Andy Boyer

Dad | Marketer | Psychology Student | Author | What's Next?

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Did FC Barcelona Force Sounders FC Into Their First Marketing Non-Win?

August 6, 2009 /

If you’ve read this blog a few times, you know that I have unabashedly praised the management of Sounders FC since Day 1.  I admit I’m a little biased due to my previous professional relationship with a person in a high level of management there, plus my overall interest in soccer.  But I have objective arguments for how much I admire their work.

That being said, I’m not going to shy away from saying that tonight’s match with FC Barcelona left me underwhelmed for the first time out of the 11 or 12 games I’ve attended so far.  On one hand, maybe my expectations were too high.  The best team in the world comes to town, I want to see magic.  And in the first half, I saw some really cool things from Messi, Xavi, Henry, etc..

Then a funny thing happenned at halftime.  The Sounders decided that this was indeed a friendly, and they didn’t need to play any regulars for the second 45 minutes.  After all, the team is 2/3 of the way through their season, in a playoff hunt and coming off their worst loss of the year.  It made tactical sense to rest the starters.

And so for the first time all year, they forgot who they were.  They confused themselves with the Seahawks and 1996-2003 Mariners.  They forgot that out of the 65,000+ who came to the game tonight, 25-30,000 of them had never been to a Sounders game before.  They forgot that the MLS is the MLS.  And for the first time all year, they forgot to put on a show.

The result was 45 minutes of second half football that resembled 2 people kicking a ball of yarn away from a cat.  The Barcelona second team seemed to be under strict orders not to attack the goal until at least 10 passes had been completed.  (And yes, we were counting as they passed the ball easily from one side of the field to another.)  The Sounders first team is a very competitive MLS team.. With all due respect, the Sounders second team is made up of guys who can’t play on a first team in Norway or Sweden.  I don’t say this with contempt.  I’m just saying when I fire up my Xbox 360 and play Fifa 09, a game with about 1.2 gajillion players in its database, the guys on the Sounders reserve squad are not in that database.

So, imagine you are the Sounders management.  Your immediate response is, “Andy, what do you want?  I brought you Chelsea and Barcelona.  Oh, and we’re in 2nd place.  Oh, and we made it to the US Open Cup Final. So take your blog and smoke it.”

And that is an argument I can totally agree with.  So maybe next year, bring me one of Chelsea and Barcelona.  And maybe bring me someone else not so good that we can actually compete with.  Maybe AC Milan and Watford.  Or Tottenham and PSV.   Or maybe the MLS needs to give the teams a week off o they can book friendlies and not get screwed by the schedule.

My rambling point, is that the MLS lost out tonight when Barcelona’s subs playes Seattle’s subs for 45 minutes on front of 65,000 people that paid full price to see at least one of the teams play starters all night long.  Or if you were going to sub everyone out, at least do it at the 50 minute mark and pull them off the field to a standing ovation.  Instead, we got one half of fun soccer, then the teams sneaking the players off the field at halftime, with a level of play in the second half that simply confirmed for soccer haters why they dislike the sport.   Blame it on the MLS, blame it on Barcelona, or blame it on the Sounders.  But I think for the first time, they allowed a crowd to leave the stadium saying, “I don’t get what the excitement is all about.”

Entitlement Takes on New Ground

August 4, 2009 /

I’m not a big fan of entitlement. I was taught by an old boss long ago at the Tucson Toros that no one is entitled to anything, you have to earn everything you’re rewarded with.

So there is something funny about the coincidental juxtaposition of the article I’m forwarding here to the post I wrote over the weekend about the online education company. This CNN article (I’ve seen a version several places online) reports that:

“A recent college graduate is suing her alma mater for $72,000 — the full cost of her tuition and then some — because she cannot find a job. Trina Thompson, 27, of the Bronx, graduated from New York’s Monroe College in April with a bachelor of business administration degree in information technology.  On July 24, she filed suit against the college in Bronx Supreme Court, alleging that Monroe’s ‘Office of Career Advancement did not help me with a full-time job placement. I am also suing them because of the stress I have been going through.'” 

This made me wonder what I could sue either of my alam maters for.  After all, I graduated with a degree in Finance, but I was unable to predict either stock market crash.  Surely the U of A owes me for my losses.  And, in the 20 years or so that I was in college or out of college, I’ve NEVER been able to attend a Rose Bowl.  In fact, now I have 2 Pac-10 schools I could enjoy in the Rose Bowl, and neither of them have made it.  Surely I could sue for that.  And what about the fact that I can’t speak Spansih fluently?  U of A is 60 miles from the Mexican border.  Why couldn’t I get out of there with a bi-lingual education?  Bastards.

On the more serious note, I would like to (though I need to check with our HR department and legal teams to see if we are allowed) blacklist Trina Thompson from our resume inbox, and have much tighter guidelines on any poor sap who lists Monroe College as their primary education.  

Poor Ms. Thompson, do you have any idea how much more difficult you have made it for you or any of your classmates to get employed?  

Girls in Lingerie = Education?

