Ideas are Orange

Making American Soccer Work

Recently, there have been some major moves in order to revamp Major League Soccer (US). The most notable include signing David Beckham to the L.A. Galaxy, and a few days ago, it was revelad that Juan Pablo Angel (Colombian striker for Aston Villa) has signed with the New York Red Bulls.

These are bold moves, paying a lot of money for marquee soccer players! It assumes either Americans are warming up to soccer, or the market simply needs to be tapped using superstars.

But... did you know... americans don't like soccer. According to Harvard a Harvard Professor, whom I heard speak a few years back, and whose name I was not able to dig up, Americans don't like soccer because the scores are to low! Yup, americans are used to 100 point basketball games, 40 point football games, or 7 run baseball games. Very few want to stick around for a 1.5 hour match to see a 0-0 score.

So perhaps some changes or ideas to make MLS more [economically] attractive could be.

1. Eliminate or make off-sides more lax. Offsides make it hard for strikers to shine, and are the cause for a lot of anulled goals. What if offsides were ... but perhaps this would distort global soccer stats of goals scored and not scored. Or you could have off-side and non-offside goals.
2. Create new stats. Baseball game scan be just as slow. But in baseball you have runs, hits, and errors, you have batting averages, you have RBIs. Several stats. Soccer has less "activity" stats such as these and therefore people usually focus more on result measures. Think of it as "balancing the scorecard", including some new measures. They could include striking accuracy, or "near-scores", or out-of-area goal kicks. To get sportscasters and fans more interested, more stats are needed.
3. Allow power-plays. Much like in hockey, perhaps you could change the goalie for another striker... or 2 for that matter. I know it's controversial, and it would probably be suicide, but hey, it could be an opportunity to score more goals and keep stadiums full.
4. Crate a distinct food and gadget. MLB has cracker jacks, NHL has everything from octupuses to foam paws, NFL has beer hats, NBA has those soundsticks. Soccer needs its own tools. Perhaps something that resembles de "ole ole ole" chants for the tool, and smoething safer than fireworks. Some pop material gurus needed here.

With hispanic population being the most significant majority in the US, and americans saying in a survey that their favorite [american food] is tacos (official survey); the upside is huge, but the scores, the game experience and the regulations might need to change.

Turning the Oscars into the World Cup

Why aren't the Oscars more like the World cup? Every year, the hottest filmmakers and artists gather in the same place to receive the same type of award. It is a great tradition, and Hollywood is a diverse, entertaining and representative business.

But the Oscars have maintained a sort of "status quo", where the most change you are likely to see is the shows host and the haute coutoure worn by actors and actresses alike. So I wonder, what prevents the Oscars from being more like the world cup? From being global and turning the hollywood "brand" into something that is

• Oscar hosting cities should have a competition to be the host city - this should be a global event. Why are countries not competing to attract superstars? They compete to attract star athletes...
• Oscar nominated actors should travel to that city - it gives them global exposure, global reach, a worldly sense, and a broader audience. People would flock to see hit actors and actresses.
• Locations could be more exotic. The Kodak theatre is interesting, but Dubai, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok, Moscow, Sydney, Hong Kong and others hold equally interesting places. How about setting up the whole Red Square in Moscow? or having the venue in the Forbidden City?
• The Oscars should be simultaneously translated into several languages during the transmission. They probably are, but that is if the country broadcasts the event - and that depends on global viewership.
• The Oscars need interaction! They need to consider some sort of watcher input throughout the show, they need to enable global online voting or local SMS message voting for some purpose. How about having a "people's award", where a specific film - other independent films for example are chosen in real time by the people?. They could learn something from reality TV.
• The Oscars need Youtube to have a new category. Best viral internet film... perhaps this could be voted by the people as mentioned before.
• The Oscars need more distribution. They need Apple Computer to set up an Oscar store the day after in order to pre-purchase the movie, purchase the Soundtrack, purchase outtakes or other material.
• The Oscars need Apple Computer to build an "Oscar Long Tail" of digital content that can be bought and downloaded. That would be to purchase historic movies, historic scenes, etc... They are digging up the past during the presentation, and that means Long Tail dollars.
• The Oscars need to contribute! They need to donate part of the proceeds from the show night to a local charity for different initiatives. They could be building great rapport with all of the hosting countries.
• The Oscars need Google Earth to [satellite] photograph the venue each night to keep a historic record of what the sky looked like. They could use Lasers to paint a global space message for example or create something remarkable.
• Some of the ad dollars could go to helping some invites that "can´t make it " by subsidizing flying - perhaps they could make up for it with viewer volume.

Tradition is great. Tradition does not mean that you cannot innovate and adjust to change sought by audiences and global connectivity on a social and technological level. I watched the Oscars last night and saw the same thing as before, so perhaps they are getting the same result as before.

Hollywood is a huge export with a huge fan base. So is soccer. But soccer is global, they understand the power of a global connection and going out to seek world audiences. Perhaps it is time for the Oscars to do the same.