Is "soccer" on its way to becoming the biggest sport in the US?
MARTIN SAMUEL: Seattle's football fever could see the mighty NFL heading for a fall
Most see the MLS as where good footballers go to earn a final paycheck
Yet if soccer capitalises on the fears around NFL, it could grow rapidly
Seattle Sounders's average attendance last season – 43,734 – would put them sixth in the Premier League and 27th most supported in the world
Seattle are a good model and one that New York City and Co can copy
If the rest of America follows suit, then football could take off in the USA
By Martin Samuel - Sport for the Daily Mail
21 June 2015
Daily Mail
Alan Hinton turned to look at the boisterous South End in full cry. ‘Sometimes I go and sing to them,’ he said. ‘I sing: “We’ve got the best team in the land”.’ And Seattle Sounders have.
Saturday’s out-of-character defeat by San Jose Earthquakes aside, they are the best of Major League Soccer right now.
As snobby Europeans, of course, we know that isn’t saying much. MLS is where good footballers go to die, that is our perception.
David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Thierry Henry. It’s the last paycheck, the last waltz, before the studio sofa or the first tee beckons. The money’s good and the shift is no stretch. Gerrard’s biggest problem at Los Angeles Galaxy will be finding a team-mate who can appreciate a foot that works with the understanding and precision of a quarterback’s arm.
Seattle Sounders have proved a good model as a club and one that other sides in the MLS can copy
Fans cheer for the Seattle Sounders before their MLS match against FC Dallas earlier in June
The supporters are noisy and sing the same songs as loud as fans do at any Premier League ground
Yet the fans Hinton serenades are slowly changing this. It isn’t just the football on the Pacific North West that is worth a second glance.
In Seattle, an army is marching that may one day alter the global power-base of the game. If football takes off in the rest of America as it has here, who knows how the sport will look several decades from now.
This is not about standards of play. It’s about the size of the gate and commercial potential. The Sounders are America’s retort to those who think the MLS is small-time.
Their average attendance last season — 43,734 — would put them sixth in the Premier League behind Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Manchester City and Liverpool.
They are the best supported club in the Americas, with the exception of River Plate of Argentina, and the 27th best supported in the world. If they could persuade another 2,000 people to commit in a city with an area population of 3.6million, they would be inside the top 20.
There was a fraction under 40,000 people to watch the match against San Jose and Seattle’s management would have been disappointed with that. They share the stadium with the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise and most of the upper tier remains closed off for all but local derbies. Yet those average 55,533.
Major League Soccer is coming to realise that the key to growth is rivalry, which is why New York now has two teams and Los Angeles is getting more. Hinton, a United States resident since 1977 and a former coach and club president at the Sounders, says major cities are queuing up to get a team of their own, Atlanta the latest on that list. The fans don’t know football the way they do NFL, he says, but one day they will. Maybe sooner than anyone anticipated.
Alan Hinton moved to the US in 1977 and feels fans will take to the MLS as well as they have the NFL
Hinton played for Derby County (pictured) and is a former coach and club president at the Seattle Sounders
For there is a game-changer that nobody could have anticipated. Degenerative brain disease. As the NFL prepares to pay out compensation approaching $1billion to players who have suffered as a result of extreme physical contact, and one in three retired professionals are said to be affected, soccer is increasingly seen as the safe option.
In conversation with the principal of a local school this week, he said his sports curriculum no longer included gridiron. Not the school’s policy — the wish of concerned parents. Tim had grown up in Europe, had British connections, even played a bit of rugby. ‘In rugby, you are taught how to tackle to protect yourself,’ he said. ‘But NFL players go head to head, and often literally.’ His school played soccer instead.
This isn’t the reason the Sounders draw 50,000 — but it is an unforeseen circumstance boosting participation numbers in America, and therefore wider interest in the game. Seattle had a head start, with its football traditions.
Hinton, an England international who won the title twice at Derby County, wasn’t the only star to come here in the 1970s.
