Exactly this, and pretty much what I meant. In a sense it's sort of brand awareness we're lacking, but it's not just us but more of an MLS problem. Every once in a while a caller will mention the team on WFAN and the almost universal response from the host is that nobody's interested. Which is more or less true, especially in a city like ours where there are nine other professional sports teams in the "big four" sports. In an atmosphere like that you need to constantly get the team mentioned both in ads and in the news. We need to hear about tomorrow's girls team tryouts on the radio, maybe get a TV station news crew or three up there and have a 20 second human interest spot or two tomorrow night. That sort of thing. Get some of the players to do appearances on the morning TV shows. Get WFAN to do more than merely mention the scores. We need to get the team in the public eye. A subway ad is great, but what you need is to have the team be an actual thing that people are aware of, so that when they do happen to see a subway ad they'll easily be able to start to think of buying a ticket and bringing they're friends or family. Brand awareness is such a cliche but it's what we need, and what MLS needs.
What we need is a media rep who can get us on the media.
In a way we're in the same spot as hockey, except they're the after and we're the before. If you stop an average person on the street and say "hockey" they'll know about the Rangers and possibly also the Devils and Islanders maybe. But they're guaranteed to be aware of the NHL, and know that the Rangers play in the Garden. If you then say "soccer" to them they'll maybe say something like, "oh, yes, the kids all love to play soccer, especially on Long Island." Even if they've heard of MLS they may not even know there's a team here in the city and even fewer will know they play at Yankee Stadium. I've had people give me a "wow" when I've told them that, which honestly is a little weird.
Brand awareness: MLS's biggest problem.
I've seen NYCFC get the most brand publicity at the New York Stock Exchange (I think 3/4 times over the past three years) and that's not the top place a sports team should be getting their message out.
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