A word about baseball, soccer and establishment protectionism
by Steve Davis on Apr 5, 2010 11:01 AM EDT
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On its opening day, a word about baseball: You know, the great game. The national pastime. The cherry on the sundae of
You know, all that crap.
I don’t have anything against baseball per se, although I do always chuckle at the irony of baseball purist jackwads who like to call soccer slow.
What always kicks me in the head is a sort of establishment protectionism afforded to baseball. And while we’re at it, let’s throw hockey in the same boat, although the NHL has certainly taken its hits recently as we all figured out the real deal: it was never as popular as media, hooked effectively by NHL spin doctors, wanted you to believe.
Here’s where I roll my eyes at baseball (and hockey, although not as often):
Have you ever noticed that when a team in baseball is crap at the gate, media analysts rightly call out the club for poor performance, inflated ticket prices, marketing flaws, etc.? Meanwhile, speaking historically, if a soccer team stinks at the gate, it’s because “nobody likes soccer.”
See, that’s the simply explanation, one that requires no further effort or resource expenditure. There certainly are better, more thoughtful explanations as to why soccer teams can’t generate momentum in attendance. We can hash that out another day. The point is, too many TV gasbags and old school media pundits have no desire to open the hood and take a closer look. Why? Well, one reason is because there’s always another baseball game to write about, another middle infielder signing to analyze, another column to spew the glory of opening day, another hour to kill in the insular culture of baseball’s locker room.
Same for hockey. For a lot of years, hockey’s popularity was artificially inflated by a smart NHL spin campaign, one amplified by a gullible and compliant media. Where I live, one local, prominent columnist used to write an annual (or so it seemed) hockey column that essentially asked the question, “Why aren’t you coming to hockey games?”
His position was this: Hockey is the best sport around, the local team is doing well, the arena is downtown, where all the action is … so what’s the freakin’ problem? Why aren’t more people attending?
The answer, of course, is that hockey just wasn’t that popular. But that didn’t serve his interest, because he liked writing about hockey. That’s what I mean by media protectionism.
(By the way, this is not to toot any conspiracy horn. It’s just the way things evolved.)
Same for baseball. Every August where I live, local attendance begins trailing off. Yes, it has a lot to do with the fact that the local team sucks (the Texas Rangers). By September, attendance has gone from “soft” to “comical.” But the same people who always write off soccer as “not popular enough to regard” generally refuse to acknowledge a hard truth about baseball: that in many places, attendance is driven by the fact that it’s a nice thing to do on a warm summer night. It’s not because people know (or want to read so much about) every character, personnel choice and tactical bugaboo unfolding out there.
By the way, the talent on the top local sports radio station here (which I really like and always enjoy), likes to call Tom Hicks’ baseball stadium “The Temple.” And they refer to baseball as “The Great Game.” Soccer, of course, is a perennial punch line.
Look, I’m not obtuse. Baseball is more popular than soccer in this country. By quite a distance.
But not as much as the media establishment would have you believe. And hockey? Well, I’ve said for more than a decade that there are far, far more soccer fans in this country than hockey fans. Problem is, soccer fans don’t represent a unified block; the fan interest is quite disparate. These guys over here have their favorite Mexican teams. Those over there follow Serie A in
And yet, they love soccer … a fact that gets conveniently ignored. Soccer in this country is popular. It has “made it,” whatever that means, and it’s not going anywhere. Now, domestic league pro soccer in this country still has a long, long way to go. But the question never gets framed that way. It’s always, “Why isn’t soccer more popular?”
Nor do soccer fans represent the block of “voters” who hold sway in media matters. In that world, remember, decisions are frequently made by older white men who always want to know “Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio?”
Still, there is some romance of baseball’s opening day, and I get that. So, enjoy the afternoon. But when you get back around to thinking about soccer, just remember that our sport isn’t yet close to baseball in terms of gaining greater cultural acceptance. But it may be closer than anyone writing or broadcasting about baseball would have you believe.
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It's possible to love both, you know...
I found this piece thought-provoking. I’ve been lurking awhile, and since this one touched on my two favorite sports, I figured I’d chime in.
Speaking for myself, the sports world is set up almost perfectly. There is soccer to watch all year around — thanks to MLS’ much-maligned summer calendar — and baseball during the summer. (And, increasingly, the winter — thanks, Bud.) I’m grateful for the steady growth of the popularity of soccer domestically, and the steady presence of a domestic league … and I hope one day to live in a nation as soccer-mad as anywhere else in the world. I’ve never really understood the antipathy of much of mainstream culture (and mainstream sports journalism) for the Beautiful Game.
thanks for stepping in out of the shadows
we can always use another set of solid, reasonable opinions around here
Well said...
