To all soccer snobs....

Dear America:

We, the undersigned, couldn't give a flying fuck whether you like soccer.

However, we must admit celebrating when Ghana knocked your pouty, overrated asses out of our little tournament.

Sincerely,
The Rest of the World.

 

And just how many assholes do you have?

 

What 8:00 am (pacific) baseball games was Hondo missing?

 

I'm sure he's refering to a Saturday afternoon game ... probably the day the Americans played Italy.

 

While he is still an ass, Hondo does make a point. It's a similar one a co-worker of mine made about tennis a while back.

If three-quarters of our readership doesn't care about soccer (or tennis) for 10 months out of the year, why oh why are we so bombarded with it at the expense of any other sport we do want to watch? If you're going into a bar and 13 TV's are all on the World Cup, and nothing else, and you haven't caught on to watching it, I can see getting annoyed by it. Ditto with all of the news coverage on a sport that most people could care less about most of the time.

My retort? Variety is the spice of life. We're also in an age of media saturation, when big events often get over-produced to the point of ridiculousness. The compromise is having a variety of different sports get "too much" coverage throughout the year.

In other words, suck it up, princess. Your World Series is only four months away.

 

Gomer, here's the problem: the numbers shown are shit.

75% of people that are US citizens living in American don't care. Hmm, okay. BUT...
- How many of them have televisions?
- How many of those polled care about sports at all?
- Where do the people polled live?
- What is the ethnic make-up of those polled?
- How many people, total, were polled?
- How many people polled were men?
- How many people polled were women?

I bet that if you polled everyone in NYC, you might find that 75% don't give two shits about the Yankees or the Mets.

 

I notice when a member of the Rest of the World wants someone to bail their asses out of a war or invasion, orwant more foreign aid, they don't pick up the phone and call Ghana.

 

If your sports bar has all 13 tv's on a WC game and they won't turn one to your MLB game if you ask, then its time to find a new sports bar.

If your problem is that you had to ask them, well thats just too bad.

 

How many times have I walked into one of those joints wanting to see a college hoops game, and it's football or NBA or whatever?
I don't curse the existence of those sports or throw middle fingers at the people who watch them.

 

Fair enough Crass, I was going on the assumption that 75 per cent of the readership really don't care.

I do think that it's important to provide coverage that's appropriate to how many people are interested in it. Unfortunately, there's a lot of guesswork in that.

 

And maybe the losing team will, you know, actually win one game this time.

 

       The whole idea is, every sports event is the most important one going on to SOMEONE. That's why we try and cover as many different events as possible.
      Look, if polls (and the methodology of this one has been rightly criticized here) determine how sports coverage should be shaped then all preps coverage should be shitcanned. Now. If 78 percent of Americans don't care about the World Cup, 99.9999978 percent don't care about Johnny or Jane Jumpups' three hitter in the second round of the state sectionals.
      Twenty-two percent of 300 million Americans is 66 million people. That's one hell of a humonguous audience. Gillette, McDonald's, and those other American firms who bought into the Cup sure don't think nobody cares. They bet millions on the opposite premise. A good free marketeer should be on their side.
   Hondo, a serious xenophobe as well as a knowledgeable golf observer, hates soccer BECAUSE the rest of the world likes it. I'm surprised you all rose to his bait.