REVIEW SPORT

Running Head: EMPHASIS ON EXPERIENCE 1

Major League Soccer: Emphasis on Experience = Fans in the Stands

Alexis Petrou

University of Florida

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Introduction

Over the past decade, Major League Soccer has grown exponentially. In the past, soccer

always took a back seat to the so-called “Big Four” professional sports (football, basketball,

baseball, and hockey). It was always referred to as the least popular sport in the United States.

However, in a recent change of events, soccer is now increasing in popularity and is not too far

behind the other professional sports leagues. Major League Soccer was never really considered a

serious professional sports league. There teams were not successful, their stadiums were never

filled, and the average American had an apathetic feeling toward the sport. In fact, “professional

soccer in the United States would remain dormant for over a decade until FIFA awarded the

1994 World Cup to the United States” (Ageris & Nagel, 2013). The recent boom of soccer in the

United States has spread across the nation, and it is now one of the most popular sports among

children and young adults in the country. This has been helped by the growth of technology and

media contracts, with national television companies now airing soccer games from across the

globe on a weekly basis. The United States has recently caught up with most other countries to

appreciate the most popular sport in the world.

Because of this rapid growth, Major League Soccer has expanded quicker than most other

professional sports leagues. A decade ago, the MLS consisted of only 12 teams. Today, that

number has grown to 20, with a further four teams joining the league by 2018 to bring the total to

24. Their commissioner, Don Garber, has claimed that they will not stop there, and eventually

want to reach 30 teams to compete with the other professional sports markets. Even though this

expansion has been good for the sport of soccer, there are some negatives that come with it.

Expanding so quickly makes it difficult to attract fans to these relatively new franchises. Some of

the professional soccer teams in Major League Soccer are struggling to sell tickets and fill their

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stadiums for their home games. This is not a problem solely for Major League Soccer, as other

professional teams in other leagues also struggle to sell out stadiums and arenas every game.

However, if the MLS wants to be able to sustain their expansion, teams will need to create a

loyal fan base to be able to stay afloat. In order to successfully attract fans to soccer stadiums, it

is necessary to investigate what fans consider important to their experience at games. In order to

determine this, fan motivation must be defined and evaluated in order to find out who, what,

when, where, and why fans choose to attend soccer games. Fan satisfaction is a major key to

successfully selling out games in any sports league, but research must be done to find out what

satisfies the core demographic of soccer fans. Research must be done to see the perception of

Major League Soccer as a whole, with the product on the field, with the facilities, and with the

competition between franchises. In addition, ticket pricing and attendance records are inherently

connected, therefore it is important to see which markets are successful and why they have been

successful. There is a lack of research done on fan attendance specific to soccer, and while there

has been research done on the relationship between differing factors influencing spectator

attendance, “most of this body of work is relevant to the ‘big three’ sports of football, basketball,

and baseball” (Parrish, 2013). Marketing strategies from other sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB,

NHL) can be applied to Major League Soccer. The key component to the research in question is

finding out what aspects of the fan experience are most critical to the average soccer fan.

Review of Literature

Consumer Satisfaction

In today’s sports marketing world, consumer expectations are of the utmost importance.

In order to better understand which aspects of the fan experience are valued, Michael Mondello

and Brian Gordon (2015) focused on consumer satisfaction in the National Basketball

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Association. In their research, The NBA Fan Experience: A Case Study of a Professional Sport

Franchise, they utilized focus groups of season ticket holders from the Orlando Magic franchise

to discuss their opinions on the fan experience on a variety of variables. To determine a the most

avid fans, it is important to gauge the level of interest, passion, and loyalty a fan displays to a

favorite sports team. The more connected a fan is to their team, the more time, money, and effort

they will spend on products and activities correlated with that team. The research done by

Modello and Gordon (2015) was focused on finding what customers wanted from their fan

experience, and how teams were “delivering and creating memorable experiences for their

customers.” In order to do this, they used two different focus groups comprised of male and

female ticket holders, varying in age and demographics. There are usually “two types of

customer satisfaction at sporting events: game satisfaction and service satisfaction” (Mondello &

