On the Fan 590 last evening. Noted soccer hater Bob McCowan actually spent an hour talking with Craig Forrest, Nigel Reed and Alan Frew about soccer, MLS, TFC and the Canadian Men's National team. It's pretty interesting, and it was nice to see Prime Time sports giving soccer a little attention. http://qml.quiettouch.com/files/audio/podcasts/fan590/pts/pts_2009-02-11.mp3 Unfortunately it's more of the same old, same old. Would have been nice to get a bit of a more diverse point of view on Canadian soccer on the panel. I personally couldn't care less about Glass Tiger's opinion on the state of the game in Canada. Especially considering that he doesn't even follow TFC. Why not Nigel's partner on the soccer show, Bob Iarusci? He might be a bit of a bonehead but at least he would have been honest when asked why the CMNT is not succeeding. Anyways....again it was nice for soccer to get a little more exposure. Thoughts?
Good interview, bit of a strange cast of characters with Frew there, but whatever. Interesting that McCown has done some soccer play by play work in his day, and was covering the Blizzard for Global when they owned the team.
Actually, Bob's states that when the games are high quality and means something, he enjoys it. With that being said, he feels watching MLS is one of the worst ways to spend your time, which I think most of us strongly disagree with (well, all of us but smenge ). One thing that drove me crazy while listening to this was how Bob continually stated that the quality in the MLS is so bad, that we all have to be crazy to watch it. I was surprised that none of the guests pointed out that in England, there are plenty of teams in England who are not in the EPL (teams in league 1, for instance) that draw similar crowds to watch the same quality of soccer. North Americans (and Torontonians in particular) aren't the only people passionate about soccer even if it isn't top notch. Bob also refused to believe that the fans are there for the soccer, but rather, that they are only there for the atmosphere, or 'the party'. He pointed to the Marlies to prove that Torontonians are only interested in sports when they are played at the highest level, and hence, why he doesn't think there are that many fans at the games to actually enjoy the product on the field. The guests made some good points to dispute this theory (the fact that many Torontonians are descendants/immigrants from countries that are soccer-mad was one good point), but no one identified that this is the best soccer we've got to watch. No one goes to Marlies' games because after you watch live NHL hockey, why bother with the AHL? However, the MLS is wall we've got, and so we embrace it. I definitely enjoyed the segment, and I'd like to see more of this on Prime Time, perhaps with some callers who can set Bob straight .
He seems to have confused MLS with the NFL. The naysayers will always drum up some excuse to belittle soccer in Toronto. At first they said it would die a quick death because there's so little interest in soccer in Toronto, something which they got a quick plate of crow for.
Pretty good interview I thought. For someone that is labeled an extreme soccer hater, it was actually pretty objective for the most part. Raised good questions about the Canadian national team, and whether fan support will keep up if the product on the ice didn't get better.
.... and tonight he was complaining about last night's show and that he was crazy to devote an hour to soccer. It's all schtick and not to be taken seriously. B
Pretty much. McCown's audience is largely the "North-Americanite" crowd, those who live by the creed that since Toronto is a city in North America we're supposed to be only doing "North American" things. Apparently we in what is touted as the world's most multicultural city are supposed to shut out the world outside of Canada and the US.
LOL! So now that all of their predictions that soccer would fail are all wrong, they have changed their tune to that people only go for the Party?! LOL! What about the waiting list? They are all interested in going to a party too?? Did he point out that a massive percentage of Leaf fans aren't even watching the game that is going on in front of them? I guess it is easy to hate on TFC fans, it has been a long long time since we have had any passionate fans. I lived in Philly for 5 years and if there is one thing (maybe there is only one) that I can compliment them on, is their support and passion for their sport teams.
the one thing i would caution you on is that the perception is there that Torontonians will follow anything that has some buzz around it. As long as its the "in thing"...so ya some of that wait list can be attributed to just that...only wanting to party or to more the point be part of the "in thing"...I suspect our real true indication of fan support will be a few years out. Im not suggesting the devotees that are there now will evaporate but the so called fringe fan will diminish and we will see the true indication of what or who will support the team. In that vain, I think any talk of stadium expansion is still way premature and should not be considered if this is to be a TFC soccer specific stadium with basically 1 tenant.
No caution required, I am a season ticket holder and do realize that there are people at the game for the experience, hype and atmosphere. However, some of these guys (media) were predicting 3-5K at the games and constantly reitterating that this is not a soccer town yadayada. So my point is that they have retracted from that and are now taking shots at the team and the game from another angle.
oh that i agree on...although i realistically believed that we would be somewhere between 10 and 12K in attendance (and therefore didnt take advantage in year 1 of an offer of if you buy your seats we will offer another pair in the supporter section endzone for half price..and amount that would have been $100 per ticket for the SEASON!!!...that was and is still my biggest regret of all with respect to the team)