Comments on: Rambling About Soccer

By: hattrick

hattrick — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:23:27 +0000

Short story on why someone who LOVED the sport decided to give up on the MLS. I was at the Cotton Bowl on opening day back in the mid-nineties when the MLS get atrted. I only missed a couple games that year (cinco de mayo that year was an incredible experience). However, the next season, MLS decided to put their games on PAY PER VIEW! I couldn’t believe it, here’s a sport that struggles to make new fans in this country and what is their plan for growing the sport? PAY PER VIEW! So now a die-hard fan like myself had trouble keeping up with his home team’s games, how the he** did they expect NEW FANS to get on board?

I broke down and took my friends to a game a few years ago, but other than that – I have not beern to a game since the day MLS went PAY PER VIEW. If they are so short sighted (see: GREEDY) to have done something as stupid as that, then the sport has very little chance for growth in the US.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:17:54 +0000

Great article.

Born and raised in Dallas, I couldn’t care less about soccer for the majority of my life. But after seeing a couple of Champions League matches a few years back, I’m now a diehard Gooner. My love for Arsenal has even surpassed my love for the Mavericks which makes no sense since I have no physical connection to Arsenal.

From personal anecdotes, I know a ton of people who have gotten into soccer just by catching Champions League matches or Euro 2008 last year. Soccer can grow exponentially more if ESPN manages to get the rights to broadcast the EPL in the states.

As for developing the youth system, here’s a recent article from a FANTASTIC soccer blog:

http://www.thisisamericansoccer.com/us-mens-national-team/where-have-you-gone-brad-friedel/

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:24:00 +0000

Bob, I think you hit it dead on. I know I was a casual soccer fan, enjoying the MLS and the national team for several years. Now having FSC and Setanta, I have become a huge EPL fan. I have decided to be a Gunner for Life and I find myself reading soccer websites and following the beautiful game. Maybe ESPN or FOX Sports will start featuring weekly international soccer if the demand rises.

Keep up the good work. Love your stories.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:30:48 +0000

I think the key to it becoming popular here is to develop a rooting intrest in a paticular team. For me it is Liverpool like Bob.I agree that Americans only like the highest form of anything, so if little by little people can find a Euro club to watch on FSC or the Champions Leauge on ESPN and care who wins then you get hooked pretty quickly.Obviously the USMNT doing well would help alot.As far as the amount of money that can be made by the top level players you might not can make that mush in MLS but just look at the extreme amounts the likes of Ronaldo and Kaka just signed for.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:30:30 +0000

I like your line of thinking on copying the Brasilian model. You mentioned the major sports getting the best athletes here in the US and soccer getting the leftovers. I think a big part of that is the money. If an athlete has a choice to make $5.3 million in the NBA a year (average) or make $120,000 in the MLS a year (average), most would choose the NBA.

Most Brasilians don’t have a chance to make much money locally. Brasil doesn’t have many professional sports either. Playing soccer overseas is their ticket to financial success. There is good money in the European leagues that can challenge the salaries in the NFL, NBA and MLB. Given a chance to play soccer abroad and make similar money to playing locally in one of the three major sports, most would choose to stay home and play.

Once MLS can improve their salaries to gain more national interest, we may start getting more athletes choosing soccer and potentially playing over in Europe. The problem is how to improve the salaries. I think you identified it in your column. The US needs a Tiger Woods/Michael Jordan/LeBron James for soccer similar to Kaka, Ronaldinho, Robinho, etc. for Brasil.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:01:05 +0000

I agree that it is becoming increasingly obvious that international success is required to attract domestic interest in soccer. So here’s hoping that the US does well next summer, but I’m not holding my breath for an American superstar anytime soon. To appreciate how difficult a thing that is, realize that soccer is played on the world stage, with not one but several domestic leagues. So to be one of the very best players in the entire world is extremely rare. I think the US already had a very good field player in Claudio Reyna, who experienced a great European career. But you’d have to be one of the ten best players on the planet to break through to the US mainstream.

