Today, in France, the US Women’s National Soccer Team will play Thailand in their first round World Cup match. It has been 20 years since the US hosted the third Women’s World Cup. Despite women’s soccer riding high after the US captured gold at the ’96 Olympics in Atlanta, the US organizers for the ’99 World Cup worked against a backdrop of skepticism.
FIFA Not A Fan
FIFA (the international governing body in charge of the World Cup) wanted the US Organizers to stage the ’99 Women’s World Cup on the East Coast in small stadiums, to mitigate what they believed would be a financial loss. But the US organizers had other ideas. Emboldened and encouraged by the public’s response to the women’s gold medal performance, they made some key strategic decisions. Luck, guts and athletic performances combined to make this event an epic game-changer.
Bold Dreams and Smart Strategies
Planning began in the summer of ’97. The organizing committee helmed by Marla Messing, had no money, no sponsors, and no advance tickets sold. The US Soccer Federation gave the organizers a $2M loan against virtually no assets. US Soccer took the risk and convinced FIFA this event needed to be in big stadiums across the US. Stadiums selected included Giants Stadium (NY Metro Market, and #1 TV market) for the opener, Foxboro, (Boston),Soldier Field, (Chicago), Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, (Washington D.C.), Portland Stadium, (Oregon) Stamford Stadium (San Francisco) with the finals at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles.
Grassroots Marketing
USWNT athletes became brand ambassadors in a nationwide grassroots marketing campaign. With the goal of inspiring the next generation of female soccer players, 10’ x 10’ tents promoting the event began popping up at soccer tournaments across the country, with Team USA players showing up for clinics, meet and greets and goodwill.
Packaged Tickets at Affordable Prices
Organizers lowered the price from the US hosted ‘94 Men’s World Cup while creating double headers at all matches except the semis and the finals. Lastly, they sold the tickets as packages rather than one-offs. According to Sports Business Journal, a month prior to the event, Jere Longman of the New York Times reported sales of 388,000 – or 3.5 times the total for the entire Women’s World Cup in Sweden in 1995. Ticket sales began selling at even a faster clip as the tournament began.
Sponsor Support
Advertising kicked into high gear with a Nike ad featuring Mia Hamm and Michael Jordon challenging each other in a variety of sports with a music bed “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better) reaching a crescendo with Hamm flipping Jordan over her hip onto the mat in the Judo competition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liKnJ-ejztw. Other sponsors included McDonald’s, Coke, Fuji Film, Gillette, All State and Adidas (equipment)
Stars Are Born
The US Women’s National Team were becoming celebrities. Midfielder and Co-Captain, Julie Foudy reminisced in an interview with Sports Business Journal, “We felt like the Beatles for the three weeks. We had no idea it would take off like that. When we walked into the last week of training in L.A. for the final and we’d literally get off the bus and it would be a tunnel of thousands of fans lining the way from the bus to the training pitch, and thousands of fans screaming the entire time, we were like, what is this? We barely got 1,000 people a game before. “
The Pay Off
Everyone agreed the USWNT had to reach the final to keep the country engaged, and they delivered. The Opener at Giants Stadium was a sell-out crowd of 78,972 fans. The sold-out Final at the Rose Bowl between the US and China set an international record for spectators watching a women’s sports event with 90,185 fans. The TV audience peaked at 40 million during the broadcast. Pregame festivities included J Lo who introduced her anthem, Let’s Get Loud. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsXaw02G4ok
When Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey in exuberance after kicking the game-winning penalty point, a culmination of moxie, belief, smarts and luck coalesced to re-imagine opportunities for women’s team sports and post a $4M profit to boot.