The rivalry between the New York Red Bulls and New York City FC is young. Only 6 games have been played between the teams: 5 wins for the New York Red Bulls and 1 win for NYCFC. The Red Bulls have outscored NYCFC 18 to 5. In the 2 seasons in which both teams have coexisted, the New York Red Bulls finished above NYCFC both times. They finished first in the Eastern Conference two seasons in a row, winning the Supporters' Shield in 2015. New York City made the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time this season after finishing 8th in their first season. Looking at these facts, New York is obviously red. But this is the only way the Red Bulls express their dominance over their rivals.
The typical NYCFC fan answer as to why New York is blue, not red, is because the Red Bulls play in Harrison, New Jersey, where their soccer specific stadium, Red Bull Arena, is located, while NYCFC play in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium. This argument can be refuted by Red Bulls fans: they play in a soccer specific stadium, clearly advantageous to NYCFC's soccer pitch on a baseball diamond, in New Jersey because there is little space to build one in New York. But this is still not the reason why New York is not red.
Some New York Red Bulls fans feel that, despite their on-field domination, external forces, like the media, do not reflect that. Yet, Major League Soccer's website, a neutral ground, gave nearly an equal amount of features (media that does not include match reports, match previews, and typical team news), giving NYCFC 24 features (or 23 as 1 feature included 2 parts) and the New York Red Bulls 22 features.
The reasons as to why New York is not red, though, are internal. It comes down to 3 things: Geography, Fan Appeal & Treatment, and Team Coverage.
GEOGRAPHY
An important part of a team is being accessible to its fans, and that includes player appearances and community outreach. New York City FC sell themselves as the New York City team, and they make sure people know about them in the 5 boroughs. After looking at the news on their team website from March 6 to October 23 (the first and last day of the MLS regular season), NYCFC wrote about community outreach 16 times; 13 of those took place in the 5 boroughs of New York City. Only 1 outreach effort was not in New York City (2 outreach events had unknown locations), taking place in Orangeburg, New York in Rockland County (about 30 minutes away from Yankee Stadium). The Red Bulls, who are known for being active within the community, as goalkeeper Luis Robles was 1 of 3 for 2016 MLS Humanitarian of the Year. The Red Bulls wrote about 19 community efforts within the same period. The criteria for locations of community events for the Red Bulls, though, will change from that of their rivals: instead of looking at whether or not the event was in New York City, I looked at whether or not the event was in New Jersey. Of these appearances and efforts, 12 of them were in New Jersey and 7 of them were in New York. Of these New York appearances, 6 were in Westchester and 1 was in Queens.
The Red Bulls are barely present in New York. The New York Red Bulls may have some appearances in New York, but the ones in New Jersey are not near New York and not as easily accessible as Red Bull Arena. For reference, the New York Red Bulls hosted 5 signings on October 8 at different locations throughout New Jersey. These signings took place in Scotch Plains, Elizabeth, Perth Amboy, Union, and Roselle, all of which are more than 50 minutes away from New York City's Penn Station, a large hub for train transportation to New Jersey; all of these locations were within a few minutes of the New Jersey Transit (bus or train) station. This practice of player appearances in New Jersey is regular, but if the team is claiming to be a New York team, they might as well reach out to their fans throughout the metro area. Younger fans (Generation Y and Z) are becoming the most passionate fans of the sport; from observation, I have noticed that younger people want to meet their soccer role models, and go to events to meet these players. If the New York Red Bulls continue the way they do player appearances now, they will alienate fans; those will then see that NYCFC is more accessible and root them on in the future.
The Red Bulls are, too, struggling with marketing and advertising their team in New York. NYCFC are making sure New Yorkers know their presence, with advertisements in subways, billboards, and news stands.
See this Instagram photo by @davidvilla * 37.9k likes
The New York Red Bulls have done traditional advertising as well, but only once did they appear in New York, through an MSG Networks promotion outside of Madison Square Garden. Otherwise, the New York Red Bulls limited themselves to 1 billboard advertisement in New Jersey at the beginning of the season and advertisements in newspapers.
