Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
from Shop Talk:
Major League Soccer turns to training clubs’ ticket sales staff
With new teams on the way and attendance rising, Major League Soccer has turned to a league-funded program to train its clubs' new sales staffers to help drive ticket demand.
The new 45-day training program, dubbed the MLS National Sales Center, got its start last month with the graduation of 10 trainees to jobs with seven clubs. MLS calls it the first ticket sales school owned by a pro sports league.
A second session is underway with plans to run a third this year and another six or seven in 2011. The idea is to offer clubs more seasoned entry-level sales agents at a time when all forms of entertainment are fighting for their share of the consumer wallet.
"This is really a play around league expansion," Bryant Pfeiffer, MLS vice president of club operations, said in a telephone interview. "There's a need for sales people in this league."
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
The U.S. and soccer – that joke isn’t funny anymore
Even though the results of the United States team in international competition indicate the country has become a respectable force in the game, in the past 12 months beating European champions Spain and drawing with presumed World Cup contenders England for example, there remain many who doubt whether soccer can ever capture the imagination of the sporting public in the United States.
The main problem Europeans, in particular English fans, appear to have with the status of soccer in the U.S. is that it is not the number one sport in the country. Not even number two or three in fact. And the fact is that there is no-one in the soccer business in the U.S. who would pretend they are in a position to overtake, on a day-to-day basis, the NFL, the NBA or Major League Baseball.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
10 things to watch out for in the new MLS season
The 15th Major League Soccer season kicks off on Thursday as fans thankfully turn their thoughts from collective-bargaining agreements and guaranteed contracts, to action on the field, safe in the knowledge that the only strikers making the news this week will be those who score goals.
Others will make their judgments on the deal that avoided a strike -- but what is certain is that the new five-year contract and modest salary structure ensures not only that MLS will start on Thursday (Seattle Sounders host the Philadelphia Union) but also that it will enter its 20th year in much the same status as it began its first – a league featuring a surprising number of good players, being paid a surprisingly low amount of money.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Twitter might not be harmless fun for players
The days when the details of transfer negotiations were closely guarded secrets could be coming to an end with the advent of the 'Twitter transfer'.
On Wednesday, U.S. national team striker Jozy Altidore all but announced a move to English Premier League Hull City on the micro-blogging site, keeping his fans updated while Hull remained silent.
MLS looks to ‘eye candy’ to win over new fans
Working to break through the clutter in the crowded North American sports market, Major league Soccer has teamed up with CosmoGirl.com to show off its best-looking young players, or “eye candy” as the website dubs them.
Fifteen MLS players, or “playas,” are on display at the website of Cosmopolitan’s teen magazine. Ranging in age from 19 to 27, the players are shown in photos both in action and relaxing off the soccer pitch.
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