Philadephia clearly does not deserve, nor does it actually want, a Major League Soccer team. There's a reason that the city didn't make the mistake of jumping on to the soccer bandwagon in 1996. After all, the city was the country's first capital, so Philadelphia knows what is All-American, and soccer clearly isn't it. Philadelphia has gotten this far without soccer, and continues to resist attempts by MLS to get suckered into joining the latest version of the sport that has never really caught on in this country.
Red-blooded sports like the NFL, the NBA, and baseball have been embraced by Philly fans for years, but clearly, no true Philadephian can get behind a game that cancels the use of the hands that have developed a good part of their strength hefting so many cheesesteaks.
A recent poll revealed that interest to bring MLS to Philly is minimal - a majority of responders did not vote for the city to receive an MLS team. In fact, the idea of an MLS team even failed to win 30 percent support.
The lunatic fringe that supports soccer is better suited to the towns that are predisposed to an empty-headed worship of worthless celebrities, like Los Angeles. Philadelphia should remain a pure bastion of real U.S. sports. After all, Ben Franklin never played soccer.
14 comments:
College soccer is over 100 years old in the US. I don't think its a top 5 five traditional US sport but it is a traditional US sport its long history reveal that it was always under the radar lurking. The sport has always had the misfortune of being labeled a sport for immigrants, but that clearly wasn't true.
Despite that Philly doesn't appear to have a strong soccer culture and it seems that the league is more interested in having a team located between DC and NY thus completing the whole DC to NE corridor the league has wanted for a while. MLS should look toward cities where soccer culture is stong such as Portland or San Diego or cities that don't have many other major professional sports teams. Philly just makes no sense in the long run but Garber is really feeling himself now a days.
I think this article is approproately titled. What are you thinking??? Salt Lake = cult following?
I'm not sure, but what are you referring to when you mention Salt Lake following cults? Maybe you can expound on that.
Andrea,"predisposed to follow cults"??? What is that supposed to mean? I'm one that doesn't get offended easily but that statement was pretty offensive to me. Why don't you go get educated on my religion before you go mouthing off like that and calling us a cult.
Ok, fine, let me explain, though I intended to leave this up for a weekend, and assess the results later. I was attempting a Swiftian satirical piece on Philly expansion, using many of the lame, trite, illogical, phobic and downright meanspirited arguments other people have expounded on why soccer will never make it in America.
The formula was simple - wave the flag a bit as an anti-soccer argument, twist a few relevant stats (our own poll), demean one of the cities that have invested in soccer, and then throw in a conclusion based on an irrelevant item.
I was waiting for indignant Philly fans to rush in - or for those savvy enough, to pick up on the sarcasm. Instead, I've apparently just triggered RSL fans, which wasn't my intention. I could have just as easily said something about how LA is an empty-headed worshipper of worthless celebrities, so let them keep Beckham - Philly cheers for real sports heroes or some such nonsense. I was going for something echoing some of the weird paranoia I've stumbled across in anti-soccer articles (ie, a love of soccer leads to dangerous, anti-American things), but I realize too late it's come off as a swipe at Utah's primary religion, which wasn't my intention.
I was hoping the title was a big enough hint.
that was a classless low-blow and you should be ashamed of yourself, whatever your intentions were. I have lost all respect for you and if it wasn't for luis I would not follow this blog.
I'm not ashamed, because the entire post was about stuff I didn't believe in. I don't believe that Philadelphia is a bad soccer city, I don't believe that soccer is anti-American and I don't believe Salt Lake is predisposed to follow anything in particular, nor do I believe Mormonism is a cult. The ridiculousness of that assertion was supposed to be a calling card to the whole idiocy of the argument. I changed it when I realized some were taking it seriously, but I'm not going to apologize for something that I never meant in the first place.
AC, maybe they would have caught on a little quicker if you'd named it "A Modest Proposal."
I thought about that, but technically, though I make an argument, I didn't really propose anything in the post. But in hindsight, making the connection more obvious might have worked.
Actually, it wouldn't have helped. From the sound of it, you should have titled it, "Hey Everyone, This Is Satire - Meaning, It's Not To Be Taken At Face Value".
That would've solved it. Honest.
