I'll be completely honest about this—I very rarely sit down and watch an entire soccer game. Still, I don't think it is a boring sport by any means.
The only time that I have sat down to watch soccer was during the most recent World Cup. And that was because of the history and the publicity behind the event. I would turn on soccer and would sit and watch the entire thing through.
Why can I watch World Cup soccer, yet I never watch any other soccer event?
I think the answer to that question is that I don't have a team to root for.
The MLS is soccer's D-League in every sense of the term. I don't know if the players are any good, because it is never on TV. There is the occasional game on Comcast SportsNet, but those games are poorly advertised.
If there were more advertisements, I might give them a chance.
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Another reason that I don't think soccer is as enjoyable for Average Joes such as myself, is the fact that there is little to no history behind American soccer.
Sure, there have been great players like Pelé and Ronaldo, but those guys play in different countries. Great American players come along very rarely, and they are usually unappreciated here.
When I sit down to watch the World Cup, I will watch any two countries battle it out because I know that this is a historic event. I can watch any team play in the World Series or the Super Bowl for that same reason.
If we had great stories to tell our kids, I think that soccer would be much more popular.
The final reason that I have not been able to give soccer a chance—I don't know when it is on.
I don't like to put in five hours of research to find out when the next game is. I want to be able to turn on ESPN, sit there for five minutes, and wait for the time to come up on the bottom line.
The MLS isn't there—it's not on any sports channel's bottom line.
Unless the MLS can put some major dollars into advertising, I can't give them my respect. If they don't care enough to shell out the money to let people know what they are selling, how are we supposed to know where to go to enjoy the product?
Until these faults are fixed most of the country, along with myself, will just sit there watching football, baseball, and basketball until soccer can finally find a way to nudge itself into the American way of life.
Oh well, at least I have the World Cup to look forward to.
I'm Joe W.
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4 months ago
http://web.mlsnet.com/schedule/scoreboard/season.jsp?team=t100
there ya go. found it in less than a minute
from 4 months ago
Notice how few games are viewable by people with basic cable such as myself.
from 4 months ago
MLS is on ESPN's bottom line. That may be a new development but it's there.
MLS is on Thursday on ESPN2, Saturday on Fox Soccer Channel and HDNet and Sunday on Telefutura. Local regional sports channels carry the local teams.
Fox Soccer carries the English Premier League and Italy's Seria A. GOL TV carries the German Bundesliga and Spain's La Liga. Setanta Sports carries games from all of the above and a few additional leagues like the Dutch Eredivisie. ESPN carries the Champions league.
The US Men's National Team plays of Fox Soccer Channel or ESPN. It depends. Mostly ESPN.
It's out there, you just have to know how to find it.
from 4 months ago
But it's not there consistently like other major sports. I don't have Fox Soccer Channel or HDNet and I don't speak spanish so Telefutura is out of the question. NBC has my devoted attention Thursday nights as well as working occasionally on Thursdays so I wouldn't be able to consistently watch soccer games, especially with the NBA Playoffs being so exciting right now.
from 4 months ago
Joe, you mentioned Comcast - they let you set the default language for channels like Telefutura or GolTV to English. Not every broadcast will have an English track - depends on the producers - but many of the games do. Don't write off the Spanish language channels - watch them in English!
from 4 months ago
I don't have that choice, I only have basic cable, not intricate things like changing language on spanish stations.
4 months ago
I think your own examples demonstrate that the issue is not with advertising, but with coverage. The media outlets have chosen to put MLB, NFL, NCAA Womens Softball etc. on their little tickers. The good news (for soccer fans like me anyway) is that times are changing. Great goals and saves are showing up more and more on "plays of the week". USA Today is beginning to devote an actual article to MLS here and there. The quality of players and of play is getting better. Attendence figures for MLS games are in the same range as many NBA teams.
The league is learning. The ground-swell is growing. It's happening all over the country. There are cities fighting hard to be the next location for expansion teams. Two were recently decided upon. At least four more are in the running for the next two spots. Stadia are being built. Kids are growing up watching Beckham, Blanco, and Schelotto. We're "nudging" all the time.
