Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406180039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Soccer is the globe's foremost sport.
In the United States, soccer falls somewhere between those two sentences, and certainly closer to the former than the latter.
Soccer is the world's most popular sport, but in that world, the United States definitely is not a superpower.
"Two billion people can't be wrong," said ESPN anchorman Bob Ley, whose resume includes a season as the public-address announcer for the Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. "It is the sport in so many countries. In this country, it's really easy to say that soccer's boring, with no scoring.
"The real reason, I think, that soccer doesn't have a grip here is that it hasn't been able to hold an appeal.
"Some people say baseball is boring. Some people say soccer is boring. They're a lot alike, in that you have to grow up in the sport to really have a grasp for it.
"Baseball is an American sport. Soccer isn't."
Football is an American sport. Basketball is an American sport. Soccer is called "football" elsewhere. Why should the United States be good in soccer when we can't even get the name right?
Soccer's great opportunity for booting its way into our consciousness has arrived - again. The 14th World Cup began Friday, and today, the U.S. team starts pool play against Switzerland.
How many people will watch? Good question. The last World Cup, in 1990, attracted an average of fewer than 1 million viewers per game with its partial schedule on cable's TNT.
Played in the United States for the first time, the World Cup will be hard to miss on the tube - 52 games (40 live, 12 on tape) in a span of 31 days on ESPN and ABC. That said, a recent Gallup Poll revealed that two-thirds of those asked had no idea what the World Cup was.
When a similar poll was taken in Brazil last year, 99 percent of those asked knew the World Cup, soccer's quadrennial festival and a world-class event that rivals the Olympics, was to be played in the United States in 1994.
Maybe the Gallup pollsters should have asked the youngsters in the United States. It is on their shoulders the future of soccer rests in this country. They need some help in the next month, however. The kids are all right
America's children are growing up in the sport. More youths began playing soccer in the past two decades for varied reasons. One was that parents didn't want their children being hurt playing peewee football. Another was that girls were welcome in soccer, and the advent of Title IX legislation increased participation.
The 1994 national soccer participation survey reports that 16.4 million individuals played soccer at least once last year, an 8 percent increase over 1992. That figure of 16.4 million included 12.2 million players 17 or younger. The 4.2 million adults playing soccer represents a 19 percent increase from '92, and the number of U.S. residents playing soccer at least 25 times annually was up almost 20 percent since '92.
Locally, Roanoke Valley Youth Soccer, a club for traveling teams, reflects those national figures. Where last year about 500 youths tried out for 325 spots on traveling teams, this year the tryouts attracted about 700 players for 425 spots.
Danny Beamer, executive director of the club, estimates about 5,000 youths play soccer in the Roanoke Valley, mostly in recreation leagues. About 300 valley residents play in adult leagues.
The Crestar Festival tournament, played annually on Memorial Day weekend, has included almost 32,000 participants since 1986. This year, the event included 2,652 players on 156 teams from eight states, playing 255 games on 19 fields.
On the collegiate level, Virginia has won the past three NCAA Division I men's championships and shared the crown with Santa Clara in 1989. Roanoke College reached the NCAA Division III quarterfinals in '93.
All those numbers - national, regional and local - don't translate into commercial success for the sport, however. Kids may have buying power, but they aren't yet into the demographic category television networks want most. Their parents are - but they played football, baseball and basketball as kids, like their elders.
There are those who say 16 million U.S. residents play soccer, but then they go home and watch the NFL or the NBA. Beamer agrees with that - but hastens to add that they have no choice.
"The kids - and the adults for that matter - can't find soccer on TV," Beamer said. "I'll tape games on Home Team Sports and pass the tape around among our club and team members for them to watch. The World Cup is just what soccer needs in this country, because it will put the game on TV.
"It's definitely going to promote the game. What the sport needs is some stars, some heroes, some names. You only get that with exposure.
"I don't know how big soccer can become [in the United States], but I think it can be more than a niche sport. I think it can be bigger than hockey, which is doing a good job right now. There are more places to play soccer in this country than places to play hockey." Pros and con
Soccer's commercial future in the United States depends on more than participating children growing up. The performance of the U.S. team in the World Cup will establish whether the sport has a chance to become an overnight success.
This is not hockey, so we're not talking another "Miracle on Ice,"
by CNB