AT&T is activating its sponsorship of the Colorado Rapids with a Man of the Match SMS promotional feature for the remainder of the 2009 Major League Soccer season.

The promotion, in partnership with AT&T and Txtstation, will let fans at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver vote via SMS on whom they believe should be the Man of the Match, the most valuable player of the contest. The call-to-action urging fans to text a keyword to a short code is issued on the in-venue video screens.

"We are constantly looking at ways to better our fan experience here at Dick's Sporting Goods Park," said Jeff Plush, managing director of the Colorado Rapids, Denver. "Through our partnership with AT&T, we wanted to offer our fans a voice by providing an interactive voting experience and Txtstation allowed us to do exactly that."

AT&T is the No. 2 carrier in the U.S.

The Colorado Rapids, a charter member of Major League Soccer, kicked off their 14th season in 2009.

In 2007, the Rapids moved into their new home at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, considered the biggest and most state-of-the-art professional stadium and field complex in the world, featuring the 18,000-seat stadium home of the Rapids that is surrounded by a 24-field, fully-lit professional soccer complex.

Txtstation is a mobile marketing company specializing in sports and entertainment.

The company helps broadcasters, event owners, sponsors and general media to communicate with viewers or fans directly through mobile phones.

Txtstation creates one-to-one real-time dialog with consumers at specific times and places such as events, concerts and live or pre-recorded broadcasts.

Starting at the 75th minute of each soccer match, fans will be asked to decide between three of the game's top players.

To vote, fans can take out their mobile phones and send a text message with a keyword to the short code 88222.

Upon conclusion of the voting, the player with the most votes receives the Man of the Match honor.
Of those fans that voted, one participant will be randomly chosen to go on the field after the game and meet the game's Man of the Match.

The promotion will run at all remaining Rapids home games.

"AT&T is the sponsor of the Rapids, so they wanted to be part of promotions, so they contacted us to help them activate the promotion," said Michael Falato, vice president of sales and business development for Txtstation, Austin, TX. "AT&T has been a partner of Txtstation for some time, we enjoy working with them and we're happy they picked us to work with them on the Colorado Rapids.

"The Rapids want to use mobile to engage their fans and to send out text alerts to fans, so we ask if they want to be part of Colorado Rapids text clubs," he said. "It's a way to communicate with fans when they're not at the game.

"This lets the Rapids enage people in real time to give them a fun, interactive piece their fans love, drive sales and ROI, as well as engage partners like AT&T."