Reply to U.S. Soccer Is Offering The Same Contracts For Its Men's And Women's Teams

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s stupid.  The worry is that it says the new management at the USSF is not up to the task.

It really should not be hard.  The USSF is small beans.  It does about $150M a year in revenue from all sources.  By way of comparison your average Costco store does $200M.

USSF management frankly appears to be unable to handle its tasks and it is getting worse - not better - for the USSF.

What issues are out there?

1.  The obvious.  The women’s team needs a new contract.  Their’s expires at the end of this year.
2.  The men’s team’s contract expired at the end of 2018.  USSF got right on that huh?
3.  Every youth club in the country that is not directly tied to MLS wants the USSF dissolved.  
4.  The referee associations basically ignore the USSF as being worthless for their issues.

The only proponent for the existing system is MLS/SUM which has benefitted from the existing system, but at the expense of all the other USSF constituents.

I thought that the new management team would create a decent chance for things to get corrected - or at least start down that path.  This announcement is not a good sign.

The men’s national team and the women’s national team are very different.  They also best serve very different markets.  It is absolutely nuts to pretend they are alike.  And, most importantly the financial handling of both teams should have nothing to do with MLS.

As it stands today - all media and sponsorship deals for both national teams, with the exception of Nike, are handled by MLS/SUM.  Naturally, this means that the most important aspect of every and any media or sponsorship deals is what benefit it brings to MLS.  That is simply stupid and a complete abdication of USSF’s role and duty to both teams.  If the people at USSF are not up to the task then they need to go.

My suggestions:

1.  USSF hire an actual marketing team that is capable of putting together deals for games, media and sponsorships.  
2.  Form an advisory board for both teams that can be kept up to date and assist with proposals and deals.  These should be current and former players.  The marketing folks may will not be soccer experts and these boards can help give continuous input.  
3.  Open all things up.  The deal with SUM is done at the end of the year.  SUM can still be a major player, but everything is open to the best bud.  It will not just be a “give us a cut” deal.  
4.  Do a deal with both teams that is more like what you see with the other US professional leagues.  The players get an agreed percentage of what money is brought in.  
5.  Commit to support the NWSL at the same levels that the USSF did for MLS starting in 1996.  No - there is no $50M in start up funding from FIFA but you are also further along with MLS than MLS was in 96.  Probably that will be an ongoing $5M or so a year, so better be really working those media and sponsorship dollars.  
6.  Rebuild the youth soccer relationships.  Start with ensuring that all youth clubs will be eligible for a cut of development dollars on a signing.  Include dollars for a women making the national team.

[/quote]

Funny how people never mention the MLS tie up. It is the root of the problems. Even the national team TV deals were tied to MLS which resulted in a much lower number than they could have gotten independently (essentially the national teams are subsidizing the MLS's TV deal) [/quote]

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