Sponsorship Roundup: Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan is the most marketable member of the USWNT because of the mix of youth, talent, and looks that she possesses. She busted into the public spotlight at last summer's Women's World Cup and her fame continues to grow. At 22, Morgan was the youngest member of the Women's World Cup squad. Now 23, she is no longer the youngest on the team, but is still called "Baby Horse" for her age and gallop-like running style. Morgan was the super-sub in 2011, coming into the game with 10 to 15 minutes left and making an impact. She impacted the game with her speed and finishing abilities: scoring clutch goals for the team in qualing and during the Women's World Cup. In 2012, Morgan earned a starting position and has had an unprecedented scoring run.
To top everything off, Morgan is attractive. Girls want to look like her and guys want to marry her. Many young soccer players have copied Morgan's signature look on the pitch: a pink per-wrap headband. She received hundreds of proposals on Twitter and approval of her photo shoot for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in which she posed in body paint. With this combination of attributes, not to mention her personality and ease in front of camera, it is unsurprising that companies have taken notice.

Morgan's list sponsors includes: Nike, Bank of America, GNC, Mueller, AT&T, GE, Panasonic, and Coca Cola. Morgan was a Nike athlete before the Women's World Cup and the athletic apparel company outfitted the striker in cleats throughout the competition. She had also done one photo shoot prior to the Women's World Cup. After the tournament, Nike used Morgan much more to promote Nike Soccer and she was even featured in a online video game. In the build up to the Olympics, Nike has released a video and more images of Morgan for Nike Women. Nike is always at the forefront of sports. They are represented by some of the best athletes and they handle their marketing superbly. Nike has made a big push of late to market Nike Women and female athletes. They showcase in their marketing the perfect mix of envious, sexy bodies with hard-core athletic ability and this is the brand that Morgan should project. 


            

Bank of America enlisted Morgan, Abby Wambach, and Hope Solo to promote the Chicago Marathon in July of 2011. They attended the Marathon and ran small portions of it with thirteen selected runners for charity. Morgan is known for her amazing speed on the pitch, so the running aspect of this sponsorship makes sense. Also, it is good for her brand to be associated with charitable efforts. This was the first major sponsorship signing after the Women's World Cup.

GNC, the nutrition product retailer, signed Morgan and USWNT teammate, Heather Mitts, in January of 2012. Fitness and nutrition are important to Morgan's career. It is fitting that she represents nutritional products. GNC is a well-known company and have the capabilities to extend Morgan's reach with the public. They have begun to do so, with a large billboard in NYC with Morgan's image. 

   
In June of 2012, Morgan became an ambassador for Mueller Sports Medicine, which sells pre-wrap. Morgan is known for wearing a pink pre-wrap headband during every training and every game. This partnership fits perfectly because a lot of young girls have since copied her pink styling. Morgan is certainly not the first athlete to wear pre-wrap headbands, but she is the first to make it famous. Female athletes of all ages- youth, high school, college, and professional-have been wearing pre-wrap for years, but Mueller is looking for those athletes to buy their products because of its connection with Morgan. An official campaign featuring Morgan has not yet been released, but Mueller gave a sneak-peak through twitter of the upcoming ads. 

AT&T is listed as a sponsor of Morgan on her official website and in Sports Business Daily. There are no advertisements available featuring Morgan, but expect ones to be released during the Olympics.
   
GE, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola have two things in common: they have a sponsorship deal with Alex Morgan and they are Top Olympic Partners. This commonality is good news for Morgan. To be a Top Olympic Partner, companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tie their brand directly with the Olympics. There are only 11 Top sponsors, so Morgan representing three of these companies is a big deal. For women's soccer, there are only two major tournaments-Women's World Cup and Olympics-to make an impact. These tournaments are in successive years, so there is a two-year lull when women's soccer does not have the opportunity to gain the publics attention. Morgan needs to take advantage of the limited time she has to build her brand and public recognition. It is harder for women's soccer to gain attention during the Olympics because of the amount of other sports competing at the same time. Gymnastics, track and field, and swimming, usually are the big events and the winning athletes become stars. Morgan's partnership with three TOP sponsors will aid her tremendously in raising her profile during the Olympics. These sponsorship deals ensure Morgan will not be lost in the thousands of athletes at the London Games, but will be in the forefront of advertising efforts. It was an extremely smart move by her representatives to team her up with GE, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola because of the amount of advertising these companies do around the Olympics. GE is promoting a health care record keeping system that Morgan has been called on to do numerous interviews about. Panasonic features her in a commercial that started running on NBC during the NHL playoffs. Morgan is one of Coca-Cola's 8-pack of athletes. Her silhouette is on a Coke can and they have released multiple videos online that allow viewers to get to know her better. Advertising will reach its peak during the two and a half week span of the London Games and it will be interesting to see how Morgan is used. 

