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ANOTHER KICK START FOR SOCCER? 'FRAID NOT By CHARLES JAY, Editor/Publisher, TotalAction.com July 12, 1999 I'd love to be able to sit here and write about how the victory by the U.S. women's soccer team in the World Cup is going to be just the right boost the sport of soccer needs to gain widespread popularity in this country. About how the United States is at last "major league" in soccer and that the hundreds of thousands, indeed millions, of youngsters and young adults who play or have played soccer in this country are finally going to be converted over to real live spectators for the game that is the national sport in almost every nation on the face of the earth. About how, now that many millions of Americans have been able to experience the excitement the sport can generate on television, they will become fans of the sport to the degree that it will be a very attractive programming staple for any of the major networks. About how this great victory has generated enough momentum to establish a new women's pro soccer league, which will play to packed houses in venues all across the country. About how the celebrity of Mia Hamm and her teammates will help to make soccer players new household words in America, on the level of the Billie Jean Kings and the Peggy Flemings and the Cathy Rigbys - pioneers in the sense that they helped to propel their sports to greater notoriety than it had ever experienced before on the women's side. About how this championship will do for soccer, and women's sports in general, what the 1980 U.S. Olympic victory did for hockey. About how this would put women's sports in general on a whole new plateau. But I can't. Because you and I both know it's simply not going to happen that way. After all, we've been down that road before, haven't we? The U.S. women won the World Cup in 1991. And it had no "ripple efffect", at least on the general public. And remember the NASL, and their sold-out games in places like Giants Stadium? It was supposed to establish enough momentum for soccer to last long as a major sport with the media, fans, and the networks. It didn't. It fizzled. Americans are a little strange, when compared to the other people throughout the world. If we don't feel we're getting the best possible product we're not going to buy it. And as we all know, the MLS doesn't have the best players. The best are in Europe and South America, and that's the way it'll always be. There's simply not enough money to get them to America. And we want ACTION here. Action in soccer, as the rest of the world is concerned, means someone made a pass that was completed in the other team's end. Action means any corner kick, no matter if it results in a goal or not. That's not enough for us. We want SCORING. Instant gratification. That's no fault of soccer's, and indeed they should never change their game to suit us (although we did it ourselves with the indoor version). It's our fault - we're too impatient and spoiled. Oh yes, we'll tolerate baseball. Even embrace it, as long as there are some home runs being hit. But that's largely because it's OUR game; it's embedded in our culture. Soccer is embedded in the culture of much of the world, but not here. That's not an opinion. That's a fact of life. Not a sad fact. Just a fact. If anything, the U.S.-China game served a great prupose, in that it reminded us once again that we are indeed a nation of patriots. It was a little moving, in this country that has become more and more cynical, to see the warmth the public, and even the media, extended toward this team, to see such interest on the part of people who normally wouldn't be watching a game like soccer. But they did it because there were AMERICANS out there. That's a good thing. But unfortunately, it was a one-time thing. Oh, I'm sure if the men win the next World Cup we'll experience another wave of interest, but for the most part, soccer is going to get interest here only on the rare occasions when it is REALLY a big event. And that's not enough. So Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain and Briana Scurry and the rest of the women's soccer team (a.k.a. "The Chicks with the Kicks" or "Booters with Hooters" for you male chauvinists) will appear on all the late-night talk shows, the daytime talk shows, maybe guest shot on a couple of sitcoms. They'll be glorified by Sports Illustrated, invited to the White House, and will appear at any number of political fund-raisers as we approach the 2000 elections. In other words, they'll get their 15 minutes of fame. Well, make that 30. After that's over, they'll wind up doing color commentary here and there, opening soccer camps, and in general playing to the crowd that will really CARE when the dust settles. Which will not be considerable. They'll find themselves struggling to keep their names on the endorsement lists, and they'll be surprised to learn that the 2000 Olympics (which they will play in) will have NO effect on this nation at all. They will try like hell to establish a professional women's soccer league in the U.S., which will wind up going the way of the women's American Basketball League, because it doesn't have a big brother like the NBA to keep it alive. And unfortunately, that's lot closer to being a fact than just an opinion. |
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