• by Karl Greenberg , Staff Writer, August 14, 2014

In the United States, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that futbol will be the new football in a couple dozen years. Maybe just a dozen. Or fewer. Maybe next week. After all, we are talking about a sport that leads the popularity list among Hispanic and immigrant populations of all stripes; and it is also becoming the sport of the next generation, thanks to organized youth soccer, and because it is cheaper to play, and less hazardous, generally. 

And now New York City has a Major League Soccer team, or will next March when the New York City FC hits Yankee Stadium. Granted, it’s not exactly home grown. The team is part of the global City Football Group owned by an Abu Dhabi royal, but that’s inside baseball to most people.

I spoke to Tim Pernetti, the team's chief business officer. When he said it won't be easy to introduce an MLS team in this market, I was thinking, "Dude. Are you kidding? This city is so ready for a pro-soccer team, it would trade the entire Mets crew for one (after all, the Yankees are an NYFC stakeholder). Washington, D.C., has an MSL team, but not New York? This is America's global city." 

Pernetti said he’s got “eight to 10 sponsors lined up,” with 10 more likely over the next three months. Car companies will certainly be among them. And why not? The other professional sports are looking like Detroit hotels in December, before the auto show: booked with automakers. And if the Super Bowl gets any more clogged with car marketing, they'll need to issue parking tickets. Same with the NBA, NFL and MLB. 

Maybe Nissan will get there first. The automaker has already signed a multi-year deal with NYCFC parent City Football Group (CFG). But Nissan isn’t alone by any means. For five years, up until 2013, Volkswagen had its logo on D.C. United team jerseys, and remains involved in the team as a sponsor. At this point I shouldn't have to mention Chevrolet and Manchester United, or how the brand is cultivating fandom in the U.S. Even sibling Buick has signed up to have its name associated with a soccer match at Fenway in Boston. Nissan, VW and the Korean brands Kia and Hyundai were official sponsors of the World Cup this year. 

Kelley Blue Book says car advertisers during the FIFA World Cup saw a nice lift in consumer activity on its website versus automakers who didn't advertise during the games. Not a surprise is that the biggest surge was in the U.S. Mens national soccer team, versus Portugal and Germany. The web site said the Kia saw an 18% increase, as did Volkswagen; Hyundai got a 14% increase and Nissan a 12% increase in traffic to KBB.com. 

And Hyundai said it achieved the most social activity of any Wold Cup sponsor. The automaker said its #BecauseFutbol social effort generated some 17 million impressions on Twitter with nearly 10% engagement. 

Oh, and the other big pull for soccer advertisers: It's dirt cheap compared to, say NFL, which is as obscenely expensive as a row house in Brooklyn. Back in May, Sports Business Journal reported that Fox and ESPN's new eight-year deal for English-language broadcast of MSL games is worth about $75 million a year. Univision's Spanish-language deal with the league is worth about $17 million per year. That's way less than what NFL charges. As New Republic put it in a story in May, it costs ESPN $1.9 billion a year to broadcast Monday Night Football, 21 times the cost of 100 soccer games on three networks. That translates to far lower advertising costs, theoretically. And far fewer huddles.