Join Now
Please Send Gin
Posted 27 May 2009 at 07:53 AM by Bill Archer
I hope the view from your back yard this morning was as nice as mine:
As fate would have it, I find myself on the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week, which is not just one of my favorite places on Earth but is also, not coincidentally, the place which engendered a now-infamous Jack Bell/New York Times article which quoted me by name (yeah, sure, I hate the NYT as much as any thinking American but on the other hand when they print your name, well, they're just one hell of a newspaper, aren't they?) and referred to a post on a message board called Big Soccer which was just coming into its own in 2001.
Come to think of it, I never sent Huss a bill for that.
Anyway, the subject of the article was Fox Sports World and how it was beginning to infiltrate and transform the American soccer landscape.
I had brought the family out to this very place - well, OK, it was about a half mile farther up the beach, but close enough - for a long-overdue vacation. The house we rented was right on the beach and included a pool, a hot tub and - well, and the entire Atlantic Ocean just outside the back door.
It also had one other thing: a satellite TV service which included FSW.
Those of you who were over your addiction to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers by then recall only too well those days when the ability to crank up the World Wide Web thingie and see actual soccer scores from far off exotic locations like New Jersey and France came like a gift from the Gods after years of waiting for the always-late Soccer America to hit the mailbox so you could find out if Manchester Untied had won that crucial game three weeks ago.
It was like trying to follow something via Pony Express.
Anyway, so as we were settling into the house in anticipation of a glorious week of sunburn, badly cooked food and trips to the local ER for stitches, I flicked on the TV and there it was: an actual soccer game.
I don't recall any of the games, and frankly it didn't matter. There was probably a lot of South America, maybe something from Italy. Who cared. Other than the World Cup there had almost never been foreign soccer available to anyone who didn't have one of those satellite dishes that made it look like you were trying to contact Saturn from a shortwave in your garage.
As I noted at the time, with the whole Atlantic Ocean literally steps from my door - not to mention Princess Patchouli and the rug rats - I spent almost the entire week flopped on a couch watching soccer. Greatest vacation of my life.
My bride was pretty close to calling a lawyer, but instead she called Direct TV and arranged for home installation in return for me agreeing to, you know, pay attention to the kids or something for a few minutes. Maybe her Spirit Guide told her it was the thing to do.
All of which came to mind earlier this week when I again found myself in a house in Corolla (Whalehead Beach actually, if you know the area) which had a) no access to FSC b) no internet connection and c) a local newspaper whose coverage of the larger world is limited to the weather.
And it occurred to me that it's only been eight years since being able to see soccer almost any time on TV, or check on whatever scores you were interested in anywhere in the world whenever you felt the urge, was still something of a novelty.
I mention this not because this is one of those "You young whippersnappers don't know what it's like to have to chop wood in a blizzard and then walk 20 miles to school while fighting Indians and delivering babies every morning" speeches. Never chopped wood in may life, and blood and screaming makes me nauseous.
Rather, I make the point because we're all guilty of whining and griping about the slow pace of progress the Beautiful Game is making into the American landscape. We all want more, and we want it now.
But sitting here with with a Margarita in my hand it's hard to imagine, based on just the last eight years, how it could have happened any quicker.
On the other hand, when we did finally get an internet connection up, I discovered that - at least in terms of MLS - nothing new had happened anyway: there were four draws, San Jose and NYRB lost and Joey Saputo is saying he'll be in MLS by August.
OK, so I made the last one up. I think.
I blame Chuck
As fate would have it, I find myself on the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week, which is not just one of my favorite places on Earth but is also, not coincidentally, the place which engendered a now-infamous Jack Bell/New York Times article which quoted me by name (yeah, sure, I hate the NYT as much as any thinking American but on the other hand when they print your name, well, they're just one hell of a newspaper, aren't they?) and referred to a post on a message board called Big Soccer which was just coming into its own in 2001.
Come to think of it, I never sent Huss a bill for that.
Anyway, the subject of the article was Fox Sports World and how it was beginning to infiltrate and transform the American soccer landscape.
I had brought the family out to this very place - well, OK, it was about a half mile farther up the beach, but close enough - for a long-overdue vacation. The house we rented was right on the beach and included a pool, a hot tub and - well, and the entire Atlantic Ocean just outside the back door.
It also had one other thing: a satellite TV service which included FSW.
Those of you who were over your addiction to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers by then recall only too well those days when the ability to crank up the World Wide Web thingie and see actual soccer scores from far off exotic locations like New Jersey and France came like a gift from the Gods after years of waiting for the always-late Soccer America to hit the mailbox so you could find out if Manchester Untied had won that crucial game three weeks ago.
It was like trying to follow something via Pony Express.
Anyway, so as we were settling into the house in anticipation of a glorious week of sunburn, badly cooked food and trips to the local ER for stitches, I flicked on the TV and there it was: an actual soccer game.
I don't recall any of the games, and frankly it didn't matter. There was probably a lot of South America, maybe something from Italy. Who cared. Other than the World Cup there had almost never been foreign soccer available to anyone who didn't have one of those satellite dishes that made it look like you were trying to contact Saturn from a shortwave in your garage.
As I noted at the time, with the whole Atlantic Ocean literally steps from my door - not to mention Princess Patchouli and the rug rats - I spent almost the entire week flopped on a couch watching soccer. Greatest vacation of my life.
My bride was pretty close to calling a lawyer, but instead she called Direct TV and arranged for home installation in return for me agreeing to, you know, pay attention to the kids or something for a few minutes. Maybe her Spirit Guide told her it was the thing to do.
