Sigi Schmid Appeal
Like white people all over this country, I really love the idea of soccer. So do folks in Seattle:
The Seattle Sounders FC may be the upstarts on the local sports scene, but the new pro soccer team appears to be having little trouble attracting sponsors and ticket buyers . . . The Sounders have sold about 20,000 season tickets, which eclipses the number sold by the 32-year-old Mariners team, which estimates it will sell about 14,000 by the start of the season.
Apples and oranges, sure. There are way more baseball games, the cost structure is totally different, the recession may be sending would-be baseball fans to the cheaper option of soccer, and of course, Major League Soccer is a novelty in Seattle. But I have to ask: are MLS teams outselling baseball teams in any other cities? This is one of those things I’d look up this morning if I didn’t have a day job, but I’m going to guess that the answer is no.
(thanks to Pete Toms and Ballpark Digest)
Perhaps Toronto. TFC is hot and the Blue Jays… are not.
Of course, if the A’s move to San Jose, I’d bet the ‘Quakes would have more season tix there too. But I agree with Mike, and think it’s only in Toronto. Houston might have an outside shot of being in that group as well without looking at the data.
Is Shysterball one of the “stuff white people like”?
Probably. By the way, Pete, you should definitely check out that site/book. Two of the things white people supposedly like is pretending to be Canadian when travelling abroad and threatening to move to Canada whenever U.S. politics don’t go the way we like it.
Craig,
I thought that you had referred to this site in the past, but I think it was Bill Simmons, referring to that post about white people threatening to move to Canada when the s**t hits the fan, like when they don’t like the current right government or something. It is truly a fantastic post. I would have said Philadelphia with the new MLS team coming, but, now that the Phillies won the World Series, and everyone hear is pretending to like baseball again, I doubt that will happen (yeah, I agree with Jimmy Rollins about Philadelphia fans—not Phillies fans, but Philadelphia, especially Eagles, fans, when it comes to rooting the Phillies) . . .
The Nats have no fans, and DC United seems fairly popular. I dunno. I mean, who owns Nats season tickets? I guess the lobbyists might put them over the threshold, but even then with the economy and new rules and all…
Craig, I’ve been familiar with “stuff white people” for a few years. Neate Sager turned me on to it. I think it really should be called “stuff white liberals like”. I think it’s really funny and BTW it’s creator is a hoser (now living in CA). My city, Ottawa, would qualify as one of the “stuff white people like”. In fact, isn’t baseball one of the “stuff”?
Certainly the Boston Red Sox are listed as one of the things we like. I can’t remember if baseball has its own entry. Probably should.
Sorry, I was too literal. I didn’t think it was one of the “official stuff”, I meant to communicate that it is one of the “unofficial stuff”.
Sorry to bring this somewhat back to topic but let us have a look at some numbers:
The Forbes Value Rankings in 2008 for each league: NHL $2.747B; NBA $3.765B; MLB $5.489B; and NFL $7.090B. From Forbes.com, revenues based off of 2007 seasons (or 2007-2008 for those leagues who can’t decide which year they’re in). For those interested, the MLS brought in $165M (note the M, not B), or about 1.309 Barry Zito contracts.
Despite these dire signals from Seattle, I’d say soccer has quite a ways to go in the US.
You’re right, that really should be “Stuff White Liberal People Like.” But even as a white (somewhat) liberal, I find myself not particularly liking a majority of those things.
And I hate the idea of soccer, the idea being even more boring than the actual game.
The SWPL guy, Christian Lander, acknowledges in the text of the entries that it’s about white urban liberals. He always says things like “if they don’t like coffee/scarves/guilt then they’re obviously the wrong kind of white people and you should avoid them.”
I’m pretty sure soccer has been primed to take over America for the past 30 years. Beckham was supposed to be the last major catalyst.
Oddly enough, if/when soccer gets popular, it probable won’t be because of you white people.