In 2010 the WPS Draft was treated like a big deal, like it needs to be.
Two years ago the WPS draft room at the Pennsylvania Convention Center was beyond capacity, with a crowd of draftees, families and soccer fans overflowing into the hallway. There was a genuine buzz that day, when Tobin Heath was selected first by the Atlanta Beat.
On Friday, the 2012 WPS Draft took place in its more modern state – a modest, quiet affair.
Just three players were in the draft room, one which went undrafted (Oklahoma State forward Krista Lopez). Was it not for the webstream audio being piped through the room, the place would have been silent.
The draft will always admittedly unfairly be held to the high standards of 2010, when an incredible draft day spectacle turned into an evening Puma party pegged at about $50,000. WPS even paid to fly some of the top players into Philadelphia for the draft.
That won’t happen again anytime soon. Still, the draft now barely qualifies as a skeleton of 2009 and 2010.
Granted, a bigger production requires a bigger budget. The size of the room affects the price, but renting a large room at the NSCAA Convention costs tens of thousands of dollars. Following the lavish 2010 draft, expenses were cut and the extraordinary version of the draft was one of them.
But for a league in need of any positive press it can get, shaving expenses at the draft just doesn’t make sense. There are three key events that get media – not just the few regular bloggers, but mainstream media and even male soccer media – even half interested in WPS: The draft, the all-star game and the championship.
The all-star game was dropped in 2011. With it went one major opportunity to attract mainstream media. Just six months after Abby Wambach launched the U.S. national team into every American household with a last-second goal against Brazil, the Associated Press did not even bother to send a local stringer to the WPS draft. Media row featured the usual handful of digital writers.
WPS cannot afford to be merely a once per year blip in newspapers when a team wins a championship. Particularly after a long, tumultuous offseason that the league barely survived (which is not totally settled yet), the draft was a chance to interject positivity into fans and media. It’s a celebration of bright futures for some of the country’s best young players such as Sydney Leroux, this year’s top draft pick.
Unfortunately, it is not being treated that way.
The major advantage the NSCAA Convention gives a league like WPS is that it plops 10,000 soccer people inside one convention center each year to reconnect through soccer. WPS need not try to sell media or fans on why they should come out and give the league a chance (an increasingly hard sell).
Instead, WPS already has soccer-minded people walking by its advertisements, booths and doors at the Convention. The consumers (fans and media) are already in the store (the NSCAA Convention, in this case). At that point it is just about selling them on buying into WPS.
In order to do that, fans and media have to be presented with an inviting environment. When something looks like a big deal, people will think it is a big deal. That is exactly what happened in 2010, when fans packed the ballroom to get a glimpse at the next stars of women’s soccer.
Players who were being drafted were in attendance. Not just Heath, Lauren Cheney and other first round selections, but even those taken in the late rounds who were happy just to be selected.
Those players added legitimacy to the event. The fans – most of whom were college coaches stopping by – added legitimacy. And media took note, giving the draft pretty good coverage.
Jan. 15, 2010, however, merely served as a red herring. Just as the Los Angeles Sol used the day to draft what could have been the most successful combination of picks in the league’s short history, the team’s ownership was quickly falling apart.
Since that 2010 draft day, WPS has contracted an astounding five teams, including LA just two weeks later. Budget cuts began in rapid succession and by the time January 2011 rolled around, the draft had reduced itself to a low-key, closed door event.
In a place where thousands of college coaches could be exposed to a fledgling league’s supposedly marquee event, these interested bystanders were literally turned away despite already being in the same building.
That type of self-induced seclusion is the quintessential WPS problem. If the league cannot encourage interest from the few actually taking time to seek it out, how can it attract those yet to be exposed to the product?
There were in the past talks of holding a virtual draft to further save money, but those discussions thankfully never turned to action. A virtual draft would send one of the league’s signature media events into complete oblivion.
WPS has bigger worries right now, mainly in court. But if and when the draft comes around next year, making a spectacle of it needs to be a priority. WPS cannot be important in the mind of the consumer if it does not find itself important enough to demand attention.
It starts with opening the doors and inviting the thousands of coaches already at the convention to attend the draft. These players have connections to clubs, high schools, colleges and friends who will turn out to see the woman they know being drafted by a professional team. That would be a start.
A concerted effort to talk draw media must follow. Actually having some of the top college players there and available for interviews will help. So too will the addition of fans. Both of those things can happen for little additional money. It is as simple as reconfiguring the room.
Draftees are not completely free of blame, as it is ultimately their responsibility to get to the draft. The process, however, is cyclical. If it is not played up as an important event, players do not prioritize it.
MLS provides a great model for a nearly identical event. The SuperDraft took place on Thursday with the now typically strong supporters’ sections turnout and growing media coverage.
Until the league gets back to treating the draft like a key part of its business strategy, the crickets in the draft room will continue.
Two years ago the WPS draft room at the Philadelphia Convention Center was beyond capacity, with a crowd of draftees, families and soccer fans overflowing into the hallway. There was a genuine buzz that day, when Tobin Heath was selected first by the Atlanta Beat.