Steve, I’m in agreeance. But those people that do “love soccer” but won’t go across the street for an MLS game don’t love soccer. If you love the game, you accept that your local pro team may not be able to be on the park with Man U, Barcelona, AC Milan, or any other big Euro club and come anyways. Because fans of Grimsby Town love their club and show up to support it, and they wallow in the low reaches of England. Surely real “fans” of MLS local club can come watch the equivalent of England’s Championship?? Or lesser clubs in Primera in Spain? Or small provincial clubs in Italy?
Chad the Ref
Agree!!
Supporting your own local side is a key part of soccer fandom even if you’re a transplant from somewhere else. I remember having this conversation after DC United beat Chivas (mother team) with Chivas fans…. I can understand the emotional pull of following a home country team, but its perfectly acceptable to have both. Now if you’re a supposed Liverpool supporter but have never been to England…
I don't agree when you say
you can’t support an EPL side having never been to England. I think it is perfectly acceptable to become a fan of a club who’s style of play or players you like. Being a fan isn’t all about geography.
As for loving soccer and not liking MLS, that’s a bunch of bs. That’s too much like saying your neighbor doesn’t like Mexican food just because he won’t eat at the local restaurant but will eat at the one in the next town over. Its all about personal taste. MLS games can sometimes look like a youth game going on, read defenders panic and blast the ball up-field towards no one instead of collecting the ball and making a pass. Frankly that’s not attractive, fun to watch, or fun to play with for that matter.
and yet
People show up for low level soccer in England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Qatar, Egypt, etc
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
A football club is community
I know and have met quite a few ex pats here in Dave’s town, and mine, who grew up as supporters for top tier clubs overseas who love what we have going on here. There’s just something special about having a local club you can call your own in this big football universe.
by PeterJH on Apr 6, 2010 3:15 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Maybe its tradition that is the difference between the lower leagues in other countries and MLS here, I don’t know. But the fact is its just different.
by the12thman11 on Apr 6, 2010 10:26 AM EDT up reply actions
People watch high school football and all kinds of college sports
which are often pretty low-quality play. They’re passionate and devoted and love their teams, even if they’re perennial doormats. American sports fans, to a large degree, get that kind of associative fan experience through high school and college sports. The demand for that kind of experience is largely being met already in the US — not that soccer couldn’t play a part, but there’s something (or rather, a number of somethings) already filling that niche.
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
Spot effing on!
I’m reminded of a couple of quotes:
First, at the nexus of sports and xenophobia, we have Frank Deford’s, “The reason why Americans don’t like soccer is because soccer is so Un-American”. Not that it requires much deconstruction, but the quote epitomizes the mentality of too many establishment-media types who pander to their mouth-breathing audience, most of whom I would guess are hardly capable of reading his quote in the first place.
Second, I’m reminded of Upton Sinclairs quote that “It’s hard to get a man to understand somethhing when his salary depends on his not understanding it”.
While I’ve no doubt most of the Mike Lupica, FRand Deford types don’t like the sport, I would also suggest that bashing socer is more than a means to an end – in which the end is supposed to be to prove the sport is inferior – but I would say for these types, bashing soccer is simply the end.
I believe this to be true because these guys are talented writers who are capable of dissecting and critiquing sport far better than most, yet when they “talk soccer” the content and quality of their speech would suggest they’ve been possessed by the sprit of an 11 year old, full of snark and devoid of any real substance.
To try to be fair to Deford
He’s expressed a decent amount of respect for the World Cup, but seems to believe Americans don’t import culture. (To which I’d say “James Bond. Harry Potter. Monty Python.” etc)
'Gentlemen' he said,
'I don't need your organization,
I've shined your shoes,
moved your mountains and marked your cards,
but Eden is burning.
Either get ready for elimination,
or else your heart must have the courage,
for the changing of the guards.'
by Sgc on Apr 5, 2010 7:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Marketing or media
I guess the biggest question I have is, why won’t those soccer fans cross the street to watch an MLS game? If they already like soccer, then it’s not because the established media is telling them that soccer is unpopular in America. Maybe the problem has more to do with MLS marketing than a national media bias.
by Frank Reich Revolution on Apr 5, 2010 1:15 PM EDT reply actions
Both
MLS marketing woes and national media bias are not mutually exclusive.