Gordon, 2015). It is imperative to satisfy both needs if a professional sports franchise wants to

attract more fans to their home games. By using questions focused on advertising, ticketing

pricing, the overall experience, motivations, and frequency of attendance, the research was able

to determine what factors are of the most important to NBA fans. The findings of this study are

of particular importance to Major League Soccer, because they can employ some of the results to

create a better atmosphere and draw more fans to their games. Customer satisfaction is key to

keeping fans around, and the amount of satisfaction can impact “social identification and the

level of involvement towards sporting events and clubs” (Beccarini & Ferrand, 2006). There has

been research done that is negative regarding satisfaction with a professional league’s marketing

and operations. Using questionnaires, Bo Gong, Minkil Kim, Tyreal Qian, and James Zhang

(2015) investigated fan satisfaction in the Chinese Soccer League to determine whether customer

attention and involvement correlates with satisfaction. Their findings showed that in China, fans

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became less satisfied with the league the more they became involved in it. Because they were

able to see how the market and teams operated, they were turned off to the idea of attending

more games. The fans of the Chinese Soccer League “perceive that the league has a number of

problems. (Gong, et al. 2015). Findings like these are important for the MLS to consider because

they want to create a league that can function properly, as well as increase the satisfaction and

attendance of all fans.

Target Market

There are a variety of results from the studies conducted that can have an impact on the

fan experience in Major League Soccer games. Even though the focus groups were based on

NBA fans, the findings are applicable to all professional sports leagues. Most fans tend to plan

their entire night based on a sporting event if they plan on attending. In order to encourage this,

Major League Soccer teams should look to promote game packages that can allow for this.

Offering ticket packages for “Guys Night Out” or “Girls Night Out” could be beneficial to

attracting fans, especially young adults. The age of soccer fans “mostly ranges from 20-29 and

30-39 years” (Zorzou, et al. 2014). As pointed out in the study, “the majority of respondents

focused on ‘the entire experience’ when discussing their perceptions of attending a game”

(Mondello & Gordon, 2015). In addition, this specific study actually discovered that the Orlando

Magic contacted a MLS franchise, Sporting Kansas City to learn how they have increased ticket

sales. Sporting KC used sports analytics to find out in depth information about their average

fans. This is one way to discover what the average fans wants in their sporting experience.

Findings from other soccer cultures can be of importance when trying to increase ticket sales in

the United States. Mariana Carvalho, Felip Boen, Jose Pedro Sarmento, and Jereon Scheerder

(2015) looked into the attendance patterns in Portugal and Belgium to get a better understanding

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of predictors of soccer attendance. They focused on these two countries because they believed it

was a “good opportunity to include two different soccer attendance cultures” in order to find

patterns and profiles of fans (Carvalho, et al. 2015). Initially, Major League Soccer targeted the

“soccer mom” in order to attract fans to the stadiums. Recently however, there has been a shift to

young adults. Using surveys, Carvalho, et al (2015) suggests that there is a different market that

soccer teams should target: teens. While the push for soccer moms was partially successful,

Major League Soccer quickly learned that young adults were the best fans to try and attract for a

variety of reasons. However, teens should be targeted because “they are considered to be

trendsetters, because they influence their parents’ spending, and because they are a future

market” (Carvalho, et al. 2015). Major League Soccer should try to attract more teenagers

because they have a long term impact for game attendance. Teenagers and children tend to

become fans at a young age, so it is important to capitalize on this time frame. Argeris and Nagel

(20) further proved this theory when they found that “a weathly, young, white and male

population is associated with higher MLS attendance.” In addition, Mondello and Gordon (2015)

found that the main motives for attendance found in the study were centered on family influence.

