In watching most of the World Cup matches in bars in Manhattan so far a few conclusions have been made by your editor: Soccer fans do exist in this country, not all of them are rooting for other countries and drinking at 10am is fun!
Let's start with that first point. People assuming that Americans could care less about the beautiful game have a point, but they also miss a huge one according to ratings released so far. For the UEFA Final, there were 1.6 million viewers according to this NY Times soccer blog post. The blog goes on to say that FOX had hoped for at least double that number, but also notes that it was more than the 1.4 million people who watched the last UEFA Final on ESPN.
Next, the ratings for the USA vs England match which aired live on a Saturday afternoon on the east coast averaged 14.5 million viewers between the English language broadcast on ABC and the Spanish broadcast on Univision, according to the LA Times. Which, according to Sporting Intelligence, is almost the same number of people who watched the match in England and, more importantly, more than the number of people who watched the first four games of the NBA Finals between the two most storied franchises in that NBA.
That more people are watching soccer is clear, how many will grow to is not. Strictly based on population, if only 10% of the US population becomes a regular soccer watching audience, this country could rival any audience in Europe or South America. Advertisers are keenly aware that soccer here is akin to mobile phones in China, there has not been total market penetration and there is room for growth. They want to cash in on what could be a bonanza in the coming years. With DVRs lessening the significance of live TV outside of sporting events, advertisers crave another outlet to reach a specific target audience, even if it is only a niche group like the US soccer fan. Of course, with the US currently down 2-0 to Slovenia at the half, soccer could be a bigger bust than Ryan Leaf.
Another thing is clear in bouncing from bar to bar, blog to blog and friend to friend; not everyone is rooting for teams of their ancestry or where they immigrated from. The one problem, which is the only way to look at it in terms of soccer, is that people in this country tend to think of themselves as Irish, Italian, German, Mexican, etc-American. They are foreign first and American second. This leads them to root for European or Latin American teams before they root for Team USA. This applies not only to soccer, but to other international sports as well.
This year that tide has changed. Many people that formerly would laugh at the US soccer team are now taking them seriously and rooting for them as they would the Yankees, Aresnal or the Lakers. People from other countries that did not qualify (Ireland, Peru, to name a few) are rooting for the US and some are even wearing team USA jerseys with regularity. For this to continue, the Americans will need more goals like the one just netted by Landon Donovan to start the second half. Absolutely brilliant. Should they flame out, that support will also dwindle.
Less than a year ago I had to search all over the channel guide for the USA vs Mexico World Cup qualifying match in Mexico City. It should have been on ABC, NBC, FOX, ESPN or Univision. Anything that is a national network. It was on Mun2, which happened to be as high on the channel guide on Comcast as the music and PPV channels at the time. That game would be on national TV in any other country, it is a disgrace it was not here. How are you supposed to build up support for a national team if no one is able to see them play?
Now we have UEFA Finals, EPL matches and all team USA matches on ESPN/ABC. This is a marvelous trend that hopefully continues. Anyone who has seen an MLS game knows that the quality of players in that league just isn't quite there yet. Having that be the only option to soccer starved fans in this country for nationally televised games will not work long term. Access to European soccer is a must and is coming slowly but surely.
Not only are Americans now able to watch European matches live on ESPN, but we are now able, via ESPN 3, to watch just about any major soccer event live on our PCs and TVs after a recently announced deal between ESPN and Microsoft that will bring the service to 23 million Xbox Live subscribers here in the US. That service should, according to the WSJ, hit the consoles in November 2010.
Now on to the most important point of this whole exercise, morning drinking! Many bars in Manhattan have been opening at 7am for the World Cup matches. Turn out has been great at the bars I have visited. There have been some great drink specials as well, including $3 Carlsberg drafts for every match at one of my favorite bars in midtown.
The foundation is there, the momentum in building. Let's hope it can keep moving in the right direction, without those vuvuzelas crossing the pond. Michael Bradley just scored the tying goal, we may have hope yet. If the team can have a few recognizable stars that's all it will need in order to make it a brand name, especially after the brilliant come from behind win that this could end up being.
No comments:
Post a Comment