Going for Goal

The scene at BMO Field on Toronto’s Exhibition grounds at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 28, 2007 should look something like this: The 20,000- seat stadium is almost full, with people still filing in from as far away as Ottawa and Thunder Bay. The pristine new field is ringed by advertising boards-the most expensive of which are camera-visible for the national TV audience-promoting international brands like Pepsi and Gatorade as well as some of Toronto FC’s 20 or so Canadian sponsors like Rogers, Sun Media and Pizza Pizza.

The large Carlsberg patio behind the net at the north end of the stadium is abuzz with fans talking soccer over a cold Carlsberg.

Up in the stands, members of the Toronto FC fan clubs “Red Patch Boys” and “U-Sector” proclaim their undying love for Toronto FC in song and do their best to create a true “football experience.” Those not wearing Toronto FC replica jerseys, made by Adidas, are sporting shirts that say “Red or Dead”-a reference to the team colours.

And 30 minutes before they kick the first meaningful ball in the city since the demise of the Toronto Blizzard a quarter century ago, Toronto FC will already have had a winning year.

Or at least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has never had to do much to sell its hockey team in Toronto, or its Raptors basketball team. So, naturally, there are some skeptics who wonder about MLSE’s ability to face a tougher challenge like bringing pro soccer back to Canada in the form of its Major League Soccer franchise Toronto FC.

The World Cup gets a lot of attention but the spectacular rise and fall of the old North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 1970s and early 80s (the Toronto Blizzard, Vancouver Whitecaps and famed New York Cosmos) proved North Americans just weren’t into soccer. And even though MLS is about to kick off its 12th season, it’s still a second- or even third-tier proposition in the North American sporting landscape.

But there are reasons to be optimistic about Toronto FC’s chances. By early February the club had sold nearly 12,000 season tickets, the most in the 13-team league, far beyond MLSE’s early goal of 7,000 and more than the Raptors sell. True, a lot of those sales came just after David Beckham announced he was joining the league, (see “The Beckham effect,” this page) but the team is still beating expectations.

“When we made the announcement that MLS was headed to Canada we had major expectations because of the ownership group and the market,” says Dan Courtemanche, vice-president of marketing for MLS, in New York. “But if you said by February 1st they’ll have close to 12,000 tickets sold, I’m not sure a lot of people would have believed you.”

Tom Anselmi, chief operating officer of MLSE, says research shows that pro soccer will do well in Toronto, especially in a new stadium designed for soccer, but he also admits MLSE has been surprised by the sales. “The response,” he says, “has been kind of overwhelming, to be honest-and long before the Beckham thing.”

What makes that strong response even more remarkable is that it came with almost no advertising. There were a few ads in the fall in a handful of Toronto ethnic media (Italian, Spanish and Portuguese), plus an in-house produced TV spot featuring a montage of MLS highlights that ran as part of a limited media buy.

To get the word out MLSE has mainly relied on public relations and media interest, as well as grassroots marketing that has focused on developing personal relationships with ticket buyers.

Any time you launch a new product or a new brand, you have to determine who and where your key market is and then figure out the best way to communicate with them, says Csar Velasco, manager of marketing, communications and community relations for Toronto FC.

So who is that key market? In broad strokes, it breaks into two core groups: the diehard soccer fans, and families who play soccer. That latter group is actually larger than many people suspect. More kids play soccer in Canada today than hockey and Ontario alone boasts more than 500,000 registered soccer players. Plus, for each player there’s another 2.5 people-family or friends-involved with the game, says Velasco.

To connect with kids and their parents, MLSE developed partnerships with youth soccer organizations around the Greater Toronto Area-offering them tickets but sweetening the deal with coaching clinics and player appearances.

With season tickets starting at $200 the price is also right for a lot of parents, says Richard Powers, a sports marketing expert and executive director of MBA programs at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. “There will be huge numbers of kids there,” he says, and that’s going to appeal to a lot of marketers.

The diehard soccer fans meanwhile, are mostly young men (though MLS says its fan base is 40% female), many of whom are new Canadians or children of immigrants. “What you have in Toronto is something unique and that is the diversity and the amount of people that have come to live here from another country,” says Velasco. Many bring with them a love of soccer and the clubs they supported growing up. But at the same time they want to have a team close to their new home, he says.