I didn’t at all get the impression from Steve’s post that he was claiming that a national media bias is the explanation for MLS attendance issues.
What I did get from Steve’s post is that the perception the national media works hard to create is not reflective of reality, and that soccer fans and MLS fans are not always the same thing. I think it’s accurate to say that all MLS fans are soccer fans but not all soccer fans are MLS fans.
Example of marketing bias
You’d get the idea, time and time again, that the best leagues in the world are the most popular ones here. Judging by the actual viewership numbers, though, about 5 times as many people watch a good Mexican league game as an English Premier League game. Nobody ever makes mention of it.
'Gentlemen' he said,
'I don't need your organization,
I've shined your shoes,
moved your mountains and marked your cards,
but Eden is burning.
Either get ready for elimination,
or else your heart must have the courage,
for the changing of the guards.'
by Sgc on Apr 5, 2010 7:56 PM EDT up reply actions
imagine
if the NBA, NFL or NHL had developed at a time when games from superior leagues were piped in (in high def no less) around the clock. MLS has done a much better job promoting the game day experience (once they realized that soccer moms and family fun paxs were not the secret to success) lately and it is really encouraging that the league is growing and developing.
What’s interesting though is that somehow Seattle has managed to bridge this gap. It seems as if every soccer fan in Seattle is also a Sounder fan. And to Steve’s point, that isn’t true in any other city in the US.
Is that because the Sounders organization is better at marketing than other MLS teams?
Or does Seattle really have more of a European community type flare?
by Martin Shatzer on Apr 6, 2010 9:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Love your articles
but this one could use a little proof-reading. ;)
Sorry I’m such a wanker.
Keep up the good work, though Steve. I wouldn’t have registered an account to whine about typos if I didn’t plan on continuing to daily read your stuff.
i'm sure you're right
busier than a dog with three peckers today, as i like to say. i wanted to post something this morning … i’ll have a few minutes to clean it up later this afternoon
a dog with three peckers, eh?
i can only assume that you’re having fun while staying busy.
As a massive fan of both the Texas Rangers and of soccer
I say, embrace the contradictions.
Another way in which to measure soccer’s popularity is to look at the number of grown men and women who play it for fun every weekend. I’m sure the number dwarfs the number who play baseball for fun. There are virtually no opportunities to play organized nonprofessional baseball once you are out of high school. Sorry, but softball doesn’t count. Nor does flag football. Those sports, while fun, bear only a very tenuous resemblance to the professional version of those. Rec-league soccer, however, is basically the same game as the professional version. 90 minutes, same rules, same size field, same equipment, 11-11, etc. Even your average pickup game is not far off from real soccer. Soccer is closer to basketball in terms of popularity than basketball, at least when you look at how many people actually play the game.
Not mediocre. Right about average
Softball does count, even though I hate it. Baseball would be pretty much impossible for most adults to play recreationally, as pitching accurately and hitting the ball are two of the most difficult things to do in sports, and are absolutely vital to play the game. Soccer is much easier to be mediocre at than baseball, just like Ultimate frisbee, which is why you see adults playing something “resembling” the game. Again, i hate softball, but it does directly relate to former baseball players continuing to “play the game.”
"easy to be mediocre"
Have you been watching my men’s team play?! ;)
Not mediocre. Right about average
Softball is not baseball
But I get your point. It is the equivalent of playing a short field game in soccer because people can’t keep up with the running.
It is weird how baseball stops after little league for amateurs, just like how women don’t play it past age 8. Its like if you arn’t good enough to play on with a chance to play MLB, you get relegated to softball.
It would be pretty difficult to have even leagues though because the quality of the pitching would be so variable, but I’m sure they exist.
Irony
I love both Baseball and Soccer but what always makes me laugh about baseball loving/soccer haters who call the sport boring is that Baseball has a section in the Ken Burns’ docu called “Absence of Action”!!!! To see Bob Costas etc waxing poetically about how nothing happens for long streches in Baseball, and how “special” that makes Baseball is just hilarious!
I know that MLS is not the Prem, but if you are American and do not even follow MLS, then you are truly not a soccer fan you are a poseur!
No one showed for Burnley or Everton when they came here so the line that they like better soccer is total BS.
It’s ridiculous to say you’re a poser if you don’t like MLS, just like those who say anyone who watches MLS must not understand real soccer. I don’t know why everyone has to be so goddamn divisive about this. It’s no ones duty to support ANY team or ANY league. If someone only wants to watch Premier League games, that is their choice, the same as if they only fancy the USL.
