Major League Soccer + Social Media = Ultimate Goal
Contributor: Christopher Cuenca
Introduction
Throughout the semester the class has been learning about the concept of convergence and how it has applied to media. We discussed the history of media beginning with posters to newspapers to online articles. The history of the web from sites such as AOL and Hotmail to Myspace to Facebook to Instagram and Snapchat. Let's now look at the definition of Converge (convergence; past tense), not to be confused with Convert as defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary. Converge is to come together and unite in a common interest or focus, and convergence basically is the act of converging. Interesting enough convergence has aligned to transportation, technology, politics, economics, religion, and so on. However, I feel convergence has taken part in our every day lives whether we are seeing it or not through sports.
There are four major sports in our beautiful country which are; Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey. There is no arguing that one of these sports if not all impact our everyday lives one way or another. As journalists these sports come across us via controversy, public famous figures in common, clothing, and much more. What do I mean? Well don't we discuss the domestic violence football athletes are accused of for beating their wives? Or don't we talk about Alex Rodriguez using steroids, what about the Kardashian's previous relationships with basketball starts Lamar Odom or Kris Humphries, some of us even wear our Devils, Giants, or Yankees to class. That's what I mean when I say sports revolve our daily lives one way or another.
History of Soccer in the United States
The sport itself was first played on December 19, 1863 in Limes Field, Mortlake, London, England.
The first official match in the United States was played on November 6, 1876 in New Brunswick, NJ. The two teams that contested that match were Princeton University and Rutgers University, with Rutgers winning 6-4.
Around 1876 thousands of British immigrants began arriving in the metropolitan areas of America bringing with them their love for the "beautiful game". Curious enough the American Football Association was organized in Newark, NJ uniting the numerous metro areas of the East to maintain uniformity in the interpretation of rules and provide an orderly and stable growth of soccer in America.
The great depression and a contest of which league was better between the American Soccer League and the United States Football Association would bring the demise of soccer in America for a great period of time.
Soccer would come back to popularity in America through College Soccer Championships sanctioned by the NCAA in 1959. In 1967 two new major professional leagues made their debut in the USA, the USSFA-sanctioned United Soccer Association (USA) and the independent National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). By the end of the year, the leagues merged at the request of FIFA (the international governing body of soccer) and the North American Soccer League (NASL) was established. Things could only get better for the sport in America as the New York Cosmos of the NASL signed one of the all time great's of soccer, Pele in April 1975. Sold out crowds, high profile players from across the world were making their way to the NASL as the sport of soccer rose to popularity throughout the early 80s. However, reasons such as over expansion, high player salaries, and the economic recession would lead to another dark period for the game of soccer in the U.S. as the NASL ceased operations in 1985.
The United States would host the FIFA World Cup in 1994, and soccer fever would rise again as more than 3.5 million fans would pack the stadiums across the nation beating the record established in Italy 1990 by over a million. The soccer frenzy would not stop at the world cup, the U.S. was ready to give soccer another opportunity as a professional sport with the birth of Major League Soccer in 1996. The league began with 10 teams (Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, Dallas Burn, Kansas City Wizards, Los Angeles Galaxy, New England Revolution, NY/NJ Metro Stars, San Jose Clash, and Tampa Bay Mutiny) and would grow to 12 by 1998 with the addition of the Chicago Fire and Miami Fusion. However, after it's first season, MLS suffered a decline in attendance due to the fact that they began playing in stadiums owned or rented by NFL teams with capacities of 60,000 or more. The league also experimented with rules deviations in an attempt to "Americanize" what some saw as a foreign sport. Overall the sport has had it's up and downs throughout the years but it is still standing as this year it celebrated it's 20th anniversary, and has grown from 10 to 20 teams, with more teams to come in the next few years.
