Slipstream said:
If you are going to attract big names from Europe then you need to have the playing conditions, at the very least the surface you play on, similar to what is used in Europe. This should be a fundamental approach in MLS. It blows me away actually.
Bang on, Slipstream. Decent European players are going to be less likely to want to play for any MLS team if they have to suddenly switch to an artificial surface. It's one thing if you've spent your entire professional career training and playing on artificial turf, but if you
haven't, the prospect of altering your style for a struggling league probably doesn't seem worth it. I'm surprised Toronto FC aren't making the effort to change to a normal grass pitch. I suppose I can understand it, though...new team, new stadium...they have a lot of costs they need to try to offset. Being able to use the artificial surface, at least temporarily until they get on their feet, will probably help bring in revenue through other ways. It would be in their best interests to get rid of the FieldTurf as soon as possible, however. If TFC had a few more Danny Dichios and a few more Andy Welshs, maybe they wouldn't be at the bottom of the standings...
But back to the original topic: it's going to take a hell of a lot more than ol' Becks to jumpstart football in the US. I don't know if US interest for the sport will ever be on par with football mania in Europe, South America and Africa. It's just not part of the culture, and I don't think it ever could be. Unless attitudes start changing drastically, that is. The idea of buying hotdogs at a baseball game, or cheering slam dunk after slam dunk, is just so inherently
American. Beating a drum and chanting for a team that may or may not score one or two goals in the course of 90 minutes is not American in the slightest. They want touchdowns, they want home runs, they want tackles, they want three-point shots, they want stolen bases... MLS has
tried to Americanise football and make it more appealing to the target audience. I mean, when I was watching an away match between Toronto FC and some American team, I nearly gagged when the cheerleaders came out with their pom poms. The only 'Poms' that belong in football are of the British variety.
It's just not enough though, for a population that tends only to support MLB, NFL and NBA. From what I've been able to gather from the few MLS matches I've watched, people just don't know how to respond to the sport. Oh, there are some hugely dedicated fans, don't get me wrong... but venues usually seem to be half empty and lukewarm in volume.
The great exception to this by far is Toronto FC. Home matches are always sold out, people sing, people bang on drums, people hurl streamers and seat covers onto the pitch...hell, at the 24th minute of every match, they sing a song just for Dichio because he scored the club's first ever goal. That's the way it
should be at a football match. Sometimes, if I close my eyes and disregard the poor quality football on the screen, I feel like I'm listening to an English Premiership crowd. They just "get it" in Canada. Instead of taking the attitude of "Well, it's not Canadian, so I'm not going to watch it or support it", people have embraced Toronto FC completely. And they're at the bottom of the eastern standings! It just goes to show that a team doesn't have to be good to generate incredible amounts of interest. Toronto FC doesn't need a star like Beckham to help them sell out seats, because
the interest is there to begin with. More of what's happening in Toronto needs to happen in the US. I really think it's a cultural thing at the end of the day. You could substitute the ENTIRE American league with Europe's finest, and still have the same lacklustre following that MLS currently has. Until more Americans embrace football for what it is, David Beckham's presence won't do a damn thing. He may cause a peak curiosity for a year or so, but he won't revolutionise the game in the long run.