That's the campaign for Sporting KC this season, "Live for It". The team debuted their commercial last night during the Grammy Awards. The team will be advertising with the commercial (another that will debut during the season opener), along with online, outdoor, print, and radio. The team will be doing billboards around the city, the billboards will include two of Sporting KC's newest national team players, CJ Sapong and Graham Zusi.

Today, Sporting KC released information regarding the sell of single-game tickets. Starting next week, the team will start selling single game tickets to the team's first 8 home games. Games against New England, Dallas, LA, Real Salt Lake, Montreal, San Jose, Toronto and Chicago. Tickets will begin to go on sale starting February 13th for season ticket holders.

The Seattle Sounders have played in three U.S. Open Cup title games and three MLS Cup playoff series, but the match against Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions League on March 7 may be the biggest match in franchise history. Not to be too much of a shill, but if you're enough of a fan of this team to be reading this blog, you probably should plan on being at Century Link Field that day.

The SR boys are back to chat with Chris Heck, Red Bulls President of Business Operations. We discuss the 2012 home schedule, ticket sales trends, staffing changes, marketing plans, and success metrics for the season to come. First comes a review of Henry at Arsenal as well as roster additions in and around the MLS draft.

Welcome to The Yorkies' regular off-season rumour roundup - "The Rumoumeter". Too busy to keep your TFC ear to the ground every week? Just stop by the site and we will quickly show you what rumours are hot - and which ones have hit the back burner. Some of the rumours have weight - others little more than whispers; we take their temperature with.

The draft is over, training camps are opening up and the season is less than two months away. It has been a while since we looked at promotional efforts around the league, so we thought the early preseason presented a good opportunity to look at ticket sales efforts as teams gear up for the start of the 2012 campaign.

Football in South East Asia is full of new experiences. Take today for example. I bowledup at Lebak Bulus hoping to catch Persiram and Persiba in ISL action.Things seemed quiet when I arrived. Quiet as in no fans, no vendors and no ticket sales. Odd.I got talking to a Persiram oficial and he said yep, no problems, kick off usual time.

Last week we gave you our our take on the top business stories in the world of American soccer. Now it's time for you to cast your vote. Don't agree with our options? Vote "other" and drop a line in the comment space with your choice. If you want our take on the five finalists, read the summaries below the poll.

Scheming for support and ticket sales is one of sport's greatest traditions. Most of them take a more traditional route, such as standard marketing. None of those methods likely involve bringing Akon to Blackburn.

But give those chicken men some credit, because they tried to try. And clearly failed.

In case you guys didn't see it, yesterday was SB Nation's mock Expansion Draft. Some of you will also notice some, er, confusion on our part from the draft. Essentially Jake Gleeson was picked when I meant for him to be protected. What happened was I made a late addition and the SBN editors wouldn't allow such a late change.

Well the first 24 hours after the Smith announcement has brought some interesting fall out.

• Nick Thomas tweeted that Paul Bravo is not a candidate for the job.
• The Rapids asked for, and were denied, permission from the Portland Timbers to speak to John Spencer about the job.
• ESPN's Jeff Carlisle dug into the story a bit to find out what the real issues were.

"Drugs are out at SkyDome? BMO Field it is."
Next Tuesday, in the gleaming controversy-free halls of CONCACAF's New York headquarters, the draw for the Champions League knockout phases will be held. Our beloved TFC will be entering this stage for the first time and as reward will face one of two Mexican powerhouses - Santos Laguna and Monterrey, or, star-laden MLS rival LA Galaxy.

The haters of Miami as a soccer town were out in full force last week as it was announced that fewer than 6800 tickets had been sold for the USA vs Honduras game to be played at Sun Life Stadium. The game hadn't even been played yet and already they were bashing.
In the end over 21,000 showed up on a wet night to watch the United states defeat Honduras 1-0 thanks to a wonderful goal by Clint Dempsey.

With an expected attendance right about even with MLS league play of 35,000 for the US Open Cup Final against the Chicago Fire on Tuesday night, it is apparent that Seattle and the team have a connection to this tournament that most teams in MLS do not have. It isn't just about the ticket sales, but in the types of lineups that Sigi Schmid has field in the MLS era.

