I was in high school in 1969 and was feeling pretty good cause my Cubs were in first place and headed, I thought, for their first W.S. appearance since 1945. All of my friends who had given me crap about the Cubs were being payed back in spades. The they folded, as they always do. It still pains me to remember that season.
Yes. I was there. You could tell, because I was one of the people that got real quiet. "Thanks" for reminding me.
I think I'm neither an oldtimer or a newcomer to MLS. I remember watching games as far back as '96. I remember D.C. United winning in the pouring rain, and Jorge Campos scoring in an All-Star game. I remember watching a pathetic Metrostars team on ABC and wondering how MLS was going to keep getting air time with that kind of performance. I remember when the only MLS news I knew of was Jamie Trecker on ESPN.com. (Ugh!) But mostly, I remember two years ago when MLS decided to go to the Soccer Saturday format, and I could finally plan on watching games instead of just happening to see one on accident every now and then. As a fan without a home team, I personally think that was MLS's best move ever. Now, I actually know when a game is on, who's playing, where the websites are to follow the league, and how much of a tool Jamie Trecker really is. . .
I agree with other posters who mention how encouraging it is to see that the league's picked up new, and apparently often young, fans in the last couple of years. One of the pillars of the old American sports axiom that "soccer's never gonna make it as a serious pro sport in this country" is the argument that "all those kids who play soccer don't grow up and become fans of pro soccer." That argument conveniently ignores the critical fact that there wasn't a high-level, fully-professional league in this country during the gap beween the NASL and MLS, but there's still an obvious modicum of truth to that view or there would never have been such a gap in the first place. I hope the teenagers and early-20's posters in this thread are fairly representative of sports fans in their age range.
To touch upon this point... I'm 21 and just graduated this past May. While I entered school a soccer fanatic, most of my buddies hadn't watched anything aside from the World Cup. By graduation time, they were there with me standing and singing at US matches and headed down to Roggies for Champions League matches. They loved the sport but just didn't know it was around outside the World Cup. Another myth (or at least attitude that arises here from time to time) is that you either love soccer or another sports, but never both. On the contrary, soccer became part of our sports viewing schedule - quite frankly, there was never enough sports on TV for us While soccer may not be their favorite sports, they still get into the matches, just like I'll head out to Fenway though baseball isn't my favorite sport. Our MLS viewing definitely increased since the Soccer Saturday schedule began - the consistency is key. Champions League was always on Tuesday/Wednesday at 2:30, and now it's always MLS on Saturday at 4. After the transition of my friends to more avid soccer viewers and fans, I have faith that the current popularity level of MLS is due more to lack of awareness than the product on the field.
Man, there's nothing like cracking open a beer on a Friday night and reading through four pages of reminiscence about the early days of MLS. I'm getting a little misty eyed myself. I was around in the beginning too. I took a year off of college after my sophomore year and remember excitedly tuning into the inaugural game while at the 'rents place up in Maine. Waldo really came through that night. After that, it was off to Europe, where I've been living mostly since '96. I remember buying a Sports Illustrated while visiting family in Vienna, because I wanted to read about the World Cup of Hockey. SI actually contained a several-page article on MLS (hard to believe, but whoever it was earlier that said media coverage was pretty good at the beginning was right on). That started to whet my appetite for the league, and I remember going down to the train station in Mainz, Germany to check out the scores - and more importantly the attendances - in USA Today at the newsstand. Then I returned to the States for my final semester of college and was lucky enough to catch the '97 MLS Cup game on the tube. Great goals from Adrian Paz, as well as the Big Cat Tony Sanneh and I think Jaime Moreno. Matter of fact, I actually cut off my long rocker mane and replaced it with a short blond Moreno 'do cause I thought it looked so cool. Since then, I've basically been living in Europe the whole time, and haven't really been able to follow MLS live. I try to catch a Revs game each summer when I'm home visiting, and of course major props to mlsnet.com for the video highlights. I'd like to reiterate though: You guys should really consider yourselves lucky that you have the opportunity to wach MLS each week. I wish I could.
