ISSUE 037: San Diego FC is here

A conversation with SDFC's VP of Brand, Travis Lamprecht

Author

Kyle from Pathway ⚽️
February 18, 2025

IN THIS ISSUE

  • 🤝 Introduction: MLS is back!

  • 👨‍🎓 Soccer Thought Leader: Travis Lamprecht, San Diego FC

  • ⚽️ Soccer Jobs: Recent jobs that caught our eye

  • 📰 Extra extra: The soccer news you need

INTRODUCTION

Greetings, Pathwayers! 👋!

It’s the most wonderful time of the (soccer!) year. Leagues around the world are in full swing, Champions Leagues battles are heating up, and we’re on the cusp of new campaigns beginning in MLS, NWSL, and USL.

In fact, the new MLS season officially kicks off this Saturday as Messi’s Miami hosts NYCFC (2:30pm ET, Apple TV).

As a new MLS campaign begins, it seemed an appropriate time to get an inside look at Major League Soccer’s latest arrival - San Diego FC. We were thrilled to chat with SDFC’s VP of Brand, Travis Lamprecht, to learn about his soccer journey and hear about the Herculean task of building a club brand from the ground up.

And, as always, we’ve included links to the best and most interesting new jobs in and links to this week’s must-read articles. Scroll down to check ‘em out.

Enjoy the soccer!

-Kyle Sheldon, Co-Founder & CEO

SOCCER THOUGHT LEADER: TRAVIS LAMPRECHT, SAN DIEGO FC

“Unless you know right away exactly what you want to do, avoid being a specialist in any one thing.”

I first met Travis Lamprecht in 2023 when he was serving as the VP of Marketing & Communications for the now defunct San Diego Loyal (RIP). My soccer-specific marketing agency, Name & Number, was supporting Germany’s Borussia Dortmund during the club’s US Tour - which included a match against the Loyal.

I knew of Travis prior to that visit because of his incredible work with the Loyal - including gorgeous kit designs, a dope skateboard collab, a signature beer, beautiful merch, and so much more - and I was grateful to have someone on the ground for our visit who was helpful, collaborative, and generous.

Travis is good people.

After his incredible work with the Loyal, Travis has embarked on the newest San Diego soccer project, having joined San Diego FC almost exactly a year ago ahead of the club’s inaugural season in MLS.

With SDFC stepping onto the pitch this Sunday for its first-ever match (against the reigning MLS Cup champs LA Galaxy no less), it was great to catch up with Travis to talk more about his unusual career path to soccer, how he approaches marketing the sport in the U.S., and his new adventure in San Diego.

-Kyle Sheldon, Co-Founder & CEO

Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity (and any emphasis below is ours)

PATHWAY: You've had an awesome career across multiple stops in soccer, but I'd love to hear about your first connection to the sport that led you here?

TRAVIS: My first job in soccer was with the New York Cosmos in 2017. Right before that, I was actually working in politics in New York City in the City Council. I happened to go to a Cosmos game with the council member I was working with in Brooklyn and was taking in my surroundings and thought “I think I need to be a part of this.”

About halfway through that year, we helped the Cosmos get ingrained in the local community in Coney Island, and then a job opened up for a Director of Marketing. I essentially went to the COO and said I could do this job. It started from there.

PATHWAY: Did you grow up with the sport or was that your introduction to it?

TRAVIS: I didn't grow up playing. I didn't grow up as a super fan. My dad actually lived in London for a bit in the 70s and was a Manchester United fan, but he didn't really pass that on. It's now been eight years and I've been working in soccer ever since.

The Cosmos taught me everything I know today, to be honest. I kind of caught the startup soccer bug, if you will. We read about the team in a new market with the Cosmos. I then launched a USL [Championship] team in Memphis. Then, I was with San Diego Loyal the past couple of years before I joined SDFC, which was almost like a relaunch. That “new project feeling” is something I enjoy.

PATHWAY: Could speak to the early part of your time in SDFC? What was it like trying to build campaigns and connect to a community when you didn’t have players or technical staff, when it's really just a crest and some idea about what's coming? How has that changed as the season approaches?

TRAVIS: A brand is how people feel about you. I started in March last year and the brand launched that previous fall. When I joined, it was kind of like introducing a new phase of the club and the brand. To your point, we didn't have players or a coach at that time. The idea was to put a campaign together around San Diegans who are moving the needle in various ways.

