The U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) has conditionally approved five-team Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) as a Division 1 league for 2012, but if WPS intends to retain this status, it must hold itself to higher professional standards and also stop letting players interfere with the business of the league. Conditional to sanctioning, USSF required WPS to expand to six teams in 2013 and eight teams by 2014, but WPS needs to overhaul its operating policies to establish a consistent, professional public image to ensure that growth.
Strong 2009 launch, then downward spiral
In its three turbulent seasons, WPS accomplished the most difficult task of any league by consistently putting entertaining, high-quality play on the field. U.S. National Team players and six international stars highlighted every team and all players received a range of compensation. WPS was launched alongside powerful imaging in the See Extraordinary and Defend Your Turf marketing campaigns, coordinated through Soccer United Marketing (SUM), who were compensated at a high level typical for this quality and scope of national marketing. PUMA sponsored WPS and provided the teams with attractive, low-key uniforms, which could be casually worn by their target market of young, soccer-playing girls. Investors brought in Marta, now five-time FIFA Player of the Year, who PUMA also sponsored. WPS had a television contract with Fox. It was a great launch.
Although the League started strong and organized, each subsequent year WPS lowered their standards, jettisoning key management staff, national marketing, press relations and losing credibility with sponsors and media as operating procedures became increasingly amateur.
What happened?
Initial WPS attendance and growth projections had been overstated and while several teams joined the League, five teams folded and one, magicJack, was kicked out in 2011. The five 2012 teams now operate with reduced staff and salaries and without the marketing expertise and assistance of SUM. Additionally, PUMA recently announced that they aren’t renewing their sponsorship of WPS and will no longer provide uniforms.
WPS became so fragile in public perception that it almost seemed unsporting to criticize it, but WPS needs to hear criticism from those who enjoy the League and wish it well, not just from naysayers who salivate and moan whenever WPS hits a rough patch.
The current question is not, can the USA sustain a professional women’s league? That question has been answered as two other leagues, the USL W-League and the WPSL have found it attractive enough that they’re preparing to launch their own versions of professional women’s soccer. The current debate centers on the best structure for a pro league and how to maintain high professional standards with limited operating revenue.
The answers
Above all, WPS needs to adopt more Theory Z management philosophy, where WPS becomes more interactive with sponsors, media, fans, local soccer clubs and commercial enterprises and ask them, “What can we do for you to help you work with us?” Often there are ways that entities can add value to each other in ways that don’t directly involve the scant commodity of cash and these relationships work to build a strong network that develops over time.
Additionally, players should work more hours for their teams to earn their paychecks. They need to spend more time marketing youth tickets and more time at adult events drumming up an adult fan base. They need to spend more time in the office doing clerical and sales work to assist understaffed WPS management and less time blogging if the League is to survive.
That said, WPS management needs to realize that public confidence in WPS has dropped way below the comfort zone in three short years and its policies must be overhauled now, not later.
Below is a look at some policy and operational practices that need to revamped. Continue reading for lessons 1-5 and click here for Part 2 with lessons 6-10.
Financial transparency
Suggestion 1: Make player salaries and basic financials transparent.
Most WPS financial information including player salaries was kept under wraps, even though MLS player salaries are disclosed twice a year by the MLS Players Association. This lack of transparency regarding player salaries and other basic financial information created negative speculation and showed a lack of respect for their own supporters. WPS fans rank fairly high on the socio-economic scale and to this group, genuine information is more convincing than paternalistic and often false-sounding assurances.
Similar to what I stated in Marketing MLS to Adults for US Soccer Players, WPS needs to begin a discussion about the League with its fans. WPS needs to be up front about the decisions they face and the pros and cons of their alternatives in order to help fans identify with and have confidence in the League. The public has high media intelligence because they continually sort through a barrage of social, commercial and political manipulation from the Internet, advertising and TV. The increasingly unsophisticated messages sent by WPS indicate the League seriously underestimates the capacity of their fans, which in turn creates fan distrust of the somewhat primitive WPS management.