I can brag the most 'cause I think I take the title for youngest on this site: 13 (14 next week!) I think we need more kids my age following US soccer. Anyone agree?
I was there....damn it!!! Fire steals Game 1 at Rose Bowl I still can't believe the G's didn't take the Cup that year. IMO, the best MLS team in history....and some expansion team manages to punk them in the Semi's.
started watchin the EPL in 1995 when i was 11. There was a show on the old SportsChannel called EPL highlights and that got me into the pro side of things. That's also when i fell for Liverpool. I can officially say I've been a Liverpool fan for almost half of my life. I paid attention to MLS during their first season, but never took to supporting a specific club. I didn't really pay any attention at all for about 4 years after that. I mostly just watched Dutch League games on ESPN and C.L., EPL H-Lights, and Euro stuff. In 1999, I really started to become more obsessive about Liverpool and what was going on in the EPL. Then I just so happened to flip on a D.C. United game. I saw the crowd bouncing in the seats and i was kinda stunned that there were actually passionate fans in the MLS. Fans that jump and sing just like the European nuts I watched for 6 years. I got hooked and it went from there. I can't really say that the play attracted me, it was more about the crowd and how soccer crowds act during games. I go to concerts because i love jumping up and down in unison with 5,000 other people. If I don't get floor seats, I don't go. Same with soccer. Half of my passion originates from me loving to watch a crowd go absolutely insane, and being part of that crowd. So, soccer didn't altogether bring me to this point, it was the prospect of seeing or being a part of a crazy ass crowd.(One reason why I wish we had terraces, god that would be sooo great). I'm hooked forever.
No doubt. My buddies are similar, all of us have driven 14 hours to play volleyball tournaments, watched 5 CFB games on Saturday, played vid sports until 3am (if wives allow it), and hardly ever miss Sportcenter. I still can't get most of them to go to Arrowhead. They all suffer from the above Myth.
Awesome thread! My how we have improved over the years. One thing I really wish for in the future, is that we could get back so many of those fans who gave up on MLS, after the first and second seasons. Even I was amazed at how much better things have gotten, you just don't notice it until you really give it some thought.
Re: Re: Fans since league inception v. more recent fans Sometimes you did. 0-0, plus the stupid shootout. - Paul
Ah, let's reminisce. Soccerdome, as for more young fans following US soccer, not true. I think a decent percentage of the people who follow the MLS are young folk. At MetroStar games, I'm surrounded by a bunch of little kids who know sooo much about the sport, it's incredible. I think it's really great. As for sounding like an older person now, haha, I'm not. I'm only 16, but I have grown up with the MLS sort of. I was there in the beginning. I saw Meola, Savarese, Donadoni, Ramos, Lalas and all those other greats. I stopped following after 99/2000 maybe because I started paying more attention to Italian soccer. But, after this WC, I've seen the immense talent of US players who are in the MLS, and just had to get back into the action. I'm proud to say that I don't have to turn to the Italian or Spanish channels for soccer entertainment as much anymore. I can just drive an hour to Giants Stadium and see our great players of the MLS unfold their skills in front of my eyes. I love it.
The key phrase you said here was "a bunch of little kids." That's part of the problem. Let me explain: soccer is one of the most participated sports in the US for kids from age 5-8 (or maybe 9.) But after that, the interest drops tremendously. I always see 6 year olds at Fire games with their parents our their soccer team. But, it seems like I rarely see kids my age, teenagers. And that's what I'm talking about. Why are most kids leaving soccer at this age? I have absolutely no idea. When I was on a rec team only 2 girls out of close to the 30 or 40 I knew had heard of the Chicago Fire and/or MLS. And quite honestly, if I had become interested in soccer when I was really young, I probaly wouldn't have liked it now either. So, do you see what I'm trying to say here? Hopefully you do.
