Eurosnobs. Every American soccer fan has met them- they belittle you for calling it "soccer", laugh about what a joke MLS is (and obviously you're a joke as well for caring about it), and proudly support one of the "Big 4" in the EPL and one of the top European national teams such as Spain, Italy, or Germany...even though they're American as well. They wouldn't dare lower themselves to watch an MLS game, yet they would get up before 8AM on a weekend to watch their beloved Premier League team play. Their love for the game is evident- but only for the European game. If their love for "football" can be harnessed and directed towards MLS, the league will have the support it needs to succeed.
TV ratings for Premier League games are consistently much higher than those for MLS games. February's game between Liverpool and Chelsea on FSC averaged a 0.5 rating (294,000 viewers) while last weekend's game between the Kansas City Wizards and the LA Galaxy on widely-available ESPN2 (which included supposed ratings-booster David Beckham) only averaged a 0.3 rating (231,000 viewers), just a bit less the season-high rating set by the season opener between Seattle and New York (254,000 viewers). MLS is watched even less on FSC, averaging a 0.1 rating (44,000 viewers) through May of this season. Ratings for Euro 2008 averaged a 0.5 on ESPN2 and a 0.9 on ESPN, with the final on ABC earning a 3.1 rating. MLS Cup 2008, also on ABC, only earned a 0.7 rating.
And it's not just TV where European games attract higher crowds- July's World Football Challenge had attendances ranging from over 31,000 to over 81,000 across 6 venues (I was one of 53,000 in attendance in Atlanta). This is combined with sellouts of 67,000 and 27,000 in Seattle and LA, respectively, where the Sounders and Galaxy faced European opposition. Future friendlies this summer for Real Madrid and Barcelona have pretty much sold out. But so far this season, the MLS has only averaged over 15,000 a game, with average team attendances ranging from almost 9,500 in Dallas to over 30,000 in Seattle. People are coming out to watch these European teams (Chelsea's three games drew the three biggest crowds) as opposed to their own local teams, which is understandable, especially in Atlanta, where men's top-level soccer has been virtually non-existant (I'm not really a fan of AC Milan or Club America, but the chance to actually go to a live soccer game was too good not to take), but there shouldn't be this big of a difference between the two.
I've recently defended the MLS against a barrage of insults from two sports-crazy friends who said, among other things, that "people want excitement and entertainment and that's the EPL not MLS" and that there isn't "a big consistent enough fan base in America" for the sport to succeed. I'm not sure if he's ever watched an MLS game, but I certainly find them exciting- I didn't really care as much until I picked a team to support, but I still watched games whenever I could catch them and always enjoyed it. The past three MLS Cup finals have been very exciting, in my opinion. As for the big, consistent fan base, it's there for soccer, just not for the MLS. The Eurosnobs are holding the league back- if even half of them decided that it was okay to like the MLS and actually showed up to a game or watched it on TV, the league's popularity would skyrocket. But they're most likely not going to convert. They'll watch one MLS game on TV, and if it's not up to their standards, they're going to write the league off and not watch again. And unfortunately, there's not a whole lot the league can do to attract them. Setting up the friendlies against big clubs is a great move for the league as well as the clubs, though I'd like to see a wider range of MLS teams' international friendlies on TV. Designated Players for the most part haven't really worked out the way the league hoped they would- they've brought in fans, but the degree to which they've improved their team varies, with the most impressive being Guille at Columbus, and he didn't even start out as a DP!
Hopefully, the day will come when MLS fans outnumber the Eurosnobs. And that will be a glorious day for soccer.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Cable TV drops the ball
Next month, the USMNT will be headed to Mexico City for a very important World Cup qualifier against Mexico. I'm going to make a bold statement here and say that it's the most important qualifier for us. Mexico have already tried to knock us down a notch by scheduling the match at 4 PM EST, during the hottest, most humid part of the day. The US has never won at the Azteca EVER and with the squad we have now and the form we were in for the last three Confederation's Cup games, winning in Mexico is DEFINITELY a possibility.
