How Can We, As Americans, Better Sell Soccer to Our Fellow Americans?

be good at it, nobody wants to hang out with losers.

 

I think in the near future we'll see soccer become the new "in" thing. Seems like hipsters have really latched onto soccer as kind of the next niche cultural thing to be in to. Hopefully it'll catch on longterm.

 

Okay no.

We all remember that "Stuff White People Like" entry. For the most part, hipsters I know of don't particularly like soccer, they like the idea of soccer. Usually, most soccer-hipsters are plastics into the big clubs who play too much FIFA on their XBox, or idiots who buy Rushden and Diamonds kits and root for Qatar at the Asia Cup...You know, to be "Ironic". Or maybe they wear those fake "Soccer Style" knock off shirts that you can get at Target or Sears or even the Hard Rock Cafe, like so:



The idea that soccer can be made to look "in" or "cool" is silly. It attracts people to the surface features of the sport and not to what makes the sport truly special. I'm not impressed with a clueless trixie who wears a Liverpool kit to a party because it matches the red solo cup in her hand, in a desperate attempt to look cosmopolitan. (Ask her about Brad Friedel or Micheal Owen or the Miracle at Istanbul, and she'd probably give you a blank stare) What's impressive was that one time I banged this Argentine girl in LA back in 2002 because I knew who Javier Zanetti was and all these other idiots at the bar were totally clueless. Okay, bad example. The point is, I'd rather people KNOW about football and have a genuine passion for it rather than adapting it's surface features.

Back in my exuberant days in Los Angeles, the one thing I did to actually get friends of mine into soccer was to take them to Galaxy games. Back then, tickets to MLS games were dirt cheap, and when me and my friend went to the Concacaf Champions Cup to see Olimpia/Pachuca and Galaxy/DC United, we had a few bucks left over so we took 3 more of our friends. All three of those guys caught the soccer bug, and started to watch MLS and Mexican league games every once in awhile.

While I don't live in an MLS city anymore, every once in awhile I invite a non-football fan friend with me to see a match at a soccer bar. Back in Nashville, I remember asking one of my coworkers to come and see a match with me (USA v. Netherlands in 2010). He balked, but another coworker chimed in "Dude, you gotta go. It's righteous, man." You got you and eight of your buds cheering for the US (And booing Nigel DeJong) with pitchers of margarita...Man, it's something else. Mainly because US games tap into your patriotism- It doesn't matter your race, your social standing, your political alignment. The USA is your team. It brings everybody together, and even brought the 2 Dutch fans closer to us too (Who admitted, DeJong was "Lucky" to not get red-carded). Something you don't get in other sports.

So, I say- Soccer sells itself. It's simple to understand (Even the offside rule can be explained to the most drunken of buffoons in less than a minute using empty beer bottles on a table, which I have done A LOT) and when it's beautiful, it's beautiful. I was introduced by a friend who took me to the 98 Gold Cup final, and I was hooked. In turn, more than a few of my friends caught the footballing bug from me, just by raw exposure to the game. And that's all we can really do.

Now whether one wants to wear a Barcelona scarf over a RATT T-Shirt while pedaling your Tom's Shoes adorned feet to Whole Foods on your cruiserbike listening to Beach House on your latest iPhone..Well that's up the hipsters. Seeing "Cool" people wearing soccer gear doesn't make soccer fans..Just like in the mid-2000's when thousands of hipsters wearing Keffiyehs didn't make enrollment in the PLO shoot up among urbanite youth. Only shared experiences with the beautiful game make fans. The scarves and chants come later, when the passion beats hard, and beats strong.

 

The moment soccer hitches its wagon to hipster culture is the moment it completely fades away into irrelevance. Hipster culture is extremely notorious for dumping its trends into the ditch after a couple of years, then dousing them with gasoline and lighting them on fire.

 

I think labeling anyone a hipster in the first place is retarded and then denying them the opportunity to generate revenue for soccer in the US is not only retarded but elitist. THIS is at the core of why many folks don't gravitate towards soccer. It's the soccer snobs like those who just lambasted a culture of possible fans that should be marginalized, so the rest of us more welcoming types can roll out the red carpet for ANYONE, regardless of wearing a "soccer shirt from Hard Rock" or not. I don't care where you buy your shirts or what "clique" you're into. If you enjoy the game or even have the slightest interest, at any level, you're welcome to it. Soccer is EVERYONE'S game. Not just the elitist soccer fan as we've been introduced to in this thread.

 

I'd leave the selling to evangelists & advertisers. We know how much people love them.

