Having grown up in the UK and watching footy (reluctantly) as a child, and never seeing basketball until I was in high school, I would say in Europe part of the appeal is to see your country beat up your neighbors next door without bloodshed (not counting the hooligans, of course). Same with cricket. I can’t watch cricket as a normal matter of course, but if it’s England v. West Indies, I’m all over it.
I don’t watch footy on a regular basis, but during the World Cup, I put on my England jersey and root for that side. In America, the key to soccer gaining a foothold is to keep Americans interested in between WCs.
I do think America is about to explode with soccer fervor, over the next 20 years. Tons of kids are playing it. Only the international kids were playing when I was a kid (I’m 34) in America - now everybody plays. Names like Ronaldo and Beckham and Ronaldinho are very well known, as compared to my childhood, where no American had ever heard of Kevin Keegan or Kenny Daglish. Once America has a presence in the world of football, I predict it will only help our image around the world. Something about sharing a culture, and skilled American teams with good sportsmanship will do as much as electing responsible national leaders.
While the “New York-New Jersey MetroStars” has to be the worst pro franchise name ever*, how is naming your team after a trendy but probably short-lived alcoholic beverage a significant improvement?
I kind of like the “New York Kahlua”.
*even worse than this**.
At least its named after something. Granted, yes, Red Bull is a beverage. But if no one had ever heard of the drink, it would also be a completely acceptable name, along the lines of Blue Devils or Scarlett Knights. Its also not the first time a team was named after a beverage, the first baseball franchise in Houston was the Colt 45’s.
Having said that, I didn’t say it was great, just an improvment on New York/New Jersey Metrostars, which if not the worst franchise name ever, certainly isn’t one that is going to inspire interest or devotion in the vast majority of people.
p.s. Speaking of being named after a drink, I used to love it when Newcastle Utd. had Newcastle beer as their kit sponsor. Did the hooligans really need more encouragement?
Not to be a party pooper, but this particular refrain has been heard in this country now ever since the old NASL days. Remember how the sport would explode once Pele and Chinaglia and etc. came over and showed us how wonderful the sport was? Remember how hosting a World Cup would result in an explosion of interest in the sport?
Here is what happens to the typical soccer-playing kid in this country: he gets to adolescence and turns into a football or basketball player, and drops out of the sport of soccer. Almost all youth soccer leagues see a tremendous drop off in participation at the age of 12+. Nor are the high school soccer teams the highth of popularity among the students. Most students can’t even tell you who is on the teams, let alone how they are doing.
By the time these youth players hit an age where they own televisions and are interesting demographics to advertisers, they aren’t watching soccer at all, even though it is relatively easy to watch soccer now in this country. ESPN shows the European Champions League games Tuesdays and Wednesdays; last night they showed Liverpool’s 3 - 0 shellacing of PSV Eindhoven. I was at Buffalo Wild Wings while it was on, on the biggest screens in the house, no less. Not ONE person there was watching the game (besides me). Fox Soccer Channel (available as a premium channel on most cable systems) shows EPL games, Serie A games, Bundesliga games, etc. Ratings are so close to zero that it would take some decimal places to show the difference.
No, sorry, soccer isn’t ready for any explosions. It will, with time, slowly grow to the point where it is more popular than many things now on television (Arena football? Who is kidding whom???). But wildly popular it will never be. Sadly.
I was at Stanford Stadium 7/4/94. Most people don’t even know what the hell I’m talking about when I say that.
I had a female roommate from New Jersey in 1994. She explained that I better just bite the bullet and learn all about soccer because there was no stopping it. It didn’t happen of course. A little while go on these boards, a female poster (sorry I don’t remember who) posted that soccer was about to become big because it was already big in New Jersey (I am not sure where New Jersey people grab these conclusions from). Nope, it won’t and it won’t. The last time I heard all of this, we had already clocked about 30 of that talk. At year 50, it won’t be any less misguided.
That was official line but the fact that others were the Temple Thunderbirds, the Nacogdoches Night Train, the Richardson Ripple, and the Kilgore King Cobras always made we wonder if it was a different type of theme.
