Nice article. I love all the recent soccer buzz lately. I agree because during my last Sunday morning softball game, I talked soccer, with my shortstop and catcher. Never though that would happen. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203609204574317122524606410.html By MATTHEW FUTTERMAN and NICK WINGFIELD When it comes to sports, one of the stubbornest examples of American exceptionalism is the use of the word “soccer.” Some six billion people around the world have chosen to call it “football.” We don’t care. But in recent months, this sport—the one with the ball and the net—has taken a few steps forward. As Major League Soccer, the leading American professional league, holds its All-Star game Wednesday at Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah, there is growing evidence that America’s parochial attitude toward this game is quickly fading. FIFA President on Major League Soccer 4:22FIFA president Joseph Blatter discusses major league soccer and the development of soccer globally. ... Write to Matthew Futterman at matthew.futterman@wsj.com and Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com
One thing I've been noticing for sure at my job lately is that a lot and I mean a lot more of my co workers in a huge building with around 400 employees are asking many soccer questions. We even have a soccer team in the building now full of first timers and they're loving it. But yea, I do notice there's more soccer buzz around and less soccer bashing nowa days.
Soccer already has mainstream interest in America. It's not a matter of if Americans will start watching or becoming interested in the game, because the numbers this summer proved that. People that went to see Chelsea, AC Milan, Mexico, Costa Rica, etc. this summer knew who they were before going into the stadium. 2009 wasn't a first for European teams and other national teams selling out our NFL stadiums. The true question is how long will it be until Americans spark up a consistant mainstream interest in AMERICAN SOCCER. Seattle = 30,000. Great. What about everyone else? 80,000 at USA vs. Mexico. Good. But when will we see at least 60,000 fans cheering for America in any stadium against any team? Will World Cup 2010 spark that interest for the USMNT here to where it rivals the interest of the other national teams? America's on course, but there's still a ways to go. People need to stop using only MLS and the USMNT to decide how popular soccer is in America, and start using soccer to decide how popular soccer is in America. When that is seen, it's easy to understand why the powerhouse European and continental teams want to have more exhibitions here. They know they can take advantage of an already existing market and interest.
Yes, I've got 3 buddies who I never would have thought would become soccer fans. Weirdest thing is that we're in our 30's and they got into it by playing FIFA 09. Then they realized how deep soccer was with leagues and tournements. They're still confused about ALOT of things like promotion/relegation, point system, and transfers.... But I know by World Cup time, there will be a lot more soccer fans by June! I even think my neighborhood bar that never plays soccer might even have games going this season!
One amigo stationed in Baltimore told me about the huge numbers that went to see Chelsea X AC Milan. He sounded in awe that so many people would flock go to an "exhibition" match. Now this guy is a true bumpkin from the 'neckcar regions' of eastern Tennessee, but for him to at least notice anything soccer related is a seed that can only grow for many Americans that don't follow the sport avidly. The key IMHO is mainstream media coverage or rather, HOW they cover the leagues and National team within the U.S.A.
As I said in the MLS News post, I'd expect WSJ readers to be better informed than how the commenters have responded.
Screw 'em. The WSJ print edition is still on the desk of most executive's offices when they stroll into work each morning. You need people with money to open up new markets. The more "local" that money, the better.
The Oregonian (biggest paper in Oregon and SW Washington) had very good coverage of the MLS All-Star game on the FRONT of the sports section. That's never happened before.
Exactly. Outside of red bull games i go to. I know about 30 people who love soccer, but not one of them likes MLS or US soccer. They think its crap.
A friend of mine at work today (Wash. DC), who is a HUGHE Chicago Bears fan, asked me today if I went to the Chelsea v. Milan game in Baltimore, he told me he saw it on tv and that he liked it a lot, he also said that some of our co-workers actually went to the game. Also, when the US played against Spain, I put the game on one of our breakrooms TVs and a few attorneys and secretaries watched the game with me, when Dempsey scored the second goal, the whole place went crazy and everybody was high-fiveing each other and screaming, it was crazy. People like soccer, the question is if they like American Soccer.
