MLS '15 expansion club NYC FC is "facing its first challenge" as it tries to turn "casual World Cup fans into paying customers who will watch MLS games nine months from now," according to Daniel Barbarisi of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The club "has worked to leverage the popularity of the World Cup, and particularly the U.S. Men's National Team, to target the fans who have been swept up in World Cup fever." NYC FC "has sent staffers to bars and viewing parties around the city during every single World Cup game to hand out team gear and information, spreading the word that a new soccer team is here to connect with a ready-made target audience." The organization "timed the announcement of its first player acquisition, Spanish star David Villa, to coincide with the start of the World Cup." One N.Y.-area fan "didn't even know MLS existed a mere four days ago, and yet found herself at the NYC FC tent on Governors Island putting down a deposit" for '15 season tickets. That transformation represents what NYC FC Chief Business Officer Tim Pernetti "is hoping for as his club tries to build a fan base from the ground up." Pernetti said, "It's been great, especially in a place like New York where there are so many diverse fan bases of different countries, to piggyback on the visibility of the World Cup." But Barbarisi wrote keeping World Cup fans interested "for another 10 months is the real challenge." Pernetti: "There's a road map of announcements, events and things we want to accomplish that will give us the ability to keep a high level of engagement with the fans we've already developed, as we try to acquire new ones" (WSJ.com, 7/2).
TRYING TO CAPTURE THE AUDIENCE: ESPN's Darren Rovell said he believes people who watched the U.S. team "will come and check out" MLS following the World Cup. However, people "have to realize" that this year's World Cup "had a lot of goals, a lot of goals in the final 15 minutes." Rovell: "This was an American World Cup. ... We look for the highlights and for us Americans, a highlight is only one thing in soccer because it is in every other sport and that's a goal" ("Outside The Lines," ESPN, 7/2).
