Blinkman987 posted:

I'm kinda an odd duck-- watched EPL/World Cup with my college roommate, forgot about the sport for a few years, went to a Champions League match last season, and decided that overall, the live fan experience for soccer was exactly what I wanted. I'm pretty much all-in on La Liga/Champions League. I figured it would take me a few years to watch it at an elite level, so here I am approaching year two. While I can't often see my main squeeze leagues live (gently caress friendlies tours in the US), I can attend and watch some MLS here and there. I've attended those matches and those fans don't quite have the gravitas of 87,000 singing fans, but they care a lot. And the passes aren't crisp, and attackers are sprinting at dribbling defenders just on the reasonable chance that the defender fucks up. It's sloppy at times. The general play is improving, the facilities are improving, and all-in-all the infrastructure for everything involving American soccer is improving. And to be honest, the fans are pretty friendly. Even Timbers/Sounders where Dempsey scored a hat trick to tie the game at 4-4, people were kinda just happy to see a close match. Soccer is keeping me, and many other fans, in the game and sending us out into ambassadors. And when the game grows in the US, it's good for everybody.

Yes, American fans can be classic Sportscenter-watching dolts and that's kinda ok. Sometimes you need nothing more than loud people irrationally driving conversation, and there are dumb fans in every sport. Gotta reach critical mass somehow. Yeah, Americans have a weird relationship with this team between cheering for a legit underdog and then confronting people who want to talk poo poo about MLS/USMNT beyond just stating dispassionate facts, unfortunate realities of the league as it is today. Mostly NFL fans teeing off domestically, hyper-competitive internet people digitally. And yup, the overall product isn't as good as the stuff across the pond and we don't want to deal with those unpleasant facts so sometimes we lash out, just as the people who feel the need to attack MLS often do it due to some perceived slight against them from the simple existence of the MLS.

America can be good, GREAT for soccer. What America can offer is their total, world-class media presentation and fan brains ready for irrational indoctrination into the sport. All it needs is the right seed and the handful of right players. The team/league/UEFA/FoxSports1 digital products are all second-class to NA apps like TheScore or even the Turner-media run league pages for the NBA. Or, you know, YOU-loving-TUBE strategy. San Francisco made, our web products are word class.

If you don't like soccer stats being owned as proprietary data by Opta, you should see the reverse with the NBA: http://stats.nba.com/ The league even builds APIs for websites to use! Oh, and we're great at bringing in hard math and processes to create advanced statistics that can open the game up for analysis which hopefully leads to a more fluid, position-free, exciting game that can raise the quality of discourse in soccer talks. The discussion of advanced stats and their value is always a tough battle at first, but most sports are well through that fight in various degrees with NBA the clear leader in that the league fully embraces data and paid for every team to install tracking cams in every arena. Last year the greatest breakthrough in all attempts to gain a sports edge was... playing important guys fewer minutes over the season and playoffs so they were less tired than their opponents. So, uh... there are still little edges to discover too hahaha

Let's combine the two! Through our giant media companies, we have websites like 538 that map out players mathematically to show that no, really, Messi is the no-exaggeration once-in-a-generation player and Ronaldo is behind him, but in some ways he's very very behind. They give proof! Sure, some sites like Statsbomb.com are trying to do it in the EU, but we have multi-million dollar media companies getting into the game here! Fans are more educated, better informed, internalize better processes for evaluating the game and they teach that to their kids!

Also, eyeballs. Marketing dollars, so many marketing dollars in a world where basically the only TV ad time worth a drat is related to sports and we spend stupid amounts of money on sports, either as consumers or brand partners. The NFL has a target of yearly revenue at 25 billion dollars in 2027. That sport is so dangerous to play that it may not even exist in 20 years! The NBA teams made 5 billion dollars this past year. Even the paltry NHL had 3.5b in revenue. So, yeah, Americans spend and spend recklessly on pro sports. Also, the departments in Nike, Adidas, etc know how to integrate their branded gear into our identities to being emotionally committed to a product. We're not so cool with wearing the sponsors on the chest (besides the Nascar folks), but there will always be national team shirts we can buy, I guess and eventually we'll just cave to the corporatization of our jerseys and buy them because we're easily manipulated beasts. More money coming into the league, more money teams can spend to train and compete!

Finally, what America does is get the kids. You can get the kids. Soccer won't just be a week spent once a year where kids play soccer poorly. Every kid has a sense of what's going on and the gym teacher feels compelled to teach the kids how to play the sport right. Maybe some more youth leagues open up, but what that really does is give each player a sense of the game where they can be a viewer and create some stakes for themselves easily when they watch.

Anyway, soccer/futbol worldwide becomes far more successful when the American teams will inevitably find success in the world tournaments. America hitting the knockout stage is real cool and there's plenty of things to look forward to in the next 2-4 years.

Blinkman987 posted:

kinda
overall
pretty much
figured
While
don't quite
but
And
and
sloppy
all-in-all
to be honest
pretty friendly
Even
kinda just

Yes
kinda ok
Sometimes
somehow
Yeah,
Mostly
And yup,

fan brains

Oh, and
So, uh...
hahaha

Sure,
but

Also
Even
So, yeah
Also,
I guess and eventually
Maybe

Anyway,

vyelkin posted:

Bogan Krkic posted:

That’s my all time worst TRP post

vyelkin posted:

vyelkin posted:

ilmucche posted:

What was the point of this post other than that person trying to be the most insufferable us footy imaginable?

vyelkin posted:

It's hard for Americans to accept that the biggest and best sport in the world does not need them and does not want them

quote:

The team/league/UEFA/FoxSports1 digital products are all second-class to NA apps like TheScore or even the Turner-media run league pages for the NBA.

Nuclear Spoon posted:

vyelkin posted:

Jose posted:

badvertising melting down over being asked "do they win a trophy for that?" about chelsea

The Finn posted:

He later closed PWM while I was out and my phone blew up

Jose posted:

you called me a concern troll in PWM

The Finn posted:

He later closed PWM while I was out and my phone blew up

The Finn posted:

tbf I'm sure it was justified

jesus WEP posted:

redstar baldgreg is one of the best bits of wordplay this forum ever produced