Chelsea Soccer Game

Chelsea, the English premier league football club was playing Mexico's Club America in a friendly game at the Stanford Stadium. It was an incredible experience to see players like Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, John Terry, Claude Makelele, Frank Lampard and Scott Sinclair. I am not very familiar with the Mexico Club America squad, so I have no names to list, but I will say that they played extremely well. Chelsea won 2-1 at the end, but there were times I thought that they may not win the game.

There's something about being around soccer fans that's very - for lack of a better word - cool. It's a sport people are passionate about, and growing up in a family that never missed a world cup game, I am one of those people, well, I used to be. Having been in this country for 7 years, I have lost touch with the sport, but I always watch the world cup and the Euro Cup, and that keeps my love for the game going.

This obviously has nothing to do with marketing or innovation, but it was something that got me very excited, and well, its a big deal for me to see these players play! Just to throw something related to marketing in this post, I was surprised at the lack of marketing / advertising at the game. Perhaps it was because the game was held at the Stanford University Stadium and their advertising rules. I expected to see a lot more advertising for something that attracted 45,000 people to a single place in the Bay Area. How often does that happen, and why did Bay Area soccer teams and soccer shops not play a part in this event?
All in all, it was a good game, and an incredible feeling to be sitting about 200 feet away from some of the worlds best football players. Thanks for coming down to the Bay Area Chelsea!