250 Million Reasons Californians Are Nuts!

[termietermite]

Who's David Beckham?

[Brad Zarse]

Unfortuntely its the fact that the US is unable to embrace the skills required in football is the reason that the rest of the world SEE's them as a third class sporting nation....forget the olympics, forget the superbowl, forget the NafFL, "soccer" as you seem to insist on calling it (Seriously, its played with the feet - i know this is an alien concept) is the BIGGEST game in the world. 

THE WHOLE of the rest of the world barring the US and Canada play it and are passionate about it...the roots of US sport come from the fact that they are terrible at football, and therefore threw thier toys out the pram and invented thier own imitation of the game, where they could predominantely use thier hands.....THEN they invented the "World" baseball series, but discounted the rest of the world.... World Domination? I think not - the WORLD does not consist of 50 states....

Beckham is WAY bigger than Tiger Woods...in ANY country...Golf is not really a sport...where's the athletisism?  I mean have a look at colin montgomery....hardly young, fit and athletic.... Beckham  is NOT the biggest football player in the UK...He's the biggest player in THE WORLD....Which STILL doesn't consist of 50 states....

The packed bars when I was in the NYC over new years suggest that "soccer" has a bigger following than it's given credit for in the US...now some of these will be tourists...but pretending that ANY U.S. sport is bigger than football is just madness... especially given that there wasn't a fan in sight when the Handball game was on....

Be grateful that you've managed to secure a superstar into the ranks of your second rate sporting nation, sit back, and watch his world domination continue...maybe if the US started to embrace soccer, you'd truly understand the meaning of passion.

READING FC TILL I DIE....

[termietermite]

And there you are, here was me thinking this was a site relating to a proper sport.

[Boorish Grobian]

I'll give you credit Snoring Rhino, your certainly enthusiastic, delusional if you think US fans are going to embrace soccer, but no doubt out it, enthusistic!
Fax

[Boorish Grobian]

Brad, the following is from a guy named Jim Rome, one of the most influential sports radio talk show hosts. This is his take on Beckham:
 
A day later, this town is still reeling from the Los Angeles Whatever They Call Themselves bringing in David Beckham for a reported $250 million bucks potentially. The MLS and the Galaxy are hoping Beckham can do what no other human in the history of the world has been able to do, make more than five people in America care about soccer.

That $250 mill just bought you one full day pub and splashed soccer all over the fishrap and television, but let me say this. And I mean this sincerely, Orange Wedge Nation, back in the shallow end. Football is still king here and the playoffs are this weekend, so I hope you enjoyed that one day vacation because it’s never coming back. There is no soccer renaissance coming. The MLS is not the new NASCAR. I don’t care how much they pay him, or how many TV ads they run of him bending it around mullet wearers. The guy is always going to be one thing to me; New Coke. Lots of hype, lots of pub, but a watered down version of something I didn’t ask for, don’t need and don’t want. He’s a fading star, on the downside of his career, playing a fringe sport. Great, he’s famous. I get it. So is Robert DeNiro, but I don’t want to see him play soccer either. Saying it’s big, doesn’t make it so. And in anticipation of all your soccer emails, that I just don’t get it…exactly, I don’t. I’ve been trying to tell you that for years. Why aren’t you listening?
 
 

[Fran]

a fringe sport

Football a fringe sport?  Surely not! 

[Nordic]

In the unlikey event that Football (the world version  ) does take off in the US of A, then the rest of the world better watch out.

If it became the sport of choice in the colleges then we would have to contend with thrashings like the cricket team got at the hands of the Aussies (thank god, like the US its not a huge sport there either!) and the associated gloating.

A nation the size of the USA, with the wealth and training regimes used in baseball, footbal (colonial) and the will to win would become an unstopable machine until they where dope tested at any rate.

BTW, I heard today on the radio that Beckham is being toted to play a part hosting the oscars

[smokie]

Who's David Beckham?

Who cares?


I can't be bothered with football, soccer, whatever. Messrs Rhino and Robspot do not speak for the whole of the UK population... Even some Radio 4 radio presenters today were being somewhat scathing about it (err - I was fitting a car radio and came onto radio 4 - I don't usually listen to that either!!). 

[nopanic - neil]

Another thought about Becks move, as seen in a paper this weekend

Beckham beckons

Sir - Now that David Beckham and his family may be moving to a glamorous mansion in a salubrious part of Los Angeles (Features, January 12), will the Blairs be able to resist holidaying with them later this year?

