With less than three weeks till opening day, the San Francisco Deltas professional soccer team has struggled to introduce themselves to the general public in the crowded Bay Area sports market.
To raise awareness, the team today released a two-minute video through its social media channels addressing the current divisive political climate in the United States and encourages San Franciscans to support the team (using the hashtag #onlytogether) as a way to unify and bring joy to the city.
We have an incredible opportunity to bring people together, but we can’t do this alone. #OnlyTogetherhttps://t.co/rBZqRdJsbB pic.twitter.com/iKGu8mVOTT
— San Francisco Deltas (@sfdeltas) March 6, 2017
“A year has gone by and traditional, online, social media seem to be dominated by messages of divisiveness. In fact, these messages have made it harder for us to let the people of San Francisco know that they now have a pro soccer team,” Deltas CEO Brian Andrés Helmick wrote on his blog. “However, what we’re doing is bigger than soccer. I feel that now we have an even greater responsibility to make sure messages of community, diversity, love, laughter are both LOUDER and MORE COMMON.”
In the video, the SF Deltas commit to ending homelessness in San Francisco, empowering women and employing low-income youth. For home games, the Deltas are working with local non-profits such as La Cocina to provide food at home games and Juma, an organization that creates jobs for low-income youth, to staff game-day concessions.
The team has lined up the support of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. Last week he declared the Deltas “San Francisco’s official soccer team” while tweeting about the kick-off event the team will be holding at Civic Center in San Francisco on March 17th.
. @SFDeltas is #SF’s official soccer team, come meet the players @AmericaScoresBA @RecParkSF on 3/17 at Civic Center Plaza! Go #SFDeltas pic.twitter.com/uJJOc4bcsr
— Mayor Ed Lee (@mayoredlee) March 3, 2017
The social-media campaign is a new tactic for the team to raise awareness. Since receiving approval to play from the SF Parks and Recreation Department in March 2016, the Deltas have used an old-fashioned, pound the pavement approach to bringing awareness of the soccer team in San Francisco connecting in person with recreational soccer players, youth soccer teams and soccer fans throughout the city.
“From a fan basis, our approach is ‘one fan at a time,’” Helmick told the SFGATE in 2016.
Meanwhile, on the field, the players of the San Francisco Deltas returned to preseason training today after a week off. The team is preparing for a scrimmage this Saturday at Beach Chalet at 4 pm against the East Bay Stompers. The team will also be holding a pre-season friendly against the Sacramento Republic on March 18th.
The inaugural NASL match for the San Francisco Deltas will be on Saturday, March 25th at 7 pm against Indy Eleven at Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park.