Canadian author James Grossi writes for The Blizzard and at his blog, Partially Obstructed View.

As MLS grows towards its twentieth club in the coming years there is a risk of losing the balanced schedule. Comments by Commissioner Don Garber intimated that perhaps such a pure form would have to be set aside in order to accommodate the expanded league.

There are no official numbers yet, but it sure seems like the Seattle Sounders are poised to break the U.S. Open Cup finals attendance record that they just set a year ago. What we know for sure is that about 11,000 tickets were sold during the presale when season-ticket holders were limiting to buying their seats.

If anyone missed this, here is Annie Kelly's gripping account of the barra bravas, the gangs that control Argentinian football.

At best its the romantic notion of a fan fighting back to get a piece of a pie that is making everyone else rich. However in a football mad country like Argentina with its huge economic disparities these Robin Hood notions turn out fanciful.

The biggest hits we have had for a story in the recent past was a table of average attendances for the past season in the top 30 European clubs. Barcelona came top, followed by Borussia Dortmund and then Manchester United.

The story raises a broader issue. Why are we so interested in attendances?

In honor of Barcelona going H.A.M. with ticket sales to tomorrow night's match in Miami, here's a mini-mix of robotic, 80's-tinged bangers mixed by Vazetti that are South Beach ready. Turn it up and watch in wonder as your officemates contemplate if you took ecstasy for lunch.

Photo by Ramsey Moshen

With David Beckham in the final year of his ground-breaking MLS contract, speculation has turned to whether the 36 year-old midfielder will resign with the LA Galaxy and the league, or continue his quest for another international cap elsewhere. In an interview with the press, Garber talked about the MLS All Star's impact on the league, and as expected painted it as a perfect partnership.

Even in soccer mad Portland, Seattle and Toronto, there is rarely a big market for MLS aftermarket tickets. At most stadiums, plenty of tickets are available on game day or offered through heavily discounted group sales. Plenty of teams partner with sponsors or community groups to offer free or heavily reduced ticket prices in order to bring fans out to the stadium.

Photo: Earl Gardner

River Cup

"1st time in my life i see such brotherhood, respect and chemistry between the front office, technical staff and owners with the fans! DOOP!"

"Definitely this Franchise and its people are UNIQUE!!! These is what we call a real FAMILY DOOP!!!"

Tweets from Faryd Mondragon (Quote 1, Quote 2)

"This is the culture we are trying to create, one big family, and we hope this is just the beginning of events like this.

Time for a couple of quick hits from around the world of American soccer business. As has been the case over the last couple of weeks, we'll start with the Womens' World Cup with some more information on television ratings from the Brazil match. According to multiple reports, the telecast was seen by almost 3.

SINGAPORE, 08 July 2011: Singapore will be taking on Malaysia in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Qualifying Round Two match that will be played on Saturday 23 July 2011 at the Jalan Besar stadium.

Due to the heavy demand for tickets to this match, fans are advised to purchase their tickets early.

*The San Jose Earthquakes announced today they have signed former Loyola Marymount University midfielder Rafael Baca of Lawndale who has trained with the club since mid-February.

The native of Mexico appeared in three games for the club's reserves, starting two of them.

Baca scored 19 goals for LMU.

Members ticket sales announcement

In preparation for the LFC Official Members ticket sales, starting Monday, July 11, the pre requisite game attendance has now been confirmed.

View the full story here: Liverpool FC

A news article on 2011-07-08 13:51:46 from: Liverpool FC

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend. From the Women's World Cup in Germany, to a full slate of MLS matches, to a Nutralite Championship, there is plenty of soccer to be had. In the interim, here is an inteview we did in May of 2010 with Harrison and Steven Stark. Steven Stark and Harrison Stark are the authors of World Cup 2010: The Indispensable Guide to Soccer and Geopolitics recently published by Blue River Press.

I was going to maintain "radio silence" about the men's game but then I heard about Tim Howard's rant regarding the Gold Cup ceremony. Hosted by Univision's Fernando Fiore, the trophy award was conducted in Spanish except for that portion honoring the US team.
Such a thing should be relatively uncontroversial: Los Angeles is a multi-lingual city and the vast majority of people in the stands understand Spanish.

