It Was a Big Kick, but What Will Net Result Be?

Absent a league of their own where U.S. women’s soccer team players could continue to shine, Saturday’s dramatic World Cup victory over rival China might very well fade into a warm and fuzzy memory, akin to so many past Olympic moments.

The broadcast on ABC drew an estimated 40 million viewers, making the shootout victory the most-watched soccer broadcast in U.S. history. Sports marketers credit the tournament with kicking interest in the sport to the level that women’s basketball enjoyed in the wake of the 1996 Summer Olympics. “It’s huge for women’s soccer,” said Stephen Disson, president of Disson Furst & Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based sports marketing firm. “But, obviously, it’s important to see where it goes from here.”

Proponents hope to keep the soccer ball rolling through the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, paving the way for formation of a women’s soccer league in 2001. What remains to be seen, though, is whether the golden women will continue to shine, and whether corporate sponsors are willing to embrace yet another sports league.

“For the past two weeks, women’s soccer transcended world events,” said Keith Bruce, sports marketing director for Foote Cone & Belding in San Francisco. “It will continue to be the lead story this week, but not in the weeks following.”

The masterfully promoted tournament should lead to additional endorsement deals for team member Mia Hamm, who already has appeared in Nike Inc. and Gatorade commercials. Other players, including Brandi Chastain, who converted the winning penalty kick, also could win contracts. But, Bruce added, long-term prospects are “cloudy” because women players could fade from the sports spotlight without regularly televised league games.

Nike and Adidas America Inc., for example, are scheduled to drop their high-profile World Cup commercials at the end of this week. “Our ads were very well-received, but they were purchased for an event, and when the event is over, the ads cease,” said Adidas spokeswoman Nicole Vollebregt.

Both companies will continue to polish ties to the winning team. When the champions get a Big Apple greeting in New York today, they’ll be standing in front of Nike’s Niketown store. Adidas, which will continue print and outdoor advertising through the summer, also will showcase U.S. stars Kristine Lilly and Shannon MacMillan in soccer camp for the nation’s best female high school players.

“We never started this thing thinking that it was a one-time deal,” said Tommy Kain, Nike’s director of soccer marketing. “With the obvious growth in interest and the Olympics already on the horizon, it’s a pretty good bet that we’ll continue our marketing with this team.”

It’s one thing, sports marketers say, for corporate sponsors to pay relatively small fees for a single event such as the World Cup tournament. It’s another, they add, for corporations awash in sports marketing opportunities to risk an alliance with a sport that, despite its sizable grass-roots appeal, has yet to establish itself as a solid television attraction.

“I don’t know of anyone who can, with certainty, tell you where women’s soccer is heading,” said Denver-based sports marketing consultant Dean Bonham. “There’s a huge difference between a one-time event that captures the minds and hearts of sports fans and a long-term, secure, successful women’s soccer league.”

Disson views soccer as “an alternative for the WNBA, which is good, because sponsors always are looking for alternatives.” But women’s soccer faces an uphill struggle with sponsors and television advertisers who have largely watched from the sidelines as men’s professional soccer struggles to establish franchises nationwide and build solid television ratings.

Major League Soccer executives now must tackle the tough question of whether the winning women’s team represents “a competitor or a partner,” Bonham said. “The debate will go back and forth over whether the women will cannibalize the MLS market or if the women are, in fact, what’s needed to push this sport over the top in this country.”

Those questions are unlikely to rain on the women’s team parade. Team members on Monday learned that the U.S. Soccer Federation had voted to pay each player a $50,000 bonus for winning the cup--notably more than the $12,500 per player initially budgeted. The U.S. Olympic Committee then said it would award $120,000 to the team--or $6,000 more for each player.

Team members, Bruce said, earned their extra pay with Sunday’s play and the team’s willingness to mingle with fans and members of the media: “The chemistry on this team was perfect. The American sports scene was pretty light in recent weeks, so this sated the appetite for sports. And Americans love winners--particularly when there’s a flag attached.”