One in three retired professionals are said to be affected as a result of extreme physical contact
The NFL is preparing to pay compensation approaching $1billion to players who have suffered as a result
Soccer is increasingly seen as the safe option with American football causing concern in the United States
SEATTLE LAST FIVE RESULTS IN MLS
L - 2-0 vs San Jose Earthquakes (home)
Attendance: 39,971
W - 3-0 vs FC Dallas (home)
Attendance: 41,108
L - 1-0 vs Sporting Kansas City (away)
Attendance: 21,505
W - 2-1 vs New York Red Bulls (home)
Attendance: 40,194
W - 1-0 vs Colorado Rapids (home)
Attendance: 39,757
Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Alan Hudson, Jimmy Gabriel and Harry Redknapp all found a temporary home in the city — and a fundraiser for Hudson in Seattle last year made more than a similar event organised by Chelsea. In 2007, the Sounders were reborn as a MLS franchise and immediately attracted 18,000 season-ticket holders. Milton Keynes — where ‘a football fever is just waiting to happen,’ according to Pete Winkelman — could only dream of this instant enthusiasm. A decade after forming, in a promotion-winning season, MK Dons still averaged just 9,452.
Season-ticket holders at Seattle Sounders have now doubled from the initial take-up and have a very European enthusiasm for their team, a genuine football fever.
They are noisy. They sing. There are drummers and large flags. They aren’t the docile grazers found at ball parks. The response to the call, ‘Can you hear the Earthquakes sing?’ was exactly the same as it would be at any Premier League ground.
Yes, the culture has been approximated, but in other ways it has been improved.
Before the match, the Sounders celebrated Pride Week. There were 35 rainbow flags waved by members of the gay community on parade, and a golden scarf presentation was made to NBA center Jason Collins, who in 2013 became the first current player in any of America’s four leading sports to come out. The fans sang his name, with no strings or slurs attached.
Flames emerge as fans cheer for the Seattle Sounders ahead of their recent MLS match in June
Seattle Sounders forward Lamar Neagle (right) runs with the ball against San Jose Earthquakes
Seattle Sounders suffered a rare, out-of-character defeat by San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday
Collins never played for Seattle, wasn’t born in Seattle, doesn’t live in Seattle, wasn’t schooled in Seattle. It is not an atmosphere of acceptance expected at any English football ground any day soon. It helps that the club is extremely well run. A stroke of genius at the beginning was to share the Seahawks staff and expertise, as well as the stadium.
The arena gives the club an appealing downtown location, the employees knew their way around issues such as marketing and ticket sales.
Obviously, not every MLS club is as well-appointed as Seattle. Yet this is the ground floor. They are a good model. One that can be copied, tweaked to fit a different location and heritage.
New York City may have been bottom of their league for much of this season but they are drawing gates of more than 26,000 with a season-ticket membership approaching 20,000. Not bad for a start-up.
The standards are not as high in the MLS, with former Fulham star Clint Dempsey pictured shooting, but there is potential
Former Newcastle United forward Obafemi Martins wears a protective mask during their MLS match
So what happens next? This is where it gets interesting. The football isn’t the best right now, but that hardly matters. It is improving and, as it does, so will commercial interest. Then, if soccer in America capitalises on the fears around NFL, it could grow rapidly. And once the money comes in, we know from experience, so will the players. And not just for the last hurrah, either.
If soccer began to generate the wealth of other frontline sports in the United States, it would start to capture players at 25, not 35 — or at least pique the interest of their agents.
America would keep the best players generated by its academies, too, because a country that sings the national anthem before every sports event is aching to promote homegrown heroes.
Imagine if the super-fast young men now schooled to be wide receivers became wingers instead; or played off the shoulder of the last defender? In a country of 319million, have no doubt the talent is there.
Frank Lampard's New York City deal is worth £3.78million a year, according to Major League Soccer figures
If soccer in America capitalises on the fears around NFL, it could grow rapidly as a sport in the US
Steven Gerrard is joining LA Galaxy but he is moving to a country that aches to promote homegrown heroes
Yes, we have heard it before. Remember when the J-League was going to be the world’s biggest? Yet Japan had no cultural event as potentially significant as the health scare around NFL.
If football in America taps into that and the Sounders start to encroach on the Seahawks’ market — and this is a process that will take decades, not years — there is the potential to turn the game on its head.
What price the Champions League if some of the biggest and richest clubs in the world were no longer European? What would happen to the transfer market if the cream of South American talent had options closer to home?
In Seattle, are we witnessing the infant steps of a new global club game? If they can take over coffee, computers and cacophony from here, it really isn’t that far-fetched.
