New York Cosmos a Brand without a Team
by Dave Clark on Jan 19, 2011 8:17 PM PST
in Other Professional Soccer (non-Sound)
Email
PrintYou know those kids that wear the Negro League Baseball caps? So you ask them about Satchel Paige and they look at you like you are the idiot? Or those that wear rugby shirts, and yet they don't know about the Super League? Those guys that absolutely love the University of Washington but couldn't talk to you about Don James?
Somewhere, some marketing guru/dork managed to sell a brand. They absorbed a little bit of history, wrapped it up in myth and slapped it on some cotton from Pakistan, or somewhere else and people started buying it. The youth buying these items don't generally know about the history of what they are getting. They like the look, the feel, the myth.
That's the current version of the New York Cosmos.
Quoting from the linked wikipedia (sure to change soon)
Former Cosmos players Pelé and Giorgio Chinaglia were also involved with this group. Pelé announced the club's return in August 2010,
Pele announced the club's return? Really? WHAT Club?
The Cosmos have continued to add dignitaries to their staff. Global soccer icons, and yet... I search league's for information. They are in MLS? Nope. NASL 2.0? Nope. USLPro? Nope, different FCNY there. PDL? Nope. Super Y-league? NPSL? NSSL? NO, no, no.
There's no team to the team. They don't even plan to have a team until 2013.
Well, sure they have some academy teams on each coast. Their East Coast version is 3-2-0 with a +3 GD. The West is 1-1-1 with a +1. Neither has left the bottom 10 for games played. Maybe they are being run by some Portuguese genius who doesn't believe in competitive matches until after age 17? Probably not, because they would be stupid to join the system then.
Its getting silly though. This brand, this hype. It is being maintained not necessarily by stalwarts in soccer journalism, but instead by those who are old enough to remember the NASL as adults, and Europe. In America the Cosmos hype is Gen X and older, and yet, MLS is using Gen Y and younger as their marketing fuel. In Europe it seems like if you mention Pele, Beckham or Cosmos you shoot to the top of search engines. Whether or not there is a team involved.
In this case there is no team. Sure, there might be an MLS side some day. New York city is almost certain to be the 20th team. I would even say it is likely to be the Cosmos, in 2013.
So what is today's huge billboard in Times Square saying
We're Back
Really... nothing says that a sports team is back like not actually playing games, except maybe some exhibition games. But seriously is that back? If the Cosmos play in an All-Star type friendly is that back?
If the Harlem Globetrotters signed Michael Jordan would ANYONE take them seriously? No. Not in the least. And yet American media is fawning over the Cosmos. They are generating hype like very few MLS sides can. We happen to be fans of one team that does a bit of it. And yet they are nothing.
They are not a soccer team. They are not the old Cosmos reborn. They are not the 20th team.
What are the Cosmos right now?
They are the equal to an Abercrombie & Fitch baseball cap. They only people who will own their jerseys are either well into your 40s, or naive. You are supporting either a dead team, long gone, or you are into hype.
Even if the Cosmos get announced as MLS team 20, what's their Times Square billboard going to say? "We're back, again, but for reals." Doesn't have the ring. When they take the pitch with overage retiring Europeans vs the smart MLS sides that are growing in Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, DC, Dallas with homegrown talents supplemented by lesser known, but actually good internationals how will they do as Cosmos 3.0? Will hype be enough, or will New York city expect them to win to be true to their brand.
52 comments
|
1 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
also, slightly off topic.
I hate that its basically a given that New York will be getting a second team. I know, I know, RBNY is technically in New Jersey, but there are a ton of other deserving markets out there that MLS is not in already.
so where would you put team #20
just wondering, I am doing a series of posts on my blog about team #20 and I dislike the idea of NY2 a lot, but wonder what markets you think MLS should be looking at?
Tacoma
Could instantly become part of the Northwest rivalry and already has a solid indoor team.
No, but seriously. I’d look at Atlanta, Richmond, Puerto Rico, and San Diego. Maybe Hawaii for giggles.
Nos Audietis
Definitely
We should definitely start a Tacoma to MLS campaign just to make everyone hate us even more. Fake Sigi’s head might explode.
San Antonio, eventually Miami
Miami doesn’t deserve one now, but I think the MLS should spread out and try a different market. Obviously a rivalry in NY has worked in every other American sport, but I think they should hold off until NYRB proves that people will still go to games when they have a bad season.
ZackyRy
by Zack Ryland on Jan 20, 2011 12:11 AM PST up reply actions
Maybe even St. Louis?
Love the support that Charleston Battery has, but I don’t know that they’d be able to make it at MLS level.
