World Cup – US Loses To Germany
The US soccer team got eliminated from the World Cup semifinals this morning. There was a lot of talk this morning on the radio about the exceptional performance of the US team and the new soccer fan base that is sure to result.
I, for one, think that soccer will never have a really good grip on the American psyche. Why? One word: television.
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Soccer is just not TV-friendly. All the other major sports that people follow in the US—like football, baseball, and basketball—have seemingly arbitrary pauses, timeouts, fourth downs, and what not, that allow for commercials to air.
In soccer, however, teams play straight through to halftime for forty-five minutes. There is a fifteen minute halftime, and then they play straight through to the end of the match—another forty-five minutes, uninterrupted. In television space, this is an eternity.
I have to admit that due to the odd hours, I have not seen a single game during this World Cup. Past World Cups broadcasts, which I saw from Panama, used animated banner ads—not very different from the ones used online—to convey commercial messages. I wonder how US advertisers would react to having their products pitched through banner ads in TV?
The point is, that until more creative advertising techniques surface, it is doubtful that professional soccer will be able to command the airtime it requires to become a major sport in the US.
This is unfortunate, since soccer is a global sport that could do a lot to help lubricate US relations with other countries.
