The Years Between The Cup

July 22, 2006

Better late than never right? So, I really did not post a reaction to the conclusion of the cup. Honestly, I spent a lot of time thinking and talking to close friends that have a desire to make change in our country as it relates to our National Soccer Culture. What motivated me to write this post was Adam Spangler’s post "Projecting Values Upon The Media Glut". Although I did not agree with everything, Adam did an excellent job in his evaluation and I’d recommend reading it.

One thing that Adam said and I really want to focus on is the following, "At some point in all of our lives we are the victim and the crime. My parents used to deconstruct my adolescent tongue with the phrase, “think before you speak.” Foer talks about the Yuppie parents (my parents), raised on the 60’s, co-opting soccer and making it their own and their children’s (that’s me). But as with globalization, soccer is becoming, locally through amateurs, if not just yet nationally by professionals, a force to be reckoned with because this whitewashed moniker is darkening as the minority populations rise.

As Foer also notes, the detractors come forward just as the sport does, especially, oh, every four years or so. I want to make published note of this now. Mark it and watch what happens in the coming days, months, and years. Let’s hope, as with Strom Thurmond, the detractors die off, leaving our cultural gene pool just a little bit better off, a little bit more accepting."

In a nutshell — and I’m paraphrasing — Adam speaks of the differences in America vs. The Rest of the World and its passion for the game and the influence of the game in respective cultures. When it comes to the media, there are simply not the ubiquity of former players, coaches, etc., that really understand and have experienced the game first-hand that are talking about it. Moreover, we have a population of people that are still young in their understanding of the game and what it means to the rest of the world. In essence, we need a few generations to grow up with the game and be engrossed enough into the fabric of the game. This will take time but as Adam recognizes as do many others the bubbling up of the American game is upon us, as was football, baseball and basketball.

The immigrant make-up of our soccer culture is something Major League Soccer & US Soccer are trying to understand and leverage. It has and is being written about but lets face it as a country we need to foster the pop-culture passion for the game. Our youthful professional league needs to grow with a more invigorating and common following as is witnessed in NFL & NBA. These leagues get enormous media attention but also have significant minority followings. Hmmm - strange? Who predominately controls the media in this country? Its rhetorical but, I think you get it.

Traditional media tends to drive the American Pop culture and the more buzz the more consumption. So isn’t interesting the buzz around soccer between the World Cup years in America drops off. Did you notice how many American corporate sponsors there were in the cup? Well, I am asking you to make a mental note - it all has to do with being a marketplace with desire.

The content of the NFL & NBA is desired yet the desire for consumption of sport is in the fabric of Americans - its just being driven by media & public chatter toward these sports and MLB, which is detracting. Pop Culture certainly drives Chris Anderson’s "Long Tail Effect" , which explains that items, content, etc., outside of the blockbuster sphere sell as much of or more in the economic chain of an industry. Think about the economics and the enormous marketplace behind the NFL & NBA and why the MLS & US Soccer present such a threat to these American iconic sports. Can you see how the Long Tail stretches on, and on, and on. To the traditional media, these sports help sell lots of papers, magazines, attract lots of eyeballs, etc. So, what happens when the passion behind media begins to shift? What happens when media becomes more fragmented?

Mindsets begin changing, people begin talking, writing and reporting on new passions (sports). Pop Culture begins shifting and marketplaces begin changing because chatter is driving certain desires.

Consider this, blogging is getting a lot of buzz, chatter, PR, etc., these days and I submit to you that bloggers — soccer bloggers — have the capability to drive Pop Culture change for the sport we are so passionate about and desire for it to receive more attention.

I am interested to hear your thoughts and comments and hope I did not ramble too much.

The Years Between The Cup

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