Lincoln City US Exposure In Full Flow, And Why Not?

I did a couple of articles on Landon Donovan the other day, talking about Lincoln City on a podcast.

It’s not the only one he has done, and it seems there is a real push over there to highlight our recent success. Luke from our media team posted on LinkedIn about being in New York recently, and obviously, having Ron Fowler as chairman is big as well, given his profile in the US.

I noted on a couple of Twitter posts that there was some criticism of Landon speaking out now, as if in some way he was latching on to our success, or was only coming out of the woodwork because we’ve done well. While I can understand how people have this impression, I’m not sure it is accurate, and I wanted to address it briefly this morning.

If I were to put it very simply, Landon Donovan doesn’t need us to get himself on a podcast. His profile here is what? The most well-known US footballer ever? I’d probably also have Alexi Lalas there, just for that hair, but honestly, Landon Donovan is the one most laymen (and women) know. In the United States, he is more. Across the pond, he is a box-office name. He has so many personal accolades I lost count twice on Wikipedia (93, I think), and to football fans over there, he is what David Beckham is to us.

He might even be what Bobby Charlton was to a generation. He just is football. I’d wager there isn’t a town in the whole US he could walk into and not be recognised. Ryan Reynolds might be Hollywood all over the world, but Landon Donovan is just as well-known in America.

With that in mind, ask yourself this. If his recent glut of podcasts and interviews is him ‘coming out of the woodwork’, why? Why would a man who needs no introduction to a nation of 350,000,000 people think ‘Lincoln have gone up, I’ll get on this now’? Answer: he wouldn’t. There is no need. He doesn’t need relevancy or a reputation boost. Lincoln City need Landon Donovan more than Landon Donovan needs Lincoln City.

Why now? It’s obvious. In going up, we have a great opportunity to spike that US market, don’t we? Everything has aligned. Ron Fowler joins the board and takes over as chairman, what, three months ago? That’s new over there and here. As he does, we win promotion, the same promotion Wrexham won last year. If you think about it, it’s smart advertising. Wrexham are so well known globally, so by comparing our successes, we’re making Lincoln City a story not just because of what we’ve achieved, but by adding the context of another huge story in the US.

Us going up, and hoping to win the title, is a story that English fans understand, but to sell that to a US sports fan, who doesn’t understand promotion and relegation in the English sense, is not easy. To underline the level of achievement is not easy. But if you can create the context for the US market, it becomes something tangible for investors over there. Not just because it’s English soccer (I’ll come to soccer in a minute), but because they can frame it against their sports and understand it much more.

Who better to help frame our success, to help capitalise on a moment in time, than a player who is more respected and well known than David Beckham in the US? He’s not coming out of the woodwork and latching on; he’s like a sleeper cell that has been activated. I don’t, for one second, think he’s been sitting on his hands waiting. I’m sure there have been lots of benefits of Landon’s involvement behind the scenes, but now we have something to sell, who better to sell it to the US audience?

Also, I want to briefly address the word ‘soccer’. A lot of people hear soccer and think ‘urgh, American input’ etc. Harvey and Ron have both been really careful in interviews to address it as football, not wanting to bring that feared Americanism into our club. Honestly, though, it’s all fantasy. Soccer is our word. One of the most popular magazines of the fifties and sixties was Charles Buchan’s Football Weekly, but he also had a Soccer Gift Book. It actually comes from the full title of football, association football, where the ‘soc’ was taken and ‘er’ added.

In fact, it was the word most used among professionals in the seventies (and I’ll use books to show you again) here and here, but the formation of the NSL and a wave of anti-Americanism caused us to disown the word. We invented it, used it, and then decided it wasn’t cool when America adopted it. Hypocritical, really.

Not that it really matters, but I do like to make a point. To circle back as well, Landon Donovan talking Lincoln City on podcasts and media across the US is not a soccer player latching on to a proper football fairytale, it is a world-famous footballer using his profile to enhance our reputation in a country where there might just be a man with a few million wanting to help us stay in the Championship. Is that really a bad thing?