****Official Beckham Mania Thread****

[TheNoodleMan]

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That poll is linked from the main espn front page, top right corner with all the beckham nonsense. the poll you mentioned earlier is available halfway down the page.

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Obvious selection bias.

[ThaSaltCracka]

you're biased

[Clayton]

What is it going to take to make Soccer more mainstream than, say, hockey?

I watch European league soccer because it gets me excited to see the ridiculous crowds and excitement in players and announcers, and in the last couple of years i've been able to sit through an entire soccer game (like liverpool versus AC Milan). It's borderline maniacal, and something regular americans (see: doesnt care about soccer) only get a taste of at the world cup imo.

Seeing an MLS game, I don't even hear the crowd, and the announcers are C-level ESPN commentators that will probably be commentating on the LPGA or mens lacrosse 2 days from now. As such, I dont care.

So, how much is Beckham gonna help? Serious question.

I fail to see how one man can make a difference when the entire environment of American soccer is how I described it on TV. It sucks.

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I think a decent idea would be to integrate 2 or 3 american clubs into the european league madness somehow. I know, its EUROPEAN league, but still, if its not for european involvement american soccer blows.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Clayton, FSC, while not being great, is much better than ESPN with its soccer coverage. Their in game announcers and game presentation is quite a bit better. ESPN seriously needs to get real otherwise they could fall far behind. For example FSC has the exclusive US rights to the EPL and shared rights to Serie A in the US. GolTV has the Spanish league and Serie A. Both of these stations are making some decent change from these rights.

The atmosphere you mention is a tough one to rectify, and really the only way for it to greatly improve is for more fans to become closer to their local teams. I think it will take time once these teams become more of their life, and once the teams start to develop a history.

At some point I am very confident we will be seeing US clubs playing Euro ones in matches that mean something, but thats probably 20 years from now. In the meantime, US clubs get to play in two cool club tournaments, the CONCACAF champions cup and soon the SuperLiga tourney. These will definitely help the atmosphere.

[TheNoodleMan]

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you're biased

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no, I actually watch soccer. I'm a realist about it though.

[mmbt0ne]

Clayton,

Watch a game played in Toronto to see the European type atmosphere. The fans there are amazing.

I would agree on the whole though. Teams like NY, KC, NE and even DC despite drawing one of the best home attendances, hurt the atmosphere of the league by playing in gigantic (and therefore empty) football stadiums. NY and DC are planning new stadiums, but New England never will until Kraft sells the team since he'll use the same stadium for football too. Similar deal with KC. However, KC's attendance is so bad that I hope the team gets disbanded and moved to San Jose to fill the old Earthquakes spot. Of course, the KC team should've been moved to Houston instead of San Jose in the first place.

[ThaSaltCracka]

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you're biased

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no, I actually watch soccer. I'm a realist about it though.

[/ QUOTE ]THEN BE REALLY PUMPED! ANNOY YOUR FRIENDS WITH YOUR FRENZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[TheNoodleMan]

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you're biased

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no, I actually watch soccer. I'm a realist about it though.

[/ QUOTE ]THEN BE REALLY PUMPED! ANNOY YOUR FRIENDS WITH YOUR FRENZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

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unwarrented hype sets back the cause, IMO.

[mmbt0ne]

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you're biased

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no, I actually watch soccer. I'm a realist about it though.

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Here's the reality.

-Soccer will continue to grow in the US. Soccer will not crack into the top 3 sports for a long long long time if ever. That doesn't mean that soccer will never be successful.

-MLS has done a great job with the central authority making sure that teams don't spend themselves into bankruptcy, and letting the league grow on its own rather than forcing things up to this point.

-MLS really needs to get all of the teams other than NE (for reasons mentioned earlier) into SSSs or into better markets so that they can all be profitable. As soon as this happens they need to redo the CBA and bump the salary cap up to at least $7M to improve the ability to sign international players.

-They need to not get ahead of themselves and continue with the planned expansion to 16 teams by 2010, not the 20 that has been mentioned recently. That would be waaaaaay too many roster spots for not enough top level players and the game would suffer greatly. I nominate Las Vegas, Pac NW, San Jose, and either a 2nd Chicago or NY team right now. Later continue expansion to Vancouver, Montreal, Atlanta, and a 2nd of whichever Chicago or NY didn't come first.

-Within 5 years the MLS will be the 2nd largest revenue producing league in the Western Hemisphere behind Mexico's league. They will likely not pass Mexico for 20-30 or so years unless some rapid growth comes out of nowhere (see TSCs "US clubs playing Euro ones in matches that mean something" comment).

-The U20 FIFA World Cup and the U19 FIBA World Championships are both going on right now. ESPN bought the rights to one and has already shown a game on the flagship station. The other has no press at all. That's a huge step.

[mmbt0ne]

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unwarrented hype sets back the cause, IMO.

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I do agree with this, and worry that Beckham is being paraded unfairly and doesn't know what he's getting in to.

Then I read what everyone else says about him, and I'm sure he's got a 24/7 hardon at all the coverage he's getting and stop worrying.