Building Soccer in the US

Note: By an act of some devine being, the US National Team advanced in the Confederations Cup. Bust out your buggle horn as the US tries for more suprises this morning at 11:00 AM (PST) against world-number-one Spain.

Soccer is known as the world’s sport. It is easily the most popular pastime from Western Europe to Africa to South America and parts of Asia. And even though it’s the fastest growing sport among young Americans, the sport does not enjoy a competitive share of commercial success in the States. This is unfortunate because soccer is a great sport, rich in both tradition and athletic grace.

Part of has to do with the fact that the sport’s infrastructure and league organization is not nearly where it needs to be in order to compete with established institutions like the NFL or MLB. Moreover, the fact that games basically run for 90 minutes straight without any stoppages of play means that the opportunity for advertising and promotion falls far short of what is possible in sports like basketball or baseball. Because of all of this, there is simply not enough money to go around that would attract the top talent necessary to create real buzz around the sport.

But these targets all take time and are really part of the end-game. To make soccer more commercially viable, the sport just needs to increase its domestic presence. Getting more eyes on the sport should make people more amenable to it.

ESPN is doing its part, having just purchased the rights to televise a large number of La Liga games from GolTV next season. The deal is structured such that ESPN will air 114 matches on ESPN 360, 95 on ESPN Deportes and 20 on ESPN2. This is great news for existing soccer fans and for potential ones as well.

La Liga, Spain’s top soccer league, doesn’t have the cache of England’s Champions League but it is still a great league for the WWL to feature. Whereas strength and bullishness is more prized in the English version, there tends to be more creativity and artistry in Spanish soccer. Fans tend to find this style of play to be more exciting. There’s also the language affinity that the Spanish league will bring to potential viewer in the US. Finally, the addition of superstars Kaka and Christiano Ronaldo to the Spanish league adds fodder to the belief that ESPN’s move could help cultivate a fan base.

My hope is that this move will increase soccer’s fan base amongst Americans and thus be a boon to the future of professional soccer in the States. Really, I think the impediment to a full-fledged league is the lack of fans. Get the fans (ie the demand) in place and then we can focus on other issues, such as getting world class player talent and matching league calendars with those in Europe.