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1. The Big Story: Christian Pulisic complains about attendance at a friendly:
Big Ideas:
- US Soccer has a premium approach to how they price and sell tickets.
- Empty seats have been an issue unless the team is playing Mexico.
- “Growing the game”: what does that mean?
I’m on the board of the boy’s soccer club in DC. This means that I’m close to the idea of “growing the game” and if you ask me what I think of youth sports or the development of sports at the youth and younger folks level…I’m not going to give you a very rosy opinion on the environment, at all.
To me, “growing the game” means teaching people to love the game, and have a way to experience the game physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
For US Soccer, right now should be a high point for the national team, heading into a World Cup with a high profile set of opponents. But the national team can’t seem to buck business side issues infiltrating everything that goes on around the team.
This started with the pay issue between the men’s national team and the women’s national team. Now we are seeing it with attendance and pricing.
It has been evident for some time that the approach to selling the men’s national team was to have a premium approach and that this was always going to lock people out.
Where the challenge arises is how that conflicts with the message about “growing the game”.
As with any sport, there are going to be matchups that sell no matter what happens as is the case with any match involving the Mexican national team playing in the United States.
I get the reaction to “create” a home-field advantage by using technology to root out some of the Mexican fans that would cheer for Mexico, but a better way of achieving a home-field advantage might be to build one in the States by growing the game, making the matches accessible for more people, and creating an environment that is unique to US Soccer.
While this isn’t a narrative as much…it is a collection of thoughts that I feel like I come back to from time to time.
For you to use:
- Are you selling the right thing? Is premium your gig? Value? What is it?
- Do you know what your market values are? How?
- What can you do to create the experience you want to deliver for your customers?