There. I said it. I’m a geek, dork, computer nerd, etc. Always have been. The words your reading were sent to you from a server I built – for fun. But does that have anything to do with my love of the beautiful game?
D and Kinney over at The DCenters, have a couple of interesting posts up related to the types of people who seem to make up a sizable portion of soccer fans, at least in DC. They believe that many soccer fans make up a part of a subculture. It’s an interesting premise:
There were tongues wagging when Slate wrote about soccer becoming the sport of choice of the "intellectual". Of course, they were writing primarily about European soccer, but the point remains. There is something of a geek aesthetic to soccer supporters across these United States (and for which the Barra mocks the Eagles). But, in DC’s loud side at least, it isn’t just the geeks. It’s a hybrid of the geeks, the refugees from DC’s hardcore scene, and the strong ethnic supporters from Europe and the Americas. It’s a strange conglomeration, the kind depicted previously only by a handful of cyberpunk writers.
I think that’s a fairly good take on the situation, but I think it may be a temporary phenomenon. Now I’ll state right away, anything I write isn’t based off of MLS experience. We don’t have a local MLS team and the RailHawks aren’t playing yet (though even when they state, SAS Soccer Park is still a haul through traffic hell). Rather I’m going to try and add to the discussion from a view from the youth level (there’s a shock!) and how that may someday translate to the MLS and beyond in the US. In short, any subculture of soccer fans in this country is probably going to be overwhelmed in the next decade.
As my kids have gotten older and I’ve spent countless hours at our sports complex, I’ve noticed something about the spectators at youth soccer matches compared to other sports – soccer parents are the most energetic and vocal of the bunch, at least around here.
If you happen to overhear a conversation about crazy sports parents, most of the time soccer is mentioned. Sure, all youth sports have psycho parents berating officials, pulling out guns, etc. However, soccer is often linked with ‘crazy sports parents’. Is that fair? Not from a ‘parent got violent’ type of way, though that definitely can happen. Instead, it seems to come from how soccer can become such a huge part of a family’s life AND how vocal soccer parents are on the sidelines. That and the fact that too many parents yell at their kids CONSTANTLY, much to their detriment.
If you’ve ever been to a youth soccer match and then a youth basketball, football, or baseball game – there’s no comparison in the spectators. Sure, parents in ALL sports are cheering, excited, occasionally yelling at the officials, etc. But with soccer, the parents REALLY get into the game. I chuckle when I watch my eldest play basketball from the bleachers. The parents cheer, occasionally tell the ref to get some glasses, etc. But beyond that, it’s very tame unless the game is close late in the 4th quarter. Come to a soccer match and, well, whole different deal. Parents are INTO the game. Mom’s who are normally very quiet and reserved, get very loud and sometimes, er, obnoxious. Parents constantly coach their kids from the sidelines, will often argue calls the referee makes, and generally yell and cheer non stop. This is good and bad. One of my key coaching points for my teams is "Ignore EVERYTHING from the parent sideline". Getting them to tune out the parents helps keep them focused on the match. But I digress.
Part of this comes from soccer being non stop action. Basketball is close to non stop, however, since most youth leagues only allow full court press in the final minutes, much time is spent dribbling up court uncontested. Football and baseball have extended pauses between the action. Probably the sport most like soccer in the non-stop action department is hockey, and well, Canada has an entire advertising campaign dedicated to getting parents to calm down. Soccer never stops unless a player gets hurt. I think this non stop action is part of the reasons the parents get so into the matches. You never have a chance to catch your breath.
It’s that constant tension that makes being a soccer fan so unique. Sure, when a football or basketball game is entering the final minutes and the score is close, everyone is on the edge of their seat. With soccer, unless the score is 4-6 goals apart, which is not very common, all games are close and intense. Anything can happen. Every change of possession can turn into a score in a flash. It’s that tension that gets parents to assume entirely new personalities. And it’s that tension, I think, that contributes to the soccer subculture as you move to the professional leagues in the US.
Watching soccer is a RUSH
It really is. I multi-task. If I’m watching football or basketball, I usually have my laptop and can do stuff online while watching the game for the plays/exciting parts. Not so with soccer – you gotta pay attention. Imagine basketball if teams played full court press the entire game, non-stop, and close scores were the norm. That would be intense and that’s soccer for the most part. Defenders don’t often get to dribble halfway up field without encountering at least token pressure. Combine that with soccer in the US having always been a bastard step child and you see the appeal to certain segments of the population. You have an activity that is a rush AND is looked at by many as, well, wrong or not mainstream. Hmmmmmm. Can you see why this would appeal to certain people? Kind of like extreme sports? Rush.
Which brings me to a paradox. People watch sports for the excitement. Soccer is exciting no matter what braindead sports writers say. With action that never stops, you’d think it would be easier to attract fans. Sure, scoring happens less often (kinda like American football where a score of 14-7 often means 2-1), but the tension of teams on the attack happens much more often, even if they don’t manage to get a shot off. So why is it so hard to get people to figure out that soccer really IS an exciting sport to watch? Sometimes I think it’s because there are no breaks, and well, you gotta be able to hit the can or grab snacks SOMEtime. But that’s a cop out. I think a lot of it revolves around an ignorance of the game. Someone unfamiliar will see the ball passed 5 times and think ‘boring – they’re just playing with it’ while a seasoned fan will tense up because they can see the play pattern forming up across the field. I read all the time about new soccer fans who used to think it was stupid until they watched some games AND learned how the game was played.
