and yet I still will not waste money on this inferior product not matter how hard they try to force the issue.
I will just be watching the national broadcast road games, and attending the home games. I'll also check and see if the MLS app still posts the 'condensed' matches the following day...if so- that will suffice for me on the games I cannot see live. Regarding passion for clubs outside of a local area- I fall into that category. I grew up in Indiana, played soccer/footy my whole life (until injuries in early college)- so this sport is my passion. I literally started following Aston Villa as a teenager 25+yrs ago because I thought they had a cool name and I liked their jersey colors (I was 15). As I got older and viewing them on TV/internet became easier- my passion for the club grew stronger. I have personally only seen them play in person one time (several years ago they toured the USA and played in the Philthy Union stadium). Visiting Villa Park is on my bucket list. So yes, one can definitely have a passion for a club regardless of location. One does not choose Aston Villa, it chooses you.
Location has no bearing on ability for passion. The only thing you can't do is easily attend a match but plenty of DC United fans don't attend matches and they are still passionate about the team. It's no different than a guy growing up in Nevada being a Cowboys fan or whatever analogy you want to use. Modern technology makes it possible to connect with fans all across the world and watch pretty much any team you want to (with cost of course). We aren't living in the 70s when the only game you get to watch is your local team and you can only talk at the barbershop to fans of that team.
I follow the teams below all over the country and live in Maryland. NY Islanders Boston Red Sox Boston Celtics Miami Dolphins Manchester United DC United Carlton Football Club (Aussie Rules)
We disagree. It is different. I'm not saying that you can't care about a club in another country but a connection to your local club is what the sport is built on. I could write a few paragraphs on how and why it's different, but it's not needed by people who get it, and it would be wasted on those who don't.
As technology grows, things evolve from what they were built on. Since you aren't interested in providing examples to further healthy discussion I'll end it here.
I think it's weird to have a real emotional attachment to a team without some local-ish meaning but that's likely only because my experience is different is all, it obviously can happen. Most folks I know who are all gung-ho about some English team (to the point they even hate the team's "rivals") got there via video games or stumbling into a game on TV one early morning when they were young and impressionable and still drunk from the night before But then I have other friends who set out to intentionally pick a foreign-league team to support and grew into long-time real fandom. There are many ways to fall into being a fan; city, player, uniform color, boisterous fans or coach - infinite possibilities. The "other sports" teams I like are all related to where I grew up mostly. Most Americans don't even know they have a local soccer team so unlike growing up somewhere else, the local-team route may be even more unusual here. I liked the West German team when I was growing up because you could watch players on Soccer Made in Germany on PBS (I am old), I also liked the Dutch players on many German teams so I also have a soft spot for the Orange - it actually took me a little while to realize if there was a West German team and a Dutch team, well there must also be a USA team and I searched them out and they were fun to watch (if not very adept at actual soccer and harder to find on TV). When I lived in SC I started to play soccer because they told me I was too small to play football any more; I also found myself in Tampa many summers with my dad and neither of us was too happy about spending time together so I'd go to Rowdies games, the party lasted all day in the parking lots and it was more okay back then to drop your kid off in a strange part of a strange town I got lucky that I was looking to force myself to do something more social out in the world at the exact time DC United was thinking about forming so I bought season tickets in 1995 and have been a rabid fan ever since. I'll try my hand at real actual local soccer next year when I dump DC United tickets for Loudoun United tickets. Not sure how that's gonna work passion-wise but it'll be a lot easier travel, parking, tailgating, and money-wise
It was 1997 on spring break from college. My first West Ham game was 3-2 win at Upton Park against Chelsea. My friend, a Spurs fan took me to the game. He obviously kept a low profile. The game featured a Julian Dicks PK that he roofed almost directly at me, standing about 2/3 of the way up the Bobby Moore stand and an injury time winner on a very tight angle drive. I still have the 2p piece that hit me in the head when Chelsea opened the scoring in the first half and 2 idiots decided to cheer in the the middle of the Bobby Moore stand. The police had to come get them. It was a midweek night and the place wasn’t just sold out, it was rocking and West Ham were in a relegation battle. Losing teams don’t get that kind of support here in the US in any sport. I just had to be a fan of a team with a fan base like that.
My maternal grandmother was a bigoted Texan who loved baseball (her husband owned a minor league team in south Texas) but hated blacks, Jews, et. al... So what team did this unlovely woman follow religiously? The New York Yankees. Go figure. One would think the name alone would have turned her off.
My colleague (who does not follow soccer at all) at work 10 minutes ago: "My partner is going to the game on Saturday, I'm not sure if I can watch but I heard you can't really watch them on TV in general." Her partner is "getting into soccer" as she told me. These are the kinds of people who will never subscribe to FLO, it has absolutely no appeal to them.
Remember the days when we could advocate for the team? Casually mention that it would be on CSN or NC8 to perhaps spring some interest with our coworkers or friends is done. “Hey, want to meet up Wednesday night at the bar, purchase a subscription to a streaming service and use up all our data staring at our phones for two hours” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as “see you at the bar for the game”. Thx, Jay!
Those fans had 23 years and couldn't be arsed. They had their chance and passed. The FO is focused on us now. I'm not sure that's a bad move.
what would lead you to believe they are focused on us??????? I know like most of you they could give a damn about me.
With 21 games not on television, 2/3 of the season is wasted opportunity. When Wayne Rooney retires/leaves after next season and Levien goes broke Ponzi'ing his Swansea money over to United we wont have 3 games on national TV. Then it's two more years until all the local games go streaming. Thx, Jay!
Your original claim wasn't about wasted opportunities. Your original claim was that the days of being able to casually mention DCU being on television are done. Saturday is probably the biggest regular season game in AF history and is on regular Fox. How many coworkers/Friends have you casually mentioned this to? Or is this just saying "now that DC is on Flo I can't do something that I wasn't doing anyways" ?
I've been telling everyone who'll listen that this week might be their only opportunity to watch United because of their stupid streaming-only policy Unless they have DTV/cable, then they can probably watch a few others depending on their TV package, but I don't remember which weeks so they'll have to try to remember to look for themselves
DCU marketers according to you: "We haven't had consistent sellouts over the last 23 years so let's just stop trying to sell our product to new customers." I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're not in marketing. "The FO is focused on us now."
what's the point of mentioning Saturday's if the next few are on Flo/Crap TV. If they like Saturday there is no way to build momentum when the matches go back to that crappy streaming service that no one wants.
3 of the next 5 games are nationally televised. Plenty opportunities for the 'casual fan' that everyone is so worried about to watch.