| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Advertising, Marketing, Sports |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Area served | N. America |
| Key people |
Donald Garber, CEO Russell Findlay, CMO Will Wilson, EVP |
| Website | http://www.sumworld.com |
Soccer United Marketing is a business to business soccer sponsorship company wholly owned by Major League Soccer and is responsible for the US English and Spanish broadcasting rights for the World Cup. This group's goal and role is to be an instrument of MLS that will help it gain the media exposure and credibility of other major US professional sports leagues, like Major League Baseball, the National Football League, National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League. MLS owners all own a portion of Soccer United Marketing, which was purported to have made a profit for the league's owners in the first half of 2006. Since the company is privately owned, the company's private financial details are not disclosed to the public.
SUM helped MLS negotiate the new Major League Soccer TV Rights Deals with ESPN/ABC, Fox Soccer Channel, Fox Sports en Espanol, Univision, and HDNet and the August 2011 deal with NBC Sports. The deals are rumored to be worth around 20 million dollars per year to the company. It is currently unknown whether any of the league's Canadian broadcasters pay a rights fee.
It is hoped by the company's founders that this company will one day build soccer into one of America's top sports. SUM previously undertook the responsibility of producing the league's various games. The deals together represent the first time in American history that a domestic professional soccer league was able to command TV rights fees.