If David Beckham actually get's his fairytale ending and the Galaxy become the first team to play in and win the FIFA CWC, do you think ensuing monsoon of marketing will impact the American sporting landscape whatsoever? Is that what its going to take to get people to notice that the soccer is not so bad here, or will they just ignore it as a fluke and ignore it? What say you?
A bit far-fetched, don't you think? - Beckham has not yet signed for the Galaxy. - The Galaxy has to win the CCL (a first in more than a decade) - No CONCACAF team has ever made the final let alone won the CWC.
To answer the original question: Even if all that happened. 1. "Monsoon of marketing"? For an MLS team winning the Club World Cup? I'd have to see that to believe it. It might make SportsCenter but it might not. December 2012 would be right in with the college football conference championship games and the beginning of bowl season and the stretch run of the NFL season. Not to mention the NHL, NBA (maybe), and college basketball seasons. Most media outlets would completely ignore it. Most people in the US will go on blissfully unaware of the Club World Cup. 2. People outside the US would regard it as a fluke.
Whoa! Trippy man! Is it just a coincidence that it happens to coincide with the Mayan doomsday prediction? Maybe they were actually predicting the end of the old world of sports the way we knew it and the beginning of a new age where beings from another Galaxy would unite whole planet under the flag of soccer?! It's all starting to come together man! I can tell, this is going to be interesting.
Just like with anything, consistency is the key word. It's a shame 2010 CWC finalist TP Mazembe got disqualified in the CAF CL this year. It would have been interesting to see if they could have won a third African championship in a row and once again go far in the CWC.
LA Galaxy could win the Club World Cup, and be world champions, but 80% of Los Angeles would have no idea it happened. LA times would barely give it any attention even if LA Galaxy is the best club in the world.
I suspect a Club World Cup final for an MLS team would actually get a fair bit of attention in the U.S. -- in fact, I could see the tournament being treated with more prestige here than it is in many big footballing nations.
I don't really see how. I'd be surprised if 5% of sports editors or their equivalent at TV stations have any idea what the CWC is. I'm sure many sports reporters don't either. That leaves the few reporters who know about this tournament & think that it's important fighting for sports section space or broadcast time on a show. Good luck.
The 2005 CWC had some coverage in major newspapers. I think the fact that Liverpool lost, led to British media dismissing the trophy, and thus, usa media following suit. Which is wrong, because Liverpool's loss was fair and deserved, and shouldn't affect the meaning of the world championship in any way. Media that know about the UEFA championship have to be curious as to whether there is a world championship as well. (Unfortunately, there are usa media who don't even know that the UEFA title means "European champions"). That curiosity will lead them to the CWC.
Being played in the middle of the night I'm sure didn't help coverage in the USA. Was there some improvement the last two years with Abu Dhabi?
It won't, but it doesn't matter. The growth of the MLS and soccer as a whole is not dependent on the CWC, and never has been.
Considering the fact that the usa is the country that names its league champions as "world champions", it behooves them to pay attention to a system that actually does produce a world club champion. The CWC is the only true world club title in all of sports. No other title worldwide has as many teams eligible for it.
Well, I wasn't claiming the thing would lead SportsCenter and Good Morning America for a week straight. But I do think it would draw a good bit of attention, and certainly wouldn't be "completely ignored" as some have said. In fact, the American mainstream's soccer illiteracy is part of the very reason it would get played up. An LA Galaxy competing in the "club version of the World Cup final" would be interpreted as a pretty big deal, with little awareness that this tournament is actually kind of a lesser light in the soccer world. (I'm not downplaying the achievement of an MLS team getting to the CWC final, or even just to the CWC. We'd certainly be rightfully celebrating here in the U.S. soccer world.)
I think ESPN would mention it & so would regional sports networks. Other than that I'd expect no coverage outside the MLS city that made the CWC.
I'm sure Fox would follow a MLS/CWC story (perhaps regionally) since they own the USA rights and already show the entire tournament live on FSC and Fox Deportes.
I think some of you may be forgetting that even RSL's appearance in the CCL final got a fair bit of mainstream sports attention earlier this year. If a Beckham-led, Donovan-featuring Galaxy were to wind up vying for "world champion," which is how it surely would be portrayed stateside, there's no doubt it would draw U.S. press interest. I'm not trying to be pollyanish about soccer's current status. But I do think some of you may be underselling the media inroads that have been made in recent years.
ESPN, Fox, Deadspin, New York Times, Yahoo, Associated Press, etc. I work in the major media, so I'm not just talking out my arse here...
If its just a little mention in any of these sources I'd consider it less than "a fair bit of mainstream sports attention."
Aggh, Christ, man -- this wasn't intended to be some scientific, hairsplitting analysis about the precise scope and volume of RSL media impressions in April 2011. These are just broad observations and gut speculation about a general topic. Yes: Salt Lake's CCL appearance got a decent amount of attention. A Galaxy appearance in the Club World Cup would get even more. The real point here is that it wouldn't be "completely ignored," which was the claim on the table.
I don't think anyone said it would be completely ignored. But I'll give you an observation. A victory by a MLS team in the CWC will do next to nothing to raise the profile of soccer in the USA.
I've been arguing with guys like you on BigSoccer since I joined this place, because I have to say, I never understand this sort of stark, black-and-white take on things. (Though I apologize in advance if I'm misreading you here.) There's NO single event -- short of winning the World Cup, perhaps -- that will propel soccer into the front row of American sports and culture. It's not so cut-and-dried. It's about a lot of little developments, slowly pushing things forward, slowly shifting the spectrum. A Club World Cup championship by an MLS team would be one of those advances. It might only be marginal progress, sure. But when margins keep getting steadily moved, bit by bit, there eventually comes a day when you wake up and realize that the whole thing now looks completely different. That's how it's part of "raising the profile" of soccer in the USA.
Events are not what's going to raise the profile of soccer in this country. It's the small unglamorus(sp) things that's taking place mostly at the club level & in other places across America. Its MLS Clubs developing teams that fans regularly want to attend games (not watch on tv). Its the increasing availability of games around the world that people can watch on tv that slowly increases the number of American soccer fans. There are plenty of other little things that add to the equation. The CWC is so non-relevant to this process it really doesn't deserve a mention. Also there is no inevitability to the increase in the popularity of soccer in America despite the fact that 95% if BigSoccer posters would tell you it is.
I'm the person who said "completely ignored" but my full quote was "Most media outlets would completely ignore it." I stand by that.