HOWEVER, most of us won't be able to see it on television. Why, you ask? Basically, ESPN won't be carrying the ridiculously important US-Mexico World Cup qualifier next month. They decided it was too expensive to buy the English language rights from Telemundo, a Spanish-language channel that is part of the NBC Universal network. And that's understandable, since they apparently really jacked up the price because they knew it'd be in demand. But that leaves no English-language broadcast. NBC Universal had the bright idea to use their ties with Telemundo to broadcast it in English...on mun2. I had actually never heard of this channel until yesterday when I read about this. Apparently it is a bilingual channel aimed at the Hispanic 18-34 demographic. And it's only available to 30.4 million homes in the US, which isn't a lot of people. So hardly anyone is going to be able to watch this match. However, most people in the US get the USA network, which is part of NBC Universal. Do you know what they are showing during the time that the game would air? Reruns of House and NCIS, which, although they are good shows, are not crucial to watch and could either be aired on a different day or a different time or something. But of course they aren't, because this is America, and the mainstream media hates soccer.
Wanna help out? First off, you can sign this petition. It's unofficial, but when I signed it there were almost 500 signatures and this thing started yesterday, so if you sign this and send it to people, tweet it to everyone, put a link on facebook, whatever you want to do, you'd be helping out.
Another way would be to go to Matchfit USA's article which gives more details about the situation and has more things you can do to help. One of these ways is emailing NBC Universal network officials- they have a template email that you can just copy, paste, edit, and send to the NBC people whose email addresses they also give.
If you were to do all of this, it would maybe take 5 minutes out of your day. I think you can sacrifice that in the name of American soccer.
HOWEVER, most of us won't be able to see it on television. Why, you ask? Basically, ESPN won't be carrying the ridiculously important US-Mexico World Cup qualifier next month. They decided it was too expensive to buy the English language rights from Telemundo, a Spanish-language channel that is part of the NBC Universal network. And that's understandable, since they apparently really jacked up the price because they knew it'd be in demand. But that leaves no English-language broadcast. NBC Universal had the bright idea to use their ties with Telemundo to broadcast it in English...on mun2. I had actually never heard of this channel until yesterday when I read about this. Apparently it is a bilingual channel aimed at the Hispanic 18-34 demographic. And it's only available to 30.4 million homes in the US, which isn't a lot of people. So hardly anyone is going to be able to watch this match. However, most people in the US get the USA network, which is part of NBC Universal. Do you know what they are showing during the time that the game would air? Reruns of House and NCIS, which, although they are good shows, are not crucial to watch and could either be aired on a different day or a different time or something. But of course they aren't, because this is America, and the mainstream media hates soccer.
Wanna help out? First off, you can sign this petition. It's unofficial, but when I signed it there were almost 500 signatures and this thing started yesterday, so if you sign this and send it to people, tweet it to everyone, put a link on facebook, whatever you want to do, you'd be helping out.
Another way would be to go to Matchfit USA's article which gives more details about the situation and has more things you can do to help. One of these ways is emailing NBC Universal network officials- they have a template email that you can just copy, paste, edit, and send to the NBC people whose email addresses they also give.
If you were to do all of this, it would maybe take 5 minutes out of your day. I think you can sacrifice that in the name of American soccer.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Pre-Panama musings
So it doesn't appear that any of the seven extras will be called in for the USMNT's Gold Cup quarterfinal against Panama this Saturday, since I'm assuming the MNT blog would have told us when they posted the updated roster. This leaves us with even less options than we had against Haiti, since Charlie Davies, Steve Cherundolo, and Michael Parkhurst will be back with their clubs by then for preseason. Granted, Parkhurst was suspended anyways for yellow card accumulation, but it leaves us stretched in the back and up front.
As for who I'd like to see...
-----------Perkins-----------
Pearce-Conrad(C)-Marshall-Evans
-----------Beckerman---------
Rogers-------Arnaud--------Holden
----Ching/Cooper---Quaranta----
Luis Robles' performance against Haiti showed that Troy Perkins in goal is an automatic pick. The back 4 pretty much picks itself at this point- Brad Evans did well enough against Haiti and Grenada to keep the right back spot. Robbie Rogers, Kyle Beckerman, and Stuart Holden are all locks in the midfield, and I think Davy Arnaud could do well in a central role. He looked better than Logan Pause and Sam Cronin, so he gets my vote. And up top, there aren't really that many choices. Knowing Bob Bradley, Brian Ching will get the start, but either him or Kenny Cooper partnering Santino Quaranta up top is fine with me. I'm a huge Kenny Cooper fan, but he didn't do enough against Haiti to pull him ahead of Ching.
If we make it through to the semifinals, Bob Bradley has to call up some of the extra 7. The roster just isn't deep enough for him not to.
As for who I'd like to see...
