By BENJAMIN GOSS, Assistant Professor Sports Management, Missouri State University

Before a crowd of over 200 attendees, on last Thursday, the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University hosted a panel called Sport Business & Soccer.

The panel helped SLU mark 50 years since the inception of its powerhouse men’s collegiate soccer program, 60 years (in 2010) since the historic 1-0 U.S. win over England in the 1950 World Cup (a team that featured five St. Louis natives), and the launching of the school’s sport business certificate academic program in 2010.

Incidentally, the panel was convened the same week that the city’s new North American Soccer League was officially named AC St. Louis.

Tim Hayden, chief marketing officer of AC St. Louis, organized the panel. Hayden will also teach the first sport business course in the new curriculum during the Spring 2010 semester.

Panelists included:

• Jeff Cooper, Chair of AC St. Louis
• Dan Flynn, CEO/General Secretary of U.S. Soccer
• Bruce Hudson, former head of sport marketing for Anheuser-Busch
• Frank Viverito, president of the St. Louis Sports Commission
• Mark Santel, executive director of St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club
• Dan Donigan, head men’s soccer coach at Saint Louis University

ESPN soccer announcer Bill McDermott (also of St. Louis Athletica and the Columbus Crew) emceed the panel, spreading and guiding the discussion across several major topics, which are encapsulated below.

Sport of Soccer

Culture was an early common theme among panelists’ answers.

Cooper fired a strong early statement almost from the beginning as he called soccer a tribal sport that was unquestionably the biggest element for social change, including religion.

Donigan echoed this sentiment, calling soccer “a cultural enterprise,” as did McDermott, who noted, “Americans are big event people.”

Soccer in the U.S.

Much of the panel discussion was woven around discussion of the state of the sport of soccer within the United States, often soliciting or necessitating answers from Flynn, who noted that the sport of soccer currently lacks relevance in the U.S. 365 days a year.

When asked what forces would be necessary to change that, Flynn replied, “Owners, television, and consumers will make it relevant,” acknowledging that despite widespread grassroots participation, soccer traditionally lags as a good spectator sport.

In addressing the more problematic aspects of soccer within American culture, Flynn noted that the pay-to-play youth development model is probably the biggest hurdle of development of the sport in the United States.

Another hurdle faced by the sport within the U.S., Flynn opined, was the lack of a uniform national style of play enjoyed by many other nations, which he said varied here because of a diversity of temperature across the American geographic zones.

Flynn also emphasized that, while Americans possessed a great deal of enthusiasm and effort, as a national group, they must improve fundamental technical aspects of their play, citing the crucial nature of instruction for the 6-12 year-old age group.

He also praised the development academy model such as the one planned by AC St. Louis, which he said would likely address that issue over time, a sentiment echoed by Santel.

Flynn also wistfully noted that overzealous parental involvement could be as problematic in soccer as in any other youth sport.

Concerning the advancement of the U.S. Soccer team in its prelude to World Cup competition, Hudson said he believed that the global perception of the U.S. as soccer nation was improving and getting closer to the status of global elite.

Hudson cited the perspectives of several of his England acquaintances, whom he described as “wary” that the American team could be a bit of a force that can upset any of top eight World Cup teams on any given day.

College Soccer

As might be expected of a panel at the university that won 10 of the first 15 NCAA national championships in men’s soccer, collegiate aspects of soccer also surfaced.

Donigan remarked about the emergence of apparel deals as a critical driving force in collegiate soccer, citing Nike, adidas, and Under Armour as the top three providers in the collegiate ranks, all of whom were deemed by most panelists to feature soccer as a driving force in their current marketing campaigns.

Dr Goss also provided The Sports Business Exchange website with an update on the event, offering additional information on Global issues and Sports Marketing background. Click here for that article.

Ben Goss is as an associate professor in the entertainment management program in the College of Business Administration at Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo. In addition to his teaching in the management curriculum and courses on sport, event, and sponsorship management, Goss has also taught in Missouri State’s program with Liaoning Normal University in Dalian, China.

In 2007, Goss co-founded the Journal of Sport Administration & Supervision, an open-access academic research journal seeking to bridge the gap between academic theory and professional practice in the sport industry. He currently serves as its editor-in-chief.

Contact Goss at bengoss@missouristate.edu, and follow him on Twitter @sportMGTweet. Visit the journal at www.jsasonline.org, and follow it on Twitter @jsasonline.