The responders in the focus groups who had children tended to use that as an influence to attend

basketball games. In addition, some responders claimed games were used as a “family night out”

or “date night” with a significant other (Mondello & Gordon, 2015). It is not surprising to see

this, as many people use sporting events to get out of the house, as well as spend time with their

family or partner. Friends and peer groups also influenced fan attendance in a noticeable way.

Fans of Major League Soccer do no differ from those who are fans of the other four professional

sports leagues in the United States; they “tend to be young, male professionals with disposable

income” (Argeris & Nagel, 2013).

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Designated Players

Delving into the deep web of fan satisfaction can be a daunting task. There are a variety

of issues that have been shown to influence fan attendance at sporting events, and previous

research has found many different factors that can have an effect on a fan’s motivation to attend

games. One of the topics of influence that has been studied carefully is the work based around

the introduction of the “designated player” in Major League Soccer recently. Studies has shown

that attendance will increase with the presence of designated players, regardless of whether the

team is successful or not. When the Los Angeles Galaxy were able to convince David Beckham

to join their MLS franchise in 2007, the league discovered a new trend. Bringing in established,

well-known soccer players from around the world could have a positive impact on fan

attendance. Steve Argeris and Mark Nagel (2013) studied the effects of the “designated player”

on average fan attendance and they found that “Beckham’s inclusion on the Galaxy roster nearly

doubled attendance figures.” The MLS instituted the “Beckham Rule” because previous research

has shown that “MLS attendance is dependent upon the presence of ‘better players’” (Parrish,

2013). After the designated player rule was instituted, more teams were looking to attract highly

marketable superstars so that they could increase ticket sales and merchandise revenue. Charles

Parrish (2013) wanted to discover whether the presence of these new, attractive superstars had a

noticeable effect on fan attendance for franchises. By looking at the attendance records for

matches that had one or multiple designated players participating versus games without any,

results showed that there was a relationship present between fan attendance and the amount of

designated players participating in a match. In order to sell more tickets, Major League Soccer

franchises need to be able to sign quality soccer players from around the world, preferably ones

that are house hold names. It does not matter their age, but rather the recognition they have

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globally. The MLS has succeeded in implementing the strategy to make “it possible for teams to

pay market value to high profile players without having these salaries count against a team’s

salary cap” (Parrish, 2013). Fans want to see star players involved in their league, and allowing

franchises to sign more can increase attendance and ticket sales.

Game Atmosphere/Team Success

By looking at the designated player rule, Major League Soccer can learn a lot about their

product on the field when determining fan satisfaction. Fans do not necessarily care about the

product on the field, but rather about the atmosphere at the stadium and star players they will get

to see. For some teams, a major negative for season ticket holders is also the overall atmosphere

at games. Even though some teams’ “roster lacked genuine star power,” fans were still willing to

attend if the energy in the building was “electric” (Mondello & Gordon, 2015). Fans want to

experience something exciting and energetic. If the fans are not into the game, then it takes away

from the entire sporting experience. The product on the court or field is not as important as the

energy of the fans. It is of the utmost importance to provide an energetic game atmosphere, as

this was a strong predictor of fan satisfaction. Research has been conducted in Germany to

determine whether or not fans stay loyal when their teams get relegated to a lower division. The

study is important because it further proves that fans do not care if their team wins or loses, but

rather the emotional connection they feel with their favorite team. Previous research has shown

that “soccer fans tend to claim to maintain a deep relationship with their club” (Koenigstorfer,

Groeppel-Klein, & Schmitt, 2010). Using a longitudinal field study and applying an inner-

subject design, Koenigstorfer, Groeppel-Klein, & Schmitt (2010), were able to examine if fan’s

loyalty changes when their team gets relegated. Surprisingly, they found that “highly committed

fans and their clubs are strongly bound to each other—and this connection becomes even

