Impact Match in Montreal

[superbrad]

Ok I'm currently in Costa Rica where they have football fields in the tiniest of villages (that are watered...). However, I just read every thread on the Impact match at the O in Montreal. How the hell does the CSA forgive themselves for the gargantuan debacle that was the MNT vs. Honduras? With this kind of support for an important club game, surely a half witted marketing team could have whipped up some fancy ad's and given our MNT a home team crowd?? Maybe they should have played this one in Stade Olympic? I don't know. Honestly I thing the order of games was all wrong. Game 1 should have been in Edmonton. Game 2 in Toronto and Game 3 in Montreal....

This sounds crazy, but maybe the CSA underestimates the potential of being able to draw a home crowd...and still plans for the ticket revenue of the 'away' team......

They placed all these games where the local 'away' support would be strong. Man that cheeses me. Are there any positive thinkers in the CSA????

[RS]

The order of the games was fine.

I don't recall significant Jamaican support in Toronto for Game 1, in fact it was quite the opposite (not to mention a mid-week game). Game 3 in Edmonton was pro-Canadian as well. Game 2 could have been much more pro-Canadian, but it's been talked to death on here why that wasn't the case.

Honestly though, do you really think putting the Mexico game in Montreal (and much closer to the massive Mexican support base in the northeast US) would have been smarter than putting it in Edmonton?

[JamboAl]

I'll add my two cents having been at the game on Wed. I think people showed up because it was a Montreal team and not the CNMT. Would the CNMT draw 55,000 to a Second Round WC Qualifying game in Montreal? IMHO, no, or at least not without the help of 25-30,000 Mexicans. A lot of the Impact support may also support Italy, France, Greece, etc way before they would support Canada, but they do love their hometown. And without getting too deep into it, there were probably a good number of people who attended who probably consider themselves "souverainistes" and wouldn't support Canada anyways. We just have to make sure that if another CNMT match is held at Saputo, that Canadian supporters are given first crack at the tickets, however that might come about.

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by superbrad

Ok I'm currently in Costa Rica where they have football fields in the tiniest of villages (that are watered...). However, I just read every thread on the Impact match at the O in Montreal. How the hell does the CSA forgive themselves for the gargantuan debacle that was the MNT vs. Honduras? With this kind of support for an important club game,

Club support and National team support are two different things. Club support will never be a problem in Canada because the loyalties are fragmented on the part of ex pats from the country of origin of the visiting side. For example, if an english side were to play a freindly, the only people that will show up to support the visitors, are supporters of that club. Other expats are just as likely, if not more, to support the home side because of the rivalry factor.

But national teams have widespread loyalties( ie.: all Hondurans instaed of just Marathon supporters). There is nothing short of drastic actions, that can be done in the near term to ensure vocal and numerical home support when we play NT's from central america. I have offerred up theories on this many times recently as to why this is the case and why its not likely to change.

The Honduras gamne in Montreal and the Chile game in Toronto taught us everything we need to know about what issue is.

To re iterate, here are some of what needs to be done as far as the NT:

1) Distribution and re distribution of tickets. The only people with a vested interest in seeing home support are the fans and the players. The CSA has apartial interest. The third party middlemen have no interest other than to sell the tickets at the highest value possible so they benefit greatly when there is demand from outside the county and when there is alot of resale. So you need to prevent re sale and control the distribution network.

2) You need larger local supporters groups accross Canada. At least along the lines of what you have in TO.

3) The MNT needs to start producing better results in important mathces and tournaments.

Before someone chimes in that point number one is too drastic and heavy of an undertaking, consider this: TFC tickets are, at least 80-90%, not distributed through middlemen. The club produces, prints and send us the tickets through the mail. Ticketmaster is not invloved in 80% of the sales. IF MLSE wanted to take these tickets away from me, they could do so easily.

[Kurosawa1555362267]

For the CMNT in Québec ignorance is aso a factor. The french media do a good job covering the Impact but you never hear anything about Canada.

[Keano]

quote:Originally posted by JamboAl

I'll add my two cents having been at the game on Wed. I think people showed up because it was a Montreal team and not the CNMT. Would the CNMT draw 55,000 to a Second Round WC Qualifying game in Montreal? IMHO, no, or at least not without the help of 25-30,000 Mexicans. A lot of the Impact support may also support Italy, France, Greece, etc way before they would support Canada, but they do love their hometown. And without getting too deep into it, there were probably a good number of people who attended who probably consider themselves "souverainistes" and wouldn't support Canada anyways. We just have to make sure that if another CNMT match is held at Saputo, that Canadian supporters are given first crack at the tickets, however that might come about.

The sheer numbers of France and Italy jerseys that helped color the Big O blue on Wednesday night would corroborate your first point. Also at the u20 WC there were at least 20 000 rabid Portuguese, and big crowds of 8-10 K Poles, Czechs and others who turned out for their matches. Guarantee you, most of these types probably don't even know there is a Canadian National Team, let alone that perhaps a Canadian may even start for their favorite European club back home.