One of our mission statements is to create opportunities for local talent in San Diego to flourish and shine. That was the goal of our “Flow With Us” campaign. We had nine individuals – musicians, artists, chefs, surfers, skaters – all local who told their story and incorporated ‘State of Flow,’ which is one of our brand’s mottos.

The idea was to show who these people are that maybe you haven't heard about and their diversity and the diversity of the city. We did a full on-brand spot and then we chopped it up into smaller vignettes that told their story and shared their excitement about SDFC. People seemed to resonate with it. Being a community-first club and communicating that emotion and that authenticity to the city was important.

PATHWAY: As you've now gotten closer to the start of the season and the roster starts to take shape, how do you see that evolution impacting the work you guys are doing?

TRAVIS: It's rapid. It's been two weeks now, the first two weeks of training. We almost have a full roster. Our content is changing from seeing what’s around town to what's happening on the pitch, and we're seeing our engagement grow as that happens. We want to maintain our community ethos and I think we're going to find interesting ways to integrate that with our players, coaches, and the Right To Dream Academy. We have to continue to tell that story in a different way.

PATHWAY: You touched on the diversity of San Diego. How do you try to create a unifying force to bring the community together to rally people behind the club?

TRAVIS: It's actually an initiative that started before I was here, which was the Chrome Ball Tour. The basis for the Chrome Ball Tour was to visit the 18 different cities in San Diego and put on a community activation. We put on soccer tournaments, but also celebrated local food vendors, musicians, and businesses. Another big part of it was creating art by local artists from those neighborhoods to put on merchandise that the community could buy and celebrate that day and the week leading up. The legs to that were also a behind the scenes content series. It was well received. It's something I think is a bit of a legacy now for the club and it's something that we hope to continue next year in a different way tied to our match day.

I think that going to places maybe other teams haven't was important in communicating who we are and showing that we want to learn from the city just as much as us introducing ourselves to everyone else.

PATHWAY: There have been a lot of expansion clubs over the last number of years across the entire U.S. soccer ecosystem. Do you look at emulating anyone or is there a roadmap or a playbook that you reference, or is it about creating your own thing and standing out from the rest?

TRAVIS: I've learned from my experiences at USL and launching expansion clubs in different leagues. I’ve definitely taken certain paths I've used in other markets with me here, including the Loyal. But, in terms of who I think in MLS that stand out to me, I think of Austin FC and Saint Louis SC. I see the colors of the brands, they have an identity, they know who they are. We're still evolving and finding out who we are. 

There isn't a perfect playbook. You have to find what moves people to want to engage with you, learn about the character of the city, and you have to play to that in an authentic way. You have to add your own ingredients to the recipe that's already there for that city. 

It's the same thing as going to a good restaurant. You talk about why it's so good and you tell your friends about it. I see it the same way with us. Word of mouth is still what's going to move the needle the most.

PATHWAY: How do you approach collaborating with neighboring teams, such as San Diego Wave FC, and tap into existing soccer culture?

TRAVIS: I think it's simple. It's celebrating and honoring it. I worked for the Loyal, so I understand what that means. As for the Wave, we had two of their players in our “Flow With Us” campaign video. It was important for me, and the club, to feature them alongside other individuals in San Diego who are doing great things to put the city on the map.

One of the first pieces of content we did when I arrived was on the San Diego Sockers. It's important to pay tribute to those that have already laid the foundation and created a path forward for us and to still engage with those entities.

PATHWAY: You've helped build a front office team essentially from scratch. You joined a little bit later in the process, but as you reflect back, what, or who, are those most important hires?

TRAVIS: I'm on the creative side and this might be cliche, but you're only as good as your team. You can have talent, but you also need more than people who can just execute. Ideation is extremely important. Leaving egos at the door; we can't be sad if your idea isn’t chosen. Let's always pick the best idea no matter what, whether that's from the group or outside of our team. 

Being bought in is another cliche term, but just being bought into the mission and what we're trying to do, and not taking what we’re doing for granted.

Overall, collaboration is key for me. I oversee video, graphic design, social media, and editors, and I need all of those parts humming on their own without me. I can't always be in the weeds on every single thing. When they have a little bit of that autonomy in making those decisions, it just boosts the confidence overall for the group.

PATHWAY: Have you hired any particular positions or roles that are unique from what we've seen across other teams?

