In your opinion? I believe to an extent it does. I remember after the 2006 World Cup I had a handfull of friends who previously couldn't care less about the sport, and I was able to talk it up enough to get them interested. A few of them are even full time fans now. Obviously it's not a huge impact but if one person can do it, perhaps if ESPN throws it in peoples faces enough it may sway them. Anyone else have any instances where they were able to convert a few folks into seeing what we see that makes the sport so exciting to watch?
I watch the games on ESPN3.com at work all the time. I know that my coworkers are at least interested enough to ask how the tournament is going and who wins and how the US look. They watched the US games and were talking about them with me. I always made sure my facebook statuses were about the USA and even made the crest my profile pic till we got knocked out. I think that's how we "market" soccer as fans. Don't hide it and don't be afraid to be passionate about it.
It worked for golf, cant turn on ESPN anymore without this hobby they call athletics being shoved down my throat. NASCAR was another one, especially in the north part of the USA where nobody watched it, then 15 years ago after having it shoved down our throats many people started getting into it and the NASCAR loving media has people thinking its the elite form of motor racing in the world.
More like Tiger Woods happened. Look at men's tennis as an example of a sport whose ratings drop when Americans are no longer good at it.
I will say this as I tell people who say "stop shoving it down your throat" "I can only shove it down your throat if you willingly open your mouth" What this say is that you can't force soccer on anyone unless they are at one point willing to accept it, even for a moment.
Exactly. In this era of hundreds of channels and the internet almost nothing, esp. soccer, is shoved down people's throats. If you don't like the hype/coverage of something change to one of the other hundreds of channels that are showing something else or go surf the web. This is not the '70s with 3 channels and not much else to do.
Sometimes it does. I have a friend who hates soccer but before the England game wanted to watch game with me. I never mentioned the world cup to him, that change in attitude was all the hype. Golf has been hyped as a sport since the 70's even though 65 year old guys with hip replacements can compete and win on any given sunday.
Wait; if they willingly open their mouth, you're not shoving it down their throat. To answer the original question; no, it doesn't work. It works no better than brow-beating someone to force them to accept your opinion. The "basebore sucks, soccer rules" and "IT'S FOOTBALL, NOT SOCCER, YOU !!#$w@$&&*(@@$#!!" crowds do way more harm than good, and drive more people away than they'll ever attract. We have had several intelligent discussions at work between myself and the "soccer's for queers" crowd, and while they may not like soccer as a choice to watch all the time, they have asked several legitimate questions, and have appreciated my rational answers.
Doesn't work for this guy. Ha. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBkbj_S3etY&feature=player_embedded#"]YouTube- Soccer - America's Path To Socialism[/ame]!