August 2, 2009 /

Ok, this is whay I deserve for watching Fox Soccer Channel on a Saturday evening.

Channel 401 is awesome if you want to see some of the most random commercials from companies who can’t afford stations that receive am actual rating point. But this one takes the cake.

Imagine a young 19 year old girl standing in her lingerie. Starting with some line like, “Guys, don;t you wish you were out of your pajamas right now?” And then she goes on to tell us how important it is to get an education, and since watching soccer on a Saturday night obviously makes us uneducated, we should get an online degree.

You might think they’d spend the 60 seconds talking about a brand we could Google or Bing (heretofore to be simply called “Bingle”) later.  But instead they have bought a bunch of urls to test their ad effectiveness, and thus drive the unique url the whole time.  So they own http://10connect.com, http://20connect.com, http://30connect.com etc all the way up to 100.  (Trust me if you don’t believe me.)

Anyway, I’d love to understand more about this campaign.  Do lingerie-clad teenagers really drive signups for online education?  Weird. 

Non-Sounders MLS Game, A Review

August 2, 2009 /

Ok, I’ll admit I’ve crossed over into soccer nerd-dom.  I actually consciously and purposely sat down on my couch to watch an MLS game that didn’t involve the Sounders.

In my defense, the game that drew my interest tonight involved the team ahead of the Sounders in the standings (Houston Dynamo), and the team the Sounders play in the US Open Cup final (DC United).  Plus, now that we’re not in conflict with any World Cup qualifiers, Gold Cup or Confederation Cup games, it was the firsttime to see all the teams at full strength for quite a while.  For example, I had no idea the Dynamo had like 4 or 5 US National team players (Clark, Ching, Holden, Brad Davis and someone else). 

But the reason for my post here, is that after watching the game being played in Houston, I can see why the game isn’t attended well in other cities.  You really couldn’t help but feel for the poor fans of Houston.  The PA Announcer seemed to treat the game as some sort of minor league football or basketball game.  His cheesy cadence, tone and enthusiasm made me feel like I was at a hockey game or rock concert.  It didn’t feel like a soccer game at all.

I couldn’t tell if the stadium was custom built for soccer – because it looked a lot like they took over the Rice University football stadium, so I apologize if it’s nicer in real life than it looks on TV.

Anyway, I guess my point is that I have a new appreciation for Sounders management for treating Sounders games like a real soccer game, not a minor league baseball game.   Sure its a little hammed-up, but at least it’s not Houston.

New State Tax to Watch Out For

July 27, 2009 /

I received an email from Biznik, explaining why their rates are going up about 10%. Keep an eye out for how many other of your online purchases are about to get another tax:

“Washington State, like many states in today’s economy, is looking hard at areas of ambiguity within their tax code. The state has just enacted legislation that became effective July 26, 2009 clarifying how digital products and services are to be taxed. Electronic downloads of music, movies, and other standard information have always been subject to sales and use tax. However, with the passage of this bill, all digital products and digital automated services will be subject to these taxes. Biznik is classified under the law as a Digital Automated Service (ESHB 2075 section (5)(a) – the newly enacted legislation). Consequently, we are required to collect and remit appropriate sales and use taxes on membership fees for customer’s located in the state.

How does this affect you? 

Biznik’s membership dues fall under the definition of taxable digital automated service. Starting on July 26, 2009, Washington Sales Tax at your local rate will be added to your recurring monthly membership fee.

The sales and use tax in the zip code is 0.095%. Therefore, $0.95 will be added each month to your $10 monthly membership fee.

Thank you for participating in the Biznik community!

Lara Feltin
Biznik Cofounder
lara@biznik.com

 

 

Fun Stats With the MLS

July 27, 2009 /

It’s Sunday and about 122 degrees in Seattle, so with time to goof around, I thought I’d do some quick stats analysis on the MLS Playoff race.

In the East, it looks like everyone but New York is still in the hunt, as the other 6 teams have between 21 and 30 points. In baseball terms, that means the 6th place team is 3 games back with 13 to play. So, that’s a pretty close race. In the West, it’s a similar chase, with 5 teams between 27-32 points, and a 6th team lurking with 23. So in the American system, realistically 12 out of 15 teams have chances at 8 Playoff births, so that seems to indicate a pretty nutty race to the finish.

 

 

 

So for fun, let’s say we played the same way as the EPL, and just had everyone racing for the title without a playoff system. On the left is what you would get as you enter the final third of the season. Still a remarkably tight race. Everyone is chasing Houston, but 11 teams are still really within 3 games with 11 or more to play.

So, two questions: 1) Why does the MLS have such a competitive race down the stretch, and 2) How does this compare to a league like the EPL?

Question 1 is interesting. One *could* surmise that the talent is of low enough caliber in general that most of the players are kind of the same. You could also surmise that the hardest thing to do in soccer is score, and the MLS just doesn’t have enough scorers so you see a lot of ties. Another acceptable answer is that in the middle of the season, players are asked to join their National teams for World Cup Qualifying, Confederations Cup or Gold Cup. The best players get picked away, and they are probably on the best teams, so all of a sudden a top team loses two-three starters and gets drubbed a few times.