All of which came to mind earlier this week when I again found myself in a house in Corolla (Whalehead Beach actually, if you know the area) which had a) no access to FSC b) no internet connection and c) a local newspaper whose coverage of the larger world is limited to the weather.
And it occurred to me that it's only been eight years since being able to see soccer almost any time on TV, or check on whatever scores you were interested in anywhere in the world whenever you felt the urge, was still something of a novelty.
I mention this not because this is one of those "You young whippersnappers don't know what it's like to have to chop wood in a blizzard and then walk 20 miles to school while fighting Indians and delivering babies every morning" speeches. Never chopped wood in may life, and blood and screaming makes me nauseous.
Rather, I make the point because we're all guilty of whining and griping about the slow pace of progress the Beautiful Game is making into the American landscape. We all want more, and we want it now.
But sitting here with with a Margarita in my hand it's hard to imagine, based on just the last eight years, how it could have happened any quicker.
On the other hand, when we did finally get an internet connection up, I discovered that - at least in terms of MLS - nothing new had happened anyway: there were four draws, San Jose and NYRB lost and Joey Saputo is saying he'll be in MLS by August.
OK, so I made the last one up. I think.
I blame Chuck
Share
Post a Comment
Total Comments 8
Comments
-
Corolla, Outer Banks. Makes me think of a story in the summer of 1999 when my entire family was there to celebrate my folks 50th.
Our rented house had no cable, nor satellite TV. It was over 100 degrees that week - we were isolated because only one person in the family had a working 4-wheel drive, so they became the family chauffeur.
The Women's World Cup was taking place at the time with the US v. Brasil semi-final match being on the docket one day. We had no way to see the game. A few of my soccer-playing nephews and myself had to see it, so we started calling around to the various Corollian drinking establishments. One said they could show the game, if everyone at the bar was down with it.
So, with a bit of hesitation, we headed down to that bar which was filled with a bunch of men watching golf - IIRC.
The bartender explained what we wanted to watch - we gave the Country First, Support American International Sports spiel to the fellas at the bar and to our relief their initial skepticism melted away as the whole bar got into that most excellent soccer match. The fellas were asking questions and really enjoyed the game.
Corolla, Outer Banks, USA.Posted 27 May 2009 at 08:40 AM by QuarkspaceDotCom 
-
Nice Bill.
I think there's a good follow-up article here...
Soccer has never been more popular in the US, but does this make things even more difficult for MLS?
Or, alternately, what's your take on the trajectory of Pro Soccer in the US if NASL hadn't failed? My initial take is that, today, we'd be something similar to the NBA in the late-70s/early-80s, but I haven't thought this through.Posted 27 May 2009 at 08:50 AM by cpwilson80
-
I still miss seeing the occasional bit of cricket on FSW. A whole summer of "Hull-Blackburn, 2/5/09" programming just isn't the same.
Posted 27 May 2009 at 09:05 AM by Beau Dure
-
Wow. You have me waxing nostalgia about staying up till three in the morning to watch Colo Colo vs. Catolica and watching the Eredivisie and trying to figure out what that banner behind the goal at all the Willem II games said (the one that had all the characters from South Park on it). Those were great days.Posted 27 May 2009 at 10:32 AM by SonicDeathMonkey
-
I remember when we would have to log on to some dutch scoring service to get champions league scores. And if we were lucky, Prime Sports (HSE) would show the final a week later on tape delay.Posted 27 May 2009 at 12:01 PM by John Jagou
-
I'm not jealous. I'm skipping out of work to watch the UEFA final in 15 minuts, followed by beers at the SJ game at Crew Stadium. Nowhere I'd rather be right now than here.Posted 27 May 2009 at 02:14 PM by SecretWalrus
-
Speaking of the UEFA Final, it will be interesting to see whether FSC can take it to the next level with the UCL as a property next year. Can they get the wider distro? Higher production values? Decent announcers?
It was a high-risk/high-reward buy for them, I wouldn't have recommended it at this point, but as a fan of the sport I root for them to pull it off.Posted 27 May 2009 at 08:30 PM by Stan Collins
-
Basically, I'd say no. The number of people who might actually give up on MLS that otherwise would have watched it is basically the same as the number who have done that already. Whereas the number who could "get the bug" so much that they will consume voraciously everything including the local product can realistically go up quite a bit.Quote:Originally Posted by cpwilson80
Nice Bill.
I think there's a good follow-up article here...
Soccer has never been more popular in the US, but does this make things even more difficult for MLS?
Certainly there were opportunities in the years between 1984 and 1996:Quote:Or, alternately, what's your take on the trajectory of Pro Soccer in the US if NASL hadn't failed? My initial take is that, today, we'd be something similar to the NBA in the late-70s/early-80s, but I haven't thought this through.
* Last dozen years before the Bosman Rule made good players a lot cheaper.
* Growth of cable as a legit enterprise means that if they'd stuck it out they could have made a great "let's grow together" partner for some aspiring channel. But at the same time, you've got a good 8-10 years before satellites made regular, live trans-Atlantic broadcasts feasible, if you think that hurts (like I say, I think it helps).
* Youth "soccer boom", which mostly occurred as the NASL was declining and after it failed, would probably have had a much more logical connection to the pro game, instead of existing a world apart from it the way it did.Posted 27 May 2009 at 08:39 PM by Stan Collins
|
Post a Comment
|
Total Trackbacks 0