Seattle Sounders are a good model and one that New York City and other new franchises can copy
Seattle Sounders defender Leo Gonzalez takes a selfie with a young fan after their MLS match last week
MARTIN SAMUEL: Seattle's football fever could see the mighty NFL heading for a fall
Most see the MLS as where good footballers go to earn a final paycheck
Yet if soccer capitalises on the fears around NFL, it could grow rapidly
Seattle Sounders's average attendance last season – 43,734 – would put them sixth in the Premier League and 27th most supported in the world
Seattle are a good model and one that New York City and Co can copy
If the rest of America follows suit, then football could take off in the USA
By Martin Samuel - Sport for the Daily Mail
21 June 2015
Daily Mail
Alan Hinton turned to look at the boisterous South End in full cry. ‘Sometimes I go and sing to them,’ he said. ‘I sing: “We’ve got the best team in the land”.’ And Seattle Sounders have.
Saturday’s out-of-character defeat by San Jose Earthquakes aside, they are the best of Major League Soccer right now.
As snobby Europeans, of course, we know that isn’t saying much. MLS is where good footballers go to die, that is our perception.
David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Thierry Henry. It’s the last paycheck, the last waltz, before the studio sofa or the first tee beckons. The money’s good and the shift is no stretch. Gerrard’s biggest problem at Los Angeles Galaxy will be finding a team-mate who can appreciate a foot that works with the understanding and precision of a quarterback’s arm.
Seattle Sounders have proved a good model as a club and one that other sides in the MLS can copy
Fans cheer for the Seattle Sounders before their MLS match against FC Dallas earlier in June
The supporters are noisy and sing the same songs as loud as fans do at any Premier League ground
Yet the fans Hinton serenades are slowly changing this. It isn’t just the football on the Pacific North West that is worth a second glance.
In Seattle, an army is marching that may one day alter the global power-base of the game. If football takes off in the rest of America as it has here, who knows how the sport will look several decades from now.
This is not about standards of play. It’s about the size of the gate and commercial potential. The Sounders are America’s retort to those who think the MLS is small-time.
Their average attendance last season — 43,734 — would put them sixth in the Premier League behind Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Manchester City and Liverpool.
They are the best supported club in the Americas, with the exception of River Plate of Argentina, and the 27th best supported in the world. If they could persuade another 2,000 people to commit in a city with an area population of 3.6million, they would be inside the top 20.
There was a fraction under 40,000 people to watch the match against San Jose and Seattle’s management would have been disappointed with that. They share the stadium with the Seattle Seahawks NFL franchise and most of the upper tier remains closed off for all but local derbies. Yet those average 55,533.
Major League Soccer is coming to realise that the key to growth is rivalry, which is why New York now has two teams and Los Angeles is getting more. Hinton, a United States resident since 1977 and a former coach and club president at the Sounders, says major cities are queuing up to get a team of their own, Atlanta the latest on that list. The fans don’t know football the way they do NFL, he says, but one day they will. Maybe sooner than anyone anticipated.
Alan Hinton moved to the US in 1977 and feels fans will take to the MLS as well as they have the NFL
Hinton played for Derby County (pictured) and is a former coach and club president at the Seattle Sounders
For there is a game-changer that nobody could have anticipated. Degenerative brain disease. As the NFL prepares to pay out compensation approaching $1billion to players who have suffered as a result of extreme physical contact, and one in three retired professionals are said to be affected, soccer is increasingly seen as the safe option.
In conversation with the principal of a local school this week, he said his sports curriculum no longer included gridiron. Not the school’s policy — the wish of concerned parents. Tim had grown up in Europe, had British connections, even played a bit of rugby. ‘In rugby, you are taught how to tackle to protect yourself,’ he said. ‘But NFL players go head to head, and often literally.’ His school played soccer instead.
This isn’t the reason the Sounders draw 50,000 — but it is an unforeseen circumstance boosting participation numbers in America, and therefore wider interest in the game. Seattle had a head start, with its football traditions.
Hinton, an England international who won the title twice at Derby County, wasn’t the only star to come here in the 1970s.
