This is Part 2 of my interview with Mike Stoller, who is part of the Boston Breakers' ownership group and the team representative on the WPS Board of Governors. Stoller is also the developer of three planned BCL Premier Sports athletic and lifestyle facilities, which recently entered into a strategic and investment partnership with New Balance, the New England athletic shoe giant now entering the soccer market.
In April, New Balance also entered into a partnership to be the official footwear and apparel sponsor of the Boston Red Sox. Also in April, Warrior Sports, a subsidiary of New Balance, beat out adidas to win the Liverpool kit deal, worth an estimated £25m annually and debuting in the 2012-13 season.
The Bellingham BCL facility, which is expected to break ground in three months, will become the training center for the Boston Breakers and the Massachusetts home of Mass Premier Soccer. With 50 full-time licensed coaches, MPS has expanded to Maine, New York, New Hampshire and Florida and their PDL MPS Portland Phoenix squad serves as a feeder/reserve team to NASL's FC Tampa Bay.
BCL has also contracted with two-tima Olympic Gold medalist and World Cup winner Kristine Lilly to provide camps and clinics at the Bellingham and Bridgewater facilities.
Read Part 1 of the interview with Mike Stoller here.
Part 2
LE: What happened to the deal with Foxwoods Casino Resort, who signed on as the Breakers’ jersey sponsor last year?
Stoller: Foxwoods has been having some financial difficulties over the last couple of years and we were fortunate to get them last year, but they didn’t renew this year. It’s part of their financial process, not a direct issue of, ‘Where is the team’ or ‘Where is the League.’
LE: Was the Breakers-Foxwoods relationship a good fit?
Stoller: I think it was a very good fit for both. They were quite pleased with how it went last year and were intent on renewing this year. It’s disappointing.
LE: Talk about Women's Professional Soccer's national marketing since the WPS split with Soccer United Marketing (SUM) last year.
Stoller: We don’t have a national agency right now. We have a CFO director of revenue and development [Kristina Hentschel] who is leading the sponsorship relationship part of the League. We have two people that report to her on the League level and we'll be interviewing for new representation going forward for next year. SUM was very successful for MLS and U.S. Soccer Federation and they have a very, very strong relationship with those organizations and brought a couple of great relationships over the years.
But with the change in the economy I think they felt and we felt mutually that their focus on the men’s game was really where they wanted to be. We were not part of their core business. We felt mutually that it was better to move on and start fresh on our own.
LE: Where did the powerful 'See Extraordinary' media campaign come from?
Stoller: That was the WPS marketing staff along with the ad agency we used. We cut down on our spending on national media. We’re relying more this year on Puma and Citi and a couple of our other sponsors to get the name out more than spending our own dollars, given the restructuring of the League offices.
LE: Who was responsible for the larger-than-life illuminated images of WPS players on buildings in the 'Defend your Turf' campaign?
Stoller: It was a great concept and visually it was stunning, but it didn’t provide the kind of result that we wanted. It was done by a staff member on the ad agency that’s no longer with us. It was really well done, as was ‘See Extraordinary.’ We found in the downturn of the economy it was extremely hard to spend the dollars to get the national media awareness that’s needed, so that’s unfortunately one of the cuts we’ve made.
We’re trying to be more grassroots-focused on getting the word out in the local market than on a national platform. Over the next couple years that will change and we’ll get back to reinvesting in a national advertizing and media campaign.
LE: WPS attendance has dropped considerably this year. To what do you attribute that?
Stoller: We got very sensitive to every dollar we were spending and tried to do things differently, using part time sales staff and contingency staff and our best Breakers sales people moved on. We tried to save money and bring in new and younger people. It’s a World Cup year. The start of the season is always difficult because it’s rough weather and still in the school year. Three years in, it’s not as special as it was the first year and the smaller staff contributed to it.
Our numbers will start to improve as the weather gets warmer and as the national advertizing campaigns by PUMA and Citi kick in. But we’re also competing against the World Cup this year.
We’d like to have a better record. We’ve played quality soccer but haven’t had the results. Jordan Angeli was a big, big loss. She’s a wonderful person and player, so that’s very disappointing.
LE: How are the WPS club owners dealing with magicJack and team owner Dan Borislow, who seems to be a wild card in the mix?
Stoller: Mr. Borislow has made and continues to make public statements that are both unfortunate and inflamatory.
Dan is a big supporter of soccer and the women’s game and he came into the League at an important time for us. Dan has some of his own ideas about how to do things and coming into the League late, shortly before the start of the new season, it’s taking him a little bit longer to get on his feet with some of the operating procedures.
It’s a League that’s equally owned by all six of the teams, so he has one voice and there are five other voices.
Click here to read Part 1 of my interview with Mike Stoller.
FOLLOW BOSTON PRO SOCCER EXAMINER AND LE EISENMENGER ON TWITTER AND SUBSCRIBE TO EMAIL ALERTS.
Comments