Sports media: DCFC draws record crowds for broadcasts, too

Detroit City FC drew more than 7,500 fans for its national semifinal match Saturday night at Keyworth Stadium. The match was sold out hours in advance, and it was the largest crowd the blossoming soccer club has ever had.

But that was just a fraction of the total audience, as there were tens of thousands more watching throughout Michigan and around the globe, in as many as 60 countries, as the team's live-streaming broadcasts continue to post some mighty impressive numbers.

Saturday's match drew at least 30,000 viewers from its live stream and Facebook Live, while last weekend's two matches — DCFC had one last Friday and one last Saturday — brought in approximately 50,000 viewers, combined. To put that in perspective, if you were to get those kinds of numbers on broadcast television in Metro Detroit, it'd be worth more than a full rating point.

"Everything I know in terms of amateur soccer," said Alex Wright, co-owner of DCFC whose department includes marketing and broadcasting, "those numbers are pretty astronomical."

It begs the question: Will DCFC ever kick its way onto linear television? More on that in a minute.

First, to give a little context on the recent numbers, at the beginning of the season, DCFC was averaging between 5,000 and 10,000 viewers a game. Last year, it was about 3,000 a game. The game broadcasts, with Neal Ruhl and John Kreger on the call, have been available at livestream.com, which is appointment viewing where viewers tend to watch an average of between 20 and 25 minutes at a time.

Helping on that front, Fox Sports Detroit has embedded the broadcasts on its site for league matches. That's a significant relationship, as typically more than half of the viewers are watching on that platform.

On Facebook Live, as is the nature of social media, the watch time is much shorter -- but it offers fantastic reach, and can bring in new fans.

The popularity of DCFC, a National Premier Soccer League team that launched in 2012, is one big reason behind the good numbers, of course. Another is the quality of the production, which looks like any soccer broadcast you'd see on cable television. It uses a four-camera setup, sometimes five, and features about a dozen crew, and sometimes as many as 20 crew members. There are slick graphics, a big deal for Wright, who owns a production company.

And Ruhl, whose main sport is basketball, and Kreger have come into their own on the job, and are much-revered by the fan base. This was Ruhl's third year on the call, and Kreger's first.

"It's a really good approximation of what you would see on a much higher level," Wright said. "There's no amateur soccer team, maybe in the world let alone in the United States, that's doing this the way we're doing this."

OK, so what's next?

DCFC has had discussions with local television channels about airing its games, but isn't ready to pull the trigger yet — for a few reasons. For starters, the cost. Going to Fox Sports Detroit — the dream scenario, Wright said — would be a major financial investment, and one that DCFC isn't ready to take, especially since it can stream the matches for significantly less money. DCFC is heavy on community, too, given it's grown via grassroots, and it much prefers control over its product. Going to linear TV, it would relinquish much of that control.

Soccer also is huge among the millennial crowd, which is cutting the cable cord at record rates. Wright and his fellow owners are well aware of this trend.
Plus, the live stream also gives DCFC a never-ending reach. During every match, Ruhl gets tweets from across the globe — and even from airplanes — many of which he reads. In Washington, D.C., they hold DCFC watch parties.

On Saturday, Ruhl got tweets from Germany and Japan, among other far-away locations. Northern Ireland makes up more than 8 percent of the live stream audience. They watch in Newcastle, England, to see homegrown boy David Edwardson.

There could be a time when a one-off DCFC game is aired on local TV, like if DCFC ever brought in a Premier League team for an international friendly. But full-time, moving the matches to TV likely won't happen until DCFC rises to the professional level. And even then, it won't be a necessity, Wright said.

For now, Wright said, the club is happy where it's at — and thrilled with the rising audience, and not just those flooding into Keyworth Stadium.

"This sort of plays into our vision," Wright said of the live stream, which also has the benefit of providing him data on who's watching — so if there's a fan watching in, say, Dearborn, he can try to sell him a season ticket; but if there's a fan watching in, say, Marquette, he can try to sell him a shirt.

"If we're on linear or locally, we're not able to speak to a global audience or even a national audience."

Nothing on the side

Once again, WJR (760-AM) will go without a sideline reporter on its Lions broadcasts, despite the Lions hoping it would hire an ex-player for the job.

When the Lions moved from 97.1 The Ticket (WXYT-FM) prior to last season, it opted not to take veteran sideline reporter Tony Ortiz with them, which is an absolute shame.

Ortiz added a lot to the broadcast team of Dan Miller and Jim Brandstatter, and you would think CBS Radio would be plenty willing to loan him to Cumulus one Sunday a week.

Alas, WJR hasn't done it yet, for whatever reason. Perhaps it's being cheap, perhaps it doesn't see the value in the job. The latter, of course, would be silly.

The sideline reporter is a valuable position, given it can provide real-time updates on injuries, and offer insight from sights and sounds at field level. The Lions are one of only a few teams in the NFL to not employ a sideline reporter on its radio broadcast roster.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

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