See this Instagram photo by @newyorkredbulls * 1,419 likes
See this Instagram photo by @newyorkredbulls * 1,123 likes
The use of billboards may be traditional and all signs are pointing to the use of digital marketing, but traditional marketing practices still play an important role in spreading awareness about teams. Something great about Red Bull Arena and Yankee Stadium is that they can be accessed by both driving and public transportation. Plenty of fans drive to both stadiums and on those drives, fans drive by billboards. Advertising in public transportation stations is the most important of print advertisements. Over 1.5 billion people use the New York City subway, which creates large awareness about new products, movies, and plays throughout New York City. Since both stadiums can be accessed by public transportation, telling New Yorkers how easy it is easy to get to the stadium is something simple but also very important. Neither team does this; NYCFC do advertise that they play at Yankee Stadium, but offer no directions. Regardless, NYCFC tells New Yorkers about their presence, and as a result, New Yorkers who do not know much about soccer will remember NYCFC before learning about the New York Red Bulls. With the Red Bulls relying on newspaper advertisements (a dying art amongst the most popular age of soccer consumers), they will fall behind in attracting these new fans and be stuck in a rut.
FAN APPEAL & TREATMENT
Starting with the simple statistics, the New York Red Bulls have fewer Twitter followers (168,825), Instagram followers (92,446), and Facebook likes (767,650) compared to NYCFC (Twitter: 276,574; Instagram: 468,511; Facebook: 2,209,603). Although it may seem as if the Red Bulls have a stronger social media presence because of their fan interactions on their social media accounts, NYCFC still beats them heavily in follower count, and awareness.
Another way of measuring fan appeal is through the sale of season tickets. There are no concrete numbers that I can find about exactly how many season tickets were sold, but there were 2 articles that came out within a few days of each other regarding both teams' 2016 sales. Yankee Stadium is larger than Red Bull Arena, so comparing the number of tickets sold is unfairl; I instead looked at the ratio of season tickets sold to stadium capacity (NYCFC's capacity, 33,444, is smaller than that of Yankee Stadium, and this regular number will be used opposed to the whole stadium). NYCFC announced on October 2, 2015 that they had sold around 19,600 season tickets for the 2016 season, only 400 away from their cap of 20,000. With this criteria, NYCFC's Founding Members made up 58% of their stadium capacity. This number is larger than the percentage that Red Members made up at Red Bull Arena, which is 44% (11,000 tickets sold, according to Empire of Soccer on October 7, 2015). The Red Bulls may have been here longer, and they may have a soccer specific stadium, but more people are financially committed to NYCFC.
Yankee Stadium
Red Bull Arena
Slightly better news comes for the Red Bulls in looking at the average league attendance in comparison to the capacity of the stadium. The average home attendance of the New York Red Bulls was 20,620, which made up 82% of the stadium's capacity. For New York City FC, their average attendance was 27,196, which made up 81% of Yankee Stadium's regular capacity during NYCFC games. While the New York Red Bulls are only marginally better in this category, their average attendance increased from 2015 to 2016, going up 7%. Meanwhile, NYCFC’s average attendance decreased by 6%. This is because the New York Red Bulls hired Amy Scheer in 2015 from NYCFC, where she was the Vice President of Marketing, Media and Fan Relationship Management. One of her responsibilities at NYCFC included ticket sales, and shares the same responsibility with the Red Bulls. The New York Red Bulls may have hired Scheer in an effort to increase their season tickets for 2016; this worked as their season tickets sales for 2016 reached an all-time high.
