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designated players
the barometer
MARK IT DOWN EDITION
“If you took a map of America where Obama is strongest and laid it over a map of where soccer has its biggest appeal, you’d see an incredible overlap… The blue states on both coasts are very soccer-friendly as well as huge areas of support for Obama, where as the center of the country is full of people who are the enemies of soccer and Obama — white, 50-and-over guys who listen to talk radio and only care about football or basketball.” –Joe Roth, via the LA Times
“The way America is changing in its ethnicity — becoming more Latino and African American — is going to make soccer a major sport in the same way those ethnic shifts are helping Obama. Soccer’s fastest growth is in liberal, better-educated cities, places like Seattle, Portland, Boston, Vancouver, Montreal and Los Angeles. All you have to do is look at the MLS crowds — they’re young, they’re noisy and they’re not that different from the youthful spirit you’d see at an Obama rally.”
—-
the task of soccer is as daunting as that laid at the feet of Obama, no matter the demographics. The world will be watching…
banner photo of President-Elect Barack Obama watching his daughter play soccer found at Politico.
RP
on Nov 5th, 2008 - 9:55am
Well that’s apropos of absolutely nothing. Ad hominem attacks are what got us to the point where the vast majority of the electorate needed to vote for a President with a plan and vision. Celebrating Presidnet-Elect Aboama’s victory over the the Rovian crowd by embracing said fellow’s us-against-them tone does Roth, others and soccer absolutely no good. There is a reason Obama’s victory speech was sober in tone.
Adam
on Nov 5th, 2008 - 10:05am
“for the winner, there will be enormous satisfaction and cause to celebrate (briefly)—but no rest.” –Dee Dee Myers
The Fan's Attic
on Nov 5th, 2008 - 11:13am
You could have said the same thing about the 2004, 2000, 1996 and 1992 elections as well. Presidential election politics will not make soccer successful.
Murfmensch
on Nov 5th, 2008 - 2:22pm
Saint Louis city itself is very democratic but much of it is oriented around labor and is otherwise not so focussed on “social issues.”
The suburbs and the city are soccer mad but much of it is quite republican.
Other articles I’ve seen have characterized soccer as a middle-class suburban sport. Would it consist of liberal-leaning suburbanites?
I have found that many soccer fans in the US are “cosmophilic” and therefore wouldn’t buy into some of the nationalist (including anti-immigrant) rhetoric that one hears from much of the right.
Denis
on Nov 6th, 2008 - 3:27am
The air of elitism that surrounds President Obama is only emboldened by thoughts that those who voted against him are ignorant white bumpkins who are afraid of foreigners and would never play their anti-American sport. I won’t deny that someone like that exists, but to paint the entire group as such is incredibly unfair.
Mr. KC
on Nov 6th, 2008 - 4:46am
God bless him for everything he’s helping to do for the sport — but Joe Roth’s logic is at best both flimsy and unsophisticated. How do you categorize one city as better educated as the other without, I suppose, giving statistics of college graduates in that city. This is the kind of coastal elitism that turns middle America off from wanting to participate in things that are more popular on the coast, like soccer. Oh, and to shoot holes in that logic as well, Mr. Roth, St. Louis — perhaps one of the most soccer-friendly metropolitan areas in the U.S. — is smack-dab in the middle of the uneducated backwoods country known as “land-between-California-and-New-York”…. Get off your blowhard high-horse!!
Mr. KC
on Nov 6th, 2008 - 5:25am
Oh, and RP — Here-here my friend!
Tom from Syracuse
on Nov 7th, 2008 - 7:43am
Yes… soccer is for intelligent left coast hippies. and black people.
So shortsighted.
Timoteo
on Nov 9th, 2008 - 8:13am
Utah, probably the most conservative state in the Union has a very robust soccer playing community. Sorry Mr. Roth, you’re off the mark on this one, except in the younger vs. older generation comment. I do think that MLS has to market to, cater to, and attract the younger fan base and not so much the soccer mom.
Sean
on Nov 11th, 2008 - 12:10pm
It is a naive and arrogant belief that all intelligent people agree on anything.
Steven CM
on Nov 11th, 2008 - 3:12pm
Contrary to “Tom from Syracuse”, some of New York State’s best soccer is played in his own backyard; shortsided indeed. The comments he made were not thought out in advance; it reads like some of the posts in the NY Daily News online. Change your concepts - seriously !
By the way, it is possible that Red Bull NY may very well exorcise 13 years of demonic posession this weekend…..YES WE CAN !
Steven CM
on Nov 11th, 2008 - 3:40pm
One more thing, folks: Whatever it is (soccer, et al) one chooses to play for fun and/or escapism etc….., it will be played regardless of politics, regardless of region……by the way, the reporter overlooked several things - soccer is also highly popular in Minnesota and Texas (yes, Texas). People are receptive to new things when a healthy learning environment exists. As a child, I either experimented or played no fewer than seven (7) sports. ALWAYS WORK WITH AN OPEN MIND.
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