WPS leadership: getting out the message
Suggestion 2: WPS leadership needs to convince the press
Removing 2009 inaugural season CEO Tonya Antonucci was a questionable decision. With limited resources, the League’s spearhead voice must be strong, confident and enjoy controversy. Antonucci had charismatic energy that attracted and translated to all kinds of media and riveted skeptical reporters, an immense task for any new undertaking in a crowded market. This charisma can’t be replaced by degrees or experience. When Antonucci was replaced by attorney Anne-Marie Eileraas, WPS press teleconferences became the adrenalin equivalent of Verizon customer service. Nobody but the most stalwart defenders of WPS were convinced.
Where was 1999 World Cup Champion and ESPN media veteran Tony DiCicco? Where was witty two-time WPS Coach of the Year Paul Riley? Where was sophisticated investor David Halstead on the media end of things? Why was the black-hearted press forced to listen to phony executive assurances in 2010 and 2011? What kind of arrogance thinks the press is going to swallow this crap whole?
Address controversy and skepticism directly, confidently and honestly. "Yeah, everything is not awesome. If X happens, we’ll do this, if Y happens, we’ll do that, but we’re trying for this and a, b, and c, is how we plan to accomplish it and why." Remember that you’re not talking to children, you’re talking to adults whose professional credentials may exceed your own. That’s the problem with an educated public.
The SUM/marketing dilemma
Suggestion 3. WPS must re-establish a relationship with SUM to improve their image and reach and stay better connected with U.S. Soccer.
Achieving success in national marketing is a sophisticated and expensive undertaking. Remember, first, positional marketing creates the image, association and desire and then direct marketing uses the image and associations to sell products or services. The lasting images were created in the See Extraordinary multi-media campaign and the slogan Defend Your Turf certainly resonated with American women.
However, WPS assumed they’d in part cover operating costs with a faster and larger return from the sponsorship revenues managed by SUM and when that didn’t happen, they broke away from the soccer marketing giant, thinking they’d deal with sponsors themselves and cut out the middle man. But WPS staff didn’t have anything close to the expertise to make that happen.
In cutting that network of strings, they also lost expert direction in public and press relations, now leaving that job to clubs, who sometimes outsourced to professionals and sometimes loaded that responsibility on staff members with zero professional experience in those areas at this level.
The PUMA sponsorship
Suggestion 4. Maintain closer relationships with sponsors, continually finding better ways to meet their needs.
Every marketing effort is an interactive affair, tailoring the sponsor to the product and vice versa. PUMA wanted to sell soccer gear to little girls and to do this they depended not only on their own public images, but also those of the WPS through TV, media and press.
Problem is, there was only one televised game a week, advertising was limited, and the easiest vehicle, dispersing PUMA apparel images on WPS players through the press never really materialized. Why? Because no one at WPS had the foresight to realize that most media outlets use Getty and AP for images and though ISI provided beautiful photography on WPS team websites, to use ISI images constitutes copyright infringement for many mainstream outlets. While blogs might use local photographers or naively steal copyright-protected images off the Internet, mainstream press was often handcuffed from using photography for stories.
It’s well known that readers are more likely to peruse a story with a photo than without, so without photos the likelihood of WPS coverage substantially decreased. Few editors will run stories guaranteed to draw less traffic, so by not supplying the press with photography, WPS reduced their own press coverage and also reduced their value to PUMA.
To add insult to injury, sometimes editors ran WPS stories with what women's soccer photos were available, namely Getty or AP photos of U.S. Women’s National team players wearing NIKE jerseys. Ouch.
This issue also affected jersey sponsors like the Boston Breakers’ Foxwoods Casino Resort. For Foxwood’s purpose of segueing their image from adult nightlife to family resort, this sponsor wanted to see the Foxwoods logo on the front of every jersey on every website, newspaper and magazine. This did not happen and partly because of this, Foxwoods did not renew their sponsorship contract.
The Marta/Beckham factor
Suggestion 5: Retain Marta and market her as a once-in-lifetime, Pele/Beckham experience.
U.S. National teams fans need to take a backseat here and let Marta sell tickets to people who otherwise would never attend a women’s soccer game. These are the same Americans who watch the Olympics and know the top athletes of every sport, even if they know little about the sport. When David Beckham played away games, those MLS clubs almost always experienced dramatic increase in sales. Marta brings a special notoriety and flourish to the game and gave PUMA the confidence to sponsor her. Had WPS prominently featured Marta in their marketing campaigns and also provided game photography for the press, PUMA might still be the league sponsor.
Click here to continue reading WPS train wreck needs overhaul: 10 easy lessons
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