Bloody Confused - Chapter 1
When I pulled my crisp, clean new copy of Chuck Culpepper's book out of the package from half.com, my eye fell on the teaser quote at the top of the front cover by some idiot at ESPN - "I'm still not sure I love soccer, but I love this book" - and I my heart sank. It sank more when I paged through the "Soccer 101" primer inside. Oh dear, I thought, is this going to be one of those efforts to explain the beautiful game to gringos. It is that, but as I got deeper into Chapter 1, I became more charmed by Culpepper.Like a lot of recent American converts to the game, Culpepper came to footie after becoming disgusted by the corporate culture of American sports. Yet, instead of exploring the MLS, what attracted him was the equally corporate English Premier League. Culpepper all but admits this and that his lack of press credentials in the UK allows him to retain an innocent love for English football.
Have any of you noticed this phenomenon? What is MLS doing wrong in attracting these potential fans? And what must it be like to be an American fan with no roots in the UK choosing a team to support at random? And do we want these fans coming to the game, for that matter? These are just a few questions that come to mind after having read just one chapter of this fascinating book. Feel free to comment whether you've read Culpepper or not - and add your questions!
posted by The Blue Devil @ 11:49 AM
3 Comments:
Hey Bob,
I too thought that the chapter devoted to why he chose Pompey as his team to support was an interesting one.
On the plus side, he chose because he admired Pompey's Glen Johnson and Matthew Taylor. I can relate. I picked my team largely on the basis of Charlie George. It was Sniffer Clark and Peter Lorimer, and later Tony Currie for you, I think.
Also to his credit, he loved the atmosphere at Fratton Park, just like me at Highbury and you the few times we got to Elland Road.
I took issue however with his search for an "authentic" club which in his mind seemed to eliminate Arsenal, and Manchester United. That's lazy stuff, I think. Mandaric's Pompey is no different than Fizzman and Kroenke's Arsenal, or Glazer's Man United. In fact, that Arsenal and Man United, and West Ham too are known for building teams from within or with young untested players, makes them more authentic than buying successful but surplus to requirement players like Defoe, Crouch, Kranjar, and yes, Glen Johnson.
So far, that tone of Culpepper's has set my teeth on edge.
Bob,
One failure is that the MLS has not sold the matchday experience well enough to many of the Americans who follows the Prem.
I'm lucky that I live in DC where we have a stadium that has access from the city and it's public transportation and that provides proximity to the players on the pitch. I've even changed my tune about the supporters club because they have evolved to provide part of the experience instead of a distraction from it.
And recently, I've settled into a routine where I and the guys in my section meet up at bars around Eastern market and walk the 20 minutes from there to RFK.
I know that the MLS cannot have a club in every town, but what would help is if every town that has a MLS club has a stadium like RFK. I've been to 3 away venues, Foxboro, Columbus, and New Jersey, and driven by Arrowhead in KC. To be as disconnected from the center of these towns is a real disadvantage. Columbus tries to defeat that by tailgating their asses off in the parking lot, and their grilled meat-centeredness is to be commended, but after the match it's a real mess getting out of the stadium, and a huge pain driving back into town, finding parking, and meeting up a bar. There's also the factor of having to limit or cut your beer intake because you have to drive.
If however, each team had a soccer specific stadium, in-town for the pre-and-post match, and good public transportation links, it wouldn't matter that the standard of play in the MLS doesn't reach the Prem's. I don't think DCU is any better or worse than Orient, or QPR, or Charlton, and they get good crowds to their matches because it's live football, a sport experience shared with the tribe that you have joined. And there's simply nothing like that.
Agreed. Culpepper's ignorance about the game translates into a naive innocence that helps him to ignore the obvious similarities between the corporate cultures of the MLB, NFL and NBA that irritate him and the Premiership. When I read his comments about the inanities spouted by players and coaches during Superbowl week and I immediately thought about the press conferences that Premiership managers are required to do after matches in which they invariably say the same things - e.g. "We'll be taking it one match at a time," "it's early doors yet," "to be fair...") - over and over again. The rare ones who go beyond the script - Gordon Strachan, Kevin Keegan, Harry Redknapp, Joe Kinnear - are usually just bellyaching about the quality of the refereeing or the media. I'm sure that Garth Crooks and Chris Kamara get as fed up with these canned comments as Culpepper did in the States. But the key is that he's not encumbered by a role as press in Blighty.
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