Cody Shannon
1/21/14
Journalism F
Final Project
Why
is Soccer not big in America?
Soccer is the world’s most popular sport on earth, yet
Americans still have not expressed an interest in this exciting game. There are
several reasons why American sports fans have not viewed soccer at the same
caliber as the big four: football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Though the
game of soccer has not exploded in popularity with a majority of U.S. fan
population, it has the potential to. However,
there may be underlining factors that may influence why Americans will never
truly appreciate the beauty of this seemingly “boring”, yet complex sport that
the rest of the world has embraced. In America, there are several reasons why soccer
has not gained the same popularity as other major sports.
One reason soccer is popular in other parts of the world
is that it is an inexpensive youth sport that needs very little input from
adults. Kids growing up in a third world country have limited resources. Soccer
is often the most accessible and least expensive sport available to them. All that is needed is a ball. A ball can be purchased or it may be made
from something as simple as rags tied together. Kids can quickly organize themselves
into teams on make shift fields. “Youth
soccer” in other parts of the world, particularly in third world countries, is
comprised of neighborhood children playing amongst themselves. No formal league, spectators, coach, field or
league championship. They play for the
sheer joy of competing and love of the game.
According to Rinus Michels, who
coached the "total soccer" Dutch national team of the early 1970, “Good
coaches use the basic criteria of street soccer for their vision of grassroots
development; they realize that these elements produce a natural process that
gives the most efficient training for young kids." (Michels 1) Whereas in America,
soccer and sports in general, are over organized through youth leagues, lack
creative vision, may not be as fun for the kids and are less accessible to those
who live in urban areas or have fewer financial resources
Another
reason soccer struggles to gain popularity is that there are many more sport
options available to American children than in other parts of the world. Many children are faced with the choice of
playing football or soccer (both usually played in the fall) and choose
football because it is more popular here in the states. One reason why soccer
is not as popular as other sports is that children in America have options to
play multiple sports. Then several others groups of kids will branch out to
play basketball or baseball, diversifying American athletes by even more. On
top off that, some of the more affluent families in America can afford for
their children to pursue more expensive sports such as hockey and skiing. A boy
in Kenya simply does not have these options or equipment to even pursue dreams
of other sports. All that is needed to play soccer is a ball, an area of open space,
and a couple sticks for goals.
The second reason why soccer has not matched the
popularity of other sports here in America is the lack of media coverage.
Soccer is hard to follow for the passionate fan if they are living in the
United States. ESPN offers little to no coverage of soccer at ANY level on a
daily basis. On one of Television’s top shows, “SportsCenter”, diving catches
and dunks are often always placed as a lower (more difficult) number on the
“Top 10” plays of the day when an amazing shot or bicycle kick in soccer will
barely make an appearance on the list. Because ESPN and other American sports
networks simply do not broadcast games, it does not give people the opportunity
to follow a season or form a bond with a famous European soccer club such as
Chelsea or Arsenal. The only way to follow your favorite team is to subscribe
to special soccer cable packages to watch the games, costing extra money on
your monthly bill. Also, games are played and broadcasted on Saturday and
Sunday mornings, when all of lazy America is sleeping in on the weekend.
The third reason why soccer lacks popularity in the
United Sates is that it’s not our sport and we have no world-wide soccer stars.
In a nutshell, Americans do not appreciate the sport of soccer because they are
not personally good at it. Americans want to be the best at everything and
since they do not have world dominance over soccer like they do baseball,
basketball, and football, it is shut out and no room is left for it in our
nation. Until we can compete at the highest level of play in soccer, the sport
will always be pushed away by the people of this country. On top of that, the
MLS (America’s sole professional league) has a very low level of play when
compared to European leagues such as the Barclays Premier League of England or
La Liga of Spain, meaning that we have no emerging superstars in our league to
draw attention. Many European players go to the MLS at the end of their careers
to allow them to play for an extra couple years at a high level, such as David
Beckham.
Another reason why soccer is not big in the states is its
lack of physicality and action that many of America’s favorite sports offer
plenty of such as the U.S.’s number one sport, football. Hockey (soccer on ice)
also offers a lot of physical play and fights between the players. Too many
American’s it seems agree with Mike Royko’s sentiment that, “Soccer is boring. I've never seen a
more boring sport.” (Royko 2) Americans
enjoy people battling to win in a competition, while soccer has non-stop play
(two 45 minute halves) the build up to goals often has more of a finesse style
that most American sports fans cannot appreciate. How baseball can be
considered more fun to watch than soccer, I will never understand. Many
Americans consider soccer boring to watch not only for the lack of action, but
also for the fact that the match can end in a draw. People want to cheer on a
team to win, but a game ending in a 1-1 tie can be a little bit of a buzzkill
and a disappointment.
Americans cannot truly comprehend all that soccer has to
offer. They are too caught up in the flashy touchdown celebrations or the
amazing dunks put down by seven footers. The
rest of the world loves soccer. Tom
Weir states this about America’s love-hate
relationship with soccer, “Surely we must be missing something…There's
a good reason why you don't care about soccer - it's because you are an
American and hating soccer is more American than mom's apple pie, driving a
pick-up and spending Saturday afternoon channel-surfing with the remote
control.” (Weir 3) Perhaps if the men’s team can experience some success in
this summer’s World Cup American’s opinion of soccer will shift and the sport
will be embraced. Unfortunately, because of the men’s U.S. national teams’
recent struggles in international play, Americans have seemed to lose interest
in a team that represents our country to the entire world every four years.
Also, the fact that the women’s national team is better than the men’s upsets
American fans (the majority of them being males). Each world cup is an
opportunity to change history and America’s mind. The United States does not
realize the impact or importance that other international teams represent for
their home country. Soccer and the World Cup bind many other countries of the
world together with the hope, however distant, that their home country may
somehow win. This summer in Brazil, people will put aside their differences and
come together as one nation to cheer on their home team. If our team had the
fan support that other countries offer, things may be very different. The United States was dealt a tough hand in
their group matches in the 2014, and will have to most likely face powerhouse
Germany if they make it out of the first round. I do believe that someday, with
the passage of time, American soccer will be one of our major sports and
embraced by fans across the country with as much pride as they have toward the
big four.
Sources
1.
Michels, Rinus. Youthsoccerfun.com.
2.
Royko, Mike. Quote Garden, http://www.quotegarden.com/soccer.html.
3.
Wier, Tom. Quote Garden, http://www.quotegarden.com/soccer.html.
