Spring training at Coachella: Can MLS cash in on the preseason?

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Dan Perkin and Scott Bissmeyer, work buddies on vacation, sat in metal bleachers watching the Portland Timbers play the San Jose Earthquakes in the first of four Major League Soccer preseason games that day.

They each spent $125 on VIP day passes, which included food, drinks and access to tents to keep cool. Calling themselves “MLS road trippers,” they have visited countless MLS stadiums and watched teams in Tucson, Arizona, where they no fewer than 11 clubs have met for preseason training in the past.

But this year, with 12 MLS teams — along with two from the United Soccer League and four from the National Women’s Soccer League — Mr. Perkin gathered and Mr. Bissmeyer decided to check it out.

“Compared to Tucson, they’ve built a nice operation here,” Mr. Perkin said of the venue, the Empire Polo Club, best known as the annual site of the Coachella Music Festival. “If you’re going to drive six hours, we might as well treat ourselves.”

MLS — and more specifically the entertainment conglomerate AEG, which owns the LA Galaxy, one of the league’s 10 original franchises — hopes more fans will start thinking like Mr. Perkin and Mr. Bissmeyer.

Professional sports leagues have been trying to monetize their preseasons for years by marketing them to fans who want to watch their teams up close in a casual (and cheaper) setting. Major League Baseball has its spring training in Florida and Arizona, complete with exclusive jerseys and caps. National Football League teams open practices to fans every summer during their training camps. The National Basketball Association holds its Summer League in Las Vegas.

But throughout its 30-year history, MLS hadn’t marketed many large-scale training camps to fans. The league experimented with the concept in the late 1990s, but the attempt failed. Teams in warm-weather states prefer to stay home, while other teams fly to the Sun Belt states to train. Some teams prefer to travel to Spain, Mexico and beyond to prepare for the season. This month, Inter Miami flew to Asia and Saudi Arabia to showcase Lionel Messi, although a friendly match in Hong Kong went wrong when the Argentinian star did not play.

However, in late 2021, AEG CEO Dan Beckerman had an idea. What if the Empire Polo Club could be repurposed to host MLS teams in February, a relatively quiet part of the calendar? Mr. Beckerman thought AEG could use its subsidiaries to sell sponsorships, tickets, merchandise and food to give the event the feel of baseball spring training, where fans can watch a number of teams play in close proximity.

“I wondered if we could create something like the Cactus League with some meaningful competition and quality fields,” Mr. Beckerman said, referring to baseball spring training in and around Phoenix. “But I had no idea if it could work.”

Mr. Beckerman said cold-weather soccer clubs had been asking the Galaxy for years if they could train at their facilities in Carson, California. But with only eight fields there was never enough space. So despite the potential awkwardness of an MLS team making money off its rivals, Mr. Beckerman asked Tom Braun, the Galaxy’s president of operations, whether the polo club, much of which consists of lush Bermuda grass fields, uses could be.

Mr. Braun had a commitment of six teams before he discovered that many of the fields had grass areas from the polo horses and concert festivals. The Galaxy’s head groundskeeper Shaun Ilten has built enough pitches in time for the first training camp in 2022, which had no fans due to Covid restrictions.

The teams were satisfied and last year a dozen clubs showed up and AEG sold tickets and sponsorship money. This year, the Coachella Valley Invitational, as it is known, featured 18 teams. Food trucks and exclusive merchandise such as bucket hats and team stickers were added. Attendance was expected to grow by around 40 percent to around 30,000 fans over the seven matchdays. The invitational ends on Saturday and the NSWL teams will play; the MLS season started this week.

“This is our version of thinking outside the box,” Mr. Braun said. “Our hope is that teams will commit to this for the long term.”

Preseason matches do not count towards the rankings, but they are essential for coaches, who need to evaluate their players, and doing so on high-quality pitches is crucial to avoid injuries. AEG promises teams two dedicated practice fields each and access to four- and five-star hotels with at least 40,000 square feet for meetings, training rooms and equipment. The teams pay their way to California and for the hotels, as well as what Mr. Braun called a “reasonable” rental rate for the fields.

There are no changing rooms, so players come to the polo club dressed in football gear. Each team is assigned a dedicated groundskeeper to attend to each coach’s requests. AEG supplies goals, tents and other equipment, and has spent about $2 million renting high-end equipment for a makeshift gym.

“We’re definitely in the business of making money, but we want it to be done efficiently,” Mr. Braun said, adding that the event was a “long-term project” but I wouldn’t put it in any other way than being a moneymaker in the future. the short term.”

Still, he said it will only work if the teams are satisfied.

“You look at the background, the fields, it’s perfect,” said Phil Neville, the Timbers’ coach. “We travel eleven months a year, so on top of that we don’t need any extra air travel.”

Mr Neville and other coaches enjoyed working with the players in semi-isolation. It allows their teams to bond over dinner, a round of golf or a game of foosball, known as teqball. The addition of fans, as well as small scoreboards and announcers, also made the games feel more authentic.

“It’s definitely more organized this year, where we come here and play,” said Keaton Parks, a midfielder for New York City FC. “Last year it felt more like a youth tour, where we were waiting a while to play.”

Mr. Parks and other players trained in a country club atmosphere. One of the two playing fields bordered a rose garden with a large fountain amid palm trees and snow-capped mountains in the distance. The Tack Room Tavern, just steps from the fields, had a menu that included the “Saddle Up Breakfast” and Peach Bellinis.

White wooden fences served as borders around the field and trainers’ tables lined the sidelines. When the games ended, players crossed paths with the following teams, often stopping to hug friends and former teammates. Fans with Sharpies, shirts and footballs asked for autographs and posed for selfies.

Judging from the reaction of many fans, the experiment is off to a good start. Maria De Luca, who lives in Toronto, was watching Minnesota United against Chicago Fire FC with her sons, Emi, 10, and Mati, 11. boys, both wearing Messi Argentina shirts, to meet the players and see the match up close. She said they would return next year because her husband was attending an annual conference in Palm Springs.

“Football is like anything for these boys,” she said, pointing to her boys. “I think this could be big.”