Last year was a banner year for FC Dallas on the field. The team made it’s first visit to the MLS promise land with a trip to the MLS Cup where they fell to the Colorado Rapids in overtime. The club also embarked on a 19-game unbeaten run and finished with the fewest losses in team history.

But off the field things were all that grand. Many people were quick to point out the attendance in Dallas being dreadful once again in 2010. The club finished 14th out of 16 teams with an average of just over 10,000 fans per game at Pizza Hut Park. Some blamed the distance of Frisco to Dallas (weak argument anymore in my opinion), others blamed the lack of marketing of the club in the area.

While the club did go out and actually put together a decent marketing campaign for the 2010 season, it never really caught on with fans in the area nor did it drive up ticket sales when the club was winning. Dallas is a town that loves their winners and they never got to see a truly successful club like FC Dallas last year.

The slogan “We are not spectators” never caught on with fans or people around the league. In fact it was mocked by many. I thought at the time it was a good start by the club who was going through a bit of a facelift in their front office. But at the time and throughout the season the campaign failed to stick the landing.

But the club now has a new campaign and there are already reports that season ticket sales are up in a big way as the club has brought in plenty of sales representatives to get more folks to Frisco in 2011.

The new campaign slogan is “Dallas ‘Til I Die”.

The minute I heard that this would be the slogan I thought the club finally hit it out of the park.

The club’s marketing director Justin McCord said it was a bit of a no brainer to go with that as the slogan for the new season.

“I remember being on the flight to Toronto with the team for MLS Cup and having conversations with the idea of “Dallas ‘Til I Die” being the message we carried for 2011.  Then when we saw the close to 500 FCD fans chanting their hearts out and fighting so hard for the shield in that match, along with the blood and sweat that our club was leaving on the field.  It became a no-brainer,” said McCord.

“Dallas ‘Til I Die” gives us the chance to communicate to our market the rich soccer history in North Texas.  This team, this league and likely this sport would not be here if it weren’t for Lamar Hunt.  We have a direct line to the patriarch of the sport in the United States.  When you look closely at some of the creative, you’ll see a montage of images celebrating the history of Dallas soccer.  Images from the Dallas Tornado, rookie pictures of Bobby Rhine or Oscar Pareja and celebratory moments like the 1997 US Open Cup Championship or the 2010 Western Conference Championship.”

A sneak peak at the 2011 season tickets with the slogan.

What strikes me about this new campaign is how simple it really is. Last year’s campaign really didn’t move fans in a positive way. The shift from last year to this year looks to be on the right track. Its more soccer focused, something I’m happy to see. It focuses in on players on the team like MVP David Ferreira, Brek Shea, team captain Daniel Hernandez, Kevin Hartman and home grown talent Ruben Luna.

I’ve harped a lot on how the club fails to market around Dallas with billboards and ads but a lot of that comes from their limited resources. Instead they are going more digital, which in this day and age its something you can’t ignore. If they market this the right way online and through social media it won’t matter how many bus ads or billboards they use in the Dallas area, folks will know about the club regardless.

FC Dallas is progressing as a whole from the top down mostly thanks to Doug Quinn. I’ve said before that Quinn’s strategies as club CEO will really guide this club to where it needs to be. He knows the challenges the club has faced in recent years and is tackling each of them from the fan experience at the game to campaigns like this one to get more folks interested in the club.

The club is listening to fans for a change and I believe they will be better for it. Work still needs to be done but its possible we’ll actually see Dallas creep out of the bottom of those attendance standings this year.

New campaign seen in the local Dallas Morning News paper earlier this week.

(Note this story also appears on BigDSoccer.com)

Since yesterday there have been a slew of posts on FC Dallas and their God awful gate numbers. I saw this one this morning from Pitch Invasion and another one here at Match Fit USA from yesterday. Both point out the problems I mentioned yesterday in my mini-rant and both are excellent reads if you have seen them by now.

I thought though long and hard about things the club could do, or even should do to help their numbers. I’m not saying to ditch the “We are NOT spectators” campaign that look to have failed to do what the club thought it would do. No, instead I’m thinking of a few ways to build on it. Grant it I am not marketing genius or pretend to be one but some things seem logical to try if you are FC Dallas.

I hate ragging on this club because I do know a few good folks that work for the club in the front office. They try their best but still things are coming up short. We know FCD really needs their own “Marc Cuban” type owner to get things going here, and from the looks of it the club is headed down a similar path that the Dallas Mavericks were in before Cuban bought that team.

Below are some ideas, feel free to add you own (please spare us the “move Dallas” too, that won’t happen anytime soon).

1. Market cheap tickets to college students (and high school students if you must)

RSL is doing it, Dallas needs to do the same. Hell if the coach is a former SMU guy (and half the team went there) why not throw a big campaign to get those students at the game. Believe me SMU kids like soccer, I’ve seen the jerseys around their campus that are worn. Give those kid incentive to come to games too. RSL is doing a cheap package for the local colleges, one that more teams will pick up on if they are wise.

I throw in high school students here too, with the amount of local schools in the area it would be silly not to try and lure some high schoolers there for some games.

2. Keep marketing to the local youth and hispanics.

Its Dallas’ bread and butter really. With the massive amount of youth clubs in the area it makes little sense to not continue to go towards them. Say a local club wins a big tournament, offer them free tickets to a game or something. Its a quick way to get a big group of fans in the stands.

I know we’ve said in the past to stop going to the Soccer moms but when you need folks in the stands you gotta go back to the basics.

3. Make your concession stand prices more reasonable…and make the food tastier too.

I won’t like the food at Pizza Hut Park has gone down over the years. Sure if you are in the Stadium Club you get nice food but the common folk in the stands aren’t as lucky. I’m not calling for steak and lobster here but the quality needs to improve. Also, let’s not run out of pizza at the park. I’ve seen that happen before, pretty embarrassing if the stadium name is Pizza Hut Park and they run out of pizza.