However to me this is not an inherent obstacle, it simply means that the CMNT needs to be MUCH better marketed among ethnic communities. I wonder if the best way to do that would be to emphasize the European-"basedness" of the European-based players. Make a big fancy ad that shows DeGuz, Edgar and Stalteri in their recognizable club gear, under the banner of an upcoming National team match. Can that be done from a legal standpoint? This would turn a lot more heads that a picture of some anonymous looking Scarborough guys in red shirts. . It's simple, creative branding principles along these lines that the CSA is unwilling to consider it seems.

[canucklefan]

quote:Originally posted by Kurosawa

The french media do a good job covering the Impact but you never hear anything about Canada.

The french media covers only Montreal Canadians, we hear often, too much, about them, even when there are days they don't play. I heard people say that in part it's Montreal Canadians fault if the Expos are gone.

[I_AM_CANADIAN]

quote:Originally posted by Keano

However to me this is not an inherent obstacle, it simply means that the CMNT needs to be MUCH better marketed among ethnic communities. I wonder if the best way to do that would be to emphasize the European-"basedness" of the European-based players. Make a big fancy ad that shows DeGuz, Edgar and Stalteri in their recognizable club gear, under the banner of an upcoming National team match. Can that be done from a legal standpoint? This would turn a lot more heads that a picture of some anonymous looking Scarborough guys in red shirts. . It's simple, creative branding principles along these lines that the CSA is unwilling to consider it seems.

This would be a great idea. Most people my age don't care about the Canadian national team but they'd definitely more interested if they knew that some of our players do play in Europe's top leagues.

[I_AM_CANADIAN]

quote:Originally posted by Keano

However to me this is not an inherent obstacle, it simply means that the CMNT needs to be MUCH better marketed among ethnic communities. I wonder if the best way to do that would be to emphasize the European-"basedness" of the European-based players. Make a big fancy ad that shows DeGuz, Edgar and Stalteri in their recognizable club gear, under the banner of an upcoming National team match. Can that be done from a legal standpoint? This would turn a lot more heads that a picture of some anonymous looking Scarborough guys in red shirts. . It's simple, creative branding principles along these lines that the CSA is unwilling to consider it seems.

This would be a great idea. Most people my age don't care about the Canadian national team but they'd definitely more interested if they knew that some of our players do play in Europe's top leagues.

[JFC]

The problem is that the CSA is doing an awful job promoting the game in Montreal. I can assure you that if promote correctly, there were way to assure that the crowd at the Saputo Stadium was about 90% canadian.

The problem is as always the CSA.I can assure you that at least 80% of the soccer player who play in a registerate team in Québec are not able to name one of the players in the canadian national team.

So how can we interest them? the only publicity that the CSA make is on the Nutella.

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by I_AM_CANADIAN

This would be a great idea. Most people my age don't care about the Canadian national team but they'd definitely more interested if they knew that some of our players do play in Europe's top leagues.

I have to disagree. You cannot market players who are not marketable. To be marketable you need to be a player who can influence the game, has a name presence and can capture headlines. Edgar and Stalteri may be of exemplary character but they are not the type of players who make headlines and get noticed in the bigger picture of the game. In Edgars case, the jury is still out as to what kind career he has in soccer. The soccer public and/or many of the groups that you and Keano are referring to are more knowledgeable about soccer than you think.

People follow European club soccer here or it wouldn't be on TV. Champions league is is on TV and draws a huge following. Same goes for the English and Italian chmapionships. To a lesser extent you can also catch games from Spain, Germany and France. But on the outside chance that you can see deguz/depor you are not likely to catch the others or well . So what good does it do to market their names. That might work if you had naive public, but the public is not naive. And it shows by the following in TV rating a tickets sales from canada for the WC finals.

DeGuz, I can see as being marketable based the level he plays his club soccer and what he can do on the pitch. But the others?

Besides, marketing and promotion was tried. The CRC-Can game in Sept 2007 was very heavily marketed. Only 9000+ showed up. TFC is not nearly as heavily promoted in the mass media, and yet they sell out every game.

[Keano]

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

I have to disagree. You cannot market players who are not marketable. To be marketable you need to be a player who can influence the game, has a name presence and can capture headlines. Edgar and Stalteri may be of exemplary character but they are not the type of players who make headlines and get noticed in the bigger picture of the game. In Edgars case, the jury is still out as to what kind career he has in soccer. The soccer public and/or many of the groups that you and Keano are referring to are more knowledgeable about soccer than you think.

People follow European club soccer here or it wouldn't be on TV. Champions league is is on TV and draws a huge following. Same goes for the English and Italian chmapionships. To a lesser extent you can also catch games from Spain, Germany and France. But on the outside chance that you can see deguz/depor you are not likely to catch the others or well . So what good does it do to market their names. That might work if you had naive public, but the public is not naive. And it shows by the following in TV rating a tickets sales from canada for the WC finals.

DeGuz, I can see as being marketable based the level he plays his club soccer and what he can do on the pitch. But the others?

Besides, marketing and promotion was tried. The CRC-Can game in Sept 2007 was very heavily marketed. Only 9000+ showed up. TFC is not nearly as heavily promoted in the mass media, and yet they sell out every game.

To be fair I wasn't suggesting Edgar is marketable, but rather that a picture of a nameless yet Newcastle-kit-wearing player on an ad for a MNT match is more marketable than a nameless and red-shirt wearing player on the same ad.