Pledge of Allegiance

Soccer Digest, August, 2001 by David Stone

The U.S.'s Hispanic population is booming, but MLS is still finding difficulty convincing Latinos to embrace American futbol

SOCCER FANS COME IN ALL shapes and sizes. A quick look around an MLS stadium on game day reveals a fairly representative cross-section--in terms of age, gender, race, income, education, and other variables--of the American population. But if the league wants to increase its fan base--as. it certainly does, especially given the drop in attendance since its inaugural season--whom should it target? Soccer moms? Children? College graduates with incomes of $50,000 or more? All of the above?

Many soccer followers believe that a natural demographic for MLS--given a cultural affinity for the sport--is the U.S.'s Hispanic population. Futbol is the national pastime of many Latin American nations, and in some the sport has a deep-seated presence that borders on religion. With America's strong and growing Hispanic population, many observers believe that MLS needs to do more to connect with this group, particularly considering there are MLS teams located in the heart of some of the country's most densely populated Hispanic markets.

According to the latest Census figures, the U.S. Hispanic population increased by a remarkable 58% between 1990 and 2000. Latinos in the U.S. now number an estimated 35.3 million people, which is nearly 13% of the overall population. And although the Hispanic populace has spread from predominantly urban areas to rural states such as North Carolina, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Georgia, more than 70% of Hispanics living in America are in MLS markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Miami.

This season MLS is making its first nationally coordinated, leaguewide effort to attract Hispanic fans. (Some individual teams, however, have been fairly active with local promotions over the past five years.) The centerpiece of this program are Hispanic Heritage Nights, which are hosted on a different day by each of the league's 12 teams. Every Hispanic Heritage Night consists of a pre-game festival with entertainers, food, and products, and the recognition of 50 local Hispanic Heroes. In addition, a portion of ticket sales from each HHN game is donated to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

Similar events have taken place locally in the past, according to Laina de Lima, MLS's manager of Hispanic partnership programs. "More and more, our sponsors were looking for programs that would target the Hispanic community on a national level," says de Lima. "The 2000 Census came out and [demonstrated] astronomical growth within the U.S. Hispanic community, and not in the top Hispanic markets but also in cities like Columbus and Kansas City.

"Some of our national sponsors were looking for a program that would look the same throughout all of our 12 cities. So we came up with this program which met the needs of the sponsors involved, as well as our teams and the league."

Perhaps surprisingly, MLS's first Hispanic Heritage Night was held in Columbus, which is the league's least Hispanic town, with a Latino population of approximately 2.5%. Fittingly, the event was held on May 5, or Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican holiday that celebrates a 19th century defeat of Napoleon's troops.

Through the process for selection of its 50 Hispanic Heroes, the Crew made a lot of friends and contacts within the community, according to Steve Lange, the team's assistant director of corporate sales and marketing. "It went a long way to tell people that the city--and specifically the Crew--cares about diversity," says Lange. "We made at least 50 new fans, and they will share their experiences with their friends and co-workers, and those people certainly have access to large groups of Hispanics in the are."

Some teams have already gone out of their way to increase their presence within the Hispanic community, such as D.C. United, which sells tickets at a discount to Hispanic businesses that in turn sell them at face value to the Latino community. Other teams, such as the Dallas Burn and Tampa Bay Mutiny, have also donated time and money to local Latin American initiatives. But others, including both the Mutiny and the Miami Fusion, which play in a heavily Hispanic state, have been criticized for not doing enough. "It's been really inconsistent here," says Fusion marketing director Glen Hosking of the team's past efforts to sell to the local Hispanic community.

Miami-Dade County, adjacent to Ft. Lauderdale's Bmward County, is the most densely populated Latin American county in the U.S., with 57% of residents claiming a Hispanic background. According to a poll taken at two Fusion games last summer, nearly 40% of attendees were Hispanic.

"The past few years there has been a lot of experimentation to see what works and what doesn't, and there really has never been a Hispanic person in the office who's been responsible for marketing solely to Hispanics," says Hosking. "We have advertised on Hispanic radio and have placed ads in Hispanic papers, but there isn't a separate plan in place to market just to Hispanics. We try to