I don't think it's that weird
To doubt the connection of a fan to his team if he couldn’t locate that team’s stadium on a map. My next question is usually, can he name me a few players for the team. . . 5, 10, 20 years ago. You’d be surprised, but I wouldn’t, how many fail the history test.
'Gentlemen' he said,
'I don't need your organization,
I've shined your shoes,
moved your mountains and marked your cards,
but Eden is burning.
Either get ready for elimination,
or else your heart must have the courage,
for the changing of the guards.'
by Sgc on Apr 6, 2010 8:11 AM EDT up reply actions
What difference does it make to you, and what right do you have to “test” someone about being a fan of a team? Just because you may be more passionate about or dedicated to a team doesn’t make your fan-dom more legitimate. I don’t care if someone likes Everton because of Fellaini’s hair, thats their reason and if it’s good enough for them what difference does it make to me?
Poseur?
So if you are an American who expects top players in the world to be playing before he throws A LOT of his hard earned money into a LIMITED sporting event budget who does follow the US Men’s NT, but not the MLS you are a poseur?
OK.
I still think soccer has so much trouble in this country because it’s not made for TV ads like football and baseball are. They both have built in commercial breaks occur constantly, whereas soccer is 45 minute blocks without interruption. People will love whatever is given the most time on tv, and tv companies will push whatever presents them with the most revenue generating opportunities, which soccer just can’t because of its structure.
As far as why people will watch games from the EPL and not MLS, that doesn’t mean they don’t love the game. Personally i’ll watch both, but i can’t blame someone for not wanting to watch the MLS brand. If anyone here is a hockey fan, just think the New Jersey Devils and the trap defense. It nearly killed hockey.
Just to be clear, the structure of baseball predates TV by about 75 years.
Both basketball and hockey don’t naturally fit TV schedules either, but they make them fit by adding the “TV timeout”. They could do the same with soccer, but it would be a different game than the rest of the world. I guess the rest of the wold has the advantage of being able to have pre and post game shows that probably make up a lot of the commercial time, or are on National or Pay TV. The US, its hard enough to get an American to watch a soccer game let alone the pre and post game show.
Singing Infielders?
What does “another middle infielder singing to analyze” mean?
12thman11
You’re dead wrong. You can be a fan of an EPL team if you want to, but if you live in a city with an MLS side, USL, NASL, PDL, or any other kind of team, and not be a fan of that team by supporting it? Then you don’t love the sport. Give it up and take up dodge ball.
Chad the Ref
No
And now I know you don’t think before you ask very silly questions. If you have a team in or near where you live IN THIS COUNTRY and do not support it because you think you are above it because you like a club in the EPL where YOU DO NOT LIVE OR HAVE EVER BEEN, then you are not a fan of the game and take up dodge ball.
Chad the Ref
Who said anything about being above?
Someone needs to relearn how to read. The reason people are fans is because they feel like they are a part of whatever they are a fan of. That could be due to geography, but it doesn’t have to be, it could be because of any number of things. Also geography does not automatically make a fan. The world is not so black and white as you seem to think it is.
Also learn about the reply button.
hm...
when there is both epl and mls on tv, i’ll watch epl every time. however, i would give just about anything right now for an mls team in saint louis, and would definitely purchase season tickets eventually when i’m no longer a student.
i am of the opinion that if you give mls some time, the sentimental ties will come and attendance/interest will rise considerably. right now, most soccer fans in this country support european teams because they developed ties to them awhile ago. for me, living in a city with no mls team i find it really hard to follow the league since it is both below par and i have no regional ties. the live games are fun because it’s the best live soccer around, but if i am following from a distance, i might as well follow higher quality soccer overseas. once i develop a relationship from a local team and become more familiar with mls it’ll be much easier to follow the league as a whole.
capital letters suck.
Ok, but now
you have an NASL team in AC St. Louis. And you need to support them. That was my point to 12thman11 all the while. He seems to think that it’s okay to ignore the local side because he thinks that it’s inferior to EPL. Well no kidding Sherlock! But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t support AC STL because if you do, you will never get promoted to MLS like Vancouver, Portland, Montreal, Seattle.
If you don’t support them and they don’t get a promotion, don’t come crying here. I won’t listen.