I'm going to do you a favor and save you that 5 hrs. of research: www.mlsnet.com. There. We hope to see you at the game. But if not, it's your loss, and we're going to be just fine.
4 months ago
Hey Joe
It's a really interesting article. Rather difficult to comment as I don't live in the States. I see the odd MLS game here in South Africa but I think it's on ESPN 2 or ESPN Europe or something. I'm sure I've heard people mention a soccer channel?
The standard is definately improving but yes its way off World Cup standard but thats like comparing college bascketball and the NBA.
Glad you enjoyed the World Cup. Take a chance, go watch the Fire. You may just fall for it.
4 months ago
Hey Joe,
Where I live, Seattle, ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Soccer Channel are all Basic Digital Cable. Perhaps you just need to upgrade to a digital box? It's 2008.
It's not that soccer is not popular. It's just that it's popularity is not constantly in your face or shown by the sports media as much as other sports. MLS enjoys a diverse fan base and perhaps the most passionate of all American sports the 10th to 12th (depending on year) best attendance of all top level soccer leagues in the world. Thats 10 out of litterally over a hundred leagues.
That said, I agree, the attendances at MLS games are actually up with some teams, (DC, Toronto, LA Galaxy, regularly averaging 20,000 or more) and a lot of fairly good players have come to the league in the past few years. Up here, there is much excitement because MLS is coming to Seattle, so you see it everywhere, billboards, ads on the sides of buses, in store windows, etc. Seattle Sounders FC, has sold nearly 15,000 SEASON tickets already and they won't play for another year. The team itself gets a fair amount of press too. You need to go to a game at RFK Stadium where DC United plays, or in Toronto at BMO Field where Toronto FC plays, or in Houston where Houston Dynamo play of these cities have the most passionate fans in the league.
Take a look:
Toronto FC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz0t6dr0RYg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikFxdIaLb8Y
Houston Dynamo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IorH4RRYLk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5g_p74fyfM
DC United
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg16DwgN39U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va2TRhUgr00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MdcXrXAS-k
I feel as if your article was written about 8 years ago.
4 months ago
Actually there is a lot of history to the sport in this country, http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/
Hows this for a great story about the MLS though.
10 years ago a 2 year old team called DC United won the MLS Cup. In doing so they then went on to play in a regional tournament which has teams from all over North America, including Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. They went on to win that tournament too and became nor just the MLS Champion but the Champion of the region.
As Champion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean they went on to play in a tournament called the InterAmerican Cup which was played between the South American champion, in this case, Brazil's Vasco Da Gama and DC United winners of our region.
In the final leg of the tournament, American defender and legend, Eddie Pope, knocked in the game win ning goal and DC United became the Champion of The Americas (north AND south) in what many consider one of the greatest upsets in American sports and one of the least publicized.
Here are some articles about it:
http://www.soccertimes.com/langdon/1998/dec07.htm
http://web.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20050330&content_id=25101&vkey=news_dcu&fext=.jsp&team=dcu
Soccer is the only sport where that can happen. In soccer when your hometown team wins its league it then goes into a larger pool of teams outside of the league. Basically it can go on to play in international competitions by winning its league.
That all happened 10 years ago. If it were to happen again today, perhaps DC United, or the Chicago Fire or another MLS team would go on to play in the FIFA Club World Cup, which takes place every year and features the North America, South America, European, African, Asian and Oceanic champions battling it out on the world stage.
There will come a time again when an MLS team goes on to win the region and in doing so, represents in at the Club World Cup. Who knows, perhaps your Chicago Fire will be playing against Manchester United or FC Barcelona or Real Madrid?
That dream, of seeing their team challeging the best in the world in real competition is why many are MLS fans.
4 months ago
Good read. I'm impressed that this wasn't a run-of-the-mill soccer bashing article, but one that brings up some good points. The Catch 22 here is that in order to generate coverage, the league needs fans. If the league had more fans there would be more coverage. But people don't come out to the games because there's little coverage. This may take a long time to fix, but every year attendance is slowly improving.