Morgan certainly is capitalizing on her rise since the Women's World Cup and a gold medal at the Olympics will elevate her status even higher, which will make her even more marketable.    

A Change in Number

I was very confused while watching the USWNT Olympic send-off match because I noticed that Abby Wambach was wearing number 14 instead of number 20. I did a google search and found out that she had to change her number because in the Olympics players can only wear numbers 1-18 due to the 18 player rosters. She was able to wear number 20 at the Women's World Cup because a 21 players roster is allowed during that tournament. In 2008, Wambach switched to number 12 before the Olympics, but suffered a broken leg in the send-off match and did not play in Beijing.

Lauren Cheney replaced Wambach in the 2008 Olympics and continues to wear number 12. Although, number 8 is her favorite number, but Amy Rodriguez claimed it on the national team. Cheney wore 8 at UCLA, for the Boston Breakers, and it is even in her twitter handle. Stephanie Cox wore 14 at the Women's World Cup, but is not on the Olympic roster. Sydney LeRoux wore 14 during Olympic Qualifying, before switching to number 11 when Ali Krieger went down with a knee injury.

It will be weird seeing Wambach in number 14 for the next month, but hopefully she can add a gold medal to her new ensemble.

Rapinoe Comes Out

Megan Rapinoe officially came out to Out Magazine in an article posted on their website on July 2, 2012. The USWNT midfielder said, "for the record: I am gay."

Rapinoe was a breakout star in the Women's World Cup for her part in the epic last minute goal against Brazil. She sent in the cross that Wambach headed for the tying goal to send the match to penalty kicks. Rapinoe's popularity has skyrocketed and she has become a fan favorite. In a USA Today article, Rapinoe said, "I think I have a huge LGBT following," and all you have to do is go on Tumblr to confirm this.

Her coming out is certainly not shocking because she has not hidden her sexuality from the public. Rapinoe is very active on Twitter and expresses her support of the LGBT community. Also, there were pictures of her and her girlfriend kissing at an event that were posted on Tumblr and in a previous interview she discussed the ability for female soccer players to be accepted by teammates when they are openly gay.  In the Out Magazine article, she said those three words to confirm what had been widely accepted, "I am gay."

This is great that Rapinoe is publicly coming out because she is empowering younger gay people to be comfortable with who they are. The sports world is still very much homophobic and Rapinoe said, "(for females) it is very open and widely supported. For males, it's not that way at all. It is sad." She also noted, "sports in general are still homophobic, in the sense that not a lot of people are out." For females, it may be accepted in the team atmosphere, but the press and larger society still struggle to overcome a fear of homosexuality, which has been ingrained in the culture of sports.

Sports and homophobia have long since been connected because of the way sports developed. In the 1800s, sports became popular because it was seen as a way to make men manlier. Females were excluded from sports and society feared females would become too masculine if they played. Female athletes that did appear masculine were ridiculed in the press. Due to this, female athletes developed many tactics to avoid being labeled a lesbian. They would simply be silent on the issue and they would also use the apologetic stance. Female athletes who used the apologetic stance would down play their athletic ability and present an outwardly feminine appearance. This situation has decreased over time, but the connection between masculinity and sports remains and greatly effects female and gay athletes.

Rapinoe has taken a great step by countering tactics used to avoid being labeled a lesbian and openly admitting her sexuality.    