4. About that “We are NOT spectators” campaign

The idea is nice, the money spent on it isn’t bad either but let’s be honest its not working. In fact its still a bit confusing to the average sports fan. They look at the posters for it and might think something else entirely when they see it. I won’t even go into the look of the website they built for it, just seems like it was poorly thought out. Sad part is it’s too late to turn back the clock on this promo.

5. Fix you billboard strategy.

These billboards and signs around town are nice but NONE give game times (at least the few I’ve seen don’t). Seriously, how can fans get excited about a game when they don’t know when it is? Whoever came up with these billboards dropped the ball big time there if you ask me.

6. About the location of Frisco.

I know in about 7-10 years Frisco will be a real fun place to be around Pizza Hut Park. Lots of construction has been going on in the area and it will look good once its all done. The thing is the club needs to start selling the rest of the DFW area on Frisco. Its a drive but then again everywhere in Dallas take a little while to get to. Why do you think there are so many freakin’ highways in Dallas? Anyways, they need to get more bus stops there and encourage public transportation to the stadium. I know a DART rail doesn’t go all the way up there yet (I do believe one is in the works down the road), but until then find a way to get people up there via the bus system.

7. Speaking of the buses in Dallas

Why not get your name across the city by planting some logos across some city buses. Believe me, it will get people interested in the team if they see a few buses around town with FC Dallas logos covering them.

8. Figure out this Hoops thing.

One year they are Hoops Nation, the next year they ditch it for FC Dallas Nation but based on a billboard in the stadium its back at Hoops Nation. Which is it? Take an identity and stick with it, make it your own. No wonder the club can’t market itself to the community, they change their identity too often.

9. Get their website in order.

This is really a general thing for both the league and the club. It will happen soon enough but before the opener it was a real mess that could have and probably did keep some fans from coming to the season opener. Hell there was very little promotion on the old site for the season opener.

10. When in doubt, give out free tickets.

Sometimes you just have to throw away all ideas and let the masses come in for free. With no Beckham games this year or any other big ticket event coming to play at PHP, the club may have to try this at some point.

I also found this commercial that does hype their run last year. Good stuff from RSL.

See some of these short videos of players playing around parts of Dallas. Good to see the team stepping up here. Little things like this will help go a long way in getting their name out here in Dallas.

Could Preki be on the move after this season? (Getty Images)

I must say today has been full of good stuff. From MLS playoff scenarios to U-17 World Cup rosters to other items it has been a full day. Needless to say if you have missed some of these items you are in luck as I have saved some of the best links of the day to discuss here tonight.

First up I wanted to get into an excellent post from SBI about some potential coaches out there that are for hire around Major League Soccer. This all stems from the news that long-time New England assistant Paul Mariner would be leaving the Revs to coach at his old club Plymouth.

Without Mariner in the field the list of potential coaches is indeed a little thinner. But Ives brings up some points that I have been touching on for weeks in my coaching hot seat. One being that look for both Preki and Denis Hamlett to not be where they are currently at right now in 2010. I’ve been saying for weeks now that Preki is perfect for the make-over at Kansas City (his old club) and I believe Hamlett would be a good fit in somewhere like Chivas or even San Jose if they were to drop Frank Yallop (doubtful).

A few other names out there are interesting like Robin Fraser, a RSL assistant. Most of you know I’ve been saying Jason Kreis will not be with RSL next year, well Fraser may just be the right replacement as most in the MLS circles believe he is due for a job in the very near future.

There’s probably going to be at least three or four jobs open this winter. Some people don’t like that their club may be involved in this but its just part of the game.

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Top 10 Games at Giants Stadium

Link

Even for non-New York/New Jersey folks out there like myself this is still a worth while read. The history at the Giants Stadium is pretty impressive for soccer. I knew of Pele playing there in the old NASL days but man there was some rich soccer there over the years.

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Marketing MLS To Big Kids…or Adults

Link

Some real solutions to getting more butts in seats at MLS games. Something I’ve been calling for a while now, real marketing for adults. Far too long have clubs marketed towards families, soccer moms and that group. While I think marketing towards that group some works, I still believe those out of that group will come no matter what. MLS needs more young adults in their crowds and the only way to get them is to really market the league towards them. Some clubs do a better job at it than others but let’s just say more need to figure out how to get it right and start selling out games.

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U-17 Roster Announced For World Cup

A few headliners in some folks eyes line up for the US at the U-17 World Cup this month in Nigeria.

Goalkeepers: 21-Keith Cardona (New York Red Bulls), 1-Earl Edwards (Nomads SC), 12-Spencer Richey (Crossfire Premier)

Defenders: 6-Zachary Herold (West Pines United FC), 4-Perry Kitchen (Chicago Magic), 20-Boyd Okwuonu (Tulsa Thunder), 3-Tyler Polak (CSA Legacy), 2-Jared Watts (North Meck SC.), 15-Eriq Zavaleta (FC Pride)

Midfielders: 5-Marlon Duran (Latino Americana), 10-Luis Gil (Pateadores), 14-Carlos Martinez (Wilmington Jr.), 17-Will Packwood (Birmingham City, England), 11-Nick Palodichuk (Washington Premier FC), 8-Alex Shinsky (Super Nova FC)

Forwards: 16-Juan Agudelo (N.Y. Red Bulls Academy), 19-Victor Chavez (Real So Cal), 18-Andrew Craven (First Coast Kickers), 7-Stefan Jerome (West Pines United FC), 9-Jack McInerney (Cobb SC), 13-Dominick Sarle (BW Gottschee)