Much has been made of the choice of Columbus as the venue of the World Cup qualifier between the United States and Mexico on February 11, and I will have to join the chorus of praise. In all honesty, we should never play another game against Mexico in any state that borders Mexico, and should really look for these cold-weather venues they are unaccustomed to playing in. With the exception of Giovanni Dos Santos, who happens to train for Spurs and once in a blue moon gets an appearance, all of them play in sunny Mexico or Spain. The United States' biggest problem with soccer in comparison with other countries is the relative lack of home support, but this is largely overcome with Columbus. You get a very pro-US crowd, pro-US conditions and a stadium with a growing history. After all, it was here where the Gooch announced himself to the world by beating the crap out of Borghetti.
Surf Dad has spoken at length about his plans for the MLS, but in reality, it'll take a long, long, long time for real change to happen in US Soccer. In a recent poll, 36% of US soccer fans follow the MLS. For every three soccer fanatics, only one actually could tell you the teams in the league, or possibly the reigning MVP. I won't lie; I'm in the 64%. I could tell you (probably) all the teams and maybe a handful of notably players, but I really don't know much more about the MLS than I would the Austrian Bundesliga (Janko has 30 goals in 18 appearances!!!! Absurd!). To be honest, this isn't for a lack of trying. I've watched plenty of MLS games and tried to follow, but I never can keep up. It's a combination of plenty of borderline unwatchable games as well as the nagging fact that you always feel like you're watching AAA. And after watching the obsessive soccer following in my apartment, of Mancester United, Juventus, Inter Milan, Roma and my beloved Liverpool, it's rather difficult to a game where I don't have the same passion for the outcome and the quality is so much lower. To be honest, when I watched the Championship promotion playoffs last year, I had a better time. With good reason, the passion of the fans is just too infectious
I love my USA Soccer, and given my tie to the outcome, I always cheer passionately and enjoy myself, but for whatever reason I can't do this with the Revs. The real questions are: Why, and what can be done?
Quality of Play To be honest, this is somewhat a moot point. Like I said, I had a great time watching the promotion playoffs, and while I might argue that the Coca-Cola Championship is more talented than the MLS, I would never say by a considerable margin (and a great counterpoint would be that the best player in the Championship isn't being sought by Bayern Munich anytime soon).
Star AppealAgain, I think an overrated point, but one worth mentioning. Obviously casual fans like superstars, and it's difficult to sell a league without one. Beckham is much more of a brand than a superstar at this point, and Landycakes isn't exactly Hollywood A-List material. Seeing as Club Football isn't very popular in the United States, but the World Cup is, we really have one option for Americans to learn about players. A best-case scenario is to have a Golden Generation explode onto the MLS, and have these stars have a huge World Cup splash, but the problem is that these players would surely not stay in the MLS. This leads to one of the biggest issues in the MLS
Money If you're not a star in the MLS, you are making peanuts. The salary cap is smaller than most mediocre premiership players salaries. And with a limited cash flow, and no golden parachute on the horizon, it's unlikely to see any of that change anytime soon unless business owners see this as a viable venture. How will this happen?
BUILD FAN SUPPORT It seems like a no-brainer, but really, the best way to build fan support is through kids. There's really no market for having adult fans suddenly declare allegiance, especially if they weren't large soccer fans to begin with. But if their sons and daughters become large fans of a certain team, to a certain degree I feel like parents will follow suit. MLS teams should be gun-ho about getting involved in the community, the USSF should be trying to make soccer fields and facilities for underprivileged kids in the city and all of our efforts should be a long-term plan with plans with the youth. This will obviously take a couple decades to really start paying dividends, but without this, we will never be more than a farm league, waiting for our best stars to be willingly poached by the best clubs (and often, just the mediocre ones) in Europe. With this built-in fan support, owners will be more willing to splash the cash and within my lifetime, you're looking at a vibrant soccer league in the United States, and combined with the ever-growing Hispanic contingent (which is largely soccer-rabid), it's a plan that could really build the MLS into a true contender.
No comments:
Post a Comment