4 months ago
Thanks everybody for commenting on this article. I don't have a digital box, only basic cable. I do have ESPN 2, but have never seen a soccer game on that channel. (maybe I'm not looking hard enough) I'm glad to see that attendance is improving, I don't know much about soccer which is the problem with soccer, the average joe doesn't know about it. I'm going to try to catch a few games this year whenever I can, hopefully I can fall in love, if the soccer is anything like World Cup soccer I might just fall in love.
4 months ago
The average Joe may not know about soccer, but there is much more to America than this "average Joe". The consistently large attendance across the US for international friendlies, the TV ratings of big Mexican league matches and the combined English-Spanish language TV ratings of the World Cup hardly point to a sport struggling. Even MLS, which still struggles for attention, is on secure financial footing now and is not going anywhere.
Now, soccer's fan base hardly looks like the demographics of, say, Sportscenter viewers, and therefore Sportscenter is not going to concern themselves much with it, but that says as much about with whom soccer is popular, as it does about how popular it is.
from 4 months ago
If soccer has a firm financial footing, then how come there isn't a lot of advertising for soccer in my area, which has a large Mexican population. We even have one of the greatest players in the world on the Fire and I still see very little about them.
4 months ago
Joe, it's true, the coverage in not "in your face." However, if you are remotely interested in soccer (or futbol, football - MLS' tagline) you can watch it on ESPN2 on Thursday nights. Also, MLS is mentioned on the ticker typically on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays for the games played. The reason why it is not on other days is because there are no games. During Champion's league season, ESPN 2 covers games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (of course at 2:30 pm EST, not so convenient), with a taped delay on ESPN classic.
For folks who have interest (I don't mean die-hards) there are options of watching on Telefutura, MSG (I am east coast based) and the local cable station.
Die-hards like myself can watch on Fox Soccer Channel, FSC Espanol - incremental fee over basic cable charges are minor. Of course you can get GOLTV, Setanta Sports, ESPN Deportes to get just about everything. Even HDNET is now covering MLS.
I am an immigrant and have seen coverage go up tremendously in the last 30 years. Clearly as soccer fans we now have a choice of watching at home without looking for a bar showing live games. Has it become mainstream? No, and probably won't. But has it become a niche sport, like hockey, with avid growing following? Absolutamente!!
Min, Princeton, NJ
from 4 months ago
Because of my jobs changing schedule, I can't sit down every thursday, and it has to battle with The Office so I don't get to see it then. I don't have a soccer channel or ESPN Classic so those stations don't work for me.
4 months ago
In one sentence:
Soccer isn't popular in America because culture can change only slowly, and the organized effort to grow soccer in American culture has up to now been either too small or too transitory to cause the needed cultural change.
4 months ago
But he makes a good point. I frequently see complaints from fans of MLS teams (I'm can think of examples of fans of Columbus, New York, RSL and New England) about the terrible marketing of their team locally. I agree with Joe -- MLS won't become mainstream in the US (and I'm not talking about challenging the big 3, I just mean that it will be recognized and available) until it's marketed correctly everywhere.
4 months ago
I dont know where you are located, but if you want to see a game where the fans are into it watch a DC United or Toronto match. Better yet go to a game, seeing how Toronto has been sold out since the first game they played last year, its easier to get tix for DC.
I used to be all about american sports, but after World Cup 06 i've watched 2 celtics and 4 yankees games, now all i watch is soccer (english, italian, mls, champions league, dutch and argentine), and only watch "the worldwide leader in sports" when they are actually showing the worlds sport.
from 4 months ago
I live in Chicago (I mentioned the Fire a few times in the article) and I hear more about the Chicago Rush than I do about the Fire. The Rush are a secondary football team, the Fire is a primary soccer team. Something is wrong hear. And I checked the Fire website, we have a good team, why not get the word out?
4 months ago
I can't get into soccer. The World Cup is kick ass, but that's about it. I just can't figure out how it is cool to watch a sport where a player can get carried off the field in agony on a stretcher and be back on the field in 5 minutes.