I get what you're saying, soccerdome. I mean, soccer and its fan base is so different throughout the entire country. I'm not aware of how the situation is in the Chicago area. HOwever, here in New Jersey, soccer is a pretty big thing, especially in my town and some surrounding ones. In fact, it's really competitive and political in regards to making any team other than rec soccer. What you understood from "a bunch of little kids" was 5 to 8 year olds. That's not exactly the case here. I mean, it's not like I go up to people to ask for their ages, but we have a club called Mighty Metros, which is up to 14 year olds. I see a lot of "kids", and even teenagers. But I guess what you're saying as some validity in it in the sense that, there are not ENOUGH teenagers. At games, there are kids under 13 and then it jumps to adults. But i don't know. Now i'm being contradictive. I see lots of teenagers. Heck, I go with some friends, my age, I see lots of people from school at games, and I meet up with some other teenagers. To transform soccer into an interest into the minds of teenagers greater than what exists presently, it takes some recruitment on our parts. Before this World Cup, I had 2 good friends who really knew/liked soccer. After the World Cup, a few more people starting jumping on this "so called band wagon" -(Clint Mathis). The reasons do not only include the cute players, but a lot of people my age actually found the sport really interesting to watch after WC '02. Every TV at school was on during the WC so people could catch highlights. So, soccerdome, before i babble on even more, the solution to this generation gap at MLS games is to speak out loud about it. MAKE THEM WATCH A GAME! But like you said, not everyone who plays soccer in your town knows of the MLS, and it's like that here too. We could change that. What do you say? I don't know if I'll see the internet for a while though, school's starting, aka hell.
I already started school HEHE. Anyway, I like your idea of speaking out loud. I was thinking of starting a website for so-called MLS Teens, but this may take a while to plan out and what-not. Hopefully, it would pull in more teenage fans like us. Man, I wish my school showed the World Cup. I guess NJ is even more of a soocer "hotbed" than Chicago. (I must say, this is a major compliment.) If you have any more ideas swirling in that head of yours, you can send them ole9802@yahoo.com. I've recieved e-mails from other teens as well; maybe we could come up with one big idea. Hmmmmmmm........ the many thoughts from me.
Here's one idea: If you have file sharing programs like WinMX name your handles 'MLSoccerfan' or something MLS related. Thousands of teenagers will download 'cool' songs from you, see your collections and how 'cool' you, a soccer fan, are. If you let people download long/rare files some will even personally thank you and ask about MLS etc. in conversations. Given that enough of us do it, it's one of the easiest ways to change the young public's perception that soccer fans are uncool weirdoes. I find it sad that I havn't seen more than 3 soccer-related usernames in total after years of song searches.
Question? OK, I know this will make me look stupid, but I'll be honest about it. What in the world are handles and "file sharing programs." I'm new to the internet, so this is all really new to me. Even though I don't exactly know what your saying, it sounds like a cool idea. Thanks!
Re: Re: Fans since league inception v. more recent fans I wish my baby sister would be a fan like you. She just turned 12 and she is no soccer fanatic. It's just weird 'cus when I was 11, I had already grown into the sport, so I have been a fan since then (now 19). I'd watch a World Cup match in '94, then I would go back to school the next day and talk about it with my friends. Before WC 2002 I was thinking she would turn out like me how I started by watching a WC('94), but no. Maybe in the next WC.... ~Betty Bree
I was there as well and it was not pretty at all! That's one of the MLS games that I will never forget in my life I'm sure. I can still picture the moment when Jesse March made that goal since I was very close to the field (row 6 I think). Also, the Fire players were laughing at us (the crowd) and one of them was blowing kisses to us, seriously it was bad. Don't even want to remember anymore. (I think I have that in tape since they were also televizing it) ~Betty Bree
Re: Question? Nothing stupid about it. We all had our startup problems. File sharing program - A program people use to share (download and let others download from) music, videos, pictures, etc., with others. Ex. Napster, WinMX (one I recommend from www.winmx.com), Morpheus. Handle - Username/log-in name/screen name. 'soccerdome' is your BigSoccer handle.