Major League Soccer Expands into Canada (Again)

Today, Major League Soccer announced its 19th franchise, an expansion team based in Montreal.  Canada's second largest city, however, will not be starting from scratch.  Currently, the Montreal Impact, a club whose existence goes back nearly two decades, play in the the highest minor league division for professional soccer in the US/Canada.  They were champions of that league last season.

Even better for MLS, the Impact already play in a relatively new (opened in 2008) soccer-specific stadium.  That facility, Saputo Stadium, will be upgraded for the switch to MLS in 2012.  Bonus: Saputo Stadium has a natural grass surface.

The Impact will use Montreal's Olympic Stadium (foreground) 

for select home matches.

The Impact's addition to MLS means that when they join the league in 2012, there will be three Canadian-based squads in the league (Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps).  And, already, there is a tense rivalry between these teams (there is a natural city rivalry between Montreal and Toronto), having met in various cup matches and lower-division games.  Moving Montreal and Vancouver to the MLS will only enhance these north-of-the-border rivalries.

In fact, I'm thinking that the tri-city Canadian rivalry could potentially be one of the most contentious in the entire league.  At current moment, the only intense rivalry (described as "these two teams really don't like each other") in MLS is between Chivas USA and the Los Angeles Galaxy (the teams share a stadium in Carson City, CA).  But, when Portland and Vancouver join the MLS in 2011, many expect a natural rivalry to develop between those two cities and Seattle, home of Sounders FC and the largest crowds in MLS.

All of these current and future rivalries overshadow what should be the league's most potent rivalry division with the teams located in New York, New England, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.  Unfortunately, the rivalry between New York and D.C. has never fully blossomed because both teams have struggled in recent seasons.  The league is hoping that New York and Philadelphia could bloom into a "mega-rivalry," but because the Union are in just their first year of play in MLS, a true rivalry will take time.

In all, expansion into soccer-friendly markets and soccer-specific stadiums is a natural evolution for MLS.  Though it remains to be seen whether the Canadian clubs will come to dominate, they will clearly be a boon for the league if only by providing some of the league's most dramatic match-ups.

The NHL is getting better at this Winter Classic thing

The nostalgia streams are on full blast in this 7-minute montage of the 2010 NHL Winter Classic.  Appreciate it for yourselves, as the NHL piles on the memories...

...your dad used to skate on your backyard pond too, right?  I suggest watching this in HD, nothing says classic memory like a slow-motion HD montage (is that the "Rudy" music in the background?).

Combined with their recent playoff ad series, "History will be made," the NHL's devotion to memory, history, and nostalgia is becoming their bread-and-butter.  Which is fine, except I am a little thrown-off when the NHL adds Mike Cammalleri's swatted-in goal from game two of the current Canadiens-Penguins Eastern Conference semifinals series.

Previous "History will be made" commercials feature Ray Bourque, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, in some of the most iconic moments in the history of the sport.  You're telling me, NHL, that Cammalleri's go-ahead goal (the Canadiens eventually won the game 3-1) in the second period deserves to be on the same historical echelon?  I dunno about that.

Boston Bruins fans have some interesting dating rules...

I think there is one major difference between the Northeast and the South (the only two regions in which I've lived) when it comes to sports.  In the Northeast, fan alliances are primarily geared towards professional teams, while in the South, alliances are typically based upon collegiate teams.  Please note that I have not forgotten the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, I just don't consider it geographically relevant at the moment (either way, ESPN has already chronicled that rivalry's dating rules).

FSU Dating policy?

One element that seems to cross geographical borders is the notion of dating someone who roots for/attended a rival team/school.  But for all the t-shirts espousing the idea (FSU normally carries several in its various bookstores), I think the Boston Bruins have put the most daring foot forward in pleading for its fans to avoid romantic relationships with rival sports fans.

Exhibit A is an advertisement that aired at the beginning of the 2009-2010 season.

Exhibit B is a billboard that was recently spotted outside of the Bruins' TD BankNorth Garden.  It's all the more relevant since the Bruins are currently playing the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL's Eastern Conference semifinals.

Clever gamesmanship, but does it say anything about the interconnectedness of sports, relationships, and gender roles?  The FSU t-shirt seems to suggest that a father wouldn't allow his daughter to date someone who wasn't from FSU, while the two Bruins ads seem to also favor power in the male side of the relationship...as in, "Hey guy, there's never a good reason to date a girl who is a Canadiens/Flyers fan."  Understandably, most sports audiences are male, so these ads play upon that dynamic.

Yet, if you're not taking these ads seriously, what is the message that the Bruins are trying to instill?  Is it a depth of fanship that is implied?  Some interesting food for thought.

When I said that Microsoft owns Seattle...

...I meant it.  The following photo is from a press conference where Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll's announced the team's draft picks (Russell Okung, Earl Thomas, Golden Tate, etc).  I feel like this goes without mentioning, but you do remember that the Seahawks are owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, right?

Carroll's forehead, not yet available.

Apparently, according to Darren Rovell, the microphone flag is the new frontier for media partnerships (about two-thirds of NFL teams already have practice jersey sponsorship deals in place.  The Seahawks' practice jersey sponsor?  C'mon, guess).  Even crazier?  The PR-speak from the respective parties involved.  First, the Seahawks' CEO Tod Leiweke:

"We rely on partnerships with companies like Bing to make our business work.  The mic flag seemed to be a rational thing to offer as part of our bigger relationship with the Bing brand."

