|
Marla Messing,
JD'89, Helps Women's Soccer Score
The 1999 Women’s
World Cup was a huge success, much to the surprise of many people,
including corporate sponsors like Adidas and Allstate.
“The main
challenge,” says Marla Messing, JD’89, the president and
CEO of the 1999 Women’s World Cup organizing committee, “was
constantly having to convince people to take a leap of faith.”
As spokesperson,
strategic planner, and “highest-ranking hands-on officer of
the company,” Messing transformed the Women’s World Cup
into a $30 million business with 180 staff members and the largest
women’s sporting event in the country. The Women’s World
Cup sold more than 658,000 tickets—338,000 more than the 1999
NCAA Women’s Final Four, the next largest women’s sporting
event in America. Moreover, the final match, in which the U.S. defeated
China 5-4, captured the largest television audience ever for soccer
in the U.S., with approximately 40 million viewers—an audience
greater than either the 1999 NBA Finals or the 1999 NHL Stanley
Cup match.
“I think
the most important thing we did was treat the Women’s World
Cup like a major sporting event,” says Messing. “Everything
we did, we did in a first-class manner. We convinced people that
the event was worthy of their resources. We never let anyone convince
us that this was anything other than a major event.”
Since this
was only the third Women’s World Cup ever, Messing had a lot
of building to do. She had to convince skeptical television companies
that the event would appeal to the American public, not known for
its love of soccer or of women’s sports. Going after big-time
corporate sponsors and staging the games at major stadiums, Messing
also tried to educate the mass media about the potential events
and invested heavily in grassroots marketing toward youth soccer
organizations. Her work paid off when the U.S. women’s soccer
team received widespread coverage in national newspapers and on
such TV shows as The Late Show with David Letterman and Good
Morning America.
“I never
expected the kind of mainstream media success we had,” says
Messing, who was highlighted as a “Fun, Fearless Female”
in the July 1999 issue of Cosmopolitan.
Messing threw
caution to the wind in 1992 when she left her job as an associate
at a Los Angeles law firm to work for the 1994 Men’s World
Cup. Though she didn’t know much about soccer, she quickly
signed on when Alan Rothenberg, the CEO of that competition, offered
her the job as his special assistant. Messing jumped at the chance
to get involved with “something other than law” and to
follow her interests in the business of sports and entertainment.
As executive vice president of the organizing committee, she managed
ticketing, entertainment, and special events. In 1994, Messing moved
up to senior vice president and oversaw the successful launch of
Major League Soccer. And in 1997, she became responsible for the
staging and promotion of the Women’s World Cup and its related
events.
“I enjoyed
the building process,” she says. “I liked learning more
about the thousands of young women all over the country who play
soccer—and other sports—and how important the sports experience
is in their lives.”
Messing herself
is a mother—and possibly a future soccer mom—of two girls,
3-year-old Natalie and 1-year-old Samantha. Wanting to spend more
time with her family, Messing doesn’t plan to return to soccer
for some time, content with her accomplishments on the Women’s
World Cup.
“We have
shown the world that women can be strong and competitive, as well
as feminine or family-oriented or sexy,” says Messing. “We’ve
shattered many unfortunate stereotypes about female athletes, and
I think we’ve demonstrated to people that women’s sports
can be just as dramatic and thrilling as any man’s sport.”—E.C.
|
