While I agree that the US team may win over more fans after this World Cup, I still don't think soccer is much more than a blip on the American sports' landscape. Has the World Cup arrived? Yes. The sport of soccer? Well, that's another story.
I was relatively ignorant of the US team until 1994. With the World Cup in our backyard, it was easy to follow the US team. And they had likable stars like Alexi Lalas and Cobi Jones, who both had Michigan roots. The 1994 Cup run was my watershed moment. I adopted the team and never looked back. I followed their qualifying run to 1998 and shortly after started following their club teams.
It's very possible that the 2010 Cup run may stir others to adopt the team with equal fervor. But I sincerely doubt that soccer will ever reach the popularity of the big 3 American sports. And, honestly, there's nothing wrong with that.
I equate the American sports scene to cable TV.
NBA, NFL, MLB, and college football are like the networks, with NHL as the fledgling CW network. Soccer is like the SyFy channel. You'll only go there on occasion, and the ratings will never quite equal the networks. Yet, the channel has a hard-core, devoted following and is in no danger of cancellation. That's soccer in America.
Instead of lamenting what soccer is not in this country, I'm more interested in championing what it is. It's a slow-growing sport with an expanding professional league that's survived the economic downturn. The US has a respectable national team with likable players. Of all sports, soccer is the most ethnically diverse. On the national team alone, African Americans make up 35% of the roster, with Hispanics at 17%, and Caucasians at 48%. Asian Americans are strangely not represented - no thanks to the exclusion of Brian Ching! (He would've brought that contingent up to 4%.) Not surprisingly, the sport is truly global. Where else can a team like Ghana compete with the USA? That's the appeal to me.
So, will the World Cup 2010 change anything? Not likely. With the way ESPN has supported soccer over the years, I'm totally content with where things are right now. It doesn't need to compete with the big boys. The Old Guard of sports (I'm looking at you, Jim Rome) won't let that happen anyway.
Mike Valenti on 97.1 actually talked about soccer yesterday. He said he still doesn't like it, but since people are talking about it, he admits he has to talk about it.
ReplyDeleteJim Rome the other day made comments that were actually giving soccer it's due. He still claims he doesn't care for it, but he didn't insult any soccer fans in the audience.
That right there tells me that soccer has turned a corner.
Soccer will continue to grow in the US. Between immigration and the number of kids playing soccer, the fan base is growing.
There was a lot of talk on ESPN radio last week about the impact of the networks investment. Several of the regular soccer bashers felt obliged to at least talk about, whether they liked it or not. I think that the fact that a smart, well run organization has invested that much time and money in telecasting the Cup tells you all you need to know. They wouldn't be doing this if they weren't confident of making money. Btw, the iPhone app is way cool - and as a person that only ever "buys" free apps, I paid the 7.99 that they wanted for the full feature version. They're making money, and that means that they'll be doing it again.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt the ESPN influence is huge. That's where the NHL went wrong. Never should've moved from ESPN. Well, that's one of MANY bad NHL decisions, but I digress.
ReplyDeleteOnce ESPN starts promoting something, Americans grow to accept it.