And second, Bing's director of marketing and public relations Lisa Gurry:

"We're interested in building this brand in unique, unconventional ways and the mic flag is an example of that.  By putting our brand on the mic flag, we're putting our brand front and center of the most important dialogue that takes place."

This whole thing seems silly for a number of reasons.  Isn't Bing part of Microsoft?  Who are the Seahawks and Microsoft fooling acting as if Bing is some separate entity?  And, perhaps more importantly, all this for a microphone flag?

Sigh.  I guess when Gurry says that the brand will be at the center of dialogue, I can only hope she means that Bing, Microsoft, Windows 7, and Paul Allen hope Pete Carroll will say something ridiculous enough this season to be featured in a Coors Light commercial or something.

Good luck with that, Coach Carroll.

Production Values to Promote the MLS

Always interesting to see how teams and leagues use video production techniques to make some super-slick videos to pysch up their fan bases and sell tickets.  As far as I've seen, there's been no better video to promote an MLS regular season match than the following viral video for the Chicago Fire (best name in MLS?) against Chivas USA.

That game is tonight at 8.30 p.m.  On the opposite side of the 'slick' spectrum, here's a somewhat strange video for the San Jose Earthquakes.  The 'Quakes host the Colorado Rapids tonight at 10 p.m.

Comparing the two side-by-side makes me think that Chicago's PR team is leaps and bounds above San Jose's, but perhaps it's simply a different choice in style: Aggressive and passionate collective vs. Inclusive and fun-loving individuals?

The opportunity for ESPN this summer in South Africa

South Africa and FIFA have assembled an impressive collection of stadiums for use this summer in the upcoming World Cup.  Four, in particular, are especially impressive.  They are the Mbombela Stadium, the Green Point Stadium, the Durban Stadium, and the Soccer City Stadium.  Of those four, the Soccer City stadium is the only renovated facility while the rest are brand new and ready just in time for the World Cup's opening kick on June 11th.  For context, here are some photos:

Mbombela Stadium

Green Point Stadium

Durban Stadium

Soccer City Stadium

With ESPN (and other global networks) providing an unprecedented amount of coverage of this year's World Cup, I simply want to receive coverage of the games, but also the real (financial, cultural, or otherwise) impact of the games on the country and people of South Africa.  So, to start, this commercial is laying it on pretty thick.

Ok, ESPN needs to hype the event and grab viewers (although that, as we saw in 2006, shouldn't be a problem).  But, I will be disappointed (like blog, The Offside Rules) if we hear nothing about the continuing human rights violations taking place in South Africa as a direct result of the World Cup.

For instance, just 12 miles from Cape Town's $585 million Green Point Stadium lies a "temporary relocation area" known as Blikkiesdorp or "Tin Can Town."  A British photographer recently published a news article in order to publicize what is basically an apartheid camp for about 15,000 people displaced because government officials did not want them surrounding Cape Town's impressive new stadium.

Tin Can Town outside Cape Town, South Africa.

According to the photographer, who doubles as an eviction activist, Blikkiesdorp is a place where you have no address (and thus, rarely can find employment), no schooling, and no health services.  This is just the tip of the iceberg, however, as food is scarce, health problems are pervasive, and a 10 p.m. curfew is maintained by armed police.

Now, the facilities here, our photographer admits, "If you compare Blikkiesdorp with slums like the ones the residents lived in before, it might look better at first." "But," he continues, "when you go there and see the oppression, you think you'd rather be somewhere with life, where you can go out after 10, cook outside, build, [and] have a registered address."

Armored police vehicles patrol the perimeter of Blikkiesdorp.

His photos were supplemented earlier this month by UK newspaper The Guardian, which chronicled Tin Can Town with input from residents.  One such resident described it thusly,

"It's a dumping place.  They took people from the streets because they don't want them in the city for the World Cup.  Now we are living in a concentration camp.  It's like the devil runs this place.  We have no freedom.  The police come at night and beat adults and children.  South Africa isn't showing the world what it's doing to its people.  It only shows the World Cup."

And another resident sums up the situation poignantly, "I know we were moved because of the World Cup.  They don't want people to see shacks on the road in South Africa.  They want everything perfect for the World Cup."

If the South African government (and/or FIFA) thinks it right to make these people invisible, then I hope that ESPN puts some of those E:60 reporters to good use to bring these kinds of images and stories to light.  Because even if Bono proudly narrates in the advertisement above that "it's not about human rights," in Blikkiesdorp, it most certainly is.

Obstructed Views and an Orr Jersey

So, how about that new stadium in the Meadowlands?  I hope your endzone seat doesn't look like this:

Was that a touchdown?

According to the New York Post, however, these seats will be removed, so that's a relief.  In completely unrelated news, an incredibly rare hockey item sold at auction this past Friday - for almost $200k.  What was the item?  None other than a game-worn Bobby Orr rookie jersey.  Boom!

What jerseys should(?)/used to look like.

Sold by the auction site Heritage Auctions, who called it "the Holy Grail of hockey collectibles," the jersey is one of only two that has survived since Orr's rookie season in 1966-1967.  

However, if you're looking for the a-ha moment, I can assure you there's nothing to connect the new stadium with Bobby Orr's sweat-stained old jersey.  It's been a busy week (already!), so you'll have to forgive me for just a couple rapid-fire entries that capture my attention.