Nevio Pizzolitto, captain of the Montreal ImpactArguably, it's the fans which keep football/soccer alive. The thousands which pack stadiums, the millions which watch on their TV, they are the ones which keep this game running. Not only is it the ticket sales and the merchandise bought, but it's also the passion and the love which fuels the players to play their best.

The first of the two semifinals - U.S.-Panama - is still on-going as I write this, but CONCACAF officials have just announced that all 90,000 tickets have been sold at the Pasadena venue.

I'm guessing most of those buyers are not expecting a Panama-Honduras final, although the U.S. is currently tied 0-0 with about 25 minutes to go in the second half with the Central American nation it lost to earlier in the tournament.

Those that were at LiveSTRONG Sporting Park didn't necessarily see the best game of soccer, but the fans that were in attendance certainly brought the atmosphere. Enough so that it got the attention of people around the US talking about the venue as a host for World Cup qualifiers in upcoming cycles.

In the off-season the Chicago Fire made the promise to Section 8 Chicago that if Section 8 had over 800 season tickets before the season started, the team would cover the fan buses for the Columbus road trip. The board, volunteers, and other friends of Section 8 all came together to not only match that mark but get the Section over 1,000 season tickets.

anatechnet More Than Just Football - http://www.anatech.net/site... 2 hours ago from Anatech.NET Web & RSS... - Comment - Like FIFA World Cup ticket sales are not what was expected Visitors to SA can visit a world in one country and get more than just soccer - Anuncios Gratis

Vancouver sports fans have a lot on their plate right now. Now, we all love soccer, but how distracted from a regular season match would we be if one of our sports teams was in the Finals of another sport? Probably a bit. That isn't the only issue facing Vancouver Whitecaps supporters. The Canadian National Team is competing in the Gold Cup, and despite the 2-nil loss the the United States should still advance from the Group Stage, but they have a match down in Tampa and some of their supporters and Whitecaps supporters crossover.

Tomorrow is the home opener for Sporting KC at Livestrong Sporting Park. Here are a few news bits before the game tomorrow.
First, Thad posted it on Twitter today, and Robb Heineman mentioned it on 980 today, Sporting KC will not have a surprise jersey sponsor on the jersey for the game tomorrow.

The Sons of Ben and Philadelphia Union jointly announced today that the Union's staff and members of the Sons of Ben will play against one another in the inaugural 'River Cup,' on July 15 at 6:30 pm.

Tickets will sell for $10, with all of the proceeds from the ticket sales going to benefit Chester City United.

A few weeks ago, I questioned the merit of the New York Red Bulls and other MLS teams using Groupon, the popular group discounting site, to move tickets.

Who wants a ticket discount? Actually doesn't work that way...

Working in Silicon Valley (and mind you Groupon is based in Chicago), we're deluged with tech companies and "tech-hopeful companies" (companies who have one feature, but lack a true business model) all the time and there is often a pre-disposition by existing brands to glom on to the latest tech company or partner su jour just for the brand equity value so they can say they're hip or on the vanguard of technology.

Earlier this week we discussed the ongoing efforts at the MLS ticket sales center. Today we would take our semi-regular look at ticket promotions around the league. We'll start in Columbus, where the Crew are offering a contest promotion in conjunction with car rental giant Thrifty. Thrifty is the official airport parking partner of the team and they are offering a sweepstakes type promotion that provides fans the chance to win 12 tickets and a suite to a future Crew event.

Manchester United vs. Chicago Fire World Football Challenge tickets will finally go on sale to the public at 10:00 AM CST on Tuesday, May 3. We've run the pre-sale codes before so you don't have to wait but if you really want to hold out for the general sale, that's the latest information. Time is running out on the option to purchase pro-rated season tickets for the Chicago Fire regular season.

A few days ago I posted about the slow ticket sales for the first leg of the CCL final in Monterrey, but that was just among season ticket holders. The general public appear to have responded to the call from club leadership and players to make their presence felt at the Tecnológico, because now ticket sales are up to 28,000 with general and preferential seating sections sold out.