Star-Spangled Soccer: The Selling, Marketing and Management of Soccer in the USA

by Gary Hopkins

Star-Spangled Soccer charts America’s 25 year journey to becoming a soccer nation, the key business, decisions, personalities, and events that shaped its growth and the developing perfect soccer storm that will propel its unstoppable march forward.  The book take its lead from a single premise that the granting of the 1994 World Cup to the United States set in motion a chain of events that has redefined soccer in America forever and ultimately positioned it to become a major force in the rapidly changing American Sports landscape. Drawn from a 20 year career as a senior executive in the American soccer market and supported by first person interviews and insights with all the key personalities and decision makers Star-Spangled Soccer is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the American Soccer Market,  where it has come from and why it is positioned for tremendous growth over the next 10 years.

Check out the site www.starspangledsoccer.com

Genres: Soccer, Sports

344 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 2010

About the author

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Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of US Soccer for over 22 years and this book added a whole new element to it while giving me a great walk down memory lane. If you have even the slightest interest in US Soccer or the business of sports in America, this is an amazing read. Lots of real concrete information and insight on how soccer fits into the American sports landscape in a very readable/accessible format for any reader. Really loved the behind the scenes look at MLS' bumpy road to survival & profitability and the impact of 94 World Cup. Just an overall great perspective from a fan, businessman & insider. I definitely recommend checking it out.

[Joe Ballard · Rating 2 out of 5]

The history of US Soccer is a long, detailed and fascinating story. It is clear that Hopkins did a LOT of research for this book and, although he leaves out many of the uglier behind-the-scenes details and corruption that went on in the early days, there is a lot of good information here. As a reader, I feel like I learned quite a bit about the history and marketing of US Soccer that I didn't know before. On that level, the book largely succeeds. However, there are numerous errors littered throughout the text that completely destroy any enjoyment I may have gotten out of reading it.

A few examples of errors that can be found JUST in the first 50 pages:

- Franz Beckenbauer is repeatedly spelled as "Beckenbaur".
- Sven-Goran Eriksson is spelled as "Erickson".
- Scott LeTellier is spelled as "Letetellier".
- A match between England and the USA that was played in 1993 is dated as happening in 2003.

In addition to the misspelled names and factual errors, there are numerous run-on sentences, questions that end in periods, and FAR too many sentences that end in exclamation points. (Remember that episode of "Seinfeld" where Elaine's boss at Pendant Publishing yells at her because she put too many exclamation points in the author's manuscript? Same problem.) I work as an editor myself and if I ever turned in a project with this many errors, I would be fired on the spot.

I am longtime fan of Major League Soccer and of course I support the US national team wholeheartedly. I had hoped "Star-Spangled Soccer" would be the definitive book to learn about the growth of our national game over the last 25-30 years. Unfortunately, this is not it and I cannot recommend the book to anyone else.

Should Hopkins ever decide to update this book to include more recent events (the USA's achievements at the 2014 World Cup, New York City FC, Orlando City SC, etc.), I sincerely hope he recruits a proper editor next time. He desperately needs one.

[Meg Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an experienced soccer player for over thirteen years now, I thought I knew about everything in the soccer world. After reading this book though, I found out an incredible amount of new information. Marketing is a topic I am very interested in and would like to pursue as my education grows. I sometimes get the thought that marketing is boring but when as I have been researching more into soccer marketing in particular, I realized I am way wrong. This book really opened my eyes because it wasn't all just positive information about one of your country's "soon to be" favorite sport. It explains the ups and downs America has had while trying to get soccer to grow in the country. The 1994 FIFA was what started it all. The U.S. said they would host it midst in the works of trying to get soccer to grow. I never saw that as being a big deal until reading this book and all the background details of what was going on during this time. Marketing played a huge role during that time because the biggest soccer tournament in the world was coming to the U.S. for the first time. Right now, marketing soccer has become very familiar as you see famous players everywhere whether its on food commercials, sports brands, or simply on a billboard while driving on the interstate. But to think about marketing it back in 1994, makes me realize how much of a challenge that could've been. This taught me what main marketing questions should be when wanting to grab people's attention. Who is the target audience? What is the best way to communicate this topic to your audience? And how does it impact your audience. I have a passion for soccer and not only was I reading something I enjoy, but I was actually learning from the text important keys to marketing.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great writing style! So full of information but It
never got boring . Really enjoyable. Anyone who is interested in American soccer should grab a copy