I’ve just come back from Japan, where, I have to admit, I was left just a tad depressed about MLS’s future
I will accept for a moment that MLS will never have the small stadiums J-League clubs have. And I can live with the fact that MLS will not be the marketing bonanza that the J-League is. I could buy a bottle of J-Water from one of the numerous vending machines that line the streets in Japan, but I have yet to see my first MLS T-shirt in a store.
The lingering question I was left with was: Will anyone care about MLS?
I went to the opening game in Kashima: the Antlers against Shimizu S-Pulse. Ninety-five percent of the crowd in Kashima’s tiny stadium supported the Antlers, but it was the tiny group of S-Pulse supporters, no more 500 fans, that had my attention throughout game. They were all decked out in S-Pulse’s yellow colors, and they sang, danced, banged their drums and waved their flags from the opening kickoff until the final goal, making the final score 4-1 Kashima.
Many will argue that American fans — especially American soccer fans —
will never cheer like these fans. But that doesn’t mean MLS can’t encourage them. First, MLS teams must embrace fan clubs as being just as important as their marketing partners. Include them in all their activities. Second, make sure every season-ticket holder is given a T-shirt or other apparel in the team’s colors, the louder the better. And finally, convince stadium security to do something about the silly rules that bar fans from bringing flags and pennants into stadiums.
MLS is spending millions of dollars on dressing up the empty seats in its cavernous stadiums, but it needs to spend just as much money dressing up the fans who will fill the seats.
by Soccer America Managing Editor Paul Kennedy