MLS Major League Soccer

MLS launches aggressive fan feedback program on eve of ninth season

Published on March 15, 2004 under Major League Soccer (MLS) News Release


NEW YORK (Monday, March 15, 2004) - On the eve of its ninth season, which kicks off on Saturday, April 3, Major League Soccer is launching the most proactive, far-reaching program in its history to gather feedback from fans on an ongoing basis at games across the nation, it was announced today by MLS Commissioner Don Garber. The League and participating teams will utilize "FanTrak" technology developed by Washington, D.C.-based Turnkey Sports to survey MLS ticket-buyers and television viewers.

"The MLS fan base is incredibly diverse," said Garber. "We seek to learn as much as we can about the soccer community on a continuing basis - what they think and what they want from us. FanTrak is a new system that gives us a unique ability to ask fans for their input - at every single game if we choose to. It enables us to further involve our fans in their entertainment experience and continue to put them at the center of everything we do."

Turnkey's FanTrak system enables any sports team, event or venue to intercept and survey fans in attendance at games and other League or team events and receive the fan feedback information that very day. The system captures survey information from attendees on Palm Pilots or any kind of PDAs. Following the event, the PDA's are "hot-synched" and the data instantly uploads to a user-friendly reporting website. The League and the clubs can then access, analyze, sort and filter their data from anywhere in the world that same day.

"CRM (customer relationship management) software tracks what tickets a customer has purchased, but does not measure the experience of all attendees," said Len Perna, President and CEO of Turnkey Sports. "FanTrak enables MLS and its teams to receive feedback from all attendees, whether they are attending as a ticket buyer or as a guest of a ticket buyer. These guests are the best prospects for MLS, and FanTrak delivers results on these customers and prospects instantly."

FanTrak greatly reduces the traditional cost and turnaround time of on-site paper and pencil surveys. By bringing the data in digitally on PDA's, the system avoids significant costs, including: the costly and time-consuming steps of printing surveys, entering the data into a computer, creating data tabulations and drafting meaningful reports that drill down into the data. By eliminating these manual steps, the chances for error are greatly reduced, thereby making the information more accurate, more reliable and imminently more available.

"We've employed various means of surveying our fans," added Stuart Crystal, Vice President of Marketing for MLS. "This new technology enables us to be much more nimble and much more responsive to our multiple fan segments. It gives them a bigger voice in what we do. FanTrak enables us to hear feedback from core soccer fans; newer fans sampling MLS; families; cultural segments; etc. FanTrak's multi-lingual abilities are also key for our research."

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