Who is the real target demographic of professional soccer in the U.S.? Is it Soccer Moms?  Is it Soccer players?  Is it Latino people?

Sure, Soccer Moms, Latinos and Soccer players make up some of the peripheral targets, but who makes up the core target?

One U.S. pro soccer fan thinks he’s the core target demo.  He’s 41 and 1/2 years old and had been a consistent fan of the big 3, football, basketball and baseball his whole life, until recently.  As a new Soccer fan and not having been a soccer player for more than 20 years, he watches snippets of world soccer leagues, but does not go out of his way to find them.  He doesn’t have Fox Soccer Channel to watch at home, though he wonders what life would be like with it.  He doesn’t own a soccer scarf and has no plans to purchase one.   

He supports Obama and likes to talk politics, but does not consider himself a Republican or Democrat.  He doesn’t tweet yet, but has recently investigated Facebook as a possible hobby.  He likes Spanish music a lot, but does not like watching American Idol or Dancing with the Stars.  He has attended one women’s Roller Derby and one Lucha Libre and only watches short stints of MMA, but he is ready to watch American Soccer every night of the week.

He only glances briefly at NASCAR, but loved Talladega Nights with Will Ferrell.  He wants to know a little more about Lacrosse and Cricket, but not too much.  He likes to watch and play Tennis a lot, but only can take small doses of watching or playing golf.  He likes to spend time with his wife and kid and wishes he had season tickets for a professional soccer team in his area.

He likes to travel, but does not like to get too involved in popular culture.  He is college educated, but thinks college is overrated.  He likes movies based on a true story, but really liked ‘Oh Brother, Where art Thou?.’  More than anything, he is really sick and tired of the big 3 sports and is trying to wean himself off of them.

He refuses to succumb to the word ‘pitch’ to replace the word ‘field’ and still hasn’t seen ‘Bend it Like Beckham’, but he did really enjoy the documentary on the NASL Cosmos, even though he’s not old enough to remember too much about the league.  He also refuses to succumb to the abbreviation FC or nicknames like Chivas and Real, which seem foreign and pretentious.  He’s looking forward to an old name coming back, Rowdies.  He gets confused by all the different cup competitions and would rather see a longer regular season of professional U.S. Soccer.

His socioecomoic status is middle class, but he relates well to all classes; middle, middle-upper, middle-lower, upper and lower.  He lives in an apartment and his wife keeps pushing him to buy a house.  His work fluctuates, which is another reason he needs a stable, semi-daily American Soccer league, so he can get away from all of his work problems. 

Above all, he considers himself a U.S. sports fan, who deals daily with his disenchantment for baseball, football and basketball.  He looks forward to the day he can go to a franchise restaurant where the volume is up on a U.S. pro Soccer league match like it sometimes is on the big 3.

The whole business enterprise of women’s professional soccer is an enigma.  It is hard to figure out why the soccer braintrust with MLS has not already put a women’s league together.  It would seem that a women’s league would be the perfect compliment to MLS.  Women’s soccer is exciting, competitive, and fun to watch. 

Women’s professional soccer showed that it has a base of fans to draw from during its last try with the WUSA.  Women’s soccer was able to make itself viable as a professional commodity because of what happened with the U.S. women’s World Cup performance in 1999. 

With all the momentum that women’s soccer has accomplished since the ‘99 World Cup, and weighing where MLS is with their progress, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they can compliment each other.  If cultivated properly, women’s and men’s pro soccer in the U.S. can take each other further along in the sports spectator spectrum. 

While it was not legions of fans that supported the sport, WUSA proved that it has the platform to stand up as a profitable spectator sport in the U.S.  MLS has proven that it too can be supported and profitable.  Professional soccer should consider profitability vs. mainstream spectator sports, but this is another discussion entirely.  The bottom line is that both can feed off each other and grow together.

Both MLS and Women’s professional soccer need each other.  MLS is struggling and this is well documented.  Attaching women’s pro soccer to MLS would be a catalyst to propel the game more with American sports fans.  It is a package that brings soccer fans more with less effort. 

The leagues, MLS and WMLS, would travel together and make a doubleheader for fans on every appearance with the exception of the playoffs.  WMLS would be treated equally at all levels with regard to the amount of teams, separate website, statistics, jerseys, etc…  Team colors for WMLS would follow suit with their respective MLS team’s colors.  Fans are the ones who would benefit, getting all the emotion, enthusiasm, and professionalism of two games and two leagues for the price of one. 

But, of course, this is not happening, even though the new women’s league, WPS ( www.womensprosoccer.com ) is playing in 2009 in some MLS stadiums.  

WPS will struggle along just as WUSA did.  Eventually, MLS will have no choice, they will have to take a women’s league on as a partner in order to save itself.  It makes common sense.