Yes the final itself was pretty dull and of course it gave some ammunition to the soccer haters. But two realities. First the final's are almost always dull. 2006 is the only one I have watched (first I saw was 90) that I would consider an even remotely entertaining game, and still the most memorable moment was a red card. Most are tense nervous affairs where one team (if not both) are focused on preventing goals before scoring them. It's the nature of the final. But in my opinion that really didn't matter in 1994 because although the final was dull the rest of the tournament was really exciting and did succeed in capturing America, if only for a month. Most international fans look back on the 94 cup as one of the most entertaining. Hell I know a lot of England fans who look back on that one fondly even though England wasn't in it. There were goals, there were stars, there was sunshine, there were storylines, and some pretty hideous shirts. After what was a pretty dire tournament in 90' the 94 world cup is generally seen around the world as a fun entertaining finals. Even if the Final itself wasn't. And yes that gave some ammunition to the soccer haters, but that was all they got. For the most part the World Cup was a massive success in the US and anything else is really revisionist history. So I guess I reject the whole original hypothesis. If you were a kid, who had any interest in soccer and the entire month long tournament didn't peak your interest, than one interesting final wouldn't have done it either. (full disclosure like many fans my age I became a soccer fan as a direct result of the 94 World Cup)
The Maradona Love Fest is a little over the top in the original post, but the 1994 World Cup unfortunately did lack that must-see-legendary-superstar like the original poster seems to be getting at, like the Peles, Beckenbauers, Cruyffs, Maradona for the most of the 94 tourney of course, Ronaldo, Zidane, ...the true all time greatest ever's...Baggio in 94 and perhaps Klinsmann as well are stellar and excellent, but I believe not the same class as the aforementioned...so the WC in America was unlucky in not having an all-time great to showcase to the up and coming generation of American kids in that regard.
If we are going to make a differentiation between the "greatest of a generation" and the "greatest of all time" I would agree that there wasn't a "greatest of all time" really on display in 94. Maradona was over the hill and Zidane didn't qualify (the only two who would fit that category IMHO who were playing at the time). But I don't agree that if you would have had a "greatest of all time" playing it would have made a difference. For most American soccer fans the '94 world cup was like the Olympic games. Honestly knowing very little about the players and basically being educated during the tournament about who was good and who wasn't. We didn't know enough about the game to really put any of these names in any kind of historical context. So even if the tournament had been the sight of some incredible vintage performance of an all time great like Pele in '70, Cruyff in '74 or Maradona in '86, it wouldn't have had an impact on the average American fans experience IMHO because we wouldn't have known enough to know how amazing it was. The reality was there were some pretty impressive performances by individual players including Stoichkav (sp) Hagi, Klinnsmann, and Bagio. The fact that those players are a tier below the very very best in the history of the game had no relevance to the average American fan (or a hypothetical 10 year old watching).
The numerous matches played in the daytime on weekdays to accommodate UEFA when many Americans are working at jobs made it the TV viewing schedule not so friendly. The 2002 and 2010 World Cup Final matches were night games local time as I remember from watching TV, but why not 1994??? It's hot as he** in the US during the summer in most places... No real worldwide superstars/household names...or "greatest of all time" player that the average casual fan could identify...I mean all the Romario and Tab Ramos TV commercials tried to get people interested, which was great, but really who in the general population of the USA heard of Romario in 1994 before the explosion of the internet or legit US TV coverage(no Fox Sports World, FSC, GolTV, BeIn back in the day if I'm not mistaken). The 94 WC was good, but probably average-to-no-better than compared to the World Cups of the 70s and 80s with both established and breakthrough star players.
yeh the matches were on during mid day so they were in primetime in Europe. Just that shows you all you need to know about USA '94. It was an event in the US but for the rest of the world. And I agree with all of what you have to say except that I don't really see much that could have improved American interest in the tournament. And quite the opposite I think there is a lot which could have depressed it (specifically the US not getting out of it's group). I think the tournament did about as well as you could expect considering how little your average American knew (or cared) about the sport. Sure in a perfect World a 5-4 amazing final with Diego Maradona scoring a hatrick would have have been a better final than what we got. But I don't think it would have changed the overall legacy of USA 94 on the growth of US soccer. (one note about the heat, it's funny what a hub bub is being made about Qatar. Can it really be that much worse playing at 9pm in Doha versus noon in Orlando or Dallas)
Good points owian; Mexico 86 had similar TV time slots as USA I think, so nothing too wrong there really either. Besides forming MLS, what I would have like is improved interest in soccer compared to the other big 4 sports, and strong generation of US players; maybe this happened, but a lot of what I see now is too many players who want to wear the flashiest color boots, players that want to sport the most flamboyant hairstyles, too many players sporting tattoos like a gangsta child, and many overpaid players that make the most money and perhaps want to do the least amount of work needed it seems...but it could be worse, like American football, as in the past when football was still football, and not as it is presently..