THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994 TAG: 9406170024
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Medium
DATELINE: 940617 LENGTH:
Soccer? That game of chasing a ball and out-kicking opponents to (maybe) get a goal? That game that more and more young Americans are playing, yet is still less popular in the United States than billiards and body-building, according to the Sports Marketing Group of Dallas? Not to mention dog-sledding and women's bowling.
{REST} Still, Davis says watching a World Cup game on closed-circuit television 28 years ago changed his life, and he's hoping more Americans feel the passion in the next month as nine cities host the 15th World Cup, the first in the United States. It begins today in Chicago, with Bolivia facing Germany, and will end July 17 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
Despite the excitement soccer generates for most world sports fans - an estimated 1.2 million foreign visitors are expected for the games - the big question is whether competition with names like Argentina's Gabriel ``the Archangel'' Batistuta and Mexico's Jorge ``El Loco'' Campos can attract large television audiences or whether Americans will greet them with their historical yawn.
The point of bringing the games to this country, besides the big bucks to be made off all those attending, is to convince Americans that soccer really is a great sport to watch. That's some job. In 1990, when one billion people worldwide watched the World Cup, American television ratings were a blip.
U.S. Soccer Federation President Alan Rotherberg calls the games ``a unique chance at popularization which no American will escape.'' Well, not unless they're playing billiards, body-building, watching reruns of the Waltons or snoozing while ``the Archangel'' is chased downfield by ``El Loco.''
by CNB