Friday, August 03, 2007
Soccer and the U.S....
I was just wondering if soccer will ever catch on in this country. It is the world's most popular sport and yet has never gained a foothold here. The latest attempt to increase its popularity was the signing of David Beckham by the L.A. Galaxy. Another failed attempt like signing Pele years ago? I read in another column an interesting take on soccer here. The person felt that soccer would never be popular in this country because the world's best soccer players don't play here. I never thought of it that way. I do enjoy watching the World Cup and will catch the occasionally game on Fox Soccer channel. And the reason I watch those is because the level of play is much better than the MLS. Now to get the best players means spending a lot of money. Soccer players in Europe make way more than their U.S. counterparts. So is this the chicken or the egg. Do you pay the money to bring them there hoping for crowds and support to pay them or try to get the crowds and sponsorships first to have the money to pay them? Until they figure out that question soccer will always be far down the list of popular sports in the country...
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2 comments:
to answer your question...no. the beckham thing is not going to be good for soccer. this is because the governing body of soccer, fifa, is just that...the governing body world wide, and will basically tell beckham where and when he is able to play. why didn't he play this weekend? i don't know. he was on the sidelines in a suit, just watching. so the whole beckham thing is going to implode on itself.
also, i heard a great quote once on why americans do not watch soccer; it went something like this...that americans do not have the attention span to watch a game and comprehend it for forty-five minutes straight at a time. think about it...all the major sports that americans watch have what is called 'natural time outs'; where we are able to insert advertisements, get up and piss, get a beer. you really are unable to do that with soccer. there are no natural time outs. just play the game. also, your average american has a hard time understanding the game. they just think that it is a bunch of guys shooting a ball at a net. there's a little more than that.
[shalom...]
Adding big worldwide names is a questionable tactic to raise the level of awareness about soccer.
If all the kids who've played little league soccer haven't retained enough of an interest in the sport to make it popular in America, I don't know what will do it.
Also...everything that Hamad said...
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