By: Justin Ransom

Justin Ransom — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:08:07 +0000

“Just as a point of clarification, ESPN bought the UK only rights that Setanta used to hold. Setanta International still holds the international rights. And unless they go under, the only legal way you can watch the EPL here in the states is through Fox Soccer Channel or Setanta.”

Sorry, guess I needed to get my facts straight.

By: enderjed

enderjed — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:43:19 +0000

A few things I hope don’t get written off as pure pedantry:
Bob, our American 1st division league is called MLS, not the MLS, just like baseball’s leagues are not collectively called the MLB. And the Nike Sports Bra Incident was an incident because Brandi Chastain removed her shirt to help market HER OWN BRAND OF SPORTS BRAS, not Nike’s.
GL, people in America already do watch soccer on teevee. So many of them do that MLS has several highly profitable contracts with various teevee providers, with names like ESPN, ABC, and Fox Soccer Channel, not to mention the Spanish-language stations (yes, Spanish speakers have money to spend, too). You might, if you’re a proud NTX native like me, be pleased to hear that FC Dallas is the first profitable pro soccer team in U.S. history, and their business model is being copied around the country to good effect. Check the attendance and teevee ratings in Seattle, where they have some other forms of sporting competition, if I’m not sorely mistaken. Building their own stadiums has been the key to profitability, something the old NASL never did.
Columbus Crew Stadium was the first, followed by naming-rights-sold stadiums Home Depot Center (home to LA Galaxy AND Chivas USA), Pizza Hut Park (FC Dallas), Toyota Park (Chicago Fire), Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (Colorado Rapids), BMO Field (Toronto FC), and Rio Tinto Stadium (Real Salt Lake). Red Bull Arena (New York Red Bulls) is under construction, opening next year along with expansion team Philadelphia’s Chester Stadium (Philly Union), and the Kansas City Wizards (named before the Washington basketball team) will be playing at Trails Stadium the following year.
This just in: MLS is both profitable and quickly expanding.
As for the defeat to Brazil on Sunday, don’t anybody sweat it. It was the first time our team has ever been on the same freaking field as a big trophy, so just to make it that far is an improvement over anything we’ve ever done. And I treat it like Michael Jordan’s Bulls losing to the Pistons. Jordan had to learn not only to be great, but also how to win. By beating Egypt and Spain, and being up 2 goals on mighty (MIGHTY) Brazil, the Nats learned that they CAN play with the big boys, and Brazil just showed them how to win. It was a lesson learned exactly on time to lead into next year’s tournament. You know, the big one.
More strong showings like this during WC qualifying might propel the US team into the top 8 of world rankings, and give them their best draw in South Africa 2010. Something to hope for, at least.
Gravypan, through the greatness of ESPN360.com, those games are available to anyone with a broadband internet connection to their computers. And to anyone with even a slight bit of technical know-how, from their computers straight to their HDTV’s.
Everyone: find a team, any team, anywhere in the world, and follow them. Finding a rooting interest, as Bob has done with Liverpool(?), is the quickest way to learning and loving soccer. And it’s not futbol. The UK is the only English-speaking nation in the world that does not call it soccer. And the next time a Brit gives you crap about it, remind them that word soccer was invented in England.

By: Gravypan

Gravypan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:53:43 +0000

And I also agree with Alan Morris. I’m a little surprised that none of the English teams have setup any kind of a training program to develop the talent over here. I guess they’re content with using the MLS as their own developmental league considering the likes of Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey honed their skills there before heading overseas.

The reason that more people, like myself, follow the EPL and the European leagues and teams such as Real, Barca, AC Milan, etc. is because that’s where the highest quality of play is being found. Americans, by and large, won’t follow a particular sport unless we get to watch the best players on the best teams playing in the best leagues.

By: Gravypan

Gravypan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:44:31 +0000

“Hopefully ESPN buying the rights to EPL and La Liga matches will help to expose more American sports fans to the beautiful game at its best.”

Just as a point of clarification, ESPN bought the UK only rights that Setanta used to hold. Setanta International still holds the international rights. And unless they go under, the only legal way you can watch the EPL here in the states is through Fox Soccer Channel or Setanta.