Chances are you will encounter plenty of soccer fans over the next couple of weeks during the World Cup. You will find a diverse range of nationalities, ages, genders and backgrounds. Some will have been involved in the game for their entire lives and others will have just discovered it when ESPN started talking non-stop about Landon Donovan's exclusion from the American roster and how our German born coach, "doesn't think we can win," which is not at all what he said if you've read the entire interview.
The type of soccer fan that you should avoid talking to at all costs will look and sound quite a bit like Kristian Dyer of Metro New York and BigAppleSoccer.com. In case you missed it, Kristian wrote an article recently entitled, "Americans Who Ignore MLS, NASL Aren’t Real Soccer Fans."
In the article, Dyer blasts casual soccer fans, supporters of leagues outside of the United States and random Americans that might be watching the sport for the first time. He says that they're not real soccer fans if they ignore the sport in their own backyard. What he means, of course, is that you are not a "real fan" if you do not support MLS as much as he and his friends.
His initial argument to support his narrative is that other sports don't have this equivalent, "where people support a national club in droves but pay no attention to their local teams." He sites hockey and basketball as examples, saying that Americans cheer for the national team in the Olympics, but also have a local NHL or NBA franchise that they follow.
My first question is, was Mr. Dyer living in a cave during the USA-Russia game in Sochi? According to NBC Sports Network a record 4.1 million people tuned in to watch that game and the number grew to 6.4 during the 4-goal tear T.J. Oshie went on during the shootout. Would anyone care to wager a guess as to what percentage of those people have ever been to an NHL game? Or how many watch the sport with any regularity? Did the NHL or it's friends in the media attack those fans for not attending St. Louis Blues' games? No. They embraced the support in hopes that maybe a handful of them would attend, catch a game on television or purchase merchandise.
How about the original Dream Team and the millions that watched MJ, Bird and Magic humiliate Angola, but didn't really care about going to a Milwaukee Bucks game? What about the 111.5 million viewers that took in the Super Bowl this year? How many of those that tuned in to see Bruno Mars and the commercials go to Jacksonville Jaguars games?
I sincerely don't see how additional viewers and fans, no matter how casual their interest may be, is bad for your sport. And furthermore, why is there this incessant need for MLS fans to call people out who don't have the same level of interest and passion?
Dyer goes on to drum up support for his argument by saying that many fans will watch European teams from their couch or sports bar, but refuse to go to MLS stadiums for local games. He goes on to suggest that we cheer for the national team, but "conveniently forget" that many of the players for the USA play in MLS. "For shame," he says. The shame, in my opinion, should be with Dyer and fans like him who attack the casual fan. He calls them glory hunters and Eurosnobs, resorting to grade school level name calling because he can't be bothered to formulate an opinion without ridiculous insults.
According to Dyer, I'm not a real fan because I don't go support my local MLS or NASL team. Never mind the fact that I have been around this game for nearly the entire 35-years that I've lived on this earth. I have played, officiated and/or coached at various levels up through college and semi-pro. I have even worked in the front offices of some of the MLS teams that Dyer writes about. But since I don't watch or attend MLS games, I'm not a "real fan."
What people like Dyer fail to comprehend is that MLS is still in it's infancy. While some have jumped on the bandwagon early and ridden the roller coaster, others haven't yet developed deep rooting interests. My family in England turned me on the game when I was barely out of diapers, but MLS didn't even begin until I was almost finished with high school. For many Americans, they were much older than that. By the time I reached that age, I had deep rooting interests with other sports and there simply isn't the emotional connection to professional soccer teams the way I have with the Cleveland Browns. And despite being brought up to support teams in Europe, I don't even really pay attention to them.
20 years from now, the 35-year olds like me in this country will have never lived a day without MLS and maybe they will have deep rooting interests like I do with my hometown teams in other sports. My hope is that one day MLS will grow to one of the top leagues in the world with packed venues every night of the week. My fear is that unless the hardcore fans and media members like Dyer remove the collective chip from their shoulders, a number of those fans could be missed. Right now, the future season ticket holders are kids and the only way they're going to MLS games is if their parents, the very people Dyer is attacking so callously in his article, take them to a game.
The biggest question above all is, why does it matter if they fit his definition of a "real fan"? Our sport has achieved unprecedented viewership in this country and on Monday evening I watched a pro-American crowd at a World Cup match on foreign soil. I saw people packed in the streets and bars in cities all across this great country rooting for America. My fiancé watched a World Cup game for the first time in her life. All of this is good for soccer in America. It's good for MLS. Whether or not they go to MLS games is largely irrelevant. They're allowed to be fans of America. They're allowed to be fans of soccer. And they don't need the approval of blowhards like Kristian Dyer to validate their relationship to the beautiful game.
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