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stronger after relegation” (Koenigstorfer, et al. 2010). Major League Soccer can look at this and

put it to use in a marketing strategy. Providing a great team atmosphere will have a greater

impact on fan loyalty than just success. Fans want to feel a connection to their club, and they can

achieve this by creating intimate connections throughout the franchise. If fans are able to have

this connection, then they will stand by the club, even in bad times. Fan passion has always been

described as a key componenet of intimidating franchises. A loyal fan base can help a team

achieve success and can thrive off the atmosphere provided by fans. Kirk Wakefield (2016)

wanted to investigate the role that passion plays in the consumption of fans. He wanted to know

if passion lead to an increase in fans’ desire to attend games or consume more information about

the team. Through his research, he found that “passion strongly predicted attendance” and the

more passionate a fan is, the more likely they are to attend (Wakefield, 2016). Fan passion has

always influenced leisure activites, but this is of particular importance to Major League Soccer

because they can use these findings to their advantage. By connecting fans to the franchise, they

will in turn become more passionate about it. The more passionate a fan is, the less likely they

are to desert the team in bad times.

Adam Karg, Heath McDonald, and Geoff Schoenberg (2015) wanted to prove this further

by investigating whether coaching changes had a negative effect on fan attendance. This topic is

particulary important regarding season ticket holders, because it would impact whether or not

they choose to renew their tickets. Previous research has shown that the product on the field or

court does not necessarily influence season ticket holders’ decision to renew each year, but

coaching changes have not been investigated. Since “less than 5% of coaches across the four

major US professional leagues have tenure longer than a decade,” changes could have an adverse

effect on fan attendance (Karg, McDonald, & Schoenberg, 2015). Using an online questionnaire

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to determine fan satisfaction regarding coaching changes, they discovered that “appointing a new

coach was met with increases in positive attitudes toward almost every aspect of the season

ticket holder experience” (Karg, et al. 2015). Major League Soccer can use research like this to

its advantage because coaching changes occur rapidly for new professional teams. As the league

continues to expand, new coaches will be introduced, while other will be removed. The coaching

carousel will be in full effect, and it is important to know how season ticket holders will respond

to coaching changes. Professional franchises need to have coaching plans in place and know who

the successor will be. When teams hesitate after firing their head coach, season ticket holders

may be skeptical to renew. Attitudes can be expected to change positively “when the succession

cycle is completed—through the appointment of the successor’ (Karg, et al. 2015).

Soccer Specific Stadiums

When looking at the success of Major League Soccer recently, it is important to consider

the markets that have been chosen for expansion. Previous research by Charles Parrish (2013)

has shown that “soccer specific stadia provide a more appealing atmosphere for spectators.”

Using attendance figures and determining which teams have soccer specific stadiums, Parrish

was able to determine whether attendance is affected by the type of stadium used. When teams

used soccer specific stadiums, attendance actually increased. To back up this theory, Steve

Argeris and Mark Nagel (2013) investigated Major League Soccer attendance to determine the

effects of stadiums (soccer versus football specific), location, and designated players on fan

attendance. It is necessary to delve into these topics because these findings could play a major

role in where a new expansion team may choose to play, as well as who teams might try to sign

in the transfer market. As Major League Soccer continues to expand, the need for facilities

becomes more and more important. In the past, when expansion teams were joining the league,

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they usually tried to share football specific stadiums for their home soccer games. The problem

with this, however, is that soccer games did not attract as many fans as football games, therefore

the stadiums would usually look empty. Recently, though, a trend has begun where MLS teams

are “moving from large, American football-oriented multipurpose facilities into soccer-specific

venues” (Argeris & Nagel, 2013). When deciding expansion teams, Major League Soccer now

looks at whether teams are willing to build their own soccer specific stadium when they join the

league. Investigating this trend is key to determining fan satisfaction at games. When games are

held at soccer specific stadiums, it can make the fans feel more important, and that their teams

value their attendance. It is not a shared stadium, but rather their own home venue they can feel

attached to. Using a survey regarding on-field performance and stadium quality, Argeris and

