U.S. pro soccer and traditions ... we need a few of them

“Summer may be ending, but the season is going strong”

With parity no team is out of it (ok, Red Bull was) by then, so that could be a league wide endevour.

Or do the US Open Cup FINAL every year on that day. That tournament desperately needs a signature event.

The AllStar Game could be set for the day after the MLB All Star game (literally the slowest sports day in America).

A consistent First Kick date for the Thursday BEFORE the NCAA tournament would be ideal

I do agree that US Soccer is in desperate need of marketing help, they simply expect matches to sell themselves and do little in the communities hosting matches to help promote the match or the sport. It is my number one complaint about the organization that should be doing the very most to promote the sport. I would suggest that they capitalize on the US holidays to try and organize something regular (perhaps a July 4th US vs England match with locations swapping between the States and UK each year).

For MLS, there are a couple easy moves, make the All Star match an event. Turn it into a weekend promotion of the sport for the host city, start on Friday with open practices of both teams in the stadium and give half the tickets to the team for their season ticket holders and half to local schools and soccer leagues. Saturday hold a ton of events from a future stars vs. legends match, to skill contest, a real concert with someone other than soulive (last year’s entertainment). Holding one of the big matches midweek is pandering to ESPN and nothing more, if our partner won’t broadcast a Sunday All Star match, well screw them and find a new partner.

I think with the exception of the All Star Match and MLS Cup (should be the Sunday before thanksgiving every year), that I would leave MLS traditions up to the teams. Teams can build around traditional holidays, July 4th, Labor Day, and such or use local and state holidays (for RSL it is July 24th Pioneer Day) and things like ending your season against your top rival (RSL vs. Colorado has worked the last few years).

I think both MLS and US Soccer have a long way to go before they actually will “get” their fans. Too often “the Don” and his minions jump from love affair to love affair with particular teams or players as the way to promote the league, TFC, then Beckham, then Seattle, now Philly, next Henry, then whoever. They keep looking for that magic bullet, but they miss the target that soccer fans are different than the traditional US sports fan, they are tribal in nature and soccer is a part of their culture and lives unlike other sports. The only other sport that comes close to the dedication of its fans is college football in the US, where people plan their vacations around away games.

anyhow my thoughts.

like some of the suggestions.

I think some sort of opening day, annual all-star game are good starts. I think the biggest problem continues to be the lack of quality and recognizable players is the downfall that will keep Soccer 2nd tier in the U.S. We are used to the most talented players in the world playing sports in our country, and with Soccer we aren’t even close.

I think it all starts with the national players. I know for me, soccer really became something I loved because of the national team, then as I learned different players I was able to be more interested in the foreign leagues where the worlds best play.

So I would say a yearly match with Mexico would be a great start. One where ALL of our top players play and it is something that we can have pride in winning. I know we do have lots of matches with them, but one on a specific weekend during spring or summer every year could be a really cool thing. I guess one would have to consider UEFA’s leagues as well in the scheduling but I think it’s important for this sport in our country.

My comment adresses creating tradition without much emphasis on dates…as far as MLS is concerned, i think the regional rivalries need to be emphasized. In 2011, we will see the reincarnation of the cascade cup, presented to the team (Portland, Seattle, Vancouver) that finishes with the best head-to-head record. Other similar situations in various stages of existance (‘they don’t’ all the way to ‘they already do’) exist or could for Colombus/Chicago, Colorado/RSL Rocky Mtn Cup, Colorado/KC I-70 series, the LA Superclassico, FCD/Houston Texas Cup (?), maybe a California Cup between the 3 teams, a Canadian Cup between Van/Tor/(Montreal if they join, they already have the Nutrilite Canadian championship), and a number of ‘I-95 pride’ possibilities. In these matchups, there needs to be a cup or a plate or some other thing to fight for, win, and take pride in for a year until its up for grabs again. Side note: I for one cannot wait to see how the Union’s home opener v DC United turns out, plus their first game at Red Bulls in the new Arena.

In my mind, the responsibility for getting these things going, or continuing to grow them, lies with the supporters themselves, especially the barras and other fan clubs that have sprung up. By working WITH (emphasized) each other, they can definitely (and in some cases already do) drum up the energy and publicity needed to ‘make these matches matter’. I think this will continue to evolve and we can’t expect overnight sucess. But once these games begin mattering to fans, the MLS will be fools not to do their own marketing and arranging for matches at certain times of the year and even in different venues. Especially if teams play each other 3 times per season or if teams arrange outside-of-leauge-play exhibitions, MLS could begin playing around with occasional matches in neutral sites (think Army-Navy & Texas-Oklahoma in college football). I don’t know if all of the following matchups would be successful today, but they could be grown slowly. Imagine a Revs/Red Bull match in Harthford or New Haven, FCD/Houston in Austin or San Antonio, Chicago/Colombus in Ft Wayne or South Bend, KC/Chicago in St Louis, Philly/DC in Baltimore, RSL/Colorado in Grand Junction, San Jose/LA or Chivas in San Luis Obispo or Fresno, Toronto/Vancouver in Calgary or Winnipeg. These matches could go a long way to building new fan bases, making games ‘a special event’, and encouraging that travelling tradition that seems so natural in college football.

Oh, and on a completely different note, is there any way to get MLS to cancel/break its contract and get rid of this horribly homogeneous and unimaginitive league-wide Adidas uniform contract. To me, its up there with fingernails on a chalk board. I thought it was so much more intriguing up until a few years ago when each team had the ability to negotiate its own contract and the league had so much more variety and flavor in terms of uniform styles. May sound shallow, but this league needs to build and be sold to fans looking for a team with a unique identity, and that includes not having 3 stripes on their shoulders just like EVERY OTHER TEAM IN THE *&^%ING LEAGUE. It may work for other American sports leagues, but MLS is not (or at least it should strive not to be) just another American sports league.

As I see it, the MLS’s single-entity structure will cause difficulty with many of the above-mentioned ideas. I only hope that MLS can begin to be creative in how they approach marketing and allowing teams to have a higher level of autonomy within the current structure.