U.S. Soccer is leaving the promotion of its women’s national team to others.
To prepare its national team for the 1995 Women’s World Cup and the 1996 Olympics, U.S. Soccer will spend more than $2 million and has established a full-time training site in Florida.
To promote its national team, to give exposure and publicity to the program and the players, U.S. Soccer is taking a different course: It has told others to “just do it.”
“They are certainly under-marketed,” says Mark Brickley of SportsLink, Inc., which handles soccer marketing for Chiquita, primary sponsor of the Chiquita Cup tournament last summer that drew record — if relatively minute, compared to the World Cup — crowds for its three U.S. matches.
Promotion and publicity have never been U.S. Soccer’s strong points, and with the federation undergoing what secretary-general Hank Steinbrecher calls a “difficult transition” and its marketing arm, Soccer USA Partners, still re-negotiating sponsorship deals that expired after the 1994 World Cup, it has leaned on others to sell its world championship team.
And for a federation clamoring to host the next women’s world championship, in 1999, such a posture begs edification.
U.S. Soccer is not in the same position as national associations in foreign countries, where sponsors and press and media descend upon the national team to feed voraciously. Soccer USA Partners, still has a difficult job selling the men’s teams, let alone the women’s team, which aside from Nike, currently has no sponsors.
“The federation went through a transition period, and the emphasis is not on promoting games,” says former U.S. Soccer treasurer Richard Groff, who helped promote the highly successful Chiquita Cup women’s tournament last summer as well as the U.S. Cup tournaments in 1992 and 1993.
“The federation has never had what I refer to as a promotions department. Who is responsible for selling the tickets, who is responsible for setting up the games, who is going to make sure the events make money? They still don’t have a promotions department. They have events operations people, they do not have a professional promoter.”
When the U.S. women played their first international of 1995 in Florida, a crowd of approximately 2,200 watched a 7-0 dismantling of Denmark Feb. 24. The same week, nearly 1,500 fans watched the U.S. women play an Orlando team in an exhibition where flyers were distributed publicizing the Denmark match.
Nike has also finished production of a 30-second television commercial that is due to begin airing in early March. It was shot in late January during the team’s training camp in Arizona, and features action footage and the five women’s players signed by Nike: Mia Hamm, Tisha Venturini, Briana Scurry, Tiffeny Milbrett, and Sarah Rafanelli.
Chiquita is sharply cutting back its soccer investment, and will not sponsor a women’s tournament this year, the marketing and selling of which will again fall to the state associations that comprise Region I. It will probably be called the Nike Cup, for obvious reasons, and will once again offer money to the winning team. (The U.S. women banked $25,000 for winning the Chiquita Cup last summer.)
“People have to understand the men’s national team brought in $5 million last year,” says Steinbrecher. “The women’s team, important as it is, didn’t bring in one red cent.”
Well, the women’s team did turn a profit at the Chiquita Cup, but the money went to Region I, not the federation.
According to USYSA Region I director Bob Palmero, the federation balked at the idea of staging an international tournament for women along the lines of the U.S. Cup tournaments in 1992 and 1993 for the men’s national team.
“The federation was not in favor of the Chiquita Cup,” says Palmero. “They were very cool to the idea. No one believed it could be done.
“We made a commitment to a first-class tournament, and pulled it off.”
The Region I associations formed a corporation and assumed the risks — and not only pulled off the event, but logged a profit of approximately $26,000 after expenditures of approximately $350,000. Two-thirds of the profit went to the six state associations that hosted matches; the rest of the money was allocated to Region I ODP programs for boys and girls.
“With everyone focused on World Cup, they took the ball and ran with it,” says Steinbrecher. “The Region I people did an outstanding job last year, and I don’t see any reason to change.”
Preparation, not promotion
U.S. Soccer is putting resources into the women’s team. Steinbrecher estimated the women’s program will cost U.S. Soccer $1.8 million to the end of this fiscal year (Sept. 30, 1995). “After us, probably Norway puts the most [money] into their program,” he says.
“I can also tell you no other country, with the possible exception of China, is isolating its team for the length of time we are.”
Although Steinbrecher said the federation is in the process of trimming its staff by 10 people to approximately 50, U.S. Soccer sent a delegation of 10 people to the Feb. 18 draw as part of its effort to host the Women’s World Cup in 1999. Formal bids must be filed by next year, and so far, Chile and Australia are the only other nations to express interest.
In addition to a housing allowance, 11 players receive salaries originally budgeted between $2,000 and $3,000 per month, although Steinbrecher said a few of the contracts are still being negotiated. A second group of players receives the housing allowance and per-diem, while the third group — those players with collegiate or high school eligibility remaining — receive only per-diem.
The Soccer USA Partners sponsorship hang-up is also dragging out television negotiations for all U.S. national teams. If the deal currently being discussed goes through, all of the U.S. matches at the Women’s World Cup will be televised on ESPN, and the final will be shown either live or on a half-hour tape-delay —
assuming the U.S. makes it.
ESPN might also show the U.S. matches from the post-World Cup international tournament, which is tentatively scheduled to be played in six Northeast cities July 29 through August 6. Nike will pay television production costs, which for the Chiquita Cup ran from $35,000 to $55,000 per game.
Although most of the tournament matches will again be played at smaller venues like Tufts University, one game is going big-time: RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
“That’s unheard of,” said Palmero. “You’re talking about a major league stadium for women’s soccer — and we’re going to sell [the game]. We’re not looking to fill the stadium, we’re looking for 10,000.”
Fortunately, some of its constituents have more faith in the U.S. teams than U.S. Soccer does.
by Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney