It has been 20 years since the USMNT made their return to the International football stage, at which point they have played in every World Cup that has followed, and about 14 years since the inception of MLS and still the USMNT seems to be struggling to get a following. So, I must ask why the Stars and Stripes do not have a bigger following. I checked the attendance for the last two games the U.S played in their own territory; 18,626 against Honduras at the Home Depot Center with the majority of fans being Catrachos. And 21, 737 fans at Raymond James stadium for a match against El Salvador. For a squad preparing to play a World Cup match, regardless if it is a B’ team, those numbers are weak sauce. I checked Mexico’s attendance for the match against Bolivia and it showed that 34,244 fans showed up. According to the U.S Census (2000) there are around 48,935 mexies in the area! That is the equivalent of everyone and their mothers showing up to watch Mexico’s noobs play. And those that did not buy a ticket were either A) working at the stadium, B) selling bacon wrapped hotdogs and pirated paraphernalia outside of the stadium, or C) have been deported. Most impressive, however, was yesterday’s attendance at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The official announcement made at the stadium, as Mexico was cursing to a two-nil victory over the Kiwis, was of 90,526 fans! I for one did not expect the Tricolor to sell out the Rose Bowl. For starters the opponent is not much of a draw. Then we have ticketing prices; $30 general, $75 for a better seat, and bend over and hold your ankles to sit close to the field. There was also a heavy chance of Rain and the match was on a Wednesday. And despite all of that the Tricolor fans showed up in full force. I know many missed their jobs, others spent their grocery money, and many more will be late when paying their rent. Did I also mention that the match was available on free TV on two channels? So, why is that Tri fans are willing to watch a bunch of Euro bench warmers play against an also-ran national team in midweek amidst a torrential downpour and pay top dollar to boot? I do not get it. What I do want to understand is why the USMNT is not getting better numbers? I seriously expected the U.S by this point to have a stronger following. It has been five straight WC’s for the Stars and Stripes, multiple Gold Cup wins, defeating the regional rivals at the biggest stage, and most recently a Confederations Cup final. And yet only around 2,000 fans show up at the HDC; and they were most likely Salvadorians. No, that is not good. I met The Bruce at the Rose Bowl press box. He wanted to know how many more brown people are comming. I told him they will most likely just pass through this country. I am speaking in half-truths. One day there will be too many. I cannot tell him that..
you take the population of soccer fans in the US and you'll note that its rather large. then if you take the demographic of nationalities of those fans and you'll find its rather a large variety. Then you take into account that a large portion of those fans support other national teams of either their homeland or of their parents homeland. Finally you have a small % of that original fan base who are in fact US fans. They are spread out across the US and all know that if the game is in LA, that they can wait and catch a game on the east coast, midwest or even the south. Some US fans will travel, but more often then not, they wont b/c they know a game will be closer to them in the long run. let us not forget that the vast majority of americans who would support the US are still in the boat that "soccer is for p*ssies" its difficult to outnumber our opponents. How often do Honduras, Costa Rica, even T&T play in the US?? 3 to 5 times a cycle?? that is not a lot for those fans, so traveling is not out of the question. just my 2 cents
I will leave out the discussion that in the USA, there are so many sports to compete against. England-51 million people in an area around 50k square miles California-36 million people in an area around 163k squar miles Most other countries demographics from the Europe would look about the same. You have less people spread over a larger area, it harder to travel. Mix in that America was hit hard finacially, no surprise for the lower numbers. Soccer is still not a top three sport in America, its probably around 5th ish. People will spend money on their top two sports first. just keep realistic expectations.
I remember seeing an Argentine movie about the 1978 WC and it dealt with the expectations of the fans and what the country was going through at the time. It had comedic overtones; but one thing that caught my attention was when they mention how many families had been divided on national team support. They showed many of the old timers, imigrants, still supporting Italy and Spain over their adoptive new country while their sons or nephews cheered for Argentina; teh country of their birth. I wonder had the Argentines not won the WC at home, or in Mex86, would the landscape still be the same? Also, is that what it will take the avg sports fan to follow the team; winning a WC. I honestly feel that the U.S should at least on avg be able to get around 35k home support attendance. And if they can't get that support all over the U.S then concentrate on the one area they can. I know Mex; only recently started playing games all around the republic since for many years they rarely left the capital; especially for WCQ games..
i remember going to the US/Brazil game in Chicago and seeing a large portion of american kids sporting Brazilian kits. Perhaps it will take the US winning a WC or at the very least the Semi's to see a push into US support
The neighborhood that I grew up in had lots of Italian flags hanging, but they were never alone and usually had the stars and stripes hanging beside it, and rightfully so. That's beside the point but we're far removed from the large diaspora. It's simply a matter of options in this country, and we have lots.
To Quote Porfitio Diaz "Poor U.S, so far from winning the WC and so close to Mexico". I bet the majority of those kids were central american and or Peruvian. Here in L.A I can always tell apart the diffrent Latino ethnicities by the soccer kits they wear. Mexicas will sports Chivas, America, Pumas, and or those hideous half & half shirts. Central Americans will wear the jersey of which ever Euro club is winning the Champions League. It used to be Boca Jrs shirts but that is no longer teh case.