Can't do it.
4 months ago
Also, thanks for the article, its been what a lot of people in the MLS community have been complaining about for awhile. Its good to hear it from others out there.
4 months ago
Joe, there's an MLS game on EVERY Thursday night on ESPN2. How is that not consistent or accessible?
from 4 months ago
read previous problems with the whole thursday night problem.
4 months ago
TiVO, man. Tivo. Just watch the game on ESPN2 Thursday night and then watch the Office immediately afterwards... or watch it for free on nbc.com - the most recent episode is usually posted pretty quickly after the normal broadcast. "It's competing with the Office" is a pretty lame excuse in this day and age, and "I'm working late" also falls flat in a DVR-saturated world.
Or go out to Bridgeview and enjoy the beautiful new Toyota Park - tickets are very affordable, and it'll certainly be better than watching the Bears, Bulls, or Sox bumble through another embarassing loss.
Also, SportsCenter has taken to showing, on a more or less daily basis, soccer highlights from Euro leagues under the ESPN Deportes brand. Coverage is constantly expanding, man. It's come so far just in the last decade...
from 4 months ago
I don't have TiVo or DVR. I've explained that. The ESPN 2 game is usually the only one that I will get to see.
4 months ago
I also read on a blog about some dude in Equador (I think) that was thankful for the thursday night game cause thats the only soccer he gets to see unless its liberatadores.
4 months ago
Joe, thanks for sharing your views on this. You've made some great points--maybe I should email your blog to the Chicago Fire & MLS offices? I'm a Fire season ticket holder and am astounded that I never hear anything about them on the airwaves in Chicago.
If you're open to soccer and hoping to "fall in love," here's a suggestion (I'm gonna step on some MLS toes here). Start with the Champions League. You have only basic cable (though I think it's only about $6 a month with Comcast to add Fox Soccer Channel), so you have to rely on ESPN2. The Champions League Final is between Manchester United and Chelsea at 1:30 p.m. on May 21. You can DVR/Tivo that (or tape it)? Better yet, sneak away from work and watch it in a pub! Next season, Champions League play will start in the fall and last until May. The games are televised on ESPN2 on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. You can record those, hopefully. You'll see top-level competition because these are the best teams in Europe. You might even start following one of the teams and become a fan (that's how I latched on to Manchester United in the 1990's--they played in the CL all the time and I didn't have Fox yet, so ESPN2's telecasts were all I had).
I love the Fire and do my best to support MLS, but their product simply cannot compare to the English Premier League and the other top Euro leagues. You'll really learn to appreciate the game at its best by starting with a league other than MLS. Once you're hooked, then you can think about supporting the Fire.
from 4 months ago
If I can start an MLS movement, I will be astounded and extremely happy. I think I will try to catch some games, I don't have to work tomorrow so I will definitely watch the soccer game tomorrow night on ESPN 2. I'm still only 17 so I really can't control the TV package we have.
3 months ago
Joe, don't forget you can just get The Office for free on NBC's website the next day. That's usually how I juggle things in my DVR-less world. And if you can watch tonight, this is the night to do it. DC-Chicago is a tense rivalry and DC's fan are the best in the league and bring amazing atmosphere.
from 3 months ago
I plan on catching what I can of the D.C-Chicago game but I have to go to a cookout at my uncle's house so I will miss some of it. I will probably be back around 8 Central Time but it looks like I will get to watch the final hour according to ESPNtv.com's program guide.
3 months ago
soccer is terrible to watch on television and there is only one marketable star. He is past his prime and never really could dominate a game. Soccer isn't the type of sport that has big plays, breakaway runs, fast breaks, or home runs, the stuff that makes for good highlights, the stuff Americans like.
3 months ago
soccer is terrible to watch on television and there is only one marketable star. He is past his prime and never really could dominate a game. Soccer isn't the type of sport that has big plays, breakaway runs, fast breaks, or home runs, the stuff that makes for good highlights, the stuff Americans like.
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