No selling is needed. I go to most home games. If I think a friend or family member is interested I may ask them if they want to go. They either go or don't go. If they go they either don't like the experience, like the experience or like the experience so much they want to go again.

No selling necessary.

 

I'm not sure who you're having a go at, but hipsterism deals in the ephemeral almost exclusively. Whatever is hot now in hipster culture will be discarded or even hated not long down the road. It's the M.O. of hipsters. Once something stops being "ironic" enough, it's ignored or even actively derided.

I'm not sure the future of soccer is with hipsterism writ large. Now this does NOT mean to exclude individuals of hipster persuasion from latching on to the game, because not all hipsters adhere to the vagaries of the culture they identify with to the same degree. There's a difference.

 

When did you become the prophet of cultural anomalies? I'm sorry but your ignorant platitudes are insulting. All we need to prove your ignorance is for you to define what a hipster is. This is when people fall apart and invariably stick their foot in their mouth. Why? Because you begin to label people and marginalize them into categories. This is was commonly called prejudice in the 50's. You think you're being cute, but all you're doing is excluding people based on their way of life, which is simply ignorant by definition.

Soccer is not exclusive to those who live a certain way culturally. It is not exclusive to those who don't buy soccer shirts at Hard Rock or go to a game because they think it's ironic, or not. Soccer belongs to anyone who lives and breathes. Period. It is blind platitudes such as your own that shine a bad light on our beloved sport. When we begin to applaud ANYONE that even speaks of the game regardless of their way of life, we'll be making positive steps for soccer in the US.

All are welcome to the game.

 

Jesus Christ. Take a deep breath and spare me the morality lesson.

Hipster culture, almost by definition, is ephemeral and "irony fad" driven (whatever meaning of "irony" hipster culture adheres to at any given moment).

Individual hipsters don't all blindly follow the hipster culture.

I thought I made that clear.

To recap: soccer shouldn't hitch its wagon to hipster culture. Soccer is and should continue to be something embraced by all sorts of individuals.

******** me...

 

We are talking about people following a GAME. Something that is PLAYED. It is supposed to be FUN.

Let's not turn everything in major matters of socio-economic, racial and class significance.

And one more thing . . .


So much for the new civility I guess.

 

You're right. I apologize. I was trying to make a point and went overboard. The root of my concern stands but my approach was out of line. Sorry guys.

 

I'm wondering if everyone here clearly understands what a "hipster" is in 2011, and what Timon19 is referring to when he uses the term. It has a very specific meaning in this era, referring to a very specific lifestyle and mindset.

Treating them as if they should be some sort of protected minority if pretty misguided, given that hipsters by definition come from a privileged class. They're privileged, educated kids who have made deliberate lifestyle choices. That's why they've been so ripe for mockery in the wider culture.

Part of that mindset is an interest in kitsch and ephemera. As Timon19 says, that's not something you want to hitch your wagon to. It's too flimsy, too disposable. It's not real.

Everyone is welcome to jump on the soccer bus, absolutely. Including people with soccer shirts from Target. But as MPNumber9 and Wessoman say in the posts that launched this tangent, what you don't want -- if you're interested in soccer's long-term health -- is for it to be perceived as a hipster niche. If the sport is saddled with that Stuff White People Like vibe, or seen as a trendy hipster accessory, that's not helpful.

Pardon the lame poetry, but to truly grow in the United States, soccer has to be a passion, not a fashion.

 

in a perfect world, soccer should be the same as it is now, and just keep growing around upper middle class suburban america.

the truth is soccer would eventually become more popular around the masses, and this is when we are going to have americans of all places talking and playing the game.

now to sell the game better, you have to be good at it.

think of argetina, brazil, italy, germany, these are countries that are consitantly godo and have won the world cup more than once.

these are cultures that american soccer players and fans should emulate when it comes to soccer.

the discipline and the hard work of the germans, the tactical work of the italians, the passion of the argentinian and the jogo bonito of brazii.

Holland plays great soccer but they are known to choke when it counts.

Spain is is great but let see if they can stay on top.

Again, to sell the game or to sell anything, you have to be GOOD at it.

 

most people around me becomes soccer fans, even american baseball and football players.

im just myself, love the game, and respect their sports, if they make jokes about soccer i make jokes about their games too, is all about respect.

if you dont show any appreciation for their game, they are most likely to do the same thing to you.

i was actually hanging with a college basketball player tonight, i told him my bk team was the lakers, he told me his soccer team was barcelona.

im talking of a 6 4" mulato bk player from georgia who has only hear about soccer from one of his teammates from africa.

just be yourself, have passion for soccer and respect their game.

