Fox Sports En Español Sponsors Amateur Soccer Tournament
Multiplatform Program Follows Tourney Through Copa Alianza In Top Hispanic Markets
By Laura Martinez -- Multichannel News, 7/7/2008 11:11:00 AM
Fox Sports en Español has kicked off its sponsorship of Copa Alianza, a soccer competition featuring amateur adult teams nationwide, in partnership with Sears and Alianza de Fútbol Hispano, an organization dedicated to develop and support amateur Hispanic soccer in the U.S.
A multiplatform program, labeled El sueño de tu vida, follows amateur players as they take part in a series of elimination rounds leading up to the Copa Alianza, a tournament featuring the best adult soccer players in the nation’s top Hispanic markets. Through El sueño, a series of scouts from the Mexican Federation of Futbol and top teams from the Mexican First Division will tour the nation with Alianza and conduct open tryouts in each city prior to selecting the local all-star team.
“This is really a big deal,” said Juan Ignacio Blanco, Alianza’s vice president and general manager. “Not only we have the largest [soccer] cup at amateur level, but we are a national organization and teams are summoned by invitation only.”
Eight groups of four teams each take part in the competition, which kicked off June 14 in Phoenix and will run through September in 10 cities.
A final all-star team game, scheduled for Sept. 20 in Los Angeles, will be broadcast in its entirety on Fox Sports en Español.
In addition to broadcasting the final match, FSE will feature a series of vignettes on daily show Diario Fox Sports and on Jorge Ramos en Vivo!, the live one-hour program hosted by sports journalist and commentator Jorge Ramos. On the Web, El Sueño lets visitors stream video and sign up to receive mobile alerts through Fox Móvil.
“Different from any other program in the market, [this] is the only program that creates national media attention with fully integrated, and extensive grassroots opportunities for sponsors at a local level,” said Lisa Scholtes regional sales manager, and director of integrated sales at Fox Sports en Español.
