Can Sky Blue Find Green?

They have one of the greatest soccer players ever to step on the field, a homegrown Olympian surrounded by lots of other great talent, four of which are from various parts of the state. They now have a consistent home base in a soccer crazy corridor between two major markets. They are perhaps the most competitive, fan friendly, and progressive teams in the region, during a year when casual fans are searching for answers as to what has happened to almost all the male teams in the area, from the Sixers and Eagles to the south and any of the nine teams to the north (eventhough the Nets and Rangers are still going strong in the playoffs). Yet for all their success, fun and goodwill Sky Blue FC continues to make less than a small dent in the consciousness of soccer fans or casual sports fans in the tri-state area. Why?

It would be easy to blame the crowded marketplace. From a financial standpoint, this women’s league looks as if it could have staying power. Each franchise has a budget of about $1 million to $1.5 million, a far cry from the overspending in previous leagues. The teams play in stadiums appropriate for the sizes of their fan bases, not in mega-parks. Each team is anchored by national team players whose salaries are paid by the federation.

The teams that have been succeeding in the latest iteration of women’s professional soccer may be in markets where the competition is not as fierce. The Portland Thorns, for example, have a model where they have fed off the Timbers of MLS’ success, and their front office marketing savvy, to create a product that is working on the field and off.  Sky Blue does not have the support of a club like the Red Bulls, who could help bolster marketing and brand awareness, and they are not Philadelphia or New York based.  Can they succeed?

The good news is that the National Women’s Soccer League has committed to finding ways to keep the professional side of the game afloat at least through the next World Cup in 2015, and the thousands of young boys and girls who have grown up in the last 10-15 years with a passion for the sport have now become more and more consumers of all things soccer. That has been the leverage point MLS has used and it has been key in the growth of global clubs and other national teams coming to the States to engage with their own fans and increase the soccer marketplace in the U.S. The base exists.

The result in New Jersey? Fun product still operating in a vacuum. So what to do next. The first step was to maintain a solid home base, instead of being this vagabond club in Montclair one week and New Brunswick the next. Yurcak Field at Rutgers fits the mold. Second become NEW JERSEY’s team. Sky Blue stands for no one. Not New York, not Philly, not even Piscataway. New Jerseyans welcome their name being used, so use it. The Devils have realized this and have taken great strides in being the team for The Garden State. Sky Blue stands for nothing. Second, tell your story. For all that the Red Bulls have done, they have not embraced the grassroots to the South and West at all. You have a star in Christine Rampone who even casual fans may know. Maya Hayes and Meg Morris are from soccer crazy Montclair, Jill Loyden is from southern Vineland by way of Villanova University. Get the team out and when you do, tell people about it. Challenge with unique low cost promotions. Steven Temares is the CEO of mega-chain Bed, Bath and Beyond. Maybe there won’t be a huge cash investment by the chain, but products and coupons? Some of the best minor league baseball clubs reside within miles of Sky Blue, take a cue from their antics and ramp up the fun. Pull a stunt or two that makes it experiential for the fans, and not as much about the purity of soccer.  Third, embrace the Hispanic culture.  The corridor is ripe with a thriving Latino culture that already understands the game. Find those people and bring the games and your players to them. Fourth, media media media. Now there is of course limited spending on broadcast.  Heck, the Red Bulls don’t even have an English language radio partner in the marketplace. So build the audience yourself. Use the digital space for streaming broadcasts and then get your players, who are very socially savvy, to help drive the interest. Even live streams of audio broadcasts are still novel enough to draw interest. Be different in finding media coverage to amplify the negligible marketing budget the club has.

Sky Blue has proven their competitive side on the field time and again. The tragedy is that the reward for being first on the field is somehow being last in attendance in a league which needs a boost to be successful. Maybe the hands have been thrown up and the market has been determined by the powers that be to be not worthy of success. That would be a tragedy for the league for the sport and for the thousands who play and love the game.  If the whole league goes, so be it. However to have a franchise in the largest market fail because of lack of knowledge that it exists is an even bigger shame than if there was no women’s professional soccer at all. You have succeeded on the field, Sky Blue, here’s hoping you can succeed off it as well.