My first post
November 28, 2007 — dannyjacksonI hope this blog will provide a platform for family, friends, and welcome strangers to communicate and discuss a variety of subjects, important to them and me…… Look forward to hearing from you soon…..
I hope this blog will provide a platform for family, friends, and welcome strangers to communicate and discuss a variety of subjects, important to them and me…… Look forward to hearing from you soon…..
November 28, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Hi Danny - I’m looking forward to following your blog this off-season.
This is sort of a random question, but I’m curious on getting the perspective of a professional soccer player. What’s your take on why soccer isn’t as popular here in the United States?
November 28, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Hi Danny… I’m looking forward to following your blog this off-season.
This is sort of a random question, but I’m curious on getting the perspective of a professional soccer player. What’s your take on why soccer isn’t as popular here in the United States?
November 28, 2007 at 11:28 pm
I think it is a very interesting question. I think there are several reasons. Soccer has been part of the culture and the people in many countries around the world. It unites individuals, it creates conflict, it develops conversations, it generates great passion. In England, football is like a religion because it has been part of the public consciousness for generations. The United States is playing a little bit of catch-up in regards to soccer spreading its wings across the nation. In the soccer community, the passion and love for the game is there, but there only some markets which have created some history in the game, including Seattle.
We fight the other sports. We fight negative press. We fight to make people understand how a 0-0 game can be as exciting as a 5-5 game. I do think it will get there, but it will take time. When this next generation of supporter arrives at the stadium, the generation which grew up playing the game, who will vividly remember Beckham arriving, Sounders winning a championship, feeling pain and hurt when their team loses, and when we are on prime time TV, we will be on the right track. The game in Europe did not happen overnight, it occurred over the course of 100 years. Soccer is in a great place when you consider the time professional soccer, in its current capacity, has been around. Will we ever surpass football, professional or college? I don’t know. But i am very excited to see where soccer will be in 20 years….. How do you think MLS will be accepted in Seattle 5 years from now?
November 29, 2007 at 12:42 am
Well, Seattle is very much a major league sports town, as well as a home to many fair-weather fans. So to that extent, the popularity of our new MLS team will depend on how well the team itself does. But we are an big, international city, and like you said we are one of the few to have a strong soccer tradition. So I think MLS is set up to be very successful here, at least relative to other cities in the league.
Changing peoples misguided impressions of soccer will take time, and you are right to stress the need for patience. I’m tackling this subject for a term paper, and I’ve gotten survey responses from people that call soccer a ‘non-contact’ sport. Things like that just make me furious. But we’ve come a long way in the last 13ish years with USL and MLS, and I think all signs point to the continued growth of American soccer.