From: peterm@pinhigh.Aus.Sun.COM (Peter Miles)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Subject: In article Muu@hsi.com, mallon@hsi.com (Dan Mallon-Kraft) writes:
Date: 20 Nov 92 05:09:08 GMT
Reply-To: peterm@pinhigh.Aus.Sun.COM
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: pinhigh.aus.sun.com

So, with that in mind, what do I propose we do?  Get addresses for major
corporations that are sponsoring the World Cup, networks, and soccer
federations in this country and we start writing letters.  First order of
business is letting the USSF know we want a league.  Second order of 
business is to tell the retarded networks like CBS that show infomercials
at 1:00 on Saturday afternoon that we'd prefer to see soccer.  Third
order of business, we write the sponsoring corporations and tell them
that we're so happy they're sponsoring the growth of soccer in the US,
that we are going out of our way to buy their products.  Fourth, write
the companies that don't sponsor the growth of soccer and tell them 
that even though we like their product, we won't buy it until they 
start supporting the sport we love.

Is anybody with me?  Are you tired of seeing baseball well after the
season is over?  I am.  Are you tired of 6 or 7 college football games
on Saturday afternoon?  I am.



Dan,

Your point is well made, and whilst I am all for you progressing the status of Soccer in the USA,
I am afraid, I think your cause is an insurmountable one.

Your  TV networks, in the US, are not Commercial minnows, and I believe that they only react
to the major audience feedback.

It is obvious from glancing through R.S. Football, Baseball, Hockey, and Basketball,  that there
is major, major support for these sports in the US.

I guess it is what everyone is brought up on.

Perhaps with the WC in '94, the sport may be given greater respect.

What confronts you is to convert the 250,000,000 other people in your part of the world to
try Soccer, in deference to Football, College Football, Baseball, Hockey & Basketball.

This being the case, I think you are preaching to the converted here on r.s.s.

You need to find another form of communicating to the populace at large in the US. what a great
sport Soccer is.

You see if I can be candid for a moment, the one big problem with Americans in general, is that
they want to, need to, change sports to adapt to their taste.

Soccer was given a run in the US in the late 70's, in a big way, and teams like Tampa,  and the 
New York Cosmos, Houston Astros?, etc.  were much heralded in world communication channels
and I thought for a while that soccer may really develop in the US. But, no, due the inbred 
opposition to the code, and the fact that it wasn't immediately successful and making money,
the growth of Soccer, has slowed.

In the US like Australia, Soccer struggles to gain its rightful attention, due to other more profitable,
and gladiatorial sporting codes gaining the major share of the TV networks attention and
promotion.

You gave it everything, importing all the great world star players like Pele, Beckanbauer , Gunter Netzer, Mueller, etc. to promote the game and give it more relevance and notoriety, but 
Americans being Americans, they could not leave the rules of the game alone.!!!!

This American trait of not having draws in sport, you had to import new rules like the Shootout.

Just as you do in Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey and Football, you have to have extra time to
determine and declare a winner.

Now, I will admit that I much prefer to see a winner, usually my team, rather than the opposition,
BUT, in Soccer there are so many vaguaries in the sport. Is it fair to see a team battle with 9 or 10 players for a major part of a game to earn a draw against all odds, only to have it taken away from them in a shootout situation ????     I personally think not.

Such a system is unfair. I believe it is fairer to reward a team who has struggled to draw. Because
then at the same time you are penalising the opposition, by not awarding full points to them, for 
not being able to take advantage of the extra man or men, they had on the field, I think in
Hockey they call it a "power play".

So I believe, you need to accept the sport and it rules for what it is. Don't draft changes because
it does not suit your audience or TV networks.

Soccer is THE biggest, most played and supported sport in the world. It is also, one of the oldest
sports in the world, and the rules have not changed dramatically over the years. 

While on this subject of rule changes, I read somewhere recently where your USSF, are proposing
rules changes for the WC '94. This is an example of what I mean.!!

I do hope Mr Havalange and Mr. Blatter and co, tell your USSF what they can do with their
proposed rule changes - i.e. put them where the sun don't shine.!!!


Anyway, I wish you well in your endeavours to raise the publicity of Soccer in the US, but
Please, leave the rules alone.!!!!!

Cheers.