J.League delegation visits MLS clubs

NEW YORK -- Major League Soccer and its Japanese counterpart, the J.League, continued to develop their relationship this month, as a J.League delegation toured several MLS markets during the month of September. The 33-person delegation included representatives from 28 of the J.League's 33 teams, as well as documentary film staff.

The tour, which explored the operations of the Columbus Crew, FC Dallas, Chivas USA, and the Los Angeles Galaxy, was launched as part of the J.League's 11 Million Project, an initiative that aims to increase aggregate annual attendance at official matches to 11 million spectators by 2010 (and the intermediate goal of 9.5 million for 2008). The goal of the visit was to support the 11 Million Project by learning about MLS's best practices in ticket sales, community relations, and database marketing.

Researching MLS was a component of the J.League's broader look at the industry, which consisted of similar visits to clubs Arsenal (England), Villareal and Osasuna (Spain), Ajax (Netherlands), and the U.S. leagues MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL. At the tour's conclusion, many of the J.League's delegates said they were impressed by the hospitable disposition of MLS personnel and were eager to adapt their customer-friendly practices to Japanese culture so that something similar could be implemented in the J.League. Many of the J.League representatives also noted the rapid growth and increasing relevance of soccer in the United States.

The J.League's analysis of MLS practices was informed by stadium tours and presentations followed by question-and-answer sessions with team general managers and executives in each market. The J. League delegation attended two MLS regular season games. In their final analysis, Shoji Fujimura and Hitoshi Sato, who have been charged with heading up the J.League's new ticket sales initiative, identified the need for teams to have stadium ownership as the most important discovery of their recent MLS tour, especially because most teams in the J.League do not own the stadiums where they play.

The participating MLS teams have opened the door for future collaborations and are considering the feasibility of conducting a similar information-gathering visits to Japan.