Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 22, 1993 TAG: 9306220147
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
They also have shown they have made no progress toward their ultimate goal - starting a major professional league.
When FIFA awarded the World Cup to the United States on July 4, 1988, the governing body's goal was to jump-start the sport in the United States.
However, soccer officials haven't been willing to market the sport in traditional American ways. The six U.S. Cup '93 games averaged 47,793 tickets sold, but there has been no widespread increase in general interest and no long-term financial commitment from sponsors.
Soccer observers, fans and even a few U.S. World Cup officials all said similar things during the two-week warmup tournament that concluded Saturday: Next year's World Cup will be a success, and nothing will change.
"In the early stages of the World Cup we missed a golden opportunity," said Hank Steinbrecher, executive director of the U.S. Soccer Federation. "We could have said to cities: Build stadiums of 20,000, 30,000 seats" for use by a league after the tournament.
There hasn't been a major outdoor soccer league in the United States since the North American Soccer League folded after the 1984 season, and there are few realistic places to play. U.S. soccer officials, who at first said there would be a league by 1994, were told by FIFA last week to deliver a plan by December.
Steinbrecher says the sport hasn't demonstrated that it can sustain a money-making league in the United States.
"It's a critical problem," he said. "You have to lose money to make money."
He says it's still unclear how much sponsor interest will remain after the World Cup. There was one sponsor after the 1990 tournament; now there are 16.
Some foreign teams, especially in Italy, have inquired about obtaining American franchises, Steinbrecher said. They could sustain losses, but it might turn the U.S. teams into farm clubs for European leagues.
"Do you want that?" Steinbrecher said.
He says there is a market for soccer in the United States, but that officials have to define their expectations. Most stadiums in major markets seat at least 50,000, he pointed out, and come with high rental fees.
"I think we can have a similar level of the current NHL," he said. "I think we can put 10,000 or 15,000 people in a stadium. You do that here and you're an abject failure. . . . Anyone who thinks that in the short term we're going to be commensurate with the NBA isn't on this planet."
The 2.0 rating for ABC's telecast of the June 13 game between the United States and Germany translated to 1,862,000 households. That is slightly higher than the 1.7 rating for five NHL playoff games on ABC, but the NHL is considered a failure by advertising executives. Yes, there was little promotion for the soccer telecast, the first time the U.S. team appeared on a network. But CBS and NBC aired no sports programming opposite the game.
And there was almost no promotion for the star European players at the U.S. Cup. Teams didn't allow extensive media access at practice, and FIFA officials refused to allow reporters into locker rooms after games, which is standard in major-league baseball, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL.
"This is not done in soccer," said Sepp Blatter, FIFA's general secretary.
The NBA, led by commissioner David Stern, has shown that marketing stars such as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan is a way to success for a league. But soccer officials, used to being the primary sport in their countries, refuse to cooperate.
"It's FIFA's decision," World Cup chairman Alan Rothenberg said. "It's not like the NBA."
Rothenberg, who remains a full-time lawyer in Los Angeles while running the organizing committee that will stage the tournament, has sent memoranda to his public relations officials complaining that he wasn't listed among the most powerful people in sports in a recent survey. Yet, he acknowledges that he has no final authority over the World Cup.
"It's FIFA's tournament, not ours," he said.
Even the U.S. team has image problems. While Brazil's coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, spoke in English, U.S. coach Bora Milutinovic mostly spoke Spanish and used a translator, making it difficult for U.S. television stations to put him on the air. Thomas Dooley, who scored one goal for the United States against England and two against Germany, is just learning English after getting a U.S. passport last year.
Jurgen Klinsmann, Germany's star forward and the tournament MVP with four goals, spoke perfect English and became a TV hit.
"We have learned many things," Blatter said of the warmup tournament.
It remains to be seen whether FIFA, a body traditionally slow to act, will turn the thoughts into actions that will help soccer get off the ground in the United States.
by CNB