Chad the Ref
Oops...
you have an NASL team in AC St. Louis. And you need to support them. That was my point to 12thman11 all the while. He seems to think that it’s okay to ignore the local side because he thinks that it’s inferior to EPL. Well no kidding Sherlock! But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t support AC STL because if you do NOT, you will never get promoted to MLS like Vancouver, Portland, Montreal, Seattle.
I’m pretty passionate about this, sometimes the fingers and the mind don’t meet.
Chad the Ref
Please learn to use the Reply function, it’s there for a reason.
It is no ones DUTY to support someone elses business, which is what professional sports really are, a business. Would you call someone who only drinks Budweiser and doesn’t like their local microbreweries beer not a beer drinker? Do you go into local bars and tell people they need to put down their Bud Light and go drink a Pepsi because they’re obviously not real beer drinkers if they don’t support their local brewery? Somehow I doubt it.
Now that's the problem
If you believe that your hometown club is nothing but a business, then that is a problem. Your hometown club is yours to own, to internalize, to believe in, to support. Do you think that the fans of Portsmouth believe that their club is a business? Do you think that the Man U fans think of it as a business? NO! It is their club, and they hold the Board’s feet to the fire to make sure that they do what is right for the club.
Your local football club, be it MLS, USL, NASL, PDL, MISL, or whatever else alphabet soup league name, is YOUR CLUB!!! It should be yours 1st and foremost. Every other club is secondary, no matter how much bigger or better it may be.
Figured out why I don’t use the reply function. Just found it, never seen it before, but tried to post this before, but hit the button on the far right without looking, and of course erased it all. I’m not a techie, so I just post. But I may get computer literate one day. Just not today.
Chad the Ref
That's a nice opinion
and you should state you opinions as such. They are not fact. In your opinion people should support their hometown clubs, that’s fine, but say it like that. It is our opinion that geography, ie hometown, is not the only way to feel ownership for a club.
Ask anyone who was a supporter of the Miami Fusion or Tampa Bay Mutiny how much that club was theirs. As much as you may love or feel that a team belongs to you, the only reason it’s in existence is to make profit for it’s owners and to provide employment for those who work for it. That is the reality of professional sports, no matter how much they market it otherwise, and no one is required to support it, the free market is what our economy has long been based on, we as Americans are free to chose where we spend our money and what we support. Personally, I support my local minor league baseball team, and the minor league Hershey Bears, along with their parent teams the Orioles and Capitals. This is my choice. The culpability lies in the hands of the owners to provide a quality product to attract fans, it is not the responsibility of the people in the surrounding area to support a product they don’t enjoy.
Why thank you...
I do believe in civil discourse, contrary to what many may think. While I disagree with your opinions, I do believe you have a right to have them.
But do your hometown club a favor, whoever they are. Go support them at least 1x this year. You may fall in love with it, and be like I am with FCD. They are not a business to me, although the way it’s going, I fear they may be out of business in a few years. Then maybe you too will feel a more kindred relationship with your local football club. I hope it happens, you may be a fan for life like me!
Chad the Ref
And go...
even if they suck.
Chad the Ref
Maybe because . . .
MLB Baseball is the most financially successful sports league in the history of humankind and US Soccer leagues have a long track record of failure. Other than that, totally.
Hockey as a major sport??? You are hanging around way too many Canadiens (obviously not those in Quebec).
Crossing the street...
I would love to write a well-thought out and long reply to this but the lunch break is almost over, so my apologies for the typos and stream of consciousness. I think part of the problem with MLS is that you can actually cross the street to get to most games. Pizza Hut Park is a great example – you have to go to Frisco and park, etc etc etc. Now of course, attending most sports in the US is the same — they’re all housed in stadia surrounded by parking lots, even the older ones in city centers. But those sports (esp baseball) had a chance to build from a neighborhood level up to present day. There are fans who are sons of fans who are sons of guys who snuck into the park for the love the game. MLS has tried to establish franchises assuming they could just create a myth around these clubs, and then they locate them in outer ring suburbs who no character or soul.
I really want to be a fan, I do. I grew up in Plano, TX and I live in China now and I’ve even went to a FCD match a while back. And I follow expansion talk. It’s fun. And I think a great foundation has been laid. But now they need to keep the momentum going. I have to believe the Sounders have been successful at building a fan base because the team has been there for a long, long time (in N.A. soccer terms), just in the USL. Put more than one club in a market, bring back the NY Cosmo. Tie teams to those big organizations that exist in places like Plano for kids soccer – can you imagine the fan base a team called “PSA” would have…
OK, back to work.
~Jake