The teams both offer a tremendous amount of benefits to their season ticket holders. NYCFC provides 4 different levels of membership: Standard, Delta Sky360 Club, Champions Club, and Legends Club. All 4 levels share a significant amount of benefits: ticketing priority, season ticket holder gift, personalized seasoncards, and discounts on food and merchandise in the stadium. The higher level members have access to different sections of the stadium, or clubs, within the stadium. This opposes the single Red Membership that the New York Red Bulls have. Their benefits include a season ticket holder gift (scarf for 2017), designated concession stands and box office window, priority ticket sale, an exclusive team autograph session, access to a team training session, and discounts at the Bullshop. This may seem like the Red Bulls offer more perks to the fans, but on top of their membership level, all NYCFC season ticket holders are given a Cityzen membership. Cityzens participate by voting on team gear and the captain's armband, experience being a part of the Starting XI photo and can attend first team training sessions, get rewards including team gear and signed memorabilia, and can get City Points attending home and away matches and engaging with the team on social media. The New York Red Bulls, too, offer a similar program where fans can get points in exchange for exclusive match day experiences and team merchandise, called Members+. The membership benefits seem to be equal for both teams, but NYCFC's Cityzens program edges out the Red Bulls' Members+ because there is more to the program than just acquiring points. The Cityzens program allows fans to be involved with the club, rather than just allowing for extra trips to the cash register for Members+ participants.
Looking back at the New York Derbies of the 2016 season, both teams differed greatly in their lead up to the matches. The first derby took place during Heineken Rivalry Week, where both teams were present at events in Herald Square and in Times Square, presented by the beer company. But NYCFC took an extra incentive to get their fans hyped for the first meeting of the season: Blueberry Pies from Brooklyn Bakery Dub Pies.
The New York Red Bulls did not have anything for fans to munch on, and maybe it was because the team would not host a derby until the final meeting on July 24. But when the time came for Red Bull Arena to host the match, the New York Red Bulls catered to the media by sending Red & White cookies, a play on the classic New York Black & White cookies. As great as this gesture was, it does not get fans involved in the lead up to a match against their rivals. The hype from the fans is always there, but why not let them spread it another way, aside from social media? Giving the media food is fine, but at the end of the day, the media is going to write what they want, and bribing them with food will not change that. It is important to give back to the fans, as they give so much to the team. Partnering with a local bakery or even offering a special themed piece of food at Red Bull Arena can enhance the gameday experience and lead up to the match.
The New York Red Bulls eventually did offer something to the fans, but it was for a playoff match against the Montreal Impact on November 6.
See this Instagram photo by @newyorkredbulls * 1,440 likes
NYCFC continued giving more to the fans during the summer with their partnership with clothing company OnlyNY to create a small collection. Fans were able to buy unique clothing that no other team had, unlike the apparel offered by MLS's online store. New York Red Bulls did offer some different apparel choices than the traditional clothes provided by Adidas with options by Mitchell & Ness, but almost every team in the league had the same options. While it was unique in the type of choices offered, it was not unique to the Red Bulls. A few other teams offered different choices in team clothing like the Portland Timbers partnership with Reigning Champ and the Sons of Ben collection from Mitchell & Ness for the Philadelphia Union (which is separate from the generic Mitchell & Ness gear offered by other MLS teams). The New York Red Bulls could do it too; the team's kits and fan gear do not make dramatic changes in appearance. Currently, the MLS store offers 81 t-shirts of the Red Bulls, but only 39% (32 shirts) are mainly red, which is an important part of the team's identity. Partnering with a clothing company and creating a special collection of apparel would excite fans off the field, somewhere where the team is struggling. This collection could be primarily red, and maybe even offer a retro shirt made to look like the MetroStars jersey, something important to fans of the team. But for right now, the New York Red Bulls are not doing anything special for the fans off the pitch, and not doing anything will make the team just business-oriented, not fan-oriented.
The New York metro area is diverse, so NYCFC has created a Spanish Twitter account (@NYCFCEspanol) and has content for their Chinese fans. Red Bull Arena is surrounded by Portuguese fans and they were only recognized once this season. According to the US Census from 2010, 44% of Harrison, New Jersey's population was made up of people who identified as Hispanic or Latino. For NYCFC, people who identified as Hispanic or Latino in 2010 was 53% of the Bronx's population. Maybe the Red Bulls are falling behind because they are not appealing to this crowd that immediately surrounds their stadium the way NYCFC does. Some of this may be because of the lack of big superstars on the team (which is obviously something decided outside of marketing offices). But when you build a stadium, the least you could do is involve the people who live in the surrounding areas. The way the Red Bulls are handling this situation now is like going to someone's house without bringing either a gift or something to eat or drink.
