06/22/2002

The Dallas Burn just might sell some additional tickets for its July 4 game. The pitch: Come to the Cotton Bowl on Independence Day and see Clint Mathis, star of the best U.S. World Cup team in history, with his New York/New Jersey MetroStars.

Nine days later, the Major League Soccer team gets another chance to exploit the World Cup in marketing, when the team plays the San Jose Earthquakes and Landon Donovan, who scored two of the U.S. World Cup team's seven goals.

Burn general manager Andy Swift says the U.S. team's unexpected success in this month's World Cup gives the 6-year-old MLS a chance to expand its fan base.

The United States bowed out of the World Cup on Friday, dropping a quarterfinal match to the powerful German squad by a score of 1-0. It was the team's most successful World Cup showing since 1930.

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"The United States has done well enough to create some buzz," Swift said. "We have to take advantage of this opportunity."

It won't be easy.

International sports success rarely translates into significant business at home for any sport. But when U.S. teams do well in sports that aren't big at home, it raises hopes for growth in the U.S. market.

Expectations for soccer rose after the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994. They rose again as Mia Hamm and her teammates won the Olympic gold medal in 1996 and the Women's World Cup in 1999.

Stages of growth

Each time, Swift said, soccer grew in the United States. The 1994 World Cup led to the formation of the MLS in 1996. After their success on the world stage, U.S. women now play in their first professional league, the 2-year-old Women's United Soccer Association. The legacy of the Olympic gold in U.S. women's basketball includes the 6-year-old Women's National Basketball Association.

But all these leagues are struggling to attract fans and make a profit. The MLS is drawing an average of 16,105 fans this season, up 8 percent, but it reportedly lost $250 million in its first five years. The WUSA's attendance is running at 7,237 a game this year, down 14 percent.

Winning on a world stage will capture Americans' attention – as the interest in this year's World Cup is showing. But not long after the hoopla dies down, history says, the nation's ticket buyers and couch potatoes will return to football, baseball, basketball, hockey and NASCAR.

At best, the MLS will get a modest post-World Cup boost, said David Carter, principal in the Sports Business Group, a Los Angeles-based consultant. Two problems: The games from Japan and Korea reach the states during the middle of the night, and the U.S. team hasn't created a magnetic star.

Carter said he doesn't foresee legions of new soccer fans, but the MLS might get some of the converts to attend a game or tune in on television. "If they can do that, and if they can stem some of their losses," Carter said, "then they have a shot at becoming a viable league."

Rick Burton, executive director of the University of Oregon's James Warsaw Center for Sports Marketing, cautions against setting the MLS up to fail by projecting a World Cup bonanza that won't come. Soccer has been gaining in the United States for a decade, so this year's World Cup just becomes another milestone on the long road to acceptance.

On the marketing side, Burton said, the MLS will be playing the same game it has been – but with a little bit more ammunition. "It's going to go back to having this long, slow evolution," he said.

Lots of positives

Swift said there are lots of positives for the MLS this month. The media spotlight has been bright, including Sports Illustrated covers for Mathis and Donovan.

The MLS bought the U.S. English-language World Cup broadcast rights through 2006, and the ESPN telecasts include commercials for the league. At a grass-roots level, MLS teams drew potential fans at watching parties, with 7,500 showing up Friday for a Columbus Crew event.

Most important, MLS players are on display. Half of the 24-man U.S. team plays in the MLS, and five others are league alumni who now play overseas. The team's performance will increase respect for the MLS, Mr. Swift said.

The MLS isn't kidding itself about the kick from the World Cup. The league will still have to build its support at home by getting its message to young parents who played the game as kids, soccer moms and ethnic fans. And it still has to find ways to build new, soccer-friendly stadiums,

"We've got a long way to go to develop this sport for tomorrow, but certainly there's passion, certainly there's interest," commissioner Don Garber said in a television interview. "We are today a niche that will grow broader into the mainstream, but it's going to take some time."

Staff writer Richard Alm reports on sports business for The Dallas Morning News. His e-mail address is ralm@dallasnews.com.