[Dave H]

Unfortuntely its the fact that the US is unable to embrace the skills required in football is the reason that the rest of the world SEE's them as a third class sporting nation....forget the olympics, forget the superbowl, forget the NafFL, "soccer" as you seem to insist on calling it (Seriously, its played with the feet - i know this is an alien concept) is the BIGGEST game in the world. 

THE WHOLE of the rest of the world barring the US and Canada play it and are passionate about it...the roots of US sport come from the fact that they are terrible at football, and therefore threw thier toys out the pram and invented thier own imitation of the game, where they could predominantely use thier hands.....THEN they invented the "World" baseball series, but discounted the rest of the world.... World Domination? I think not - the WORLD does not consist of 50 states....

Beckham is WAY bigger than Tiger Woods...in ANY country...Golf is not really a sport...where's the athletisism?  I mean have a look at colin montgomery....hardly young, fit and athletic.... Beckham  is NOT the biggest football player in the UK...He's the biggest player in THE WORLD....Which STILL doesn't consist of 50 states....

The packed bars when I was in the NYC over new years suggest that "soccer" has a bigger following than it's given credit for in the US...now some of these will be tourists...but pretending that ANY U.S. sport is bigger than football is just madness... especially given that there wasn't a fan in sight when the Handball game was on....

Be grateful that you've managed to secure a superstar into the ranks of your second rate sporting nation, sit back, and watch his world domination continue...maybe if the US started to embrace soccer, you'd truly understand the meaning of passion.

READING FC TILL I DIE....

I know I'm late to the party here, but dude, what the hell are you on?  Perhaps if you stick with caravan holidays to Skegness, you won't feel so bitter every time you come here and then have to go home again to hype-up how "better" the rest of the world is.

Beckham will get media attention, but MLS won't. 

You clearly don't understand US society.  Go to New Orleans or Chicago RIGHT NOW (at half time of the play-off game against Seattle) and you'll see passion that matches anywhere in the world when it comes to sports.  Having lived in the States for the last 20 years I have not lost my passion for football (I see we drew with Reading today by the way) but have developed very strong feelings for some US sports (especially NFL).  Fans are just as loyal, the game is just as entertaining and the stars are just as motivating.

For the MLS to truly attract widespread US interest, there'd have to be a dramatic loss of interest in the existing sports.  In the early 80s American Football came to the UK, we all watched it on Channel 4 and it was interesting to many.  But nobody bailed on footy to adopt this instead.  Why would it be ANY different the other way around?  It won't.

As for Becks.... My money's on him being found with Paris Hilton's knickers around his chin within 6-months.

[Brad Zarse]

I have nothing against America or Americans in particular...and FYI the plan is that I will move over to the States within the next 3 years...

But as for passion...well see the attached video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5SCGHSZzKI&mode=related&search=

If you can find me evidence of any US sport where the fans care that much that they make THAT MUCH noise, I'll gladly admit that I was wrong and you were right.
Thats 3000 fans in that video - its not even thier home ground...the goal technically meant nothing - by that time Reading were promoted by virtue of other results elsewhere, that we ALL knew about....

This kind of scene is common across the UK and the rest of the world....

You have to watch it for about a minute - the rest is all just chating and singing...

We only really have one truly great sport (Rugby,  cricket etc is all good, but not really on the scale of football over here)...no matter how hard you try, you'll never convince me that the beautiful games name sake is anything other than its poor relation... Mainly by virtue of the fact that its name is wrong (it really ought to be called handball, or catchwrestling) and that really, it's just big money wrestling...and don't even START on the WWF rubbish!

Playoff's, Superbowl, World Series, Stanley Cup....the only people who watch that really are in the US.... and what has riled me more than anything is the fact that you've just signed one of the biggest sports stars on the planet, and America is happy to make a joke out of it.  Whats the matter with them? Scared that Beckham's going to come over and show the world how poor americans really ARE at real sports?

Motorsports is my first love....Football is my passion....you will never convince me that US Sports are anything but US sports - to be played in the US, and kept in the US...

As an end note to this post, I'd just like to say that I if my passion for this subject has made me seem a little personal and hard hitting, I'm sorry - I wish to make no enemy's on this board and I am purely putting my point across as I highly disagree with the original post...no offence meant towards those on the other side of the pond....and for the info of those who are interested, it is also my belief that NO ONE PERSON IS WORTH £125 MILLION in 5 years....

