mls - Online Sports Marketing Guy Blog

2012 Major League Soccer Salaries by Team

Posted by Ryan Sleeper
/ October 28, 2012

The 2012 Major League Soccer salaries by team were calculated by totaling the individual base salaries of all players on each MLS team. The source of this salary information is the Major League Soccer Players Union and the salary information is good through October 1, 2012....
Read full story.
Is StubHub Helping or Hurting Professional Sports Teams?

Posted by Ryan Sleeper
/ December 23, 2011

When StubHub, the online secondary ticket marketplace, burst onto the sports scene in 2000, it was welcomed by fans and professional sports teams alike as a secure place to purchase tickets outside of the evil Ticketmaster monopoly. The StubHub service has been wildly popular, raising tens of millions of dollars in venture capital, and being acquired by eBay in 2007.

Today, StubHub has formal sponsorships with sports teams from the NFL, NBA, NHL, and NCAA, along with deals from all teams in MLB, MLS, and the CFL. The partnerships seemed to make sense, with fairly obvious benefits: an option for season ticket holders to unload unwanted tickets, a chance for any fan to attend a “must-see” sporting event regardless of the demand, a somewhat controlled secondary market that helps sweep those unsavory ticket sellers on your arena corner partially under the rug, and of course, the revenue. However, a recent experience trying to sell two of my own tickets has me seriously questioning whether StubHub’s connections with professional sports teams have turned out to be what the leagues had intended....
Read full story.
Champions League Final Sponsorship Review

Posted by Ryan Sleeper
/ June 1, 2011

Last year, the UEFA Champions League final passed the Super Bowl as the most watched sporting event worldwide. While the ratings for this year’s Champions League final were less than spectacular here in the United States, this global poll position garners a closer look at their approach to sports sponsorship.

One of my favorite things about the sport of soccer is their clean style in regards to sponsorship, both from the teams and the networks that broadcast matches. As the ball is almost constantly in play, most of their lack of advertisements is forced by the nature of the game, but they could always opt to go NASCAR on us and bury us in a pitch full of logos....
Read full story.
Google’s First Sports Sponsorship

Posted by Ryan Sleeper
/ May 24, 2011

At a current market cap of $167 Billion, Google doesn’t exactly need help advertising their brand. It is not surprising then, that Google has been absent from the sports sponsorship scene since they went public in 2004. All that changed tonight, however, when Sporting KC unveiled LIVESTRONG Sporting Park to its season ticket members for the first time, and with it, Google’s first foray into sports sponsorship.

Earlier this month, we provided a digital sneak peak of LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, but it was quite unexpected to see the Google logo (positioned in line with a Budweiser ad, no less) next to the stadium’s flagship HD videoboard (pictured). I attempted to Google (no pun intended) any previous Google sports sponsorship examples, and could not find a single story or image....
Read full story.
A Digital Sneak Peak of LIVESTRONG Sporting Park

Posted by Ryan Sleeper
/ May 4, 2011

Just over a month from now, soccer fans in the Heartland of America will get to inhale that plasticky / grassy new stadium smell inside the walls of MLS’ newly crowned flagship sports destination, LIVESTRONG Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kansas. If you are a regular reader of the Online Sports Marketing Guy blog, you know that I am a big fan of how Sporting Kansas City does business, and think they are a great benchmark for any online sports marketer to learn from.

Earlier today, Sporting’s VP of Stadium Construction, Rory O’Connor, conducted a live chat at sportingkc.com to discuss the progress on LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. Rory was kind enough to answer my question regarding the digital elements of the stadium, so I figured I’d pay it forward by sharing a digital sneak peak of this premiere US stadium....
Read full story.