by JoeTerp » Tue Jun 30, 2009 10:19 pm
I don't think Americans care too much if their stars are international, just as long as they play on American soil. Many baseball and Hockey stars that play in the US are not from here, and a sizable number of NBA players too. But I don't think an argument can really be made that MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL and all not far and away the best leagues in their respective sports on the planet. I know that it is annoying that we don't play other club teams from around the world, but I would put my mortgage (if I had one) on the champions of those leagues beating any other team from a league outside the US.
As for how this relates to the US, it makes our domestic football league THAT MUCH MORE unpopular. Not only is football not too popular of a sport, but our domestic league is cr@p in comparison to the rest of the world, and even if your into rooting for American's overseas (like Lance Armstrong at Tour de France or our athletes at the Olympics), none of them are superstars either.
And as for the hispanic population. The ones that are into football, mostly follow the mexican league. Also, if you have ever seen the US play a home WC qualifier, you will see that in fact there is no such thing as a home WC qualifier because 75% of the fans in the stands will be cheering for the away country. But that is the history of immigration to this country, it will be another decade before a lot of those kids that were born in America grow up and they will be the perfect combination of growing up in a football household and growing up American. But has also been pointed out a lot of Mexicans are more into baseball or boxing, and some of the other countries that have significant populations in America like Puerto Rico, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic, are not exactly football powerhouses either. Also we have no infrastructure for scouting these poorer, ubran, Latino talents and giving them the coaching that they would need to properly develop their game.
