't shy about spending. There is debate, however, whether Major League Soccer is an asset to or detraction from the college game overall.

The feeling is that while MLS may enhance college soccer as a training ground for aspiring professionals, there is concern that those players now may more readily advance to that level without going to college.

"In other sports, a pro league has fostered development at the college level," Berling-Manuel said. "But traditionally, professional soccer athletes start very young. Going pro at 16 or 17 years old is the tradition around the world.

"We felt it was crucial for the coach to understand that although MLS could be a tremendous asset, at the same time college coaches need to take a step back, look at what they've got, look at where they need to go and ensure their future -- because MLS could also roll right over them and just bypass college soccer."

Timely advice

The committee believes the book is timely -- that a strong marketing push now takes advantage of the level of success soccer already has achieved and protects against such would-be distractions.

"You market to go forward and in so doing protect the turf you've already cultivated," Sheldon said. "Soccer is at the point right now where certainly it's not a football or a basketball, but if it's not already there, in the very near future it should be on a level with college baseball and ice hockey.

"Soccer also has the added plus of being a two-gender sport with the women's game having as much potential as the men's game does. With a little push like this, the next step is to start seeing revenue-producing programs on campuses.

"I feel confident that the Division I men's championship will be in the black for some time to come and I think the women aren't far behind. Now we have to take that down to the campus level."

Sheldon and the rest of the committee hope "How to Market College Soccer" does just that.

The book has been distributed to Division I men's and women's soccer coaches and is available to others for $16. Interested parties may contact the NSCAA national office at 800/458-0678 for more information.