Out Magazine Article
USA Today article
Photo Credit: Out Magazine

Olympic Roster Announced

The U.S. national team roster of 18 is set for the 2012 Olympics. Many familiar faces made the cut, with only one new addition, Sydney Leroux, from the 2011 Women's World Cup squad. The Women's World Cup allowed for a 21 player roster, so head coach Pia Sundhage had to make some tough decisions to trim it down to 18. Goalkeeper Jill Loyden, defender Stephanie Cox, and midfielder Lori Lindsey were left off the roster, along with defender Ali Krieger who suffered a torn ACL during Olympic Qualifying.

U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team Roster by Position:
GOALKEEPERS (2): Nicole Barnhart, Hope Solo 
DEFENDERS (6): Rachel Buehler, Amy LePeilbet, Heather Mitts, Kelley O’Hara, Christie Rampone, Becky Sauerbrunn 
MIDFIELDERS (6): Shannon Boxx, Lauren Cheney, Tobin Heath, Carli Lloyd, Heather O’Reilly, Megan Rapinoe 
FORWARDS (4): Sydney Leroux, Alex Morgan, Amy Rodriguez, Abby Wambach


There are no real surprises with this roster. It was known that the U.S. would only take two keepers with the reduced roster from 21 to 18. Also, Stephanie Cox did not make the Olympic Qualifying roster, but was added to the Algarve Cup roster due to Krieger's injury. This irregularity for Cox makes it unsurprising that she was left off, especially with Kelley O'Hara's transition to left-back. Lindsey's absence is less predictable. It was thought that a midfielder would be cut and Lindsey is the least versatile of the bunch. Leroux has come on strong as the new super-sub as Alex Morgan has taken on a starting role and she was heavily regarded as a strong candidate for a roster spot.  


The Olympic roster features slight changes of note; Lauren Cheney is listed as a midfielder when she had been previously listed as a forward despite playing in the midfield and Amy Rodriguez is listed as a forward when she had been previously listed as a midfielder. Cheney will most likely be used as a center or outside midfielder and Rodriquez will most likely be used as an outside midfielder. The listing of positions is a technicality but it is interesting to note the differences. 


Sundhage named four alternative players for the Olympics, midfielder Lori Lindsey, goalkeeper Jill Loyden, midfielder Megan Klingenberg, and forward Christen Press. Klingenberg and Press were surprising choices due to their inexperience. Klingenberg has only been capped twice, but is a regular pool player. Press is uncapped and has only attended one national team training camp. 


All-in-all the roster is solid and features few changes. Now we can look ahead to speculate at what the starting line-up will be.  


    

Sell Out Crowd, But No TV

The USWNT match on Sunday, May 27 at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. will be played infront of a sell out crowd. The U.S. will face China PR in front of a crowd of 18,500. These will be the only fans that will be able to watch the match since the game will not be televised or live-streamed.

It is impressive that the USWNT is attracting a crowd of 18,500 since a little more than a year ago on May 18, 2011 only 5,323 attended a match against Japan in North Carolina. This is also a drastic increase from the last time the USWNT faced China PR in Pennsylvania, which was played in front of a crowd of 2,505 on Oct. 6, 2011. However, these matches were televised by ESPN2.

I find this attendance and television comparison of pre-Women's World Cup and post-Women's World Cup fascinating. It is obvious that the Women's World Cup boosted interest in the USWNT and this can be seen by an increase in attendance at matches, but it has had a reversal effect on television coverage. The year before the 2011 Women's World Cup the USWNT played seven international friendlies and only one was not televised. It seems as though recently fans have been up in arms and campaigning to view their team whether it be on TV or online. The Algarve Cup comes to mind when thinking about fans disappointed in the media's coverage of their team.

For the USWNT's popularity to continue to grow, it is very important for people to be able to see them play. After the Olympics this summer, women's international soccer is in its "off" period for three years until the next Women's World Cup is played. That is a long  "off" period. U.S. Soccer needs to sell the team hard right now coming off the 2011 Women's World Cup and heading into the 2012 London Games because this is the time to capitalize. Even if they cannot get television companies to broadcast the games, they should provide a live-stream to keep the core fans happy and engaged. Opportunity for growth is being missed by not allowing the public to view entire games live.


Photo credit: Howard C. Smith/isiphotos.com taken from ussoccer.com