TEAM COVERAGE
I looked further into each team's news section on their respective websites and searched for articles within the following categories: Player Appearances (outside of community appearances), Community Appearances, Players Off the Field, Player Focus, Celebrities, and Other (essentially any article that was not about a match or team fitness). Here is a breakdown of how much of the website coverage fell into 1 of these categories:
Website Coverage
To clarify, Player Appearances are those outside of the community. NYCFC had 2, with David Villa appearing on both Sesame Street and Good Morning America. Luis Robles appeared on Good Morning America another time, which is the 1 Red Bulls Player Appearance. These do not include store appearances that teams mention on social media accounts, as no articles were written about them. These numbers are solely based on articles on each team's website.
The only category that the New York Red Bulls have a larger presence in is the Other section. This overwhelming amount of 39 articles compared to NYCFC's 16 is because of Seeing Red, the unofficial podcast of the New York Red Bulls, which made up 21 of the articles. Taking out all Seeing Red articles, the New York Red Bulls have just 2 more articles in that section. NYCFC has a significant lead on the New York Red Bulls in the Players Off the Field section because of 2 series: Pirlo's Corner (which features Andrea Pirlo's life in New York) and NYCFC Off the Pitch (a social media round up of their players). These 2 series show the fan geared coverage on the website, which allows fans to connect with the players. The New York Red Bulls technically have this through Seeing Red, but this is not run by the team itself; it is run by the fans. The voices are significantly different, with the New York Red Bulls carrying a sophisticated and serious tone. The New York Red Bulls did start off the season with some fun coverage, with GIF recaps of the game, but this was not continued and it did not extend outside of match coverage. The New York Red Bulls are notorious for their Twitter account, where they heavily focus on fan interaction, but this does not match the tone on their website. The Red Bulls did bring different perspectives to their website, including a 3-part series about fans and the New York Derby, but this is coverage that could be seen outside the team website, and was, in the case of MLS' Heineken Rivalry Week coverage.
A club's media/communications team is in a unique and vital position: they have the most access to players. With this access, they can provide content about their players more regularly than a news source like the New York Times or Empire of Soccer. Having a sophisticated tone is not a bad thing to have, but it should not be the only thing provided by a team. It seems that by only providing this content, the New York Red Bulls are stepping backwards in terms of their media, especially when looking at the website versus their Twitter account. The voice on the Red Bulls website reminds me of an article from 2015 that I read about Tottenham Hotspur's media team. Roberto Kusabbi, the team's former social media manager, stated that Tottenham's content was reliant on the team's performance and how the fan conveyed the released content as a result of the game: if the team won, it was okay to post the content; if the team lost, fans would see the fun content as the players being distracted. Tim Love, former presenter of SpursTV, echoed his former colleague, and explained that this was the reason why a team's content seems so "mundane" because of the fear of abuse that the team's social media accounts would receive. I remember after reading this article last year that MLS clubs are in a unique position because they are not restricted in this way. Of course, many teams may still receive criticism, but it does not stop the team from posting this fun content. Looking at Tottenham Hotspur's current content, it is more like that of MLS teams: fun, silly, and unique (fun player interview, first Spurs Christmas, fan surprise, and more). This is backwards for the New York Red Bulls.
The New York Red Bulls are also failing to attract celebrities to the team. When going through articles from the team's website (March 6-October 23), the only "celebrity" that came up was the F2 Freestylers, British freestylers who can be found on YouTube and on the NBC Sports series, It's Called Football. The New York Red Bulls once got a shout out from former New York Giants player Michael Strahan this year, but this was not the team's doing.
See this Instagram photo by @newyorkredbulls * 1,933 likes
This compares poorly to NYCFC, who have had celebrities ranging from Trevor Noah to Ethan Hawke to Leslie Jones*.