Whenever anybody tells me MLS is crap, I always say "You're part of the reason why it's crap, if everybody who said it's crap went to the matches and watched it on TV, MLS would have a hell of a lot more money to spend on players that aren't crap." It almost always gets them to at LEAST STFU, at most they actually listen and go to a few matches a year.
umm in ireland, we also call it soccer because we already have a football...gaelic football. in australia, they call it soccer as well. they have aussie football. the ignorance of some writers really gets to me sometimes.
A guy I play with on an indoor team refuses to go to MLS games with me because he thinks the quality is too low. (He's never actually attended an MLS game.) Watching the game is only 1/2 the fun. Getting roudy, yelling at players and refs and joining in the chanting and the singing is something you don't get watching EPL on TV. There's a soccer viewer and there is a soccer fan. If you live in the US and you don't attend your local MLS games, you are a soccer viewer.
I just don't comprehend this attitude. How can it be possible to prefer following some foreign club, to which you have no ties, over a team that's yours? Where's the emotional attachment gloryhunting with ManU, Liverpool, or Barca? In 1997, when the Cleveland Indians blew the World Series, I was so upset I broke down in tears. I can't imagine having that kind of feeling for some team an ocean away. My favorite Prem club is Fulham, but I can't imagine running in the streets screaming if they won the championship. If the Indians or City Stars took it all, though, I'd probably do just that. This is not to put down those who have a legitimate historical attachment to a European club. But most of those who prefer European soccer just watch it because they think it's a better game. To me, that's just... I don't know. Soulless? ------RM
From my experience traveling to see the Chelsea/AC Milan match in Baltimore after everything else in the 'Summer Of Soccer' I'd say soccer has finally arrived. It had a different feeling from any US soccer event I had gone to. The town was taken over by soccer fans and appreciative of it (soccer fans=$$$). Local coverage both before and after the game was good. No soccer bashing in sight. The closest thing came when a tour driver asked us who was playing and he mentioned that he didn't follow soccer - the strange thing was his tone when saying it was almost like he felt left out! The real problem will be if us old school fans will have to deal with expensive games and crowded stadiums 20 years from now. I'm sure we'll be pining for the old days!
Most of "they" probably don't know a ********ing thing either. You often hear a Euro-snob talk about the higher quality of the EPL or whatever other big Euro league they watch on television. However, the only teams that a fan can take one look at and instantly recognize the gap in quality between their play and that of MLS are the "Big 4" in England, ACM, Inter, Juve, Real Madrid, Barca, Bayern, etc. In other words, the huge matches between the huge teams that are contenders to win the Champions League. None of these guys ever mention that an average EPL game - say, Wigan, Bolton, Fulham matches against other midtable squads - is usually an ugly contest in front of a crowd that isn't much bigger than an average MLS crowd. (Wigan's average attendance last year was 19,000, Fulham's was usually between 22k and 25k, same for Bolton.) The soccer isn't pretty and it would take the most discerning of eyes to notice instantly a difference in quality between that and MLS. (People who claim they can tell the difference between the play and skill of Stoke and that of Houston are probably lying.) Likewise, watching Chelsea pound Stoke 4-0 is not particularly compelling either. Group stages of the Champions League (Man U vs. Steaua Bucharest, anyone?) are also anticlimactic. So what the Eurosnob is really talking about is the 6 times per year that the "Big 4" play each other, maybe mix in some Man City these days, as well as the occasional Champions League Group Stage match that has two big clubs in it (though often the big teams don't really go for it in these matches because a 0-0 draw is plenty to assure advancement for both), and the Champions League knockout stages. That isn't many "elite" matches during a year, and NONE of them air at the same time as MLS matches. The "MLS or European soccer" thing is a false dichotomy. Of course, it is undeniable that AC Milan vs. Manchester United in the Champions League semifinal is better than an MLS match, but who gives a ********? That's certainly no reason not to watch MLS. (For the record, I watch an occasional EPL match and like the Champions League, and I picked a team to root for, but I have no real connection to them and they are nothing to me compared to the Galaxy.) Eurosnobs act like they are the greatest fans in the world and that they are above MLS. In reality, a Eurosnob, if transplanted to Milan, still wouldn't bother to attend more than a match or two a season. They'd find some other excuse such as parking issues, cost of tickets, old stadium, ultras or prawn sandwich people ruining the experience (take your pick), lousy concessions, etc. Because that's what a Eurosnob is - a malcontent who just wants to destroy all that he touches.