Convergence
A little bit of history has informed us that soccer has not always been a popular sport in our country. It has struggled through the years to gain acceptance by us Americans that it is an actual sport worth watching or attending. During the early years of the league, ESPN and ABC Sports would be the league's first television broadcasters, with Univision broadcasting matches in Spanish. The league would also place a salary cap on teams to avoid financial problems that led to the collapse of the NASL in the 80s. Soccer specific stadiums would be built, with the first being Columbus Crew Stadium in 1999, in order to accommodate attendance and revenue. International stars would rise from MLS as players like Tim Howard and Landon Donovan would leave the Metro Stars and San Jose respectively to join Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen in Europe. In 2005, the league expanded for the first time since it's contraction in 2001 with Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA joining. Chivas USA was directly connected to Mexican club Guadalajara bringing along their fans like myself to follow the American relative.
Despite the salary cap and it's goal to be stable for growth, the league now had to make a big splash in the media to be gain a much more global presence and respect as a league.
Technology changed and sports news in America was also changing from newspapers to television to now more modern social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. After Beckham's big signing in 2007, the news spread like wildfire across media platforms like the newspaper and television news. MLS was hoping to rise to popularity with one of it's teams acquiring a high level international player. After a disappointing World Cup campaign in 2006, the U.S. Men's national team would reach the Round of 16 where they faced off with Ghana. After a big win against Algeria in the group stages with a goal from Landon Donovan, the reaction from fans was priceless. That moment was just as big as if the U.S. had won the World Cup. They would eventually lose to Ghana but for the country it was a memorable tournament to remember. After the World Cup, MLS teams would open up their checkbooks and sign high profile players from Europe such as Thierry Henry, Rafael Marquez to the NY Red Bulls and Robbie Keane to the LA Galaxy in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Those signings were made when MLS's media approach was still newspaper and tv. Things got interesting in the years that followed.
MLS Goes Social
Even with Beckham, Marquez, and Henry, MLS teams continued to struggle to generate loyalty in its fanbase. Unlike European teams who have die-hard loyal fans and attend every single home match their team plays, MLS teams only attracted a large number of fans when Beckham, Marquez or Henry would play. You sign international stars, build soccer-specific stadiums, now how do I get more fans? For MLS teams, the answer would be millennials. Teams decided that the strategic approach was to go after millennials and nobody else. MLS would build a social presence on social media to interact with their young fans to connect it's teams with their fans. This would in turn a buzz that would turn everyone's head towards the young league that would change it's logo and expand to 20 teams in 2015. The two expansion teams New York City FC and Orlando City SC would then create a buzz in their local cities, would post on social media and would then sign two of the biggest stars in the planet in David Villa and Kaka.What would happen in 2015 was about to change the views of many on the North American League. Star players would join David Villa and Kaka to play in the MLS. Faces like Andrea Pirlo, Sebastian Giovinco, Giovani Dos Santos, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, and Didier Drogba, amongst more would join teams across the league bringing in a huge fan base to the stadiums to watch their favorite footballers play. Through Social Media, great video editing, and strong words the teams would soon begin to connect with their followers.
Additional Links
https://app.slidebean.com/p/dkfkY0zBP6/Futbol-en-Los-Estados-Unidos#1
http://www.soundersfc.com/post/2016/12/03/saturday-night-lives-leslie-jones-sports-sounders-jersey-ahead-mls-cup
http://www.soundersfc.com/post/2016/12/03/saturday-night-lives-leslie-jones-sports-sounders-jersey-ahead-mls-cup
Works Cited
Bunting, Rachel C., "Social Network: The Case of Major League Soccer and Facebook Likes" (2012). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 468. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/468
This sport was well before then. Football has been played since Henry VIII and recorded as played in Scotland 16th C and it was banned by James I of England because it was too rough and too may were getting injured.
ReplyDeleteUpdate : 1314 a decree issued by the Lord Mayor of London, for Edward II "we command and forbid on behalf of the King..footballs". Please research your history....the Chinese also played this game in Red Cliff the Movie.
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