|
Mike Reynolds
Major League Soccer's 2000 campaign will be a season of change, both on the field and on the tube.
Entering its fifth season, MLS is now helmed by former NFL executive Don Garber, who joins the pro soccer circuit with a mission of stanching decreases in both attendance and with the Nielsens.
Among the modifications MLS is implementing this season, which kicked off March 18, are:
* Putting its 12 teams into three divisions, instead of two.
* Replacing the infamous shootout with a pair of five-minute "golden goal" overtime periods.
* Truncating its season by five weeks, with the MLS Cup slated for Oct. 15.
* Increasing its scheduling of games on Saturday, which league research shows is the day of choice for fans.
"The league's fans and its owner/investors have indicated their preference for Saturdays as the single-most popular destination day for MLS," said MLS EVP-business affairs/chief legal counsel John Ertmann. "We have reduced the number of games and telecasts on weeknights and Sundays, when many fans and their families are involved with travel soccer."
Along those lines, MLS is streamlining its TV scheduling under the headline of "Soccer Saturdays" with 28 matches across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, plus the All-Star Game from Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio July 29. The Saturday schedule will yield 19 consecutive weeks of regular-season matches, from April 29 - Aug. 26, and will include nine doubleheaders from the Disney-owned channels.
Telemundo, which succeeds Univision as the league's Hispanic TV carrier, is also part of the push: its 16-game schedule falls into the 4:30 p.m. (ET) window Saturday afternoons. At press time, Ertmann said discussions were underway which could lead to the cross-promotion of MLS across the Disney-owned networks and Telemundo.
Ertmann believes Soccer Saturdays and the improved scheduling continuity will yield higher ratings. For the 1999 season, MLS posted a 0.83 average on ABC for five games, vs. a 0.88 in 1998 over a dozen contests. On ESPN, ratings slipped to a 0.33 average (15 games) last year from a 0.45 (10 games), while ESPN2 averaged a 0.27 (25) vs. a 0.22 for the same number of matches in 1998. Univision, meanwhile, also registered an uptick to a 3.7 over 16 games in 8.26 million households, compared with a 3.63 for 23 matches in a 7.51 million home universe.
MLS had expected ABC's coverage of the All-Star Game last year to trigger interest in a number of succeeding telecasts on the Alphabet. However, news coverage of the John F. Kennedy Jr. plane crash tragedy pre-empted the game and switched the contest to ESPN2. This year, MLS will deploy a similar schedule as ABC showcases an MLS Cup rematch between D.C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy March 25, and will air the All-Star Game from the new soccer-only facility in Columbus, and then televise three contests in August.
Ertmann also believes MLS's profile will be augmented by an as-yet unnamed weekly show that will bow on ESPN2 at 11 p.m. (ET) June 19 and then run through Sept. 11. The one-hour studio show will break down the week's key match for 18-22 minutes, and also take seven-8-minute looks at a pair of other contests. Ertmann said the rest of the week's action would be encapsulated through best goals, plays and saves segments. The show will also intersperse player profiles and other features.
It was also a busy off-season for Major League Soccer and for Paul Phipps on the sponsorship side of the pitch.
The soccer circuit's EVP of corporate partnership and club services and staff scored several new deals and inked renewals with a number of key official sponsors to boot.
MLS netted four-year sponsorship agreements with New York Life Insurance Co. and Aquafina, extending through the 2003 season. Under terms of the pacts, the latter becomes the official bottled water of MLS and its 12 teams, while New York Life is the league's official life insurance company. Moreover, NYL is the title sponsor of the circuit's grass roots Dribble, Pass & Shoot youth skills competition.
The league also upgraded its relationship with Kellogg Co. from a corporate partner to the official sponsor level. As for renewals, Budweiser, Honda and Pepsi are all back on board with multi-year extensions. Other official sponsors on MLS' roster: MasterCard, Yahoo! and Snickers.
Phipps said MLS official partner deals run into the "seven-figures" and beyond per year.
On the corporate partner level, toy maker Lego has joined the MLS team and will present an interactive traveling truck show, highlighted by a 15-foot Lego soccer arena, that will reach all 12 MLS cities over the course of the 2000 campaign.
Meanwhile, the pitching is not over. Phipps said MLS remains in discussions with AT&T, and is negotiating with "two to three others" for the telecommunications category. Additionally, conversations continue with Gillette for several products, including razors and its Duracell and Oral B brands. Discussions are ongoing with Gatorade for the isotonic segment, and with Toys R Us as the national retailer.
Although MLS TV carriers do not interrupt game play with commercials, MLS official sponsors have media components built into their packages. In the case of the Disney networks, expression manifests itself in the form of the sponsor's logo being affixed to an on-screen game clock for certain intervals, as well as through traditional :30s in half-time, pre-and post-game segments. Phipps said all media positions are accounted for on the Disney-owned nets.
For its part, Telemundo will air commercials during the aforementioned non-playing periods, and sporadically incorporate 10-second crawls replete with advertiser identification. At press time, Phipps said Budweiser was committed and that two or three other deals were pending. Telemundo/MLS are both selling this inventory.
On the regional front, TV carriers are able to include categories that do not conflict with league sponsors. As such, Phipps reported that local clubs and TV carriers have enjoyed success enticing grocery chains, banks and local soccer-related dot.coms to purchase air time.
ATOM OSCARS DirecTV and AtomFilms, in a syndicated deal, will showcase seven of the 10 short films nominated for Academy Awards. The satellite provider is offering the movies, through a two-hour block for $2.99 on its Direct Ticket pay-per-view through March. Among the titles: 3 Misses, a trio of animated rescue attempts; Kleingeld, a tragicomic story about a Berlin businessman and a homeless person; and Major and Minor Miracles, the tale of a minister and his rural community.
NICK'S NOGGIN AND NYE Kids will get a chance to start their day by scratching their Noggin, courtesy of Nickelodeon. Beginning March 27, Noggin, the 24-hour educational kids network now in 4.2M homes, will gain more exposure via programming that will air in Nick's 6:30-7 a.m. time slot. The Phred on Your Head Show, Ghostwriter and Crowill rotate through the "Noggin's Up," Monday-Friday slot. On April 7, Noggin, a partnership between Nickelodeon and Children's Television Workshop, will premiere, Noggin's What Sparks You Special, the first original TV special spotlighting animation made entirely by kids. The program is hosted by Bill Nye, whose award-winning Bill Nye the Science Guy migrates to Noggin in September.
Back to this issue
|
