St. Louis should ask Nintendo, Sony to help woo MLS
Here’s a thought, St. Louis. If you want an Major League Soccer team so bad, ask a gaming company to help get one.
That idea seems to have worked for Seattle, which on Wednesday announced that its MLS expansion club, Sounders FC, will wear the words “Xbox 360 Live” on the front of their kits — soccer lingo for jerseys — when the team kicks off next spring.
Additionally, the “pitch,” or playing surface, at Seattle’s Qwest Field, known famously to Rams fans as home of the NFL’s Seahawks, has received the courtesy title of “The Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field,” just so everyone’s absolutely clear about who the Sounders’ new partner is.
All this stems from a five-year, $20 million sponsorship deal the team inked with both Microsoft and the MS division that makes Xbox. (Nice idea, Microsoft, to pony up for the hometown team.)
No word yet whether rival console makers Sony and Nintendo have their own designs for an MLS kit in the works. So, Game Guy will presume nothing is set in ink yet and suggest to Jeff Cooper that he get one of those companies on the phone right away.
Cooper’s leading the charge to get an MLS squad here and even has a stadium plan on paper. Supposedly, he’s “this close” to landing an expansion team, but not so close to have prevented Philadelphia from securing a club ahead of St. Louis this past February. Though St. Louis has the stadium plan — actually, Collinsville would be where the pitch resides — the financial foundation for a team apparently wasn’t solid enough just yet to suit MLS bosses.
That might change if Cooper can entice Sony or Nintendo to stamp one of their products on his effort. Imagine, if you will, a brand-spanking new St. Louis MLS team trotting out onto “PlayStation 3 Pitch,” or “Wii Field.”
Or how about a Nintendo deal that permits free Nintendo DS handheld units to the first 1,000 people through the gate at a home game?
Sounds like a great way to draw fans, Mr. Cooper. So, don’t delay. Get on the horn and call Sony or Nintendo — right now.
(6 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
Loading ...
Does St. Louis have anything to do with Sony or Nintendo? Because that’s clearly the reason for the association (Microsoft is based in Seattle).