MLS, New York Times

MLS Gets It’s Kicks In As Draft And Camp Approach

PR Move of the Day:  One of the keys in gaining strategic play is announcement timing.  Ironically in today’s 24/7 news cycle the “bad” times for announcements…used to be holidays, Fridays, Sundays and event days, have pretty much narrowed to the days on the calendar which are crowded with games or other events of historical significance.  While next week (the Super Bowl off week combined with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday), the day after the NBA All-Star game and the day after the MLB All-Star game are the usual quiet days, politicians have been using the Sunday midday platform for several years now, and the digital space has given us holidays as prime time for exposure as well, with little competition.  This week the MLS Chicago Fire took a day with no local pro and little college activity to get some quality business PR exposure leading up to Friday’s SuperDraft and the training camp right behind it. The Fire announced Best Buy will be their front jersey sponsor, an annoucement which garnered some real quality brand awareness and coverage nationally today, and a nice Chicago Sun Times piece as well.  The move stirs nice debate as the jersey space, long used abroad with sponsors, comes under considerable debate as one of the last clean spaces in American sport, and will no doubt set the pace of what is “to be watched” in American sport going forward.  Nice timing, nice coverage, nice brand building PR.

There is little doubt that Major League Soccer made its Beckham Buzz breakthrough into the mainstream last year, and the Fire announcement is the latest on the marketing and publicity front that gives early notice for the bright and eveolving future for the world’s most popular sport, here in the United States.  Whether it’s Golden Boy Entertainment showing interest in the Houston Dynamo, a New York Times piece detailing Senegal’s (and Colorado Rapids) keeper Bouna Coundoul’s work with his national team, or some great examples of the continental exposure of the sport on ESPN.com  , there is more buzz around the steady and solid business moves going into the preseason than ever before.