Clint Dempsey of the Seattle Sounders played an integral part on the U.S. Men's National Team. He also played an important role in Major League Soccer's branding strategy for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. (Photo by Major League Soccer)
For about a month there, we all had World Cup fever. Thanks to a combination of gripping matches, a strong showing by the U.S. and a finale for the ages, the Rio edition not only set a slew of broadcast and attendance records, but it also ramped up interest in Major League Soccer, which was poised to cash in on the renewed interest in the game.
First, a look at the impact of the Cup in Brazil and globally. Winning a World Cup game is hard enough, but just getting into the tournament is even harder. Qualifying takes nearly 18 months and involves 203 teams playing 820 matches around the globe, with only 32 advancing to play in Brazil, including the host team. Research from Brazil's Ministry of Tourism estimated that 3.7 million people were expected to travel throughout the country during the World Cup, creating a $3.03-billion economic impact.
According to FIFA more than 3.4 million fans attended the 64 matches, with 650,000 of those attending 12 matches at two AEG affiliated facilities: Rio de Janeiro’s Estádio Maracanã and Itaipava Arena Pernambuco in Recife.
In addition to setting TV viewing records across the globe, the World Cup set data traffic records as well, including one for the biggest video content streaming event in history and a record-breaking 5.3 million unique viewers on ESPN and Univision for the round-of-16 U.S. vs. Belgium match. Once figures are tabulated FIFA expects that the global TV audience will surpass the 3.2 billion reach of the 2010 World Cup South Africa.
The U.S. vs. Portugal match was the most watched football game ever on U.S. TV, higher than any NBA Finals or the average 2013 World Series with 24.7 million combined on ESPN and Univision. Viewership records were also set in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan.
“FIFA took control of the buildings three weeks in advance, but we were there to do whatever we could to assist,” said Chuck Steedman, COO of AEG Facilities of his company’s legwork in the leadup to the opening matches. “At Maracanã our team was involved in back-of-house and cleaning operations and helping with plotting layouts and the design of where the stewards and guest services were in the stadium. We also worked with FIFA on food and beverage at both stadiums. What we tried to do is form a partnership with them to make sure things went as smoothly as possible.”
Steedman said AEG Live did a “ton” of prep work including running training programs for hospitality workers and volunteers. “My bigger fears were outside the stadium rather than inside,” he said of the civil unrest in the country that threatened to spill over to the games. “But thankfully for everyone, though that [civil unrest] flared in some places, I wasn’t as concerned as a year ago.”
With 12 venues built or renovated for the tournament, the good news was that the two venues AEG Facilities was involved with had the benefit of being open for a year before the World Cup, with 56 matches played at Maracanã. That allowed AEG to get in and gain familiarity with the venue where the finale was staged to help manage ingress and egress and other daily considerations.
“Generally we’re very happy with how things went and flowed,” he said. “But there are definitely things we learned and things we can refine with the IOC before the Olympics in 2016.”
But who stands to gain the most from the World Cup’s success? Major League Soccer.
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Major League Soccer rolled out the 'Here' campaign for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. (Photo by Major League Soccer)
“We were thrilled that the World Cup captured the hearts and minds of our country like never before,” said Dan Courtemanche, executive vice president of Communications for MLS. With soccer the second most popular sport (behind the NFL) for people under 30, Courtemanche said the question is no longer “when will the U.S. be a soccer nation” but how much bigger of a soccer nation will it be?
“I can tell you that in 22 seasons of professional soccer in four different leagues, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he said, noting that research shows that since 2006 the adult soccer fan base has grown 44 percent from 48 million to 70 million.
“The sustained interest from the mainstream media over the last 4-6 weeks is like something I’ve never seen,” said Courtemanche. “We’ve tried hard to pivot and take a hard look at how we can connect with the soccer audience and make them excited about our league.” With 22 MLS players taking the pitch, including 10 for the U.S. team, MLS debuted an ad campaign after the World Cup entitled “Here,” as in “right here, in your own back yard.”
The campaign centered around such MLS stars as Seattle Sounders FC’s Clint Dempsey and DeAndre Yedlin and Sporting Kansas City’s Matt Besler. And, it seemed to work, as 64,000 people came out to see Seattle play the weekend after the World Cup finale. “[We’re saying] ‘They’re here.’ Or if you live somewhere where you don’t have a team, pick one and support those guys. That’s our message and challenge,” Courtemanche said.
Leading up to the World Cup, MLS ran a campaign called “Club and Country,” which featured MLS players who the league thought would make the cut. Like the “Here” campaign, the pre-World Cup one featured a partnership with television broadcasters ESPN and Univision on what Courtemanche said was a “seven figure” spend on each to get the message out.
In addition to meeting with ESPN’s broadcast team in early June (which included U.S. legend and former GM of three MLS teams Alexi Lalas) to remind them of the strength of the U.S. club before match play started, MLS sent their biggest stars on a media tour afterwards to keep the momentum going.
“We politely suggested to our players that they do media after the World Cup final and in the end it worked out that Matt Besler and DeAndre Yedlin came straight from Sao Paolo to New York and Bristol, Connecticut [home of ESPN] to do interviews,” he said. Besler went from four hours of ESPN sit downs with multiple platforms to New York, where he did “Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning” on July 4th, after being away from home for nearly 50 days. Dempsey also did the David Letterman show and “This Morning” just before the Argentina-Germany final.
Because there were nearly two-dozen MLS players in the tournament, the league organically gained plenty of airtime. But the effort to sign many of those players in the run-up to the tournament, whether they would play for the U.S. or not, was another strategy that paid off for MLS in the end. “In South Africa [in 2010] we only had six players,” said Courtemanche. “It was a major priority for the owners to sign difference-makers and hopefully have them showcased in Brazil, which they were.”
Though it’s too early to tell what percentage increase the league will enjoy, Courtemanche said early returns are promising. The weekend after the finale, the Sounders and Portland Timbers played a late game on ESPN, with ratings up 70 percent compared to the 2014 average before the World Cup.
“For us it’s proof of an exploding market we believe is ripe for MLS to take advantage of,” Courtemanche said.
Contacted for this story: Dan Courtemanche (212) 450-1200; Chuck Steedman, (213) 742-7100; FIFA, 55 21 2014-2111