For once, the country's slowly growing legions of soccer fans are happy
their sport was met by a collective yawn.
A sport that is sometimes weighed down by antipathy suddenly generated a
minor wave of sleep deprivation. The United States' evocative
quarterfinal run into the World Cup ended Friday morning with a 1-0 loss
to Germany, but not before awakening interest among Americans, millions
of whom have risen in vampire hours to watch games from South Korea and
Japan.
But will the spotlight now directed on soccer – billed as "the fifth
major sport" by the pre-eminent U.S. professional league – fade quickly
once World Cup 2002 climaxes on June 30?
"We're by no means there yet," said Andy Swift, general manager of the
Dallas Burn of Major League Soccer. "But this certainly helps. It's
another step in the process and the evolution of getting soccer to be a
very popular sport in this country."
About 19 million people play soccer in the United States, according to
the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. Only basketball is bigger
in terms of team participation.
But soccer has yet to attach itself to the culture at large. TV ratings
remain low – roughly the same as those for NHL hockey on ESPN and ESPN2
– and attendance in MLS ranks a clear fifth behind football, baseball,
basketball and hockey. MLS games have averaged 15,543 fans over 61
contests this year.
Those numbers are fine for an operation in only its seventh season, says
MLS commissioner Don Garber.
"We are where we want to be for today," Garber told CNBC this week.
"We've got a long way to go to develop this sport for tomorrow, but
certainly there's passion, certainly there's interest, and certainly I
think this World Cup has truly captured the hearts and minds of our
country."
The ESPN broadcast of Monday's U.S.-Mexico game, which started locally
at 1:30 a.m., set a U.S. cable television record for a late-night
broadcast among males age 18-34, a key demographic. Late night is 1 to 6
a.m.
The ESPN broadcast was seen by 1.98 million households overall. More
significant, perhaps, was that the simultaneous Univision
(Spanish-language) broadcast was seen by an estimated 4.2 million
viewers.
Garber says that number is important as the sport moves forward in a
changing America.
"We believe we're marketing to a new America, an America that has 35
million Hispanics, that has kids that are more empowered than when we
were growing up," he told CNBC. "It's those two social changes that we
think are giving us the opportunity to tap into something that the other
sports were dealing with in the early stages of their development."
Growing profile
Soccer's national profile has been growing for the last decade or so. It
climbed a big step in 1990 when the U.S. team qualified for the World Cup
in Italy.
Four years later, the United States hosted the World Cup, introducing
many Americans to the passion that the rest of the world feels for the
game.
The Women's World Cup in 1999 took America by storm, with the country's
sudden soccer divas splashed across TV screens and magazines for a month
in early summer.
Now, the 2002 World Cup has further elevated the sport's standing and
increased awareness of soccer in the United States.
Media coverage of the World Cup has expanded tremendously just in the
three weeks since the tournament kicked off on May 31.
ESPN's SportsCenter didn't mention Senegal's stirring upset over
defending champion France in the tournament opener until near the end of
its hour-long program. But with so much attention directed toward the
United States' success, SportsCenter has led several broadcasts
with World Cup news.
The U.S. team was on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated,
not the just-crowned NHL champion Red Wings or U.S. Open golf winner
Tiger Woods.
Long-term effects
And what says "mainstream" integration like U.S. team appearances this
week on the late-night shows hosted by Jay Leno and David Letterman?
Most of that is sure to vanish now that the team has been eliminated.
Swift says that's OK.
"The immediate effects and awareness will cool off in a few weeks," he
said. "But I think we'll see some long-term effects."
Swift said he doesn't expect an immediate spike in attendance at Burn
games in the Cotton Bowl. The team averages 13,086 fans per contest,
seventh best among the league's 10 teams. But he says the cumulative
effect is much greater than a few more people in the stands in the short
term.
E-mail
stevedavis@dallasnews.com