Brad

P.S. That video wasn't taken by me....or anyone near me - Im about 30 seats to the right hand side....

[Dave H]

I have nothing against America or Americans in particular...and FYI the plan is that I will move over to the States within the next 3 years...


If you can find me evidence of any US sport where the fans care that much that they make THAT MUCH noise, I'll gladly admit that I was wrong and you were right.
Thats 3000 fans in that video - its not even thier home ground...the goal technically meant nothing - by that time Reading were promoted by virtue of other results elsewhere, that we ALL knew about....

This kind of scene is common across the UK and the rest of the world....


We only really have one truly great sport (Rugby,  cricket etc is all good, but not really on the scale of football over here)...no matter how hard you try, you'll never convince me that the beautiful games name sake is anything other than its poor relation... Mainly by virtue of the fact that its name is wrong (it really ought to be called handball, or catchwrestling) and that really, it's just big money wrestling...and don't even START on the WWF rubbish!

Playoff's, Superbowl, World Series, Stanley Cup....the only people who watch that really are in the US.... and what has riled me more than anything is the fact that you've just signed one of the biggest sports stars on the planet, and America is happy to make a joke out of it.  Whats the matter with them? Scared that Beckham's going to come over and show the world how poor americans really ARE at real sports?

As an end note to this post, I'd just like to say that I if my passion for this subject has made me seem a little personal and hard hitting, I'm sorry - I wish to make no enemy's on this board and I am purely putting my point across as I highly disagree with the original post...no offence meant towards those on the other side of the pond....and for the info of those who are interested, it is also my belief that NO ONE PERSON IS WORTH £125 MILLION in 5 years....

Brad

Your comments seem so unfounded it's bizarre.  If you're going to move to the US, please drop the "UK is better" attitude.  We've got enough desperately hanging on ex-pats over here already.  It's very passé.

By the way, next time you're over here, go to South Philly and ask some of the steelworkers their thoughts about the Eagles....

[Matt Harper]

Like my younger and uglier sibling, I;m late on this one, but have been watching it with interest.
Firstly, I think that David Beckham (or rather his management) have done exactly the right thing. Nowhere else on this planet could a sportsman in his position capitalise on his fame and past glory than in this market. I take my hat off to him.
Secondly, I'm no expert on sport in general - but - I was a pretty much died-in-the-wool Nottm Forest fan when I lived in England, so I went through the pleasure and the pain (mostly pain). I also played Rugby Union for my school, (Henry Mellish Grammer, Nottm) and Nottingham Boys as hooker and stand-off - so I have a grasp of Rugby too.
Soccer (sorry to use this profane word) is not a sport that will ever easily be embraced in the US. Just like cricket. That's not to say that either game has no value - it just doesn't work here.
(American) Football is a sports phenomenon here that is hard to understand, unless you take the trouble to understand it. (like any other sport, I guess).
Those that try to compare  US Football with Rugby are ignorant. There are precious few similarities in the two games, other than territory and possession. I have a little knowledge of the US game now - and it is a great sport - full of strategy, drama, the unexpected - and as stated earlier, marketed superbly in this country - it's a national institution - just like Football is in Europe. Knocking one country's national game against anothers is banal - irrelevant and without foundation.
Getting back to the question at hand - will the arrival of David Beckham herald a serious interest in Soccer in the US? Temporarily, yes - he's a major global celebrity after all. That said, he's also past it (in terms of Soccer's higher eschelon) and he's one player in a team that would struggle to force a draw with Barnsley FC Reserves - so where's the glory in that?
He ain't the first - George Best, Rodney Marsh, Pele, Franz Beckenbaur - this isn't a unique deal.
David Beckham will be huge in the US - but not because he's any good at Football.   

[Boorish Grobian]

Some great rants Brad, utterly paranoid, but great rants nonetheless.  As Dave said, lose the superiority attitude if your planning on moving here, you'll find yourself very lonely and unemployed.
Fax

[mgmark]

It's all come on a bit since the good old days of Division One, standing on the terraces at Villa Park in the rain and wind, eating a rat pie and drinking something masquerading as warm beer, all from within a week's pocket money.  The days when footballers had normal jobs during weekdays, trained in the evenings and played matches on a Saturday.......ho hum....

MG Mark