I think the next 5-10 years will be interesting to watch in terms of how the US National Teams and the MLS increase their fan base. Youth soccer has been ubiquitous for years, but in the past 5-10 years it has exploded nationwide. With parents getting completely immersed in the sport as well as tens of millions of kids growing up playing it, will that translate into a bigger adult soccer fanbase? Only time will tell, but I think it will. With more and more households able to choose between any number of soccer matches from any number of national and international teams via satellite/cable, more people exposed to soccer as kids or through their own kids can get hooked watching adult matches where before it was very hard to find any on television. So while I agree with D and Kinney that there is a certain indie subculture to the current soccer fanbase, I also think the massive updraft of fans from youth soccer WILL happen sometime in the near future. When it does, will that mean a taming of the soccer fanbase? Far from it. Like I noted above – most parents are intense fans and I expect that will continue because the parent intensity on the sidelines is only in part due to it being their kids. The bulk of it, I think, is simply due to the intensity of the game. Trust me, we youth coaches live in abject fear of the soccer moms. Some of them are bound to become rabid fans of local pro soccer teams.
The next big question is this. When soccer does become a mainstream sport in the US, what will happen to the current fan subculture? Will it melt away in the hordes, move on to other venues, or become the role models all the new fans should look up to? Good Question!
UPDATE: Josh at ThroughBall has a great catch from Conan O’Brien and a recent skit he did on MLS. Watch till the end when Conan says ‘what a bad sport’ and the crowd groans – loudly. Good for them. But remember – you’re still supposed to think soccer is unpopular and ridiculed in the US. It’s a ManLaw®
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January 18th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Another interesting post…and I hope soccer never goes mainstream in this country. I remember back in 1989 when I was a graduate student at Kent State. No Trinidad and Tobago vs. the United States coverage on TV. I was pissed! Paul Caligiuri’s “Shot Heard Round the World†was nowhere to be seen.
I was in Ray’s Place, best bar food in the land, with some friends knowing this game was going on. After I thought it was finished – I needed to find out this score. My friends thought I was nuts…or something else. Anyway, I called the local paper and asked for the Sport’s Desk – I thought they would get an AP wire or something and know the results. They were no help. I called another paper (who thought I was crazy) – they gave me the score. I swear I was in heaven for a month.
That said, no one in that pub could give a crap but me. I thought – well $#@& you anyway – I knew what’s good in life – and it was soccer and the U.S. going to Italy.
I think I went back to my apartment and put on the latest Smith’s album (or was it Let’s Active, Jesus and the Mary Chain, Pixies, or some other indie band only the lucky few knew about).
Good stuff…and I still hope it never goes mainstream…
January 18th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
I’ve seen the same kind of parents at youth baseball and youth basketball games that you discuss – the kind who like to coach from the sidelines. If you go to the AAU or competitive level games for baseball and basketball, in my experience, you see the same *enthusiasm* that you do at challenge or classic games. There are more geeky soccer parents discussing the latest foreign matches they saw on cable TV than discussing foreign basketball matches. I agree that soccer is often a much more exciting game.
January 18th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
In a way it’s varying degrees. We’ve got parents who will shout stuff out to their kids playing basketball as well, but it never seems to be as widespread or as intense. At AAU/travel of any sport – you’ll have enthusiastic parents regardless. I should have noted that for the most part I’m talking about at the recreational level – where you have the largest segment of kids participating.
I always get a kick out of watching the parent sideline as a coach. Ball goes out of bounds in a close basketball game, you might hear a shout or two of disagreement. You’re at a close soccer match and the ball goes out, you’ll see 30 hands pointing – 15 one way and 15 another 🙂
And I’m not romanticizing bad parent behavior. For the most part what we see is good parent involvement – they’re excited about their kids match, even if a few coach too much from the sideline. Bad parent behavior in any sport is a nightmare and hurts whatever sport it’s happening in.
January 19th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
That was a very interesting post. I recently wrote a blog myself in which – in the context of the Beckham deal – I wanted to make the point that soccer does have a rabid fanbase in the US alreadu, even if it’s not the mainstream ESPN crowd (but rather in youth soccer & amongst hispanics).
Your points about the passion of soccer moms and youth soccer are very interesting indeed, and it’s something a lot of people who say soccer will never rise in popularity here should not ignore.
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I, too, am a geek. I work on computers all day at my job (lunch right now) and play on computers at night. By playing I mean I install openSUSE just to see how it stacks up against Ubuntu or Mandriva or Windows or Mac OSX. I set up my own webserver to test my own WordPress plugins and themes. That being said, I didn’t mind watching soccer when my kids played; I don’t mind watching soccer when a friend’s child is playing. But to watch it other than that? No way. I’m a basketball fan – ANY basketball: NBA, NCAA, WNBA, NCAAW, FIBA, high school, etc. I prefer to watch a 5th grade girls basketball game where I don’t know anyone to watching professional soccer. Yes, soccer is a sport that takes an amazing amount of skill, stamina and intellect. I just much prefer basketball.
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:48 pm
BillH – rock on. I use OpenSuse 10.2 as my primary desktop – like it a lot, though it can be sluggish at times (beagle is a great idea, but a resource hog)
Haven’t installed WP 2.1 yet – still working on a SpamBot blocking plugin to prevent the server from choking when a botnet attacks. As always – turning out to be more work than I expected!