MLS playing Mexican card

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MLS has struggled gaining respect in Mexican-American communities. The solution may be playing the Mexican card: drawing Chivas and Club America owners into MLS.

The league founded on a business format some equate with socialism is ready to gamble.

The American businessmen deemed critical to the growth of American soccer are taking on a Mexican partner.

The bitterest rival of U.S. soccer is preparing to infiltrate further its upstart foe to the north.

And the country that has co-existed nervously and shares a 3,000-mile border with its southern neighbor will have one of that nation's sporting icons setting up shop within its domain.

Chivas is coming to the USA amid staggering misconceptions and numerous uncertainties. Just what it will mean for the owner of Mexico's most popular club to expand his business empire to Major League Soccer is one of the greatest unknowns the league has faced since it launched operations in 1996.

What is certain is that entrepreneur Jorge Vergara isn't jumping aboard to lose money -- or games. As owner of CD Guadalajara, Costa Rican team Saprissa, and overseer of a business empire that includes nutritional supplement firm Omnilife, real estate and filmmaking, he's a very public, gregarious force.

"We don't know how this is going to work, but I'm excited about it, very much so," says MLS Commissioner Don Garber. "He's a little bit like a rock star, and I mean that in respect to his style. He's got a little bit of that Barnum & Bailey quality to him. He really understands promotion and marketing.

"Not that our current owners don't, because they certainly do, but he appears to be willing to be much more up front and out front than perhaps our current investors over the last couple of years. I think that's fresh and exciting."

That Vergara will command more headlines and elicit more quotes than the modest Lamar Hunt, guarded Jonathan Kraft, or invisible Phil Anschutz is just one factor in a conundrum.

THE QUESTION. Since its inception, MLS has grappled with the Mexican Question: How to draw Mexican-American fans, touch their communities and tap into their fervor for soccer.

Aside from a league-wide bump in crowds when Jorge Campos played in MLS, and some success at the team level in cases like that of Missael Espinosa in San Jose and Hugo Sanchez in Dallas, few Mexican-American fanáticos are regular attendees at MLS games.

"Tokenism creates short-term ticket sales but that kind of fan won't stick with the team," says Chicago general manager Peter Wilt, who has a Mexican-American population of about 900,000 to draw from. "Unless the product is good -- and is viewed as good -- they won't come back for a second, third and fourth game. It's not just about having a good product, it's about convincing them they have a good product."

From Day 1, MLS has hit home with Central American fans. Not so those with roots in Jalisco or Michoacan or the Federal District of Mexico.

"MLS has certainly had more success courting the Central American fan than the Mexican-America fan and I think that is due to the fact the Central American fan sees MLS as a step up from their own leagues," says Burn general manager Andy Swift, who has lived in several Spanish-speaking countries and is the only league GM who is fluent in the language. "Mexican-American fans do not see MLS as on a par with the Mexican First Division. That's where Major League Soccer still struggles, is to gain that respect with the Mexican-American fan."

Yet to be seen is if that perception has changed in light of the U.S. national team's success against Mexico: the Americans have only lost once to the Mexicans in the last seven meetings and were 2-0 winners in the 2002 World Cup.

THE GOAT. The power and allure of CD Guadalajara, whose mascot is a goat and whose red-and-white vertically striped jerseys are among the most distinctive in the Americas, may break through as no CONCACAF club match or sponsorship deal ever could.

Decisions on what the team will be called or what colors it will wear haven't been decided. (Vergara has called it Chivas USA, but that name hasn't been officially adopted.) Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego is the most likely home.

Vergara's MLS entry will not be a Chivas reserve team or farm club. It will be subject to all the logistical and financial restrictions imposed on MLS teams.

"We've had an expansion procedure in the past and we'll use the same procedure, so there would be an expansion draft," says deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis, who oversees player matters and competitive issues. "In addition, the expansion team, whether it be Chivas or anybody else, would have some number of allocated players and some number of discovery players.

"Chivas USA will be exactly the same as any other MLS team in terms of rules and regulations. I assume within the rules and regulation of MLS, Chivas will seek to give their team a uniquely Chivas flavor."

The club's tradition of signing only Mexican players will have to be modified. With players who hold dual citizenship, green-card holders and transitional internationals, it still has many more options than the allotted three senior international players per team mandated by MLS.