-----------Perkins-----------
Pearce-Conrad(C)-Marshall-Evans
-----------Beckerman---------
Rogers-------Arnaud--------Holden
----Ching/Cooper---Quaranta----
Luis Robles' performance against Haiti showed that Troy Perkins in goal is an automatic pick. The back 4 pretty much picks itself at this point- Brad Evans did well enough against Haiti and Grenada to keep the right back spot. Robbie Rogers, Kyle Beckerman, and Stuart Holden are all locks in the midfield, and I think Davy Arnaud could do well in a central role. He looked better than Logan Pause and Sam Cronin, so he gets my vote. And up top, there aren't really that many choices. Knowing Bob Bradley, Brian Ching will get the start, but either him or Kenny Cooper partnering Santino Quaranta up top is fine with me. I'm a huge Kenny Cooper fan, but he didn't do enough against Haiti to pull him ahead of Ching.
If we make it through to the semifinals, Bob Bradley has to call up some of the extra 7. The roster just isn't deep enough for him not to.
obligatory "why should you read this blog?" post
In my first season playing soccer, I only got the ball once. Somehow I ended up with the ball, and dribbled it for a few glorious moments...until it was taken away from me by one of the boys on my team. In my last season playing soccer, eleven years later, I could typically be found in line with the last opposing defenders, but rarely marked, because the other teams made the (generally) correct assumption that nobody was going to pass the ball to the girl. Boys will be boys, right?
Those eleven years of soccer weren't filled with glory and championships (every trophy or medal I have was based on participation), but they instilled in me a love for the sport itself that has grown even stronger since I've stopped playing. Unfortunately for me, I live in Georgia, so opportunities to share my love of the game with others are limited. That lack of opportunity led to the creation of this blog. I've grown accustomed to sharing articles and USMNT/MLS info with the rest of my family whenever I get a chance, but although they may start off paying attention, I usually go into far more detail than they care about, and I really hate to be bother them all the time. So this blog will give me an outlet to ramble about the latest USMNT roster or how our Yanks Abroad are doing or whatever happens to be going on in MLS.
tl;dr, who I support and why
In terms of support, my number one team is and always will be the US national teams. I couldn't have picked a better time to grow up as a girls soccer player. My earliest non-documented memory is watching the 1999 Women's World Cup final between the US and China. I would put that game as the main reason that I love US Soccer as much as I do today- for the first time I was just so inexplicably proud of my country, and I loved it. The WNT players of the late 90s, early 2000s weren't just a team for me- they were idols. I was within 10 yards of Mia Hamm after an Atlanta Beat game once and it's still one of the greatest moments of my life. I don't remember exactly when I started following the men's team, but it was at some point during qualification for the 2006 World Cup because I knew who everyone was when I watched the Send-Off Series. After the 06 World Cup, my focus shifted more to the MNT than the WNT, but I still have tons of love for the women, especially now that the Atlanta Beat are coming back next season!
The 2006 World Cup opened up a ton of doors for me because after my parents saw how mesmerized my sister and I were by televised soccer (somewhat of a rarity on cable), they added the sports tier to our cable package, and suddenly, between Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, I was watching 4 to 5 games per weekend, across the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, and some MLS. I was hooked. I would schedule plans around games I wanted to watch live, I'd watch one game on my laptop while watching another on TV...I remember one time during an international break, I had the US vs. Poland game on the TV, the England game on my laptop, and either a Spain or Germany game on the desktop. It was madness, but in the best way possible. As for support, I'd classify myself as a Fulham fan- six months ago I would have added Arsenal to that, but I found myself caring less and less about their results and more and more about Fulham's results, and the whole big-4-dominance is getting pretty old. In the other leagues, I'll watch pretty much anything just to see a good game.
As for the MLS, I don't really have a local team to support. Up until the 2008 season, I was just a casual fan, watching games when I happened to be home to watch them, then engrossing myself in the playoffs. At the start of the 2008 season, I decided that I was actually going to get into the league and pick a team or two to follow. I'd always kinda liked FC Dallas after playing with them one season on FIFA, so I picked them in the west, but it took a few games for me to eventually choose Columbus in the east. Besides the fact that they wore my favorite color of yellow, they were playing the same attractive soccer that Arsenal were playing, which pretty much sold me. I ended up becoming far more invested in them than I thought, especially since they ended up being both Supporters Shield and MLS Cup champions.
Some basic background stuff...I'm from Augusta, Georgia, and I go to Georgia Tech, where I major in Nuclear and Radiological Engineering. Other than a couple of Atlanta Beat games back in the day, I've never been to a professional soccer game, although that will change after I see AC Milan play Club America in the Georgia Dome in 8 days. This can mostly be attributed to the fact that teams never play within reasonable driving range.