AC St. Louis has been a disaster for a reason
Fans there expected MLS… got Division 2 quality, marketing, and hype.
If they got MLS, it wouldn’t be a Seattle, but it would be a sufficiently supportive market.
The attendance seemed fine
The problem seemed to be the ownership ran out of money and wasn’t all they promised to be. I
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, North American soccer editor SB Nation and of course follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jan 20, 2011 10:58 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
St Louis...
once upon a time was Soccer City USA. There is a history they could tap into there, just so long as they use that history and not some idiotic foreign name like AC or Athletica…
...that's MISTER Keller to you!!!
by malcontentjake on Jan 20, 2011 8:03 PM PST up reply actions
Exactly,
Also probably a case of L.A. envy. I have a suspicion that his story/thread is going to get a lot of publicity.
Great post
they should of announced the club when it actually was going to form, but definitively not when it isn’t even in a minor soccer league yet.
"The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"- Qui-Gon Jinn
Really?
I mean, it’s a bit over the top, sure, but given their odds of being the 20th MLS side how can it hurt? Start the buzz early, play off the Cosmos myth/legend/brand and have some serious support when things kick off. Better to start a fan base with high expectations than have no base whatsoever.
Also, no stadium.
And not much in the way of prospects either. And I don’t see the Mystique following the team to a facility in Jersey.
Source?
The Cosmos paid $2M for rights to their name. They’ve bought two academies. Just this week, they hired Cobi Jones away from LA Galaxy. There are plenty of signs that point to them having some money. Do they have enough to build a SSS in NYC and pay the league fee? I don’t have their bank statements, so I can’t say. But I’m sure you don’t have their bank statements either. There’s no particular reason to believe with any certainty that they do or don’t have the money.
Is it reasonable to assume that if they had the money that would have already bid?
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
You need more than the money to bid
Once you have the money, you need a plan to buy real estate in NYC and build a stadium. Those sorts of plans take some time to put in place. Once you have that in place, then you have a much stronger bid, and Garber would potentially settle for a lower bid into the league if you had a strong stadium plan.
Also, Garber is apparently trying to entice the Wilpons into investing in an NYC franchise, so through discussions with Garber, it could be clear to the Cosmos that Garber wants to drum up competing interest before he actually accepts a bid.
That's what I would argue
If they had the money the wouldn’t be wasting time feeding the hype machine.
Look Up Their Owners
Some of the news on these guys makes it look like they don’t have much money right now. They might be able to get enough down the road if they bring in some other investors. The hype they are doing right now should help with that.
Paul Kemsley used to be worth a decent amount but seems to have lost so much money in the 2008 crash that he couldn’t even make a margin call of 2 million pounds.
Terry Byrne is a former sports masseuse and has been involved in sports marketing projects, none of them that big or successful enough to make him wealthy enough to get a 100-200 million $ stadium built.
Rick Parry was an executive at Liverpool, NOT an owner, and he made 500,000 pounds a year while he worked there in the 2000’s. Definitely not enough money to get a 100-200 million $ stadium built.
Even if they are each worth tens of millions, which I doubt, how liquid are they? Are they willing to sell all their other investments and put all their networth into a franchise fee, stadium construction, and player acquisition? Even if you add Beckham to this venture it still doesn’t look like enough. The people who would really be able to put them over the top would be the Wilpons, but nobody knows how much they are worth in the aftermath of their losses with Madoff.
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Jan 20, 2011 4:10 PM PST up reply actions
Thanks for the info
I hadn’t seen anything resembly concrete information on their financials up to this point. People have done stupider things in the past, but putting up $2M for the Cosmos logo rights suggests to me that they have at least some reasonable hope of raising enough money, but time will tell.
Wilpons made money on Madoff
From what I’ve read on the internet, the Wilpons actually came out ahead on the Madoff scam by taking their money out early.
If This is True
They will still be disgorged of their gains by unjust enrichment lawsuits.
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Jan 21, 2011 12:18 AM PST up reply actions
they aren't team 20...yet
The Cosmos are doing everything right. Don Garber has stated yes..the 20th team is in NY..but it doesn’t mean it’s going to be the cosmos..he said there are other people out there trying to get that 20th spot…The Cosmos, are just doing their part to get people excited for their brand..and that way..when the decision comes..Garber won’t want to lose those potential fans..and pick them..smart move.
by Amy Swearingen on Jan 19, 2011 10:51 PM PST reply actions
This may be
But there’s no reason the fans of the other existing 19 teams have to like it. The fact that foreign media only seems to recognize the league when a non-team starts making waves about coming back to life does get a bit annoying.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, North American soccer editor SB Nation and of course follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jan 20, 2011 12:07 AM PST up reply actions
So what?