 

Now let’s compare “Points per Match” between the EPL and MLS. Quite simply, the best teams in EPL win more than the best teams in MLS. Which confirms our theory of a lack of good scorers leading to more ties.

Now, it’s easy for a snobby European to say, “Playoffs have no business in soccer. We use tables and season long standings to decide our league winner.” (Which is true, except they also have an FA Cup Tournament which is really a long playoff, and also, in the lower divisions top 2 records automatically get promoted, but the 3-6th place teams battle in a 4 team playoff to see who else gets to move up.)

While I would ordinarily side on the side of English football and tradition, I have to admit that having the Sounders in the middle of a 6 team race for 4 Playoff spots is pretty exciting. 

However, is the playoff system causing more ties?  Are teams just trying to get a single point in order to be the 8th best team? If that’s the case, maybe the EPL system would be better for the MLS.  So what do you think is better – a league where everyone is in the hunt the last few months of the season, or a league where there is more motivation to get a win instead of a tie, even if it means more teams eliminated earlier?

And That’s The Way It Is

July 21, 2009 /

I am woefully late on paying my respects to America’s best loved broadcaster, Walter Cronkite.  So here is a link to the CBS News Tribute Page.  

You have to wonder whether a man like Cronkite would have been as successful in today’s world of lower journalism standards.  Would he have made 2009 journalism better, or would have he been passed over because of his inability to lower himself and do what it takes to get ratings?

I like to think there is a new version of Cronkite mulling around out there, who is going to reinvent broadcasting, and make it once again a place of relevance and respect, not ridicule.  As it is, I hope everyone in the industry has taken a few minutes to reflect back on Cronkite’s career, and what it looked like to report the news without being the news or injecting one’s own views.  

Chelsea v Seattle – What to look for

July 18, 2009 /

I’ve been asked a bunch by my non-soccer fans what to expect from today’s friendly vs Chelsea.  Here are a few thoughts about what “success” looks like, in no particular order.

  • A sellout crowd – Weekend afternoons in July are a premium in Seattle, especially sunny 90 degree ones.  So to get 65,000 people to spend one of them watching an exhibition soccer game is a pretty neat feat.
  • Big showing from Supporters Group – This is  really their only chance to impress the European Supporter Groups, so expect the Brougham end to be loud, lead the crowd in some good chants, and have some creative signs.
  • A Chelsea win – After all, they are one of the top 5 or 6 teams in the world.  You’d expect Drogba, Lampard, Anelka, Terry, Essien, Malouda, etc… to put on a pretty good show, even if it is pre-season, and put in a few goals before half.
  • Some good showings from the Sounders – In the 2nd half, it would be great to really see some young Sounders step up agains the young guys from Chelsea.  Look for Montero and Zakuani to really be featured as they try to play themselves into a potential European contract, which would be great fot the MLS.

All told, I think if the Sounders played competitively and went down 2-0 at half, then played a 1-1 or 2-2 tie in the 2nd half vs the Chelsea reserves, everyone would be happy.  The crowd should have a blast, the Sounders will gain some experience, and for one of the first times, a European football team will roll into the U.S. and see this as a potentially fun place to end their careers.  If we see a 38 year old Didier Drogba or Frank Lampard in a Sounders jersey in 5 or 6 years, this may be why.

 

If I Ran the MLS

July 15, 2009 /

This seems so easy, I still don’t get why they don’t do it.  The day after the MLB All-Star Game is the only day during the calendar year in which there are no sports on TV.  

This should be the MLS’ biggest TV spectacle of the year.

Every rivalry game should be being played today, all at the same time, all at the stadiums that will have the most fans.  Joe Fan should tune into a pre-game show, then see 90+ minutes of high intensity soccer programming.  With 8 games going on, at an average of 2 goals per game, there should be about 16 goals, or one every 6 minutes.  You can pick one or two games to feature, and then cut in to the other games whenever a goal is scored.  There would be so many highlights, you wouldn’t even have time to go to the fridge.

In fact, if you needed to, you should pay ESPN so you can be on both ESPN and ESPN2 at the same time with different programming, so there is an East Coast game and West Coast Game on live on each channel, so by switching between channels, you get access to 4 games, and highlights from the other 4.

Once that framework is set up, there is really no end to the fun you can have with it. 

If I Ran the MLB All-Star Game

July 15, 2009 /

I have 2 requests.  

1) The broadcast crew would NOT be made up of the Fox National Crew.  Fans, press, players or some combination of the three would vote on 3 local crews, each who would do 3 innings of the game.  Or maybe it’s 2 crews that get voted in, and the host team crew.  Or maybe one current crew, a crew of retired guys and the host crew.  You can toy with the details.  But get me a couple of innings of Vin Scully.

2) On each league roster, the longest tenured MLB player who has never mad an All-Star game makes the team.  If you’ve been a backup catcher since 1996, or are a 43 year old left-handed middle relief curveball specialist, well you deserve one chance to see the big stage in your career. 

That’s all I’m really asking for.

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