By Cesar Gonzalez
Daily Titan Staff Writer
One of the main reasons why fútbol, or soccer, has not gained prominence in the United States is because we have the NBA, MLB and the NHL – all huge organizations that pay players large sums of money. Fans are drawn to arenas and stadiums to watch their favorite superstars shine.
Soccer also has an official organization in the U.S., Major League Soccer.
MLS consists of a variety of teams from different cities competing against each other in the hopes of reaching the playoffs and winning the MLS Cup.
In other words, it’s structured like any other league.
The problem is that not many people watch MLS soccer because there isn’t much publicity for players on MLS teams.
Many soccer fanatics like to focus on the big-name players and teams in European leagues like La Liga of Spain, Serie A of Italy or the Premier League of England.
The MLS has started to bring over international players in an effort to attract an American audience.
The Los Angeles Galaxy signed David Beckham to a five-year $250 million deal.
After he signed his contract and selected his jersey number, 23, the team’s ticket prices and jersey sales skyrocketed.
Beckham’s move prompted a large shift in the American attitude toward soccer. People finally became interested in MLS soccer because a popular international star left a Spanish league team, Real Madrid, to come play in the U.S.
This started a trend in which international and Mexican league players – such as Cuauhtémoc Blanco, a Mexican league player – came to the U.S. and signed multi-million dollar contracts to play for MLS teams.
In the case of Blanco, who signed with the Chicago Fire, the team started seeing a rise in attendance because of Blanco’s popularity with the city’s large Latino population.
Another reason why soccer isn’t as popular in the U.S. is the lack of scoring. When compared to high-scoring sports like basketball and football, soccer seems boring.
Soccer in the U.S. typically only gets attention when the MLS season starts. Even so, most soccer fanatics only talk about the Champions League and the Union of European Football Associations Cup, which are based in Europe.
Every time I go to the local park and play a pick-up game of soccer, all my friends talk about is what team is going to play that night in the Champions League or the UEFA Cup and which team has better players.
I feel like the only time soccer is popular in the U.S. is when everyone tunes in to watch the Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup, which is only held once every four years.
Fortunately for soccer, the next FIFA World Cup is being held in South Africa starting in June, and the whole world will be watching to see who is the best in the world.
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Soccer “seems boring” Only to people who don’t understand the sport. It’s not boring to me… in fact it’s the least boring sport to me because it doesn’t stop. I have an attention span. I like just about all the sports. The only problem is the others stop all the time. Time outs and commercials. I don’t find the other sports boring when they are in play. It’s the stoppages which make the sport boring to me. I taught myself long ago to go into each Soccer game not sitting there waiting for a goal. I learned to appreciate the nuances of the game. That’s the trick. Then when the goals do come, they are orgasmic.
Also, you say “fortuantely for soccer the world cup is coming” Not fortunately. It will never fail because most Americans are ignorant of it. It’s fine without those people. It’s huge. It dwarfs all other sports. We can’t see that because we are insular and our media is biassed against Soccer. Don’t worry about Soccer. It ain’t going away. Not by a long stretch.
I don’t see the point of this “article”. Soccer/football is the only sport that really matters. The World Cup is being contested by national teams from all over the world, not by the Cincinnati Crocodiles and the San Diego Yellow Sox. With demographic changes in America, soccer is on its way of becoming a top 3 spectator sport here over the next 20 years or so. I do see baseball and hockey giving way.
BTW Beckham is on a 5 year $10 mill deal ($240 in endorsements)
Boring because of scoring? Football 1 Touchdown=1 goal, 1 FG= .5 goal, then figure out how much “scoring” in a game.
Cohen, it’s not gonna replace Hockey. If the NHL were to retract some of the failing teams, we would see only packed houses. NBA on the other hand is collapsing like a house of cards.
Cesar, MLS is only 13 years old and it,s still afloat let the league grow. The billionaire investers are in it for the long haul. Why don’t you pick on arena foot…. oh wait there gone. What about the WNBA their loosing a ton of money and attendance is crappy or the NHL didn’t the league just take over the Phoenix Coyotes and other teams are in the red. And yes there is futbol night in America check your local parks.