On Friday, the 2012 WPS Draft took place in its more modern state – a modest, quiet affair.
Just three players were in the draft room, one which went undrafted (Oklahoma State forward Krista Lopez). Was it not for the webstream audio being piped through the room, the place would have been silent.
The draft will always admittedly unfairly be held to the high standards of 2010, when an incredible draft day spectacle turned into an evening Puma party pegged at about $50,000. WPS even paid to fly some of the top players into Philadelphia for the draft.
That won’t happen again anytime soon. Still, the draft now barely qualifies as a skeleton of 2009 and 2010.
Granted, a bigger production requires a bigger budget. The size of the room affects the price, but renting a large room at the NSCAA Convention costs tens of thousands of dollars. Following the lavish 2010 draft, expenses were cut and the extraordinary version of the draft was one of them.
But for a league in need of any positive press it can get, shaving expenses at the draft just doesn’t make sense. There are three key events that get media – not just the few regular bloggers, but mainstream media and even male soccer media – even half interested in WPS: The draft, the all-star game and the championship.
The all-star game was dropped in 2011. With it went one major opportunity to attract mainstream media. Just six months after Abby Wambach launched the U.S. national team into every American household with a last-second goal against Brazil, the Associated Press did not even bother to send a local stringer to the WPS draft. Media row featured the usual handful of digital writers.
WPS cannot afford to be merely a once per year blip in newspapers when a team wins a championship. Particularly after a long, tumultuous offseason that the league barely survived (which is not totally settled yet), the draft was a chance to interject positivity into fans and media. It’s a celebration of bright futures for some of the country’s best young players such as Sydney Leroux, this year’s top draft pick.
Unfortunately, it is not being treated that way.
The major advantage the NSCAA Convention gives a league like WPS is that it plops 10,000 soccer people inside one convention center each year to reconnect through soccer. WPS need not try to sell media or fans on why they should come out and give the league a chance (an increasingly hard sell).
Instead, WPS already has soccer-minded people walking by its advertisements, booths and doors at the Convention. The consumers (fans and media) are already in the store (the NSCAA Convention, in this case). At that point it is just about selling them on buying into WPS.
In order to do that, fans and media have to be presented with an inviting environment. When something looks like a big deal, people will think it is a big deal. That is exactly what happened in 2010, when fans packed the ballroom to get a glimpse at the next stars of women’s soccer.
Players who were being drafted were in attendance. Not just Heath, Lauren Cheney and other first round selections, but even those taken in the late rounds who were happy just to be selected.
Those players added legitimacy to the event. The fans – most of whom were college coaches stopping by – added legitimacy. And media took note, giving the draft pretty good coverage.
Jan. 15, 2010, however, merely served as a red herring. Just as the Los Angeles Sol used the day to draft what could have been the most successful combination of picks in the league’s short history, the team’s ownership was quickly falling apart.
Since that 2010 draft day, WPS has contracted an astounding five teams, including LA just two weeks later. Budget cuts began in rapid succession and by the time January 2011 rolled around, the draft had reduced itself to a low-key, closed door event.
In a place where thousands of college coaches could be exposed to a fledgling league’s supposedly marquee event, these interested bystanders were literally turned away despite already being in the same building.
That type of self-induced seclusion is the quintessential WPS problem. If the league cannot encourage interest from the few actually taking time to seek it out, how can it attract those yet to be exposed to the product?
There were in the past talks of holding a virtual draft to further save money, but those discussions thankfully never turned to action. A virtual draft would send one of the league’s signature media events into complete oblivion.
WPS has bigger worries right now, mainly in court. But if and when the draft comes around next year, making a spectacle of it needs to be a priority. WPS cannot be important in the mind of the consumer if it does not find itself important enough to demand attention.
It starts with opening the doors and inviting the thousands of coaches already at the convention to attend the draft. These players have connections to clubs, high schools, colleges and friends who will turn out to see the woman they know being drafted by a professional team. That would be a start.
A concerted effort to talk draw media must follow. Actually having some of the top college players there and available for interviews will help. So too will the addition of fans. Both of those things can happen for little additional money. It is as simple as reconfiguring the room.
MLS provides a great model for a nearly identical event. The SuperDraft took place on Thursday with the now typically strong supporters’ sections turnout and growing media coverage.
Until the league gets back to treating the draft like a key part of its business strategy, the crickets in the draft room will continue.
I was excited that the draft was going to be streamed, but most of that excitement was based on what I thought I might see. Had I known that the draftees would not be there and that the event was entirely closed, I would not have been so excited.
I understand money is tight. I understand the league is in court. What I don’t understand is why an event tailor made to draw positive attention to the league, is not exploited to the nth degree. Even if it wasn’t televised and only streamed, the atmosphere was far from festive. You might have thought the players were being drafted for indentured servitude, not to play in a professional league and play out their dreams.
Instead of adhering to Keep It Simple, Stupid they should have stuck to It’s All About Perception.
