Time to make some bold moves. Collaborate with USL, create a promotion and relegation system.

USL Championship Week 31 Attendance: New Mexico United: 8,958 Sacramento Republic: 8,407 Tampa Bay Rowdies: 7,012 Switchbacks FC: 6,797 Detroit City FC: 6,575 Orange County SC: 6,500 Lexington SC: 4,677 Rhode Island FC: 6,463 TUL: 4,695 FC Tulsa: 4,610 Loudoun United: 2,479

That will do it! 🔉🔉 #GoToreros

You’d have to watch the full video to completely understand the context, but when I think about my biggest takeaway from the last few years operating professional soccer game-day environments, I keep coming back to one demographic: Families.  That audience is broader than it sounds. There are young children experiencing the game for the first time, kids beginning to form an attachment to a club, and then the 10+ audience where so many are youth soccer players themselves. For parents, many of them will have played the game. Others will admire or respect it, and including for the role modeling for their own kid about what the path of athletic achievement looks like. Game-day environments should be built with them in mind.  These are people you can grow with. Children can develop a connection with a club that lasts for decades. Parents are looking for an affordable, family-first experience that leaves them feeling their time and money were well spent—and wanting to come back. That doesn’t mean ignoring your most passionate supporters. Quite the opposite. Building an authentic supporter culture from Day 1 is essential to creating the atmosphere that makes professional soccer special. But you also have to build for the future. Create an environment where someone can bring their five-year-old to a match for the first time—and potentially create a supporter for life. That’s how you build a club generationally.

The J-League has a clear ambition: to catch up with Europe’s Big Five leagues. Japanese football is thinking big!