*The situation with Leslie Jones occurred outside of the time period that I examined for every other segment, as it occurred during the playoffs. Regardless, the inclusion of Leslie Jones is very important to know, as it shows some progress made by the New York Red Bulls. I will later discuss why even though it is progress, it is not enough.
Leslie Jones going to a NYCFC match is an interesting story, given that the New York Red Bulls had a chance. Just a few days before the final day of the regular MLS season, Leslie Jones discovered how hot soccer players were while watching a replay of a Champions League match between Barcelona and Manchester City. This led both NYCFC and the New York Red Bulls to engage with her, and try to get her to come to their home playoff match.
She then went on to tweet about every playoff match played on October 30, which resulted in fans of both New York teams to persuade Jones to come to their respective playoff games the following week. In the end, she chose to attend New York City FC's playoff match, although she originally pledged herself as a Red Bulls fan.
Now I applaud the Red Bulls for engaging and attempting to invite Leslie Jones to Red Bull Arena, but it only occurred because of her popularity and voice on Twitter. The Red Bulls could be more proactive in these situations, such as inviting local celebrities, like Laurie Hernandez. A celebrity does not need to express the fact that they are a New York Red Bulls fan in order to invite them to a game, which seemed to be their tactic with Leslie Jones alongside the "buzz" that would be created with getting her to Red Bull Arena. You can never have too many fans, and making a celebrity a fan would be great for any team. Just because Thierry Henry (the last "big name" at the team) no longer plays for the club, it does not mean that celebrities do not want to see the team live.
Reaching out to celebrities is important in the brand management aspect of a team. In the age of digital media, fans are able to keep up with their favorite celebrities. If they see that their favorite celebrity is at a New York Red Bulls match once or twice, chances are, some of those fans will start remembering the New York Red Bulls name.
This is why the Red Bulls are struggling to make New York red: they cannot get people to remember their name. They are not doing anything to help educate the people of the New York metro area about the New York Red Bulls. They focus on the fans they already have in season ticket holders and other fans who go to games but do not have season tickets. The New York Red Bulls name is only in the mind of people who are already know them. NYCFC is a new club and the way they marketed their club made people, not necessarily soccer fans, excited about soccer in New York. But even though the New York Red Bulls are not a new team, they can get people excited about the club, and create new fans. The team is very focused on their season ticket holders, but they cannot expect new fans to immediately buy season tickets.
Evidently, the New York Red Bulls are appealing to the fans they already have. The Red Bulls are trying to get new fans, but their heavy involvement in the media is how they think they can get new fans, but those seeing the media are already fans. How they are currently treating their fans is great, especially the perks they offer to their season ticket holders, but they are not the only fans that contribute to the club. One of a team’s goal is to reach their season ticket cap, but if you cannot raise the amount of season tickets sold, you need to grow your fan base; the New York Red Bulls are not doing this. The New York Red Bulls are going about this all wrong, and their cross-town rival is doing a better job. Their idea of uniting people of New York with one subway stop makes everyone feel like a part of the team. The Red Bulls too had an idea of uniting people through the hashtags #RedTogether and #RunWithUs, but it did not spread outside of social media.
Looking at everything, New York is not red, but it is not blue, either. Only New York City is blue, and this is an advantage to the Red Bulls, who can make their claim in other areas of New York and battle NYCFC for New York City. I would improve in a few specific ways:
See this Instagram photo by @pcattry * 10 likes
Spread player appearances outside of New Jersey and New York City.
Match the tone of their social media to their website through a change in content.
Make derbies more interactive for fans on their own account, not just through a sponsored event.
Invite celebrities back to Red Bull Arena.
Create advertisements in New York City. The team used to have advertisements on the NY/NJ PATH and the subway; redoing these and creating advertisements about how to get to games can create awareness. The team's performance on the field proves that New York is Red, so they should put an advertisement saying that, also.
Create a Spanish and/or Portuguese Twitter account, celebrating the culture that surrounds their stadium. But most of all, the New York Red Bulls need to get their marketing outside of New Jersey.