At this point in time the world’s most popular sport, soccer or Association Football, is celebrating its quadrennial jamboree, The World Cup, in Russia. There are an estimated three and a half billion soccer fans in the world that is over half of the world’s total population. The TV viewership of one or another game in the tournament is also estimated at the same number while the final has over a billion viewers as compared to about one tenth of that number for the American Football Super Bowl.
The thirty - top soccer playing countries participate having won their regional contests and include contestants from every continent on the globe except North America. For example Croatia and Uruguay which have populations around four million qualified while the United States of America, the richest and most powerful nation with close to four hundred million, did not make the cut. They were beaten out in a weak section by Panama that has four million souls. Finally, to show that this is all about quality and not quantity, Iceland made the grade with a team selected from a total of only three hundred and thirty - four thousand inhabitants!
The question is why this sports crazed country is AWOL from the world’s most popular past time, and the answer, Jay H. Ell believes, is reflective of the unique culture and way of life of the Americans versus that of the rest of mankind.
AMERICA’S POPULAR SPORTS VERSUS THE WORLD’S NUMBER ONE - SOCCER
Winners and losers
If one examines the four top team sports in America, ranked according to their popularity, they are American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey. Now in every one of those activities all the games, whether they be league or knockout, has to have a winner. They will play on and on till one team merges triumphant. On the other hand a draw or a tie is very much part of the soccer game. Throughout the world the percentage of draws in soccer games varies between about fifteen and thirty - five percent with the median being about twenty - five percent. Another statistic that will confirm to the Americans that soccer is dull is the fact that in a one hundred and twenty - six years of English soccer there have been thirteen thousand four hundred and seventy - five draws!
The other parameter that there is a wide disparity between the U Ess A and the rest of the world is in the scoring. Generally speaking the team pastimes on the American continent run up high numbers while in soccer the hits are, by comparison infinitesimal. In the four top English football leagues between the years of 2013 and 2014, nearly fifty percent of the encounters resulted in three or fewer goals and about seventy percent four or less.
The fact that the rest of the world can tolerate that a sports encounter doesn’t have to have a winner and a loser is an anathema to American culture. There have to be winners and losers. Added to that is when soccer fans drool about mid field domination and artistry they leave the American sports adherents stone cold. Likewise how anyone can feel fulfilled and serene after ninety minutes of a goalless draw is a total enigma to sports followers in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Territorial advantage has to be rewarded with a score time and again. The spectator needs positive reinforcement that he/she is getting his/her money’s worth!
As far as the difficulty to score a soccer goal is concerned this results in weaker tactical teams being able, to the satisfactions of the fans, to give the stronger teams a run for their money. The vast lopsided scores so apparent in American team sports are less common in soccer.
Neither has the laid back rest of the world taken to their American cousins’ desire for winners and losers on very occasion nor can they identify with their lack of frustration tolerance which demands, constantly, instant gratification in the form of scoring.
Entertainment, the Media and Commerce
It is almost certain that when twentieth century culture is reviewed that America will be seen to have dominated in the field of entertainment. What was produced for the home market in the field of music - light or classical, stage, cinema and television dominated the world’s leisure time as well. Central on the home front was the “box” where TV channels sprouted like weeds and programs that had sporting events could demand highly paid commercials. The latter cost up to five million dollars for a thirty - second slot in the Super Bowl.
Now guess what American Football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey have in common with regard to the flow of play? If you offered that all are punctuated, with monotonous regularity, by breaks in the play then you are spot on. No prizes for what material fills those breaks - profitable commercials. This produces a close looped feedback system that economically sustains these sports as top priority. The TV stations pay fortunes for the rights to the encounters. Most of that money bolsters the sports and the players’ salaries attracting more and more talent to these recreations. A sport like soccer that has no breaks does not lend itself to the big time and in spite of efforts to bring it to the fore till it can somehow overcome this “flaw” it will remain in the American doldrums.
This commercial arrangement is reinforced on every level. College football is a major industry in America. Saturday is devoted to College Football with all its commercial breaks and Sunday is for their senior counterparts. There are TV channels devoted to football. Both it and basketball have coaches that, more often than not, have higher salaries than the University Presidents. Then there is Friday Night High School Football games which are attended by the whole town that add to the institutionalization of the sport.
Ironically more schoolchildren play soccer than any other sport, but generally for outside clubs. However there are not the same opportunities for those that excel compared participants in the American mainstays.
Cost and Opportunity to Play
The great American past times are very expensive to play, particularly Football and Ice Hockey. The gear and equipment are costly items whereas soccer is played wherever there is an open space and anything that will pass for a ball. There is also a far high injury rate for the American games, especially for those playing with the oval ball.
As sport is considered so important in the educational centers it is cost effective to provide the anointed few that are good enough for the teams with the necessary gear and other perks. It is noteworthy that the accent is the quality of players not the number of those participating. Soccer on the other hand has room and leagues for all those interested.
While a few Colleges provide scholarships for soccer players they pale into insignificance compared to those who chase after High School prospects in the traditional team sports, particularly, football and basketball. So it is uphill for the talent who kick the roundball who wish to graduate to sport professionalism. So the nursery in education for sportsmen does not foster the talent that will allow America to take on the likes of Brazil, Belgium, Germany or Nigeria.
THE FUTURE
Currently there is a very vigorous Major Soccer League, (MSL), of twenty - three teams from America and Canada. Interest and crowds have grown over the past few years and soccer specific stadia have been built. Attendances have risen and exceed those of the ice hockey crowds. Enthusiasm has been fostered by encouraging teams to recruit international stars at the end of the careers. These have included England’s famed David Beckham who went to Los Angeles and this year the Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney is off to Washington DC. Each year two major European teams are brought to play at various centers for the “International Cup”. The matches are sold out. Manchester City is being featured against the winner of the German league and are scheduled to compete in 2018.
The major talking point this seasons is the new franchise Atlanta United FC which is owned by Home Depot co founder Arthur Blank. The team has staggered all by drawing home crowds of up to seventy thousand spectators. The MSL has been strengthened by all teams amalgamating into a single unit and the fact that they have secured a TV contract has finally made league soccer financially viable.
USA, together with Mexica and Canada, have secured the 2026 World Cup which they hope will stimulate the game. Truth be told there has been slow and steady progress over the past quarter century since the last World Cup was held in America in 1994. What has stimulated the growth is the participation of the growing Latino population in America.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
Only a quarter of the American population are interested in the current World Cup as compared to whole populations elsewhere. Jay H. Ell sees no dramatic change in America as the cultural, institutional and economic factors still favor the unique American traditional sports. This hampers the creation of a nursery of talent that can be made available to the soccer league. Only a handful of American players have played in the hard school of European league soccer where most of the World Cup players hone their skills. So while soccer seems finally to have established itself in America there does not appear to be the wherewithal to lift it from the current doldrums of mediocrity onto the World Stage.
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