We're buying a beer for a U.S. National Teamer that really should be buying us a few cold ones since we just learned that
Stu Holden signed an endorsement deal with sporting giants Nike. With the exception of the pretty bad knock (and by knock we mean broken leg) that the former Houston Dynamo and Major League Soccer standout took in the US-Netherlands friendly (damn you Nigel De Jong!) it has been a very good year.
After bursting on the the USMNT scene, Holden finds himself across the pond with English Premier League mid-tablers Bolton Wanders. A great move for a player looking to get on the plane to South Africa.
What's big about Nike's announcement is that it shows another step in its commitment to the sport in the United States. Now the Beverton, Oregon company (who we've honored previously for its new environmentally friendly jerseys) has snagged some of the biggest names in American soccer to its brand: Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Freddy Adu, and Eddie Johnson (errr..... scratch those last two).
Holden joins a prestigious group of marketable faces for Nike. And the more faces, and subsequently, stories, that Nike latches onto the greater exposure for the sport in the United States. Nike has always been successful in attaching their brand to highly marketable individuals as they are on the up and up: Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, even, Donovan.
The signing of yet another young gun to Nike's portfolio is a sign that they want to get out in front of the American soccer wave that is emerging in this country. A move that is beer worthy for Mr. Holden and his new employer.
With the specter of a strike in the rear-view mirror we're serving up a few rounds for Major League Soccer for a great start to the new season. On Thursday night American soccer fans we're treated to a prime time, sold out match in Seattle against the expansion side, Philidelphia on ESPN2 and the weekend rolled on with another high-profile opener in New York (also in prime time on ESPN2), surprising results (Kansas City's 4-0 trashing on DC United), and the return of the league biggest player, Landon Donovan to Los Angeles.
All in all a quality start to the league's 15th season with, hopefully, plenty of more great action to come. And while MLS' new website continues to trouble and frustrate its fans a face-lift on the site was needed. All new things have their bugs and we're sure that it will all get worked out sooner enough.
Taking the good with the bad, if you're willing to drop $39.95 for MLS MatchDay Live, there's one thing the new website got right. High-quality match video (as long as the games aren't on a national broadcast) makes last year's package look like it was served up by CompuServe. The FBM took in a few live games last weekend and one on-demand match (had to see out boy FRANKIE in action for C-Bus!) and it was all awesome. Worthy every penny.
Lastly, we hope you'll allow us a little self-indulgence as we celebrate the launch of our first (of many we hope!) T-shirt. We're not going to keep the beers for ourselves, though. We'll pass them out to to all those who helped make our shirt drop possible.
You know you want it...Get one today from Objectivo.com
Talk about commitment to the cause!
who donated his time and energy to re-design the Free Beer Movement logo and put together a very sharp looking FBM shirt. Wheatley besides being a devoted FBMer is also the chapter head of the Baltimore Brigade, an American Outlaws USMNT Supporters' group.
Also, the great guys at Objectivo who are hawking the shirt for us have been great. They saw that the FBM is interesting and growing part of the American soccer world and wanted to get on board with us.
As regular readers know we're just trying to carve out a little place in this American soccer land and make some noise about how beer can help spread the gospel of our domestic game. Not only does it help confirm our theories about the growth of the sport when FBMers take it upon themselves to buy beers for soccer newbies, but getting institutional support from a company like Objectivo tells us we're doing something really right.
T-shirt looks great, but will you offer them in big boy sizes?
ReplyDeleteThey do have XL, but if you contact Objectivo directly they probably can run a shirt bigger than that.
ReplyDelete