Nagel (2013) were able to find that “the building of soccer-specific stadiums typically offered

fans a better on-site experience.” Major League Soccer can use this to create better fan

experiences by using soccer venues as home fields. The number of teams that have soccer venues

has increased, but it can only benefit Major League Soccer’s ticket sales if they require all

stadiums to have their own home field. Marko Sarstedt, Christian Ringle, Sascha Raithel, and

Siegfried Gudergan (2014) investigated the soccer specific stadium trend in Germany, using

online questionnaires and forums to determine that “satisfaction with the club stadium affects fan

satisfaction.” While the team on the field might have an impact on the experience, they found

that new stadiums could have an increase in attendance, even if performances on the field do not

change. As long as basic needs are filled in the stadium, most fans will be pleased to have their

own venue to cheer on their favorite team.

Advertising

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Also important is the advertising and availability of ticket packages. Using more social

media platforms could result in reaching more fans. If fans are not aware of the ticket plans that

are offered by the MLS franchise, then they will not be able to attend games. “Passion produced

the strongest effects on attendance, media consumption, Facebook usage, and Twitter usage

(Wakefield, 2016). For many fans, promotional nights often influence their desire to attend one

of the games. When there are promotional ticket offerings, or when there is a giveaway at the

arena, fans are more likely to attend the game. Especially when talking about fans with children,

this could be a useful tool to get parents to bring their children to the games if they know their

child might get a toy or poster for attending. In contrast, however, some of the reasons fans did

not attend games were due to the time commitment, scheduling conflicts, finance problems, and

affordability of tickets. Offering promotions that increase fan identification can have a positive

impact on attendance and viewership. Anne Wan-Ling Hu and Lin-Ru Tang (2010) used

questionnaires to determine that entertainment and perceived fan identification “positively

affected length of viewing behavior.” This shows that the happier fans are at games, the longer

they will stay. Offering promotional value will only increase the satisfaction of fans. In addition,

if concession prices were lower or if the tickets were more valuable (i.e. receiving a souvenir or

all-inclusive tickets), then fans might be more inclined to attend. One of the major problems that

the study by Mondello and Gordon (2015) found regarding attendance was the lack of awareness

for ticket plans. Almost all of the participants were not aware that there were ticket packages

available. The ticket plans gave fans the ability to overcome both the financial and scheduling

problems, both of which were the two biggest attendance constraints. The general awareness of

these plans was lacking, therefore more advertising can be done in order to sell more packages.

Since technology has continued to expand astronomically over the past decade, the use of it has

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become important to professional sports leagues. Social media can be used to advertise ticket

packages in order to reach the target market of teenagers and young professionals. Passionate

fans are more likely to use social media accounts to monitor their favorite team because “passion

strongly predicts social media behavior related to the team” (Wakefield, 2016). Almost every

young fan is on social media today, therefore using this could be of great value to Major League

Soccer to increase fan attendance.

Implications

The studies discussed can have a positive impact moving forward for Major League

Soccer. As the league grows, it needs to be able to continue to sell tickets, as well as develop the

fan experience into something truly memorable. From previous research, franchises have learned

that most fans care more about the experience rather than the product on the field or court. Major

League Soccer must move forward and try to use all soccer-specific venues, as this leads to

increased fan satisfaction. In addition, teams must try to target a new market: teenagers. Teens

are the future of fans; therefore, they must be pursued to increase fan loyalty at a young age.

Young adults usually have disposable income as well, and research has shown that focusing on

this demographic can have positive effects on ticket sales. Rules might have to be changed in

order to allow more franchises to sign designated players because that is who fans want to see

playing. Designated players can increase attendance as well as quality of the team. It also adds

value in marketing as teams will be able to create a face to associate with the franchise. It is

necessary to create marketing campaigns to advertise game plans, increase attendance, and create

the best overall experience so that fans will keep coming back for more. Major League Soccer

can learn from other professional leagues’ ticketing plans, as well as other soccer leagues around

the globe, and they can increase and sustain fan attendance in the future.

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