One in three retired professionals are said to be affected as a result of extreme physical contact
The NFL is preparing to pay compensation approaching $1billion to players who have suffered as a result
Soccer is increasingly seen as the safe option with American football causing concern in the United States
SEATTLE LAST FIVE RESULTS IN MLS
L - 2-0 vs San Jose Earthquakes (home)
Attendance: 39,971
W - 3-0 vs FC Dallas (home)
Attendance: 41,108
L - 1-0 vs Sporting Kansas City (away)
Attendance: 21,505
W - 2-1 vs New York Red Bulls (home)
Attendance: 40,194
W - 1-0 vs Colorado Rapids (home)
Attendance: 39,757
Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Alan Hudson, Jimmy Gabriel and Harry Redknapp all found a temporary home in the city — and a fundraiser for Hudson in Seattle last year made more than a similar event organised by Chelsea. In 2007, the Sounders were reborn as a MLS franchise and immediately attracted 18,000 season-ticket holders. Milton Keynes — where ‘a football fever is just waiting to happen,’ according to Pete Winkelman — could only dream of this instant enthusiasm. A decade after forming, in a promotion-winning season, MK Dons still averaged just 9,452.
Season-ticket holders at Seattle Sounders have now doubled from the initial take-up and have a very European enthusiasm for their team, a genuine football fever.
They are noisy. They sing. There are drummers and large flags. They aren’t the docile grazers found at ball parks. The response to the call, ‘Can you hear the Earthquakes sing?’ was exactly the same as it would be at any Premier League ground.
Yes, the culture has been approximated, but in other ways it has been improved.
Before the match, the Sounders celebrated Pride Week. There were 35 rainbow flags waved by members of the gay community on parade, and a golden scarf presentation was made to NBA center Jason Collins, who in 2013 became the first current player in any of America’s four leading sports to come out. The fans sang his name, with no strings or slurs attached.
Flames emerge as fans cheer for the Seattle Sounders ahead of their recent MLS match in June
Seattle Sounders forward Lamar Neagle (right) runs with the ball against San Jose Earthquakes
Seattle Sounders suffered a rare, out-of-character defeat by San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday
Collins never played for Seattle, wasn’t born in Seattle, doesn’t live in Seattle, wasn’t schooled in Seattle. It is not an atmosphere of acceptance expected at any English football ground any day soon. It helps that the club is extremely well run. A stroke of genius at the beginning was to share the Seahawks staff and expertise, as well as the stadium.
The arena gives the club an appealing downtown location, the employees knew their way around issues such as marketing and ticket sales.
Obviously, not every MLS club is as well-appointed as Seattle. Yet this is the ground floor. They are a good model. One that can be copied, tweaked to fit a different location and heritage.
New York City may have been bottom of their league for much of this season but they are drawing gates of more than 26,000 with a season-ticket membership approaching 20,000. Not bad for a start-up.
The standards are not as high in the MLS, with former Fulham star Clint Dempsey pictured shooting, but there is potential
Former Newcastle United forward Obafemi Martins wears a protective mask during their MLS match
So what happens next? This is where it gets interesting. The football isn’t the best right now, but that hardly matters. It is improving and, as it does, so will commercial interest. Then, if soccer in America capitalises on the fears around NFL, it could grow rapidly. And once the money comes in, we know from experience, so will the players. And not just for the last hurrah, either.
If soccer began to generate the wealth of other frontline sports in the United States, it would start to capture players at 25, not 35 — or at least pique the interest of their agents.
America would keep the best players generated by its academies, too, because a country that sings the national anthem before every sports event is aching to promote homegrown heroes.
Imagine if the super-fast young men now schooled to be wide receivers became wingers instead; or played off the shoulder of the last defender? In a country of 319million, have no doubt the talent is there.
Frank Lampard's New York City deal is worth £3.78million a year, according to Major League Soccer figures
If soccer in America capitalises on the fears around NFL, it could grow rapidly as a sport in the US
Steven Gerrard is joining LA Galaxy but he is moving to a country that aches to promote homegrown heroes
Yes, we have heard it before. Remember when the J-League was going to be the world’s biggest? Yet Japan had no cultural event as potentially significant as the health scare around NFL.
If football in America taps into that and the Sounders start to encroach on the Seahawks’ market — and this is a process that will take decades, not years — there is the potential to turn the game on its head.
What price the Champions League if some of the biggest and richest clubs in the world were no longer European? What would happen to the transfer market if the cream of South American talent had options closer to home?
In Seattle, are we witnessing the infant steps of a new global club game? If they can take over coffee, computers and cacophony from here, it really isn’t that far-fetched.
Seattle Sounders are a good model and one that New York City and other new franchises can copy
Seattle Sounders defender Leo Gonzalez takes a selfie with a young fan after their MLS match last week
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