World Cup Championship Won't Change Anything - Yet
Posted
Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
I love soccer, I really do. I loved playing it, I love watching it, and I love talking about it. So it was pretty cool to watch the U.S. Women’s National Team battle for the world championship, culminating with its 5-2 win over Japan in Sunday night’s final viewed by more Americans than any other soccer event ever. But the red, white and blue scarves are put away and the echoes of the chant “I BELIVE THAT WE WILL WIN, I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN” have faded off into the crisp Canadian air. So now what? Is that it? Isn’t there more? Shouldn’t this lead to something – something bigger? Probably not, at least not yet. Soccer fans around the world have been wondering when Americans would finally “get it” and latch on to futbol the way everyone else has. But we just aren’t there, yet. But that day is coming. Sure, the momentum from Sunday’s win has the country buzzing about the sport as a whole, and the women’s side of it more specifically. But if you are looking for it to serve as an evangelist to win souls for the sake of women’s soccer here, it’s just not going to happen. Here’s why: • DEMOGRAPHICS, PART 1: The people who are most likely to be affected by Sunday’s win and the hoopla surrounding the Women’s National Team are the younger girls who now understand what it looks like to win a world championship and what it takes to get there. They now have a defined goal of what they want and how to go get it. But they are young girls, who are more likely out playing soccer than watching it on TV. And if we know one thing, we know that TV deals define the success of your sport (ask the NHL how they feel about Cup Final games being shown on NBC Sports channel, for example). There just isn’t a TV market for it, and so it can’t reach the masses. • DEMOGRAPHICS, PART 2: Women’s sports just don’t draw the same kind of attention that men’s sports do. If you know me at all you know that I am a BIG proponent of girls/women’s sports. I put as much time and effort into my girls basketball broadcasts as I do the boys games. I love that girls have these opportunities, but I think it’s fair to say that men’s sports will always take center stage and only unusual or historic events like what we saw Sunday night in Vancouver can eclipse that. I wish it were different but it’s not. • AND THE SEX APPEAL ISSUE: One thing that is hard not to notice is the U.S. women’s roster, and a lot of the other teams’ rosters in the World Cup, are filled with ladies who are very attractive and athletic. OK, so that should be a positive right? I mean, guys, if you have to watch TV for 90 minutes would you rather watch Alex Morgan or, say, Phil Mickelson? Guys, be honest, you were upset that the Japanese didn’t get more shots on goal so the camera would find its way to Hope Solo, right? Unfortunately in this case it hurts the cause because people who should want to watch beautiful women play the “beautiful game” won’t pay ANY attention to the fact these are highly-skilled athletes and incredibly talented at playing this sport, and will simply wait to hope that some girl will go all “Brandi Chastain on us” (see the winning penalty kick of the ’99 Cup and you’ll understand). We haven’t evolved that far yet. It’s been hard not to fall in love with this group of women who have dedicated their lives to their craft with very little consistent fanfare and very little hope of ever becoming independently wealthy from it. It takes real dedication to understand that your goals are very different from those of your male counterparts. But these themes run true through all of it: the thought that I can be the best I can be, that I can be part of the best group of people doing something in the whole world, and that I can be shoulder-to-shoulder with people who I genuinely love very much and no matter what happens I will enjoy the ride with them. See, this women’s team reminds us of two very important facts: 1) That you can be beautiful and still be athletic and competitive at the highest level, and 2) that the journeys of our lives are much more important than the destination. You don’t do what these girls did and not get No. 2, and that’s a more important legacy to leave than any sports league. In the end, we pretty much all end up the same. But the difference is that some of us will not remember so much what we did, but who we did it with and the way it happened. The U.S. Women’s World Cup Champion Soccer Team did that, and in four years we will refresh the names of those ladies in our minds as they look to defend their title against all comers. But until then…
