Owzat wrote:SundanceKid wrote:LFC2007 wrote:A gimmick designed to lure American folk towards 'soccer'.
And what's wrong with that?
What's right with it? When are people going to learn the yanks aren't suddenly going to be interested in 'soccer' en masse? The missionary Beckham is deluded if he thinks yanks will flood to games to watch him, just face it USA is not going to be a big 'soccer' playing country just as India, Sri Lanka, Australia and Pakistan aren't. They got the World Cup in 1994 and their football league is still a joke, if the World Cup can't inspire the yanks then what chance a poxy gimmick will?
Why do people persist with all these gimmicks? Because they want millions of yanks pumping money into the sport.
Why will it fail? Because the yanks have NFL, NHL and glorified rounders. In the same way it wouldn't work in India because they're nutty about cricket. You will probably get a few increases in popularity, but it's competing with well established if less global sports.
So I say why bother? Obviously the intention is to put out promotional events for the one-off $$$$$ payouts. If it weren't financially viable ie ran at a loss, then they wouldn't bother. And of course it is something different for TV who will doubtless have some kind of audience for this non-event.
Ok, but some people do like football in America. And the event is not only to start interesting people but also for the fans they have now.
And actually, most of the LA galazy games have been sold out. Thats 27,000 people, which isn't that bad. Anfield is only around 45,000, so compared to the middle table clubs the Galaxy is doing fine on fan base. And with them playing Chelsea over the summer that will also add to the fan base.
They aren't trying to make it as big as it is in Europe, just to expand on it a little. Honestly, I don't know why you have such a problem with it. Come in 2010 everyone in America will be a temporary fan anyways.
