“How about that men’s US Soccer game Sunday afternoon? Man! I can’t believe we blew a 2-0 lead in the second half to Brazil. I know, I know…it was amazing we even beat Spain to get to the Finals of the Confederation Cup. But we HAD that game against Brazil – we should of won it, damn it!”
When was the last time anybody ever got that excited over a U.S. men’s soccer game? I would wager that 90% of American sports fans (including myself) had no idea we were playing in the Confederation Cup in South Africa until we shocked the world with a 2-0 upset victory over Spain last Wednesday.
Even the most casual sports fan had to get excited and geared up for Sunday’s showdown with Brazil, the world’s best soccer team.
One of the most fascinating enigmas of American sports is our country’s lack of interest in professional soccer. As a participatory sport, soccer is extremely popular in the U.S. and really the best game for children and young athletes to play.
But as far as our multi billion dollar professional sports industry, Major League Soccer is considered a minor league sport – not coming anywhere close to drawing the attendance figures, advertising dollars or media coverage that the “Big Four” get.
Why that fact is so interesting is because, outside of the U.S., pro soccer (sorry, I mean football) is the most popular sport in the world.
There are many theories as to way soccer hasn’t grown into a major U.S. pro sport. But ultimately, the reason is probably a Catch-22:
No one watches or cares because it’s not covered well or promoted by the media / It’s not covered well or promoted by the media because no one watches or cares.
But, okay…Forget about why soccer has struggled in the past to emerge as a big time sport in America (especially with dumb PR stunts like bringing David Beckham to America) and let’s focus on the current U.S Men’s National Team – who just happened to have played some pretty amazing ball during the past week.
With the success on the playing field and the subsequent media attention the program has recently received as a result, the U.S. MNT has to pounce on the incredible public relations opportunity, that has now presented itself, and capitalize on it to aggressively promote their team, all soccer in the U.S., and the 2010 World Cup (June 11-July 11 in South Africa) – the world’s largest stage for a sporting event.
The U.S. MNT needs to make its head coach, Bob Bradley, and top players household names and fight like hell to make soccer relevant in the U.S.
The organization’s executives need to sit down immediately and begin devising a creative and effective PR program to not only get American sports fans interested in soccer but to get them educated about the game and its history in the U.S.
You have to make people know you’re out there so they’ll care – which, if promoted right, they will.
The U.S. MNT will have to leverage the major sports television networks and incorporate them in its promotions. Whether its media buys or feature stories during programming, the U.S. MNT has to develop a connection with the audience of media outlets like ESPN, Fox Sports and local and regional sports stations.
An aggressive grassroots effort must also be put into action, whereby coaches and players travel around the country to meet fans, host free clinics, play exhibition games, and pose for pictures and sign autographs for everyone in sight.
Players like Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Carlos Bocanegra, goalie Tim Howard and Freddy Adu (remember him?) need to start having their faces on the cover of magazines and featured in newspapers and major sports publications.
The U.S. MNT should also take advantage of the emerging digital media opportunities and create a much heavier presence in the blogs and social media outlets.
If soccer was ever going to be relevant and become a major sport in the United States – that time is now!
But for it to happen, the U.S. MNT program has to create and implement the most proactive and aggressive PR program the world of sports has ever seen.
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All very good points regarding why soccer has struggled to catch on. However I feel the biggest problem is that the U.S. just quite simply has not been competitive enough over the years to garner enough interest and to keep the interest at a high level.
The reason why the U.S. is not always competitive against the best teams in the world is actually fairly simple. The best athletes growing up in the United States stop playing soccer at the youth level, or when they go to high school, and they go into baseball, basketball, and football. Those being the big 3 of sports in America of course, and thus get the most media publicity, eyeballs to the TV sets, and fans in the seats.
The ONLY way for at least some of that large pool of great athletes to move towards soccer is for the U.S. to have a much great record of success sustained over a longer period of time. The results this past week help garner more attention, but it was not the World Cup, when even Americans tune in to follow a lot of the tournament. A run to at least a World Cup semi-final is what will be needed to make a start, and get the attention that is needed for the culture of soccer to change in this country. But even that would only be a start.
I once heard another theory that soccer can’t translate well into American TV b/c there’s no natural break in the action to allow for commercials, the way baseball and football does.
It’s funny, how does a useless and totally unnecessary baseball tournament like the WBC get so much media attention and something like the Confederation Cup doesn’t get anything?
Gary has a great point in that the American culture of soccer has to change. In most countries, there are local football clubs that everyone grows up rooting for – much smaller, and focused on a specific region or neighborhood – not an entire city. For example, a city like London, literally has over 40 football clubs that play competitively. It becomes a source of pride and part of the national culture. The U.S. does not have this type of system in place yet. With the emergence of USL, (http://www.uslsoccer.com/)this system is starting, and in a few years, most people will be familiar with their local teams and soccer as a professional sport. There has to be an audience to attract advertisers. Support your local USL squad, and soccer will grow to the same level as the rest of the world.
The future is now for American soccer – not next year when the World Cup starts. They need to do the leg work for the World Cup build up now.
Thanks for reading!
By the way… With all the excitement of that USA/Brazil game,and as good as it was to watch, there was one thing I absolutely hated!
When Donovan scored the 2nd USA goal, he reacted like all most all the other soccer players in the world, he ran AWAY from his teammates instead celebrating with them. That was bad enough, but the worst part was while running away from his teammates, Donovan could be seen clearly yelling …”ME! ME!”… as he pointed to his own chest. Don’t we see enough of this garbage in football and basketball? I hate it, and was really surprised to see Donovan react in that way.
I think Mario’s comment about building local followings hits on the best chance soccer has for success in the US. Ted’s post puts a lot on the National Team and I’m not not sure that is the right approach.
Everyone always compares the popularity of soccer in this country to the Big 3/4 sports and is waiting for the day when/if it will truely be major league. But think about those big sports – the national teams are afterthoughts, if they exist at all. Baseball has the WBC which right now is just a novelty and uses players not at yet their season peak or in shape. The basketball national team is a vacation for the top players – if they play at all. Football doesn’t have a national team. Hockey is the closest to matching soccer for having national team pride, but the NHL still rules comparatively. I think these sports show having a strong national team isn’t critical for popularity.
On a related note I have to admit I’m also a little surprised soccer hasn’t taken off a little more in this country 15 years after the World Cup in the US. The MLS has been around a long time but can’t seem to get ahead despite having, now, a good 20 years of solid youth participation built up.