 

Repped. Part of the problem with Hipster culture is that it's intrinsically a passing fancy. As a matter of fact, latching onto ephemeral trendoids is part of the reason why the NASL didn't survive. Fans were caught up in the NASL hype ("Soccer is THE sport of the 70's"..I remember that headline) and the big players and cosmopolitan owners. A genuine passion for the game was not nurtured- It was entirely big names, big dollars, here today, gone tomorrow....Part of the trends that went out, like flared pants, disco, and CB radios in every car.

Partly to answer Master O's question, what we need to do is latch on to the exact opposite of hipster culture, which is to cater to the shared American consciousness. Instead of being a trend, Soccer fans need to point out that American footy fans have been here for decades and will be here for decades to come.

For one, we should point to our history. During the USA/Algeria game at a bar in Austin, a fan was complaining that the referees were harsh on us regarding the disallowed goal in the first half. He was stunned when myself and others pointed out that historically, the USA always gets bad calls, from Mazatanango to Pendergrast to Germany 2002 to Italy 06. The fact that he was learning our shared history as the story of our national team was being written right then and there. Perhaps in the future, that same fan will educate other Americans about the shared experience of 2010 and how our team never backed down.

Americans tend to love a scappy underdog that defies the odds, and the US fit the casting brilliantly in the last few years. Not just the National team, but MLS as well- After years of concentrated stupidity like Jim Rome and Frank Deford explaining to America why professional soccer was not going to survive, well....MLS is still here, with bigger crowds than ever before.

Like I said, the only thing we, as Americans, can better sell the sport to our countrymen is to develop shared experiences to add to the American consciousness. Take your friends to MLS games and sports bars. Make soccer critics sound like they are not part of the national conversation (Because they aren't). Make people feel passion. And that's all there is to it.

 

The national team and MLS are the Rocky Balboa of this story.

We are not Coca Cola, we are Pepsi, the new cool drink with not drugs on it

 

They need to put the coca back in the cola.

 

My enthusiasm and patient explanations usually win a few people over. I like to use North American sports references to explain what is happening on the field.

For instance, play in the final third, especially the box, I use basketball references, so they understand how players are positioning, etc. If you use basketball as an example when players are being fouled, you would be surprised at how a person who was dismissive can come around.


Most people just haven't been exposed to the sport long enough to develop an understanding of the sport. Once you explain the subtle things to people, they stop complaining. You have to understand that people just see men kicking a ball around, and don't really know whats happening, or why.

If they are too hard headed, and are persistent with comparing soccer with say our football, I try to explain to them that when people see our football, they don't "see" the sport's play, only pads and a lot of stoppage. They don't understand our game is about clock control etc. Just need to put things into perspective, and tell them its just about looking at sports in a different way.

Of course, you will always have detractors, but every sport has them, even NFL.

 

the Sport of soccer has to Know how to embrace the american sports fan .... trying to act like or be like european or some latin country further alienates the curious and open mineded

 

Soccer is catching on alot better here in the states. My Son is 6 and has played since he was 3. His league is getting larger and larger every season. I hope it stays strong!! I live in the south and when I was growing up 30 years ago there were no soccer leagues to play in. Now there are many. I really could have cared less about the game until he started playing but now I love it. The things I think most Americans have a problem with about soccer is the low scoring, the ability to end in a tie, and the acting when fouled. I mean you have a guy barely get touched and he acts like he is dying, then 1 minute later he is in full sprint!!

 

former baseball player:

"Soccer, that zhit ain a sport, anybody can just kick a ball."

soccer player:

"i know, i was a 3 times state champ, what did you win in baseball?"

fbp

"yeah but nobody plays soccer, nobody cares, is for foreigners,"

sp

"so were you good in baseball? why arent you playing in college then?"

fbp

"i was a stud, i was an all american and zhit,"

sp

"really, for what school? what division? some of my friends were all state baseball players in the top division, what school did you go to again?"

fbp

"f.. u soccer sucks."




then he goes like

"give me that ball ill show you how easy soccer is."

and he tries to kick the ball and run with it HAHAHAHA

my roommante is so funny, i make fun of him telling him he is not playing baseball bc he is not fat enought and he gets mad he says soccer players are midgets, and we go at each other.

at the end of the day, he agrees that ronaldinho is sick and that he wish he was good enought to play college sports, and that he likes chelsea bc the blue adidas jacket looks nice HAHAHA