The BBC and The Soccer Mom
Always interesting to see what the rest of the world thinks of America’s World Cup resistance. The BBC recently sent a reporter to the DC United - KC Wizards game to try and gage World Cup interest, and didn’t seem too impressed with what they found.
Under the alliterative headline ‘World Cup fails to fan US football fever’, the article extrapolates from the family friendly atmosphere at the game to a lack of World Cup interest in general. The reporter interviewed a soccer mom.
Like many of the people I met, she was attending her first professional game.
“I never knew it would have so many family activities,” she said. “We’ll definitely be coming here regularly.”
“But what about the USA World Cup team?” I asked her. “They’re rated pretty highly.”
“Are they?” she asked with a look that was initially blank, but clearly open to persuasion. “Well, I’m sure we’ll be cheering them on.”
It’s true that there hasn’t been the same level of anticipation in the mass media that there is in more soccer-oriented countries (ie everywhere else except Canada), but for this reason we can’t really judge World Cup interest in America until the tournament begins. I’m optimistic that if the MNT makes a good start, we’ll see a (temporary, but) tangible spike in interest.
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The link in the article is broken
Posted from
United States




Fixed. Thanks Razzle.
Posted from
United States




I read the article a day or so ago, and they were pretty much spot-on, I think.
Posted from
United States




I disagree. I don’t think you can judge a whole nations reaction to the WC, just by attending one MLS game.
For example, all the ‘euro-snobs’ need to be taken into account. They won’t attend MLS games, but they’ll watch the World Cup.
Posted from
United States




I go to Houston Dynamo matches on an irregular basis. Their average attendance is about 20,000. Thats pretty good but pales when you compare with the numbers for the Texans (NFL). The Texans fyi are the WORST team in the NFL, they literally finished last.
20k is pretty good but then Houston has a lot of immigrants like myself. The face of soccer is changing though we are talking generational growth here. Not much is going to change in the next 4 years.
Posted from
United States


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