Come for the Cosmos, stay for the Sounders. As much as MLS has improved, if the foreign media was only interested in the quality of soccer over here, they are right to pay very little attention to us. Not only are there other leagues as good or better than MLS, including one in our own federation, for any European press, we play games at inconvenient times compared to other leagues with comparable talent. There’s no reason for them to really pay that much attention to us if it is simply about the soccer.
If it takes some shiny bauble like the Cosmos name to get them more interested, that’s fine by me.
All that is true
But my point is that it’s reasonable for existing MLS fans to feel slighted. Not saying it’s right, just understandable.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, North American soccer editor SB Nation and of course follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on Jan 20, 2011 11:02 AM PST up reply actions
Doing everything right
The only thing “right thing” a potential owner needs to do to get an MLS team is show the commissioner $40 million and a stadium. The Cosmos have plenty of hype, but no hint that they are remotely close on the 2 things that matter.
by bauckus on Jan 20, 2011 9:57 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Best... Post...Ever!
...that's MISTER Keller to you!!!
by malcontentjake on Jan 19, 2011 11:10 PM PST reply actions
I see no negative in the NY Cosmos efforts to get rebooted. I mean yea it may be a little overhyped but its an effort to revive footy in one of the greatest cities in the world.
proud 4th line advocate
After a long arduous summer of training, back for a new season of perpetuating hockey superstitions
Consider the Earthquakes
When they went to Houston, it’s not as though they popped up again as a USL team, or had a big youth academy, or whatever. They were just a brand, and that brand was brought back to MLS in 2008.
So yeah, right now the Cosmos are essentially just a brand. Those in charge of the brand have brought associated themselves with big names in soccer. This is in order for that brand to raise money amongst investors so that they have the money to A) pay the fee to enter MLS and B) build their own stadium, which will be expensive in NY, especially since they are unlikely to get much, if any public funding for such an endeavor in today’s economy.
Having a second team in NY makes a ton of sense in the long term for MLS. There are few markets with 12M people in the US, but half of NYC is one of them. MLS won’t stop at 20 teams, so if the Cosmos happen to be the next team with enough funding to get in the door, so be it. Entering MLS has always been about who has the most money, not who has the most soccer talent. So the Cosmos are trying to raise money rather than run a great second-division team. I don’t have any problem with this business model, since it happens to be a business model that has worked so far. All of this money that the Cosmos are raising will eventually go into MLS, which is a good thing for the Sounders.
When they take the pitch with overage retiring Europeans vs the smart MLS sides that are growing in Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, DC, Dallas with homegrown talents supplemented by lesser known, but actually good internationals how will they do as Cosmos 3.0?
And why do we expect them to do this? Okay, so their academy teams haven’t played many games, but they haven’t actually signed any aging players to play soccer for them. So far their money is behind the company line that they want to grow from within and develop young talent.
What would actually be worrisome is if they were trying to field a second division side with a bunch of aging Euros. But they aren’t. They’re just raising money and seem to be doing a good job of it to boot.
The Earthquakes were on hiatus for only a couple years
not a couple of decades.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Big deal
Either way, they had no players. Having a team in place has never been a requirement for MLS entry.
And the Quakes didn't announce "We're Back"
Until they were actually back.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
It's probably about the stadium
They need 250 million and some good will from local planning commisions, state government and the meriad of people the get involved in stopping/starting a stadium. This push of press is about getting those types of people on board.
I see it as akin to those that pushed to have Qwest built for soccer, when no team was available to play there. Only this time they have a known brand which can only help
Talking smack
I just love that Dave is already talking smack about a potential MLS rival that doesn’t exist yet and is nailing it. Like LA, a brand that everyone (at least in Seattle) loves to hate. Cosmos=baseless hype! yuck the fankees!
I actually don't hate on the Cosmos
They have brilliant marketers.
I hate on the people buying into the marketing without recognizing that’s all it is.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
If no one was buying into it..
…it wouldn’t be brilliant marketing. And the best way to ensure that people don’t ignore something is to write even more about it.
I'll believe the Cosmos are back
When the Wilpons join the ownership group. They have the experience of running a major league team in NY, and more importantly, they own land in the city that can be developed as a SSS.
Until then the Cosmos are all flash and no fire.
The Cosmos may or may not make it
But all of these complaints about the Cosmos marketing themselves and the media reporting on it are at least as ridiculous as the marketing itself.
