Is There A Better Name For SuperLiga?

By L.E. Eisenmenger - BOSTON, MA (Aug 26, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- SuperLiga stirs up controversy whenever the Mexican-US tournament surfaces in conversation or on a blog. There are discrepancies between what SuperLiga claims to be and how some pundits and fans see it.  Though no one should be arguing that the games can't rise to the occasion, it's also clear that SuperLiga attendance isn’t close to what it should be. Although the Chicago Fire sold out the finals with at 20,000, Kansas City and New England drew as low as 5,300 and total SuperLiga attendance for 12 games was 86,948.

In many ways, SuperLiga is a win-win-win. MLS benefits by drawing Hispanics into the extended fan base, The US National Team benefits by drawing from MLS players with more international experience, and broadcasters and sponsors benefit by being able to cast their net over a broader spectrum of North America and develop more soccer-related partnerships.

But attendance and popularity have only scraped the surface of what a Mexican-US soccer tournament could be. One fix could be to improve name recognition by simply calling it what it is, the US-Mexico Club Futbol Championship.

Here are a few non-contested facts:

1. SuperLiga is operated by Soccer United Marketing (SUM).
2. SuperLiga has attracted big sponsors like Adidas, American Airlines, Bud Light, Jose Cuervo, Lowe’s, Pepsi, and State Farm.
3. The summer tournament is and will continue be held at US stadiums and pits four top Mexican Clubs against four MLS clubs with a group phase and a knockout phase for a purse exceeding $1 million dollars, according to a Chicago Fire spokesperson. 
4. In SuperLiga’s three-year history, a Mexican team won the championship twice: this summer when Tigres UANL defeated the Chicago Fire in the finals and in 2007 when CF Pachuca defeated LA Galaxy.  In 2008 the New England Revolution defeated Houston Dynamo on penalty kicks.

There is criticism also. 

1. Coaches and players sometimes express that working the tournament into the crowded MLS schedule strains short 24 man rosters and like the Mexican teams, they often field the second string, reducing the credibility of the tournament. 
2. Fans claim SuperLiga doesn’t always bring the most popular Mexican teams like CD Guadalajara and Club America. 
3. Attendance, particularly for mid-week games is sometimes very low, and the atmosphere lacks in entertainment value.

Regardless of these talking points, this tournament should grow and prosper because Mexico is the arch soccer rival of the United States at international level. Familiarity at the club level should carry the same enthusiasm.  This isn't the equivalent of wondering why English clubs aren't bigger rivals with German clubs based on their National Team feelings. 

Building a tournament to exploit that can't rely on subtlety.  Most Americans would be hard-pressed to guess what “SuperLiga” actually is and the name doesn’t convey anything about a specific rivalry.  If anything, it plays into the old notion that North American championships always overreach with their names.  World Series, Super Bowl, and now a Super League for a tournament that has yet to build a tradition. 

Including “Futbol” in the title is also sensible. There’s no backing away from the fact that the rest of the world calls “soccer” football and this is both a polite way of quietly introducing that reality to US sports fans and including Mexican culture in the name. The likely controversy arising from calling it a “futbol” championship is a sure way to include discussion of the tournament in American football press, and that is advertising that can’t be bought.

Dan Courtemanche, Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Communications at SUM explained how the name SuperLiga was selected.

“We clearly wanted to capitalize on the incredible rivalry the two teams have at the national level and parlay that into the club competition,” said Courtemanche. “The working name for the tournament was USA-Mex and that was the internal name we used. But ultimately we felt we ought to develop a unique and fitting name for this event and we felt “SuperLiga” was really the culmination or integration of the two top leagues in North America.”

“The name “SuperLiga” was a very detailed process where we went through dozens of tournament names,” said Courtemanche, “and some of them we thought might be a great fit were already selected by other organizations or tournaments. It’s a pretty lengthy process where we get marketing and brand consultants involved, graphic designers, and most importantly we get soccer experts, whether it’s our former deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis or Alfonso Mondelo, a former coach in MLS and now is our head of player personnel. Ultimately we had to make sure that our legal department checked out from a copyright standpoint and make sure it was available and we decided to go with SuperLiga.”

Still, US-Mexico Club Futbol Championship or some other descriptive name tells a little more of the story.

L.E. Eisenmenger writes for a variety of outlets including covering Boston soccer for The Examiner.  Contact her at eisenmenger@soccerlens.com.