The Beautiful Game
With the 2010 South Africa World Cup only weeks away it is time once again for lazy sports columnists to ask: "What does soccer have to do to gain a foothold in the US?"
This lazy, unoriginal writing has been trotted out every couple of years since at least 1994 when the US hosted the World Cup. And the answer to that question is the same now as it should have been then. Soccer will never win the US over. It is just not going to jam its way on to what is already a very full sports landscape. Even if the US were to host another World Cup (possibly in 2018 or 2022) and were to win (not very possible in my lifetime), soccer would not catch on here. Americans just don’t get it.
And guess what? That is ok. I love soccer…it's my favorite sport. As a lifelong fan who played and officiated the game up until my knee surgeries hit the double digit mark I have tried to convince others that soccer is "the beautiful game". That soccer, with it’s on the field athletics and off the field controversies and scandals, rivals anything MLB, NHL, NFL or the NBA could ever dream of and is the one sport to follow most closely.
But I am over it. I actually got over it a long time ago.
We'll make an exception on the bandwagon for these two
Soccer is a niche sport…and that is ok. It has a small fan base in the US, but it is a pure fan base. The people at a soccer match are not there to see and be seen. They are there for the game. They are there because they belong with others like them. I don’t want soccer to gain mass appeal. That would ruin it in some way. Soccer fans don’t need a scoreboard to goad them in to chanting. They don’t need an announcer to fire them up for a defensive stand and they don’t need loud blaring music off ESPN’s Jock Jams to keep them fixated on the action.
I am done proselytizing for the game and I am not praying for the game to sweep the nation.
If you are a true sports fan, you should watch the World Cup. It is a massive worldwide event and that alone is pretty cool. But after the World Cup is over, I am not going to preach for you to keep watching. Frankly, if you don’t already know why you should love soccer then I can’t convince you otherwise and that is just fine with me.
Thanks for coming and suckling on Daddy’s Sugar Ball…
Bearcat
This lazy, unoriginal writing has been trotted out every couple of years since at least 1994 when the US hosted the World Cup. And the answer to that question is the same now as it should have been then. Soccer will never win the US over. It is just not going to jam its way on to what is already a very full sports landscape. Even if the US were to host another World Cup (possibly in 2018 or 2022) and were to win (not very possible in my lifetime), soccer would not catch on here. Americans just don’t get it.
And guess what? That is ok. I love soccer…it's my favorite sport. As a lifelong fan who played and officiated the game up until my knee surgeries hit the double digit mark I have tried to convince others that soccer is "the beautiful game". That soccer, with it’s on the field athletics and off the field controversies and scandals, rivals anything MLB, NHL, NFL or the NBA could ever dream of and is the one sport to follow most closely.
But I am over it. I actually got over it a long time ago.
We'll make an exception on the bandwagon for these two
Soccer is a niche sport…and that is ok. It has a small fan base in the US, but it is a pure fan base. The people at a soccer match are not there to see and be seen. They are there for the game. They are there because they belong with others like them. I don’t want soccer to gain mass appeal. That would ruin it in some way. Soccer fans don’t need a scoreboard to goad them in to chanting. They don’t need an announcer to fire them up for a defensive stand and they don’t need loud blaring music off ESPN’s Jock Jams to keep them fixated on the action.
I am done proselytizing for the game and I am not praying for the game to sweep the nation.
If you are a true sports fan, you should watch the World Cup. It is a massive worldwide event and that alone is pretty cool. But after the World Cup is over, I am not going to preach for you to keep watching. Frankly, if you don’t already know why you should love soccer then I can’t convince you otherwise and that is just fine with me.
Thanks for coming and suckling on Daddy’s Sugar Ball…
Bearcat
Posted by Bearcat at 5/26/2010 10:00 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: World Cup soccer foothold in US mass appeal
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: World Cup soccer foothold in US mass appeal
Great post!
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Not necessarily. Sure, unless the earth moves on its axis, Football and Baseball will stay in its spot at 1 and 2, but others, like NASCAR, Hockey, and Basketball could succumb to Soccer. NASCAR is falling in the eyes of people, and it would take a massive screw up that could happen in either Hockey or Basketball for Soccer to capitalize, but it would have to be something big for that to happen.
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