As was the case with USL’s First Division when I was PR Director there, it gets completely lost in the shadow of MLS holding it at the NSCAA. I think the inaugural draft was a marquee event because of the nature of it being the first year. We used to hold our draft immediately following MLS, but eventually chose to hold it via conference in later years the week following, which aided some in bringing it back in the public view. Ultimately though, with the nature of being the second flight and the logistics of the business (no CBA), we chose to eliminate the draft entirely. I think with WPS, the only 2 options open to make it an event are: 1) Pair it up with a NT friendly in a WPS market that way the home fans are there as well as NT players that can do interviews with their potential new teammates etc. If held the night before, the broadcast network can film and present in pre-game/halftime of game. 2) Hold the event at the NCAA Final Four. Unlikely that the NCAA would actually partner up, but that doesnt mean you couldn’t hold the event parallel to it. You are likely to see those teams’ players selected and their fans/family would be there.
Jeff – you are correct – but I would go a step further – the entire league needs a bigger commitment to capture you headline. I’ve lived through the situation and even though we didn’t do everything perfectly in the beginning – we did something from a marketing and PR perspective. Right now the league isn’t even doing the basics correctly – there is a very weak to no presence on the website or in social media. As a league we were the darlings when AManda Vandervort and her team drove up the twitter followers to nearly 250K – that was at athe nd of year one. Look at the page today – 271K – less than 10% growth on three years!
The league needs to market itself – some way. Everyone talks about grassroots – where is that happening? There is no media platform, no awareness. It will not survive on a build it and they will come Field of Dreams mentality. The owners MUST find the money to have a full-time PR presence – either through a staff person or agency. They MUST find the money for a full-time grassroots marketing effort – again either direct or through an agency.
I get the economics. But if there is any hope of this league being sustainable we need to build awareness which will build fanbase and so on and so on….its basic Marketing 101 and it must be done.
Jeff, glad that you’re looking at WPS media problems. Whoever they hired to advise them in 2011 should be dropped cold.
I agree to some extent that the draft should be exploited, but with firm limitations.
WPS should invest in marketing the 1st round of the draft only: 1) advance copy with likely first round players, clubs; 2: the first round itself, larger than life, and 3) follow-up copy through early season repeating the 1st round names and themes already promoted (also using economies of scale). Enough focus to annoy dedicated fans, but lodge in the minds of general soccer fans – they need to hear the same story seven times. The top prospects are all the target audience wants to hear about and are capable of retaining.
WPS actually doesn’t want major media to cover ensuing rounds at this point. Midseason, if some lower round draft pick makes good, that’s the story they sell at that point, with lots of footwork and phone calls to get that one story in maximum print and visuals.
WPS needs to be cured of their cinderella complex – “Come see us and you will fall in love!” The potential ticket-buying target audience are busy and only slightly interested. Make it easy on them. Tell them who they should watch, the story lines they should follow and repeat them over and over.
WPS keeps trying to sell the whole package. They need to sell distinguishable League and club images and showcase the few top players at each club to be successful.
In 2012, they probably should have brought in the top ten prospects and made a meal out of them. Done right, the public will have no idea those were the only players in attendance. A lower prospect gets picked early? No problem – she couldn’t attend the event.
Gerald – Paul Riley actually suggested your idea on Friday. He thought the College Cup would be a good place for the draft, but for the reason that it gives WPS the first crack at college players instead of letting overseas clubs get to them first. I still think the NSCAA Convention is ideal with so many college coaches there (and although not this year or next, a local or close by WPS market for supporters to come). When else will all of the coaches of these players be in one spot? Not even the College Cup, I would bet. What’s disturbing? Their own players are getting drafted right down the hall and they don’t even care to go. Heck, the players don’t even think it’s a big enough deal to make the trip.
Lisa – I see what you are saying. If just the first round is focused on, fine. The thing is that right now, there is no focus on anything. Nothing at all. The model you are discussing is very much what WPS had in 2010, but then deemed it too expensive to fly in players, etc. To me, top players should get there without relying on WPS.
Top players fairly can be asked to get to the draft on their own as it’s like a final job interview. However, just getting them there is not enough. Then the expenses start.
The photo posted above looks like a group of elementary school teachers on a field trip. It will not sell WPS. If the players are to face nationwide scrutiny, just being themselves is not good enough, as anyone in the public eye knows. It’s easy for men, a suit and tie and haircut does the job, but it’s more complex, more work and more expensive for women. The general public is making the decisions here and judging them against all other female images encountered in the press. It’s not a friendly reception.
Instead of trying to change the world, it’s more feasible for WPS to hire a stylist, hairdresser and make-up artist to work over the top picks for the event to create enduring images that will make an impression on maximum number of eyes. US Soccer knows this and did a great job visually profiling USWNT for the Olympics.
Aside from that, WPS PR needs the sophistication to get major media and top soccer press in the room for 20 minutes and orchestrate the affair, lighting, sound, etc. It’s an expensive 20 minutes that needs to be managed by veteran pros, not the players or club communication managers.