Alex Gallardo/AP
Last week, Major League Soccer announced that Chivas USA, the much-maligned Southern California franchise, will soon cease to exist under that name. The league has purchased the team from Mexican owner Jorge Vergara, with the intent of installing new management and identifying fresh investors to keep a rebranded version of the club in Los Angeles.
Thus ends a bold 10-year experiment in cross-border sports branding, an experiment that ultimately failed to achieve its ambitious goals. It was also an experiment to which I had a front-row seat as Chivas USA’s director of communications during its first five seasons in MLS.
Having spent those thrilling and frustrating years promoting this innovative soccer brand in one of the U.S.’s biggest media markets, I can think of a few reasons why Chivas USA failed to live up to expectations.
The first, and most evident, was on the field. Yes, Chivas USA played exciting soccer at times, and prominent figures sported the club’s colors: from former Mexican internationals Paco Palencia, Ramón Ramírez and Claudio Suárez; to future U.S. standouts Brad Guzan and Sacha Kljestan; to a list of managers that included Bob Bradley, Martin Vasquez and José Luis “Chelís” Sánchez Sola.
But our beloved Chivas USA began life in MLS with a 4-22-6 record, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of local fans, many of whom were already skeptical to pronouncements that Chivas would teach the rest of the league to play “real” soccer. Nowhere was this more clearly expressed than in the club’s much-debated inaugural branding campaign: Adiós Soccer, El Fútbol Está Aquí (“Goodbye Soccer, Fútbol is Here”).
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