I don't necessarily think it will take winning the WC, I think it will take a simple buzz about how good and powerful a team the U.S. has and how they continue to be getting better. A buzz about how the rest of the world is fearing our team and how we CAN win the WC.
LOL, I just had a brilliant idea. If the MLB championship is called the World Series; then perhaps USSF/SUM can convince CONCACAF to rename the Gold Cup to the Golden World Cup and MLS cup can also be called the World Champions League Cup. Then it will not matter is the U.S can win a FIFA World Cup because as far as Americans are concerned they are already the best in the world. Everybody WINS.
After one uncapped salary year (2010), a lockout is a certainty. One that could last for all time. After all, track cycling used to be the No. 1 spectator sport in this country. Now you can't get more than 100 people to come to watch a track event (if you can even find a track like the one in Trexlertown, Pa.).
Isn't that what Superbowl===>Superliga does? On a more serious note though, like VS I am scratching my head on the poor attendance figures. I understand the "not major sport" arguments, but what will it take to get the numbers up for at least the national team?
US fans are in solid numbers, the problem is we are so spread out across the US, and the vast majority of us know that a US game will occur relatively close to us. Being from Indy, i feel no need to go to LA/NY/DC for a game, but i will drive to Chicago, Columbus or Nashville.
When it comes to soccer in this country, people have no reason to emrace the United States Soccer team. This is one of the most ethnicly diverse countries in the world. Los Angeles alone is one of the most ethnicaly diverse cities in the country. Every where you go here in the USA, and LA, there are enclaves of their respective homelands. Examples in LA: Koreatown Little Tokyo Westlake Macarthur Park Little Armenia Artesia East LA/Huntington Park/South Gate, etc... Fairfax District Glendale The Westside And the list goes on and on. You go anywhere in those places, and you'll see support for the respective "homeland" in large numbers. People are born, raised and consistantly reminded of where they and their parents came from. With that connection to the homeland intact (despite being hundreds, or thousands of miles away), and surrounded by people who all think the same, they will continue cheering for that particlular nation and their soccer team. For that matter would the Perenial Eurosnob (caucasians who think that they are German, Polish, Russian, English, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Austrian, Ukrainian, Czech, Serb, French, etc... because one of their grandparents came from there) ever consider supporting the US? Could the USSF do more to get all those people on board as USA fans? Possibly. Would they ever come aboard? Well, they got me and about 2,000 people or so at the Home Depot Center back in January. I guess that's a start. And another point, local club support for a soccer team doesn't neccesarily equal national support. Just because 20,000 people show up to a Galaxy match and root on Landon Donovan, doesn't mean that 20,000 USA Soccer fans will show for the USA. Even the USA Baseball team had a hard time attracting a crowd during the World Baseball Classic.
Winning the World Cup would help immensely but what I think this country is missing is a so-called "super star". Someone that plays for a big club and do "fancy tricks" with the ball like a Cristiano or Messi. The youth of this nation needs a hero to call their own. If this were to happen we would see a higher attendace at games due to kids accompanied by their parents and friends. As it is now, I don't hear kids begging their parents to take them to a game to watch a Bornstein or Ching. Just my thoughts....
there's way more than 50,000 mexicans in the Bay Area. Unless you only count Candlestick Park (the immediate area) then yes, there's probably just under 50,000 Mexicans living on or near the baseball stadium where the game vs. Bolivia was played. I've been to three games out here. One against the Soviet Union in Palo Alto. One against Japan in San Francisco. And one against China in San Jose. Needless to say, in each one of those games the number of US fans vastly outnumbered the Russian/Japanese/Chinese fans. El Salvador/Honduras/Mexico (aren't they all the same thing?) will always outdraw US fans in California.
What I find funny is that Mexico seems to give the middle finger to own country by playing the majority of its friendlies in the united states, basically acknowledging the fact that Mexicans in Mexico are poor as shit.
another thing is that most mexicans are first and second generation so they still feel some connection to mexico, but by the third generation (which most of my friends are) hardly any speak spanish anymore nor do they care much about mexico. Give it one more generation and you'll see a lot more mexican-americans supporting the united states over mexico, which in turn will increase attendance at our games.
Re: US Fan Base – Where Are They Now? I remember when they played one of their group matches against Puerto Rico and one of the US players said after the game how surprised he was to see the fan support for the other team. First thing I said to myself: "Welcome to the US Men's National Team's world! We're outnumbered in our own country and the people who should be rooting for us are posers who will only root for Brazil and Argentina when they come to town!"
It's not a part of our culture. That is why you don't see more white and black people at the games. England could field a team at the World Baseball Classic, win it 5 times in a row, and soccer would still be the number 1 sport in the nation while baseball would take a back seat to a lot of other things.
But here's the question. If the 3rd generation stops caring much about Mexico, will it also stop caring much about soccer?