TRAVIS: I think we are innovative in that. We have a role that is called ‘Director of Football Growth,’ which I don't know if that's a common position. Mario Fernandez’s main focus is literally what the job title says – working with youth clubs, educating coaches, and providing platforms to bring everyone together. I think that that's a unique role in our Community Department that maybe you wouldn't typically think of.

PATHWAY: Metaphorically speaking, there are around 3,000 things you have to get right in your first season. In your mind, what’s the one thing you absolutely need to get right?

TRAVIS: The match day experience. I think the atmosphere has to be unlike anything the city has ever seen. If that becomes a talking point, then that’s your main marketing element. Long term, I want the club to be synonymous with the city. So when you're visiting San Diego, you think of San Diego FC and going to a game is a must-do on your list for that weekend. 

PATHWAY: As you think back to the different leaders you've worked with, what's a quality you've adopted into your leadership style and is there someone specifically that comes to mind when you think about that?

TRAVIS: Persistence, for sure. Being scrappy. Doing whatever it takes to get the job done. I'm thinking of Joe Barone, who was my boss at the New York Cosmos and a name that I think everybody's kind of familiar with.

The hustle can feel a lot like hand-to-hand combat. You're trying to win a campaign in the market you’re in, much like politics. Communicating the message of what we're trying to do, listening to those who were there before you, but being persistent in what you want and also being consistent in your approach are things that I've learned.

PATHWAY: For those who maybe aren't as familiar or don't know, can you explain the Right To Dream setup and how it sets San Diego FC apart?

TRAVIS: The Right To Dream Academy is a holistic environment that I think academies across the world don't typically do. There are three pillars of it – Education, Football and Character. It's as much about what's happening on the pitch as it is off the pitch. There's a whole school with a free scholarship program where our students and players are developing their game, but they're also developing their education at the same time.

We actually have a 28-acre campus right next to our performance center where the first team is going to play. Alongside them will be our academy and these students, just running in parallel and also mixing together. It's very unique.

PATHWAY: If you had to offer a piece of advice for someone who wants to build their career in soccer or break into industry, what would it be?

TRAVIS: I would say start anywhere. It doesn't matter what the role is or what the team is or what level. I would say unless you know right away exactly what you want to do, avoid being a specialist in any one thing. Just making yourself more well-rounded and eclectic where you can honestly jump into any field based on everything that you've learned.

PATHWAY: If you were to go back in time to Year One, Day One in your professional career, is there one thing you'd be doing differently at that time knowing what you know now?

TRAVIS: I had no idea what I was doing my first couple of weeks at the Cosmos [laughs]. I was literally Googling how to do things. I was treating everything as life or death. It just comes with years of experience, but I slow down a lot more now. I take five seconds before I say something, or I don't say “no” right away to an idea or a suggestion. There's always time to think about something a bit more closely.

PATHWAY: I love that answer. It's a good reminder to take a beat, take a breath, and enjoy it. Last question, what kind of resources or tools have elevated your way of working or thinking?

TRAVIS: I love listening to How I Built This with Guy Raz. There's always a little nugget that I can apply to what I'm doing. There's just always a little piece there that I resonate with. 

Tim Ferriss, there's just one episode that I re-listen to almost yearly with Nick Kokonas. He's a restaurateur for some of the best restaurants in Chicago. There are a lot of similarities in terms of when you open a restaurant for the first time, that you're almost putting on a game every night. You have to treat the audience as if it's their first time each night. You can't get lazy.

Back to the marketing playbook for each city – The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. A lot of this is building micro-connections to me in the city you're in, and then how do you elevate those micro-connections to do macro-things. That's a good one. 

I had one more – 7 Days Out on Netflix. It’s about opening anything, any business as a series when you're seven days out. Any of those things that you could attach to what you're doing, especially with the startup culture and entrepreneur mindset and what we do, just helps me think differently because it doesn't matter what the business is, you can apply a lot of the same metrics and strategies to what we're doing.

Thanks to Travis for taking the time to chat with us. Be sure to connect with him - and watch SDFC take on the Galaxy this Sunday at 7pm ET on Apple TV.

NEW SOCCER JOBS

There are a bunch of awesome jobs that have been posted in the last week, including two very cool roles at U.S. Soccer in social media. Take a look!

ICYMI: MUST-READ ARTICLES

📰 Extra! Extra! 

Here are the news items that caught our eye over the last week:

ALSO…

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SEE YOU SOON, SOCCER FRIENDS