My claim(s) to fame in the soccersphere? 2 years ago Jimmy Conrad answered my question about Landon's pre-penalty kick ritual at around the 9-minute mark. Also, I was the first person to have their 6-in-60 questions asked during FSC's MLS broadcasts (which was made even better by the fact that my questions were answered by Danny O'Rourke, a Crew player, and Brad Evans, a former Crew player), and I have some pretty sweet FSC swag to prove it.
Tl;dr? In summary, I'm pretty legit. For a girl.
Those eleven years of soccer weren't filled with glory and championships (every trophy or medal I have was based on participation), but they instilled in me a love for the sport itself that has grown even stronger since I've stopped playing. Unfortunately for me, I live in Georgia, so opportunities to share my love of the game with others are limited. That lack of opportunity led to the creation of this blog. I've grown accustomed to sharing articles and USMNT/MLS info with the rest of my family whenever I get a chance, but although they may start off paying attention, I usually go into far more detail than they care about, and I really hate to be bother them all the time. So this blog will give me an outlet to ramble about the latest USMNT roster or how our Yanks Abroad are doing or whatever happens to be going on in MLS.
tl;dr, who I support and why
In terms of support, my number one team is and always will be the US national teams. I couldn't have picked a better time to grow up as a girls soccer player. My earliest non-documented memory is watching the 1999 Women's World Cup final between the US and China. I would put that game as the main reason that I love US Soccer as much as I do today- for the first time I was just so inexplicably proud of my country, and I loved it. The WNT players of the late 90s, early 2000s weren't just a team for me- they were idols. I was within 10 yards of Mia Hamm after an Atlanta Beat game once and it's still one of the greatest moments of my life. I don't remember exactly when I started following the men's team, but it was at some point during qualification for the 2006 World Cup because I knew who everyone was when I watched the Send-Off Series. After the 06 World Cup, my focus shifted more to the MNT than the WNT, but I still have tons of love for the women, especially now that the Atlanta Beat are coming back next season!
The 2006 World Cup opened up a ton of doors for me because after my parents saw how mesmerized my sister and I were by televised soccer (somewhat of a rarity on cable), they added the sports tier to our cable package, and suddenly, between Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, I was watching 4 to 5 games per weekend, across the EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, and some MLS. I was hooked. I would schedule plans around games I wanted to watch live, I'd watch one game on my laptop while watching another on TV...I remember one time during an international break, I had the US vs. Poland game on the TV, the England game on my laptop, and either a Spain or Germany game on the desktop. It was madness, but in the best way possible. As for support, I'd classify myself as a Fulham fan- six months ago I would have added Arsenal to that, but I found myself caring less and less about their results and more and more about Fulham's results, and the whole big-4-dominance is getting pretty old. In the other leagues, I'll watch pretty much anything just to see a good game.
As for the MLS, I don't really have a local team to support. Up until the 2008 season, I was just a casual fan, watching games when I happened to be home to watch them, then engrossing myself in the playoffs. At the start of the 2008 season, I decided that I was actually going to get into the league and pick a team or two to follow. I'd always kinda liked FC Dallas after playing with them one season on FIFA, so I picked them in the west, but it took a few games for me to eventually choose Columbus in the east. Besides the fact that they wore my favorite color of yellow, they were playing the same attractive soccer that Arsenal were playing, which pretty much sold me. I ended up becoming far more invested in them than I thought, especially since they ended up being both Supporters Shield and MLS Cup champions.
Some basic background stuff...I'm from Augusta, Georgia, and I go to Georgia Tech, where I major in Nuclear and Radiological Engineering. Other than a couple of Atlanta Beat games back in the day, I've never been to a professional soccer game, although that will change after I see AC Milan play Club America in the Georgia Dome in 8 days. This can mostly be attributed to the fact that teams never play within reasonable driving range.
My claim(s) to fame in the soccersphere? 2 years ago Jimmy Conrad answered my question about Landon's pre-penalty kick ritual at around the 9-minute mark. Also, I was the first person to have their 6-in-60 questions asked during FSC's MLS broadcasts (which was made even better by the fact that my questions were answered by Danny O'Rourke, a Crew player, and Brad Evans, a former Crew player), and I have some pretty sweet FSC swag to prove it.
Tl;dr? In summary, I'm pretty legit. For a girl.
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