All-inclusive "Media disparagement of soccer, real or imagined" thread

Quick question: Has the impression of soccer changed in the media? Do ESPN talking heads still snicker and scoff at soccer or is it considered a legitimate sport worthy of discussion?

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

The media high brow jabs have been noticeably tempered over the last couple years. I rarely (if ever now that I think about it) hear jabs anymore on the various sports radio stations and tv shows. Of course you still have your few high profile soccer haters, but even they seem to have slowed down the rhetoric.

Things are a changing my friends.

Go USA.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

I host a Pro Soccer radio show weekly @ 11-12am EST every Sunday! The show livestreams and is podcasted on www.wbcb1490.com we deal with many of these types of issues.

I think there is no question that soccer is belittled if not totally ignored by the media. This was the main motivation for me to start this show! Everyone reading this, check out the show, I cannot conquer the ridiculous media bias by myself. Thanks, Eric Nash

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

It's definitely gotten better over the last few years. You now regularly soccer soccer highlights on the plays of the day on ESPN SportsCenter.

The main time you hear the haters is during the World Cup itself. There is so much hype about the WC that there is the inevitable backlash about any superhyped thing.

The one advantage soccer has here is that Americans like anything that they can label "patriotism" (no matter how absurd the context) so supporting the national team has sort of become like that.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

If the media scorns soccer it's because sports fans in the US could care less for it. I don't understand why people here hate soccer . NFL, baseball and hockey can coexist fine. But mention soccer and the reaction is immediate and blunt . It's not simple preference; it's downright repulsion and disdain. They will come up with all kinds of childish, ridiculous reasons to justify their opinion and hide their true feelings about it.

I feel wholeheartedly sorry for the US Mens Soccer team. Poor guys have to play (and are expected to win) regular and final matches in stadiums filled with non-supporting fans, both abroad AND at home. They bust their asses and most sport fans dont' know or even care. And all simply because people here refuse to support them - man, that's gotta suck!

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

I just don't see this anymore and wonder where you're encountering all this animosity? Even my die-hard american football and baseball friends have come around to "giving it a try". One of them absolutely hated soccer 5 years ago and blew me away yesterday when I got a text from him as he watched the Gold Cup final.

You'll always have the haters, but to throw out this platitude as if we're still facing "repulsion" when the game is even mentioned just isn't so anymore. At least not on the broad spectrum we're used to from 10 years ago.

The media change over the last couple years is a reflection of what people want, it's the nature of the beast. Ratings dictate what the media will cover or marginalize. Media has seen the growth of soccer as an opportunity and they are attaching themselves to the growing swell of fans. As soccer grows, so will the coverage. This is just the beginning and the more we hold on to this notion that "everyone hates soccer" the more you'll make it so.

Let it go. We're making progress.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

And that would be what?

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

The mainstream newspaper that I used to work for has sent reporters to cover soccer in Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Trinidad, Colombia, Australia, South Korea, Japan, China, South Africa, Spain, France, Italy, England, Switzerland and Greece. It staffs every home game of its local MLS team and many away games. It runs a full page of soccer coverage every Friday. It has covered soccer as far back as the 1920s.

Don't lump "the media" together as though they're all Jim Rome.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

My impression of the US sports media regarding soccer has been that the Baby Boomer generation was the really virulently anti-soccer crowd while those under 30 were, at the very least, closer to neutral.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

The attitude has shifted in the last few years.

It's gaining respect, despite the haters. It's doing this on it's own merits and without anything else. The people who mock soccer will eventually get lost in the wilderness of public indifference.

The younger people- under 30 - are what matter here. They are taking to the sport in larger numbers than my generation, which isn't yet 40. When I goto US games and see the young faces, I smile. These people that attend love the sport and are becoming more numerous as the years pass by. Thats all we can hope for , in America. Most bring their children, and that is how tradition starts.

You're looking at a 20 year struggle, that literally started in Nov 1989. Everyone of us who watched how the sport grew from one goal to today, knew it would take a generation for Americans to finally "get it". Every year, and every World Cup, more people joined in. When MLS formed, most of us tried to support it, mostly for the only reason that it was American soccer, and it was all we had lol. It was and is a long steady march, where somewhere down the road, the goal is achieved- soccer as respected and , at least, enjoyed by most Americans. And the realists know it will never be the number one sport, and , only, because it doesn't have to be.

But, I will admit that soccer's popularity is growing faster than I anticipated, and I'm extremely happy about that.