During the press conference two days before the All-Star Game at which the Chivas deal was announced, Vergara spoke of the both the business and competitive aspects.

"I'm very excited to be a part of all this work the league has been doing the past few years to improve soccer in the U.S.," says Vergara, who also put in a bid to buy Spanish club Atletico Madrid and is eyeing several other teams. "We truly believe this is a powerful opportunity in the U.S., and, of course, Chivas wants to be part of that. I know we are going to be a big contender for the tournament and a big rival for all the teams in the U.S."

MLS officials will shudder at the prospect of Vergara's team winning the league title, but that's part of the risk.

THE MARKET. Of a population of approximately 38.8 million people deemed to be Hispanic in the U.S., about 75 percent are Mexican-Americans. According to figures used by Mario Flores, Managing Director of public relations and marketing agency Sportivo, they spend about $600 billion a year.

"It's a huge market and a growing market," said Flores, whose agency caters to clients in the Latino sports market. "If they do this right, it's a big plus for Chivas, as well as MLS and its clubs."

In the MLS quest for these consumers, there have been Los Tigres del Norte concerts and Hispanic Heritage Nights. It has signed Mexican players of varying abilities as well as national television contracts with Univision and Telemundo. It attracted sponsors like Bandai, which came aboard primarily to reach the Hispanic market.

Some efforts were targeted especially for Mexican-Americans, others were entwined with projects aimed at a the broader audience.

MLS has battered against numerous obstacles in its efforts to reach the Mexican-American market. Nearly every Mexican League game can be seen on American TV outlets; Garber refused to renew the league's deal with Telemundo partially because he felt its announcers regularly ridiculed the league and its quality.

THE RIVALRY. The stigma that MLS soccer is far inferior to that played in the Mexican League persists. Circumventing deep-rooted club loyalties presents another barrier to getting those fans into league stadiums.

"Those loyalties exist, too, with the Central American fans, and they have become loyal to their MLS teams, and I think it's possible to become loyal to both," says Swift, who has used a mix of the Burn playing Mexican and Salvadoran teams in friendlies and staging exhibitions with with them.

At the club level, success against Mexican opposition in official competitions has been fleeting. In 1998, D.C. United beat Leon and Toluca while capturing the CONCACAF Champions Cup, but Mexican teams hold a big edge in recent series between MLS and Mexican teams in that competition.

"One thing MLS fans can strive for is to be their second favorite team," says Swift. "The success of the national team will help, but in the context of time and history, the success -- even though it goes back six, eight, or 10 years -- hasn't been going on that long when you look at soccer traditions and generations of following the game in other countries.

"For many years the [U.S.] national team struggled to compete against the Mexican national team. It's going to take a little bit to change that perception, so that's why it's going to take more than having a Mexican player on your team to help bring that fan out."

The only national Spanish-language broadcast presence is a radio deal with Radio Unica, which broadcasts a one-hour MLS show every Sunday and also does segments on American soccer.

Most MLS teams broadcast their games on Spanish radio; in a few cases there is Spanish coverage but no English-language outlet.

THE ALLIANCES. Enticing Vergara to join MLS is the most dramatic of several projects that join domestic entities with their Mexican counterparts.

Chicago has formed a working partnership with Morelia whereby the teams meld certain aspects of their operations. They share marketing and sponsorship data and ideas.

"Monarcas Morelia is a very progressive, forward-thinking and modern Mexican club," says Wilt. "It's run by young people, and they're aggressive. That has allowed us to develop a good relationship."

Anschutz Entertainment Group is negotiating a partnership with Mexico City's Club America by which they would share operations of the Earthquakes, whose attendances have plummeted while being passed among various ownership groups.

AEG has also staged several exhibition games in its MLS cities with Mexican club teams and owns the American marketing rights to Mexico's national team.

"Chivas is a very respected side and the most popular team in Mexico," says Swift. "If they decide that MLS is a worthy endeavor, obviously the perception of their fans and Mexican fans in general will be that they will perceive this league as more important than they had thought of it in the past. They will have a jersey in MLS to cheer for which I think will make them bigger fans of MLS."

Ridge Mahoney is a senior editor at Soccer America magazine.