Even negative press is good press for a 'team without a team'
Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to see the Cosmos brand back in the game, but that’s all it will be. There’s no way they can recreate the Cosmos in the parity obsessed MLS.
Garber will go with the ownership group that has a realistic shot at building a stadium in the city. The only one that has an outside shot at getting a stadium built are the Wilpons.
The Cosmos definitely won't be the NASL-wreckers that they were in their first incarnation
The brand enough, though, makes them a good bet to draw better than NYRB, especially if they get a SSS anywhere near NYC proper. That’s surely easier said than done, but the potential for MLS to rake in tons of money, especially in TV rights and merchandising, from this is huge.
It's ridiculous to complain that hype works?
It’s called ‘hype’ not ‘substance’ for a reason.
Nos Audietis
I think it's a total waste of time
The correct reaction, in my opinion, to an overhyped story is to ignore it. If you don’t think it’s worth the media’s time, it’s not worth your time to complain about the media hyping the story. The media isn’t going to report on the most worthy story out there, they are going to report on the story that they think will keep them in business. Rightly or not, Cosmos is a well-known brand, so the media will report on them.
Frankly, as an MLS fan, I think it’s great that there are stories out there about a potential future expansion team, especially in the off-season when there are no MLS games anyway. If this was dominating the news cycle during MLS Cup, that would be obnoxious.
If the Cosmos project collapses
(much as the Portsmouth and Notts County projects collapsed) because the people behind it turned out to be snake-oil salesmen will that be a net positive or negative for MLS?
I work an industry stuffed with charlatans and spammers who think if they can drive the hype machine fast enough to outgrow their burn rate they can be the next Facebook. They’re a blight, nothing good comes of them, and they never improve the industry in which they operate.
And ‘ignoring them’ to make a stand is sort of silly if ESPN is covering them. It’s not like Bristol is going to hit the brakes because they’re not getting enough positive reinforcement from Sounder at Heart. If they’re getting coverage anyway, the best thing to do is to be cautionary and informative, not silent.
Nos Audietis
I think it's one thing to point out that the Cosmos still have plenty of hurdles to overcome
But it’s another thing to complain about the hype they are getting.
I think that over-hyped/under-hyped discussions are about as lame as most overrated/underrated discussions of players. I’m not really that interested in whether or not the media is over- or under-hyping the Cosmos. I don’t particularly care to analyze the media. And the whole post seems predicated on tearing the Cosmos to shreds because they announced “We’re Back.” So what. They’re a business trying to advertise for itself. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t, but I’m not going to fault them for trying.
It’s not like Bristol is going to hit the brakes because they’re not getting enough positive reinforcement from Sounder at Heart.
And it’s not like Bristol is going to hit the brakes because they’re getting negative feedback from Sounder At Heart. Complaining about the media is much less useful than simply stating a case that stands in contrast to what the media is reporting. A post could be written about all of the pitfalls the Cosmos face without one mention of their advertisements or their coverage from other news outlets.
On balance, I don’t think it’s a big deal if the Cosmos get big hype and then have their bid fall through. My view is that MLS will sink or swim based on the quality of soccer it offers. And that will depend largely on tapping into America’s vast population, investing in youth soccer, and watching the quality of play improve. I think that having a second team in NYC would be good for MLS, but whether or not that’s the Cosmos and whether or not that’s team 20 or team 26 will probably have some short-term impacts on MLS, but I don’t think it’s some kind of serious danger and the reputation of MLS in Europe is about 1,323rd on my list of concerns for the league.
When there are 10 would-be teams out there hyping there next-big-thing status, maybe I’ll start to get concerned that MLS is in danger of too much negative press, but I’m not worried about the Cosmos bringing the league down.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
Maybe that’s what The Don has been doing all along….
-————
That said, if MLS wants to expand into other parts of the country, they could do it by moving Chivas USA to San Diego and FC Frisco to San Antonio, and forget about going back to Florida or anywhere else in the Deep South, though bringing PR Islanders up to MLS does sound intriguing, ridiculous as it may seem…..
by BroadwayJoeFYVM on Jan 21, 2011 5:51 PM PST up reply actions
I doubt Dallas moves as long as it turns a profit
and it does
Rent for the high school football games, truck shows, etc
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Odd situation
Not a soccer guy but it seems a whole lot of hype and most of it being done over seas with some success here in the United States.
Just wonder what happens when a different group sets up an actual stadium proposal that is sound while the Cosmos are selling hype and billboards to a name. That is all they are now a name.
Mountain West Connection The best site for MWC sports!
Follow me on twitter!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