“We are not competing against European clubs,” says Velasco. “We want (the fans) to keep on rooting for their home clubs, but all of those groups that probably would never talk to each other when Manchester United plays Liverpool will be sitting together in our stadium. They will both dress in red and they will both be supporting Toronto FC.”

Coverage in mainstream sports media is key to gaining credibility with this group, so Toronto FC has tried to roll out a newsworthy story every couple of weeks: the team name, a new coach, the first Canadian player and so on.

It has also sent affable coach and general manager Mo Johnston and some players out on pub crawls around the city, meeting with hundreds of fans to talk about the game and the team over a couple of beers. And while the team says it was not a PR stunt, Toronto FC held an open tryout in December that got plenty of media coverage and drew more than 1,000 men who, you just know, will tell anyone who will listen that they once had a tryout with Toronto FC.

The goal is to sell 20,000 tickets for every game, says Anselmi. But MLSE will be happy if it can average 15,000 for the 15 regular season home games. Numbers like that will hold a lot of appeal to marketers, says Andy Harkness, VP of sports with Toronto-based SDI Marketing, which has been working on Toronto FC activation possibilities for its client Pepsi/Gatorade.

Certainly Carlsberg and BMO (see “Banking on soccer,” this page) are excited about the prospect of soccer in Toronto. Carlsberg’s target demographic is guys 25 to 35 and there’s going to be a lot of them at Toronto FC games, says Preben Ganzhorn, director of marketing at Carlsberg Canada.

Both MLSE and Carlsberg were tight-lipped about the scope of the beer company’s sponsorship deal, saying only that it’s for more than five years and worth more than “seven figures” over the length of the contract.

Carlsberg’s brew will, of course, be sold at BMO Field and there’ll be signage and some games “presented by” Carlsberg. By 2008, Carlsberg also hopes to bring Liverpool as well as FC Copenhagen, another Carlsberg-sponsored team, to Toronto for a tournament.

But the most visible Carlsberg presence will be behind the net at the north end of the stadium where the Carlsberg patio will let fans hang out, watch the game and drink-what else?-a Carlsberg.

Outside the stadium, Carlsberg will be promoting its connection to the team with retail on-pack and in-bar promotions. “Toronto FC becomes a really significant part of our brand moving forward in Canada and particularly in the Greater Toronto Area,” says Ganzhorn. “We are going into this with everything we’ve got.”

As for TV, Anselmi says it’s possible all 30 Toronto FC games will be televised, and many of them shown across the country. “We have national rights and the objective is to go national as often as possible.”

Bruce Claassen, CEO of Genesis Media, says there will be a good deal of interest among his clients if the games are televised. “I think particularly given the demographics of Toronto, it is going to be a strong property,” he says. “I think it’ll be stronger than people think.”

However, another senior executive at a leading Toronto media agency, who didn’t want to be identified, says he sees little interest in the team as a broadcast property.

“In general, nobody cares about soccer in Canada unless it’s the World Cup,” he says. “As a media vehicle there is little to no potential there. Forget about a Toronto team, if you put soccer on TV it does nothing outside of the World Cup. No client would actually focus on buying soccer.”

Anselmi disagrees, saying at least five broadcasters have expressed interest. “We have had discussions of some type with everyone from CBC to Rogers Sportsnet to the Score to TLN to GolTV, to Omni, to TSN.”

But Anselmi also admits that even with all those seats sold, sponsor interest and a TV deal, Toronto FC likely won’t make money in 2007. “But we are looking at this over the long haul… It is a long-term commitment,” he says.

Maybe, but over the long haul is where things could get tough.

“I think their biggest challenge will be three years from now or five years from now when the Beckham effect is over and the stadium is not brand new,” says SDI’s Harkness. If the team isn’t winning, or they’re playing to 0-0 ties, Toronto FC might not attract 15,000 fans every week, he says.

“They are a novelty this year and to sustain that momentum, they are going to have to win,” adds Rotman’s Powers.

And Ganzhorn admits that for the sponsorship to be truly effective, the team has to be competitive. “The product you put on the field is going to make a huge difference,” he says. “And I think the ambition has to be that Toronto FC, within the first three years, has to start being a contender. And within the contract period we have signed, we would like to see them compete for a title.”

So on April 28th, as twentysomething guys chug back a Carlsberg and the Red Patch Boys belt out a tune, it really won’t matter much if Toronto FC loses its home opener. But in 2008 that could be a different story.