Naming it A Modest Proposal would have been a bit blunt. As far as I'm concerned the blog is better off without the readers who didn't get it. And I don't think you should have caved in and changed the post. It was more absurd (and more effective satire) as it was; many people would argue that the description of LA is reality.
OMG, WTFBBQ???
If perfection were humanly possible, this blog post would have been perfect, Andrea.
:::sigh::: It's so sad and embarrassing to be a human from earth sometimes (okay, all the time), but it provides much lulz. People are fun-nay.
Wrong! The "cradle" of the American democracy is the perfect place for a Major League Soccer team. Soccer is the most popular sport in the World. It is a sport which requires strength, explosive power, speed & agility, and overall total body strength. It requires extreme skill. It’s a sport which has been played in this country since the 1600s.
Soccer is the only team sport in which the American teams compete which is truly global. More and more Patriotic Americans are discovering the excitement of the “World’s Game”. They are starting grasp the GLOBAL importance of this game, They understand how important it is to support the sport. This support begins with youth clubs, and continues with support for soccer in schools ranging from elementary school to universities.
These Patriotic Americans support the United States National team(s) because these teams play for our country and represent our country in the World’s most popular sport. These patriots are also supporting Major League Soccer and the United States Soccer League because they know these leagues develop and provide competitive players for the United States National team.
The 2006 Men's World Cup was aired by a total of 43,600 broadcasts across 214 countries and territories. The 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany had a total cumulative television audience of 26.29 billion (24.2 billion in-home and 2.1 billion out-of-home viewers).
The Women’s World Cup started in 1991. Since that time, the women’s U.S. Team have never finished lower than 3rd place and have won the cup twice. In the current 2007 Women’s World Cup they have beaten England to reach the semi-finals.
The United States Soccer Federation has the most registered youth players (3.9 million) in the world, with 2.3 million male players and 1.5 million female players. Germany is second and Brazil third. There are four times as many players participating in youth soccer than in Little League Baseball. Soccer is a more popular sport for girls in the U.S. than in Europe and Latin America, traditional soccer regions.
For many years, the “beautiful game” has been overshadowed by the well orchestrated marketing machines of gridiron football, baseball and basketball. I still enjoy watching, following and supporting teams in these sports. I grew up on these sports. I didn’t even discover soccer until I was already in my 40’s.
Once I started to understand the game, I was able to make an emotional connection to my hometown MLS team and with our Nation’s team. I started attending games and also started to follow my home team in MLS and in international play. Started to watch and follow our country’s team in quest for the high sporting prize in the World.
I started to watch them play on television when my team wasn’t playing at a venue close enough to travel to the within a few hours. It was after I made the effort that was I able to truly discover the most exciting and popular game on the planet.
When Pele joined the North American Soccer League, our country had been without a professional soccer league for nearly fifty years. The United States hadn’t even qualified for the World Cup during this period.
The North American Soccer League took us out of this darkness but failed in the 1980s through too rapid expansion and mismanagement. Major League Soccer, however, is a on very solid footing. MLS has a strong base of American professional players which have been complimented the acquisition of World renowned players such as Blanco, Beckham, Angel and this list is continuing to grow. The seed was planted with the North American Soccer League and professional soccer now growing infancy to a maturing league capable of taking on top teams from around the World and winning.
Stop whining and get onboard. Support your Philadelphia MLS team bid and support the United States National Team(s).
God bless America!!
A few more Soccer Facts:
• Soccer is played in almost every country in the world.
• The World Cup, played every four years, is the most watched sporting event in the world. An estimated 25% of the world’s population watched the final game of the 2006 World Cup.
The United States
•. The 1920s are widely considered the first Golden Era in American soccer.
• The American Soccer League (ASL) was founded in 1921.
• During the mid 1920s, the crowds for games were large, with 10,000 a common attendance figure.
• In 1930, the U.S. team placed third in the first World Cup held in Uruguay.
• The U.S. National team stunned the world by defeating England in the 1950 World Cup.
• The U.S. Women’s team was inaugurated in 1985.
• The U.S. Women’s team permanently altered the landscape of women’s sports with their historic win at the 1999 Women’s World Cup. The team won six tournaments in 2000 as well as an Olympic silver medal.
• The U.S. National Soccer Team programs have qualified for 19 consecutive FIFA outdoor world championships (a number currently surpassed only by Brazil).
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