Welcome to the decade of soccer.
Unlike the 1970s, which was supposed to be the decade of soccer, the game now has the critical mass of players, fans, stadiums, media and sponsors.
Major League Soccer (MLS) was a legacy of the United States-hosted 1994 World Cup. Education and public facilities equality requirements spurred the boom in women’s soccer that spilled over the border to Canada. Those who were adults when the NASL was in its heyday had kids who played soccer in the 1980s and 1990s. Those kids have grown up and have children of their own that are themselves growing up on the economical game.
It is the No. 1 sport in Canada with nearly 900,000 registered players. Hockey has less than 600,000. Soccer is the growth sport. Hockey has maxed out.
The Vancouver Whitecaps host Toronto FC in the historic March 19 season opener at Empire Field. Next year, the Montreal Impact will join.
The 2012 women’s Olympic qualifying tournament for the North American, Central American and Caribbean zone is coming to Vancouver, which will also host matches during the 2014 Under-20 Women’s World Cup and 2015 Women’s World Cup. If the Canadian men’s team can qualify for Brazil 2014, then all the better.
Hockey, however, has what soccer doesn’t. Deep roots in the culture, mythology and an industry. Hockey has iconic goals by Paul Henderson, Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby. Jason DeVos’ 2000 Gold Cup-winning goal heads a very short list.
On this coast, it’s up to the Whitecaps and its heritage brand. The original club was established in 1974 and its MLS descendant is expected to attract 21,000 to the reduced soccer configuration at 27,500-seat Empire. The capacity matches the BC Place level-two configuration where the Whitecaps will play three games in October.
“At this stage we want to focus on exactly what we’ve got and making sure the demand we’ve got is highly sustainable,” said chief executive Paul Barber. “I’d rather have a tight stadium bowl filled to capacity with great atmosphere and see where we can go from there.”
Barber’s conservatism may be well founded after BC Lions president Dennis Skulsky proclaimed the orange-and-black’s return to Empire in 2010 would be the hottest ticket of the summer. The team slumped through summer, and fans found excuses not to come: scarce parking, no convenient rapid transit and lack of restaurants and pubs in the immediate vicinity. Only one game was sold out.
Barber was the Europe, Middle East and Africa CEO for Ogilvy and Mather before joining Tottenham Hotspur as executive director in 2005 and is the driving force behind the Bill Downie-devised launch campaign. Creative director Downie’s Slingshot shop, the former Publicis Vancouver, released a series of videos with local luminaries like Daniel Sedin and Bryan Adams plus put oversized Bell-sponsored Whitecaps’ jerseys onto the Lions Gate Bridge lions and the Gassy Jack Deighton statue in Gastown.
Gotta give Visa credit for trying.
The Olympic credit card sponsor marked the first anniversary of the end of the 2010 Winter Olympics by issuing a study that said tourist spending was up in 2010. Well, sure it was. The preceding year was mired in a recession and 2010 featured a record-setting February in B.C. Olympic sponsors, broadcasters, national Olympic committees, sports executives and the public came to Vancouver for the Games where they could only use a Visa card to buy at Olympic venues or from the official VANOC website.
Visa, like others in the Olympic equation, rushed to justify its spending and produced a promotional document disguised as a research paper.
The numbers are suspect, including one that claims “275 million” Olympic guests.
The footnote cited a Korea Herald travel story that said: “The province has not only put itself on the map but has successfully promoted itself during the Olympic Winter Games earlier this year, hosting approximately 275 million visitors.”
Maybe there were 275,000 visitors. But definitely not 275 million!
Adding zeroes where they don’t belong is an unofficial Olympic sport. Some still believe 3.5 billion people watched the Games. The International Olympic Committee’s post-Games estimate of actual viewership was a humble 1.8 billion.
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