ESPN shows more soccer on it's networks than it ever has. On ESPNU it showed the U-21 Euro, and U-17 WC. They show EPL and La Liga games, which grow in popularity. They definitely see a market for the sport, otherwise it would have gone back to ignoring it, which was the traditional approach.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

Football seems to be a country club/middle class sport in the United states so is seen as a bit "stuck up" if you know what I mean. By making it more available, which should be easy then maybe there will be a change.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

ESPN has had a women's world cup article plastered to the home page for days now. People have been complaining, but ESPN still refuses to move it.

So you can tell they are trying to promote the sport, despite the protests. Sometimes you just have to shove it down everyone's throat.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

Soccer seems to be pretty well perceived, there's a lot of coverage of the EPL and the Champions League. MLS on the other hand does not get a lot of respect.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

Soccer gets more air time on Sportscenter each year but you can still catch little jabs here and there, it's just a lot more subtle.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

This is inaccurate.

Soccer is very accessible to lower income families across the United States via programs such as AYSO. In my district alone which covers about a 4-5 mile radius we have over 3,000 kids registered every season. They pay about $150.00 to play for an entire season (with uniform, practices and games) and no kid is turned away for inability to pay.

This is not the exception, this is the norm in our country. Soccer is the fastest growing sport, and the biggest sport for children under 12, in all socioeconomic demographics.

Sorry, just tired of uneducated platitudes.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

ESPN had analysis before and after the Gold Cup final, an event they didn't even carry. It was not for self promotion, it's because people cared. When is the last time the sports media paid attention to the Gold Cup?

Oh the times, they are a changin'

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

Well, it was self-promotion to the extent that ESPN has other investments in the USMNT, and benefits by shoring up the team's following/credibility.

But yes, no doubt the increased Gold Cup coverage this year was wonderful to see -- and a great signpost of where soccer has come in this country.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

I meant in the present, since ESPN was not carrying any of the matches. Long-term it's definitely in ESPN's interest to promote soccer in the US. The writing is on the wall. I'm sure there were a few moans and groans when commentators at ESPN were asked to buck up on their soccer knowledge, but that's the new reality.

In the coming years it will probably be a prerequisite to get a job there.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

It would seem from my vantage point that soccer is slowly becoming tolerated by the mainstream newsmedia in the USA. And not viewed as a hostile infectious virus anymore, or some type of crypto-communist conspiracy, but just another sport that a lot of americans like to play/watch. Its just not nearly popular enough for the media to actually dedicate decent time or attention on it generally.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

I'm listening to one of the 2 sports radio stations in Boston right now and one of the hosts likes soccer and they are taking a lot of calls on the US team in the Gold Cup. Unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it, the host only seems to be interested in US soccer and calls, comments, texts, etc. about MLS get either shot down or made fun off. So yeah the US national team is getting a lot of postitive attention but MLS seems to still be ridiculed.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

A good summation of the work that still needs to be done to get soccer accepted:

In a Gatorade commercial that's running now Tim Howard is featured, but for some reason he's boxing instead of playing soccer.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

How about non-MLS soccer, say if one called into a sports radio show before the Champions League Final and wanted to talk about that, would they get ridiculed or will it be an acceptable topic of conversation?

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

Maybe ESPN is coming around to it because they think they'll lose the growing US Hispanic demographic to Univision if they don't give it some time? Pretty much every major league except for the NHL has blatantly tried to appeal to that demographic (I think their approach is incorrect, but that's another topic).

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

I'm just curious if I'm completely off on this but I wanted to know if anybody else noticed this or feels the same way.

The Gold Cup segment the friday before the final was pretty good, better than anything I was expecting but do you guys notice how they f***ed with the pronunciation of Chicharito's name each time they said it?

It was very subtle during the actual segment but at the very end of the telecast (like literally the last thing they said before it rolled back and re-aired) it's very blatant and it just seems to me that although they're getting orders from upstairs to cover soccer, at the end of the day they don't give a damn and the sport is a joke.

That's a subtle shot to me, am I just off base here?

I kind of touched on something similar in a different thread with Sportscenter host Robert Flores, maybe it's just because I watch SC every night but they more than get their jokes in throughout the year whenever they cover soccer.

Re: Is soccer still commonly belittled or ridiculed by the media in the US or has it changed?

They should just call him Hernandez. Little Pea is a term of endearment reserved for El Tri and Man United fans.