Sport Today

Hi all.

Depressing news to report on the quality of the premier sports network.  I was
watching it yesterday evening in the (vain, I know) hope that I might hear
something on the US U-17 team.  Even if they had won, there probably would have
been nothing.

What I was treated to was a short clip of fan *** in France, a game that
apparently took place this weekend, and critical comments over a close-up of a
pair of police officers badly outnumbered, with one of them suffering repeated
head blows.  The commentator said that none of the fans were arrested, and he
then stated that the World Cup will be held here next year.

#1:  Is this any way for the network that will be showing many of the games to
be preparing its audience for the event?

#2:  Will they follow up on the story, or just leave the image there to fester
in the minds of the audience?  (If anyone happens to see anything, I'd like to
know)

#3:  Any eyewitness accounts available out there?  I'd like to hear more, just
so I can wipe the bad taste out of my mouth...

Eric V.

Is this the problem that ESPN was making so much noise about?  Pro baseball has
been interrupted longer for fights on the field by the players!

Maybe we should we be worried about the World Series...

Eric V.

I think ESPN is basically a baseball channel. They do show many
other sports, but I think baseball is their bread & butter.

If soccer were to become popular in the states, the first (and
perhaps the only) major sport to suffer would be baseball.
They are both played outdoors, and both involve 10-15 kids
per game. So presumably the two sports would be competing for
the same players.

Here is my hypothesis (and it is only a hypothesis): someone or some
organization with influence and power (from baseball perhaps?)
is using his/its influence
to give soccer a bad reputation. Earlier this year someone else
complained that on Chicago news braodcast, they showed a Kuwaiti
player kicking a ref in one of the World Cup quals. Then comes
this thing with ESPN showing more soccer ***. They probably
didn't even bother to report the scores of those matches.
Although ***
does exist in soccer (e.g. hooligans) it is much to small for
soccer to be associated with ***. Ice hockey is much much worse.

Hisham Kassab

        Basseball is a big business, which is on the constant decline
since 1984. They still have some funs thanks to enormous propaganda
they have on TV. The new generation of kids like to kick the ball
better than to play basseball, but when the kids grow up they do not
have the chance to become popular as if they were basseball or football
players. There are no soccer tournaments (at least not in Lansing area
where I live).

        This decline in basseball busines was due to the NBA. One more
sport will definitely kill them. So they will never allow the AIR-TIME
for soccer. So I do not think that soccer have bright future in USA
regardless of whether it induces *** or not.

        Cheers,

        Naim

|> I think ESPN is basically a baseball channel. They do show many
|> other sports, but I think baseball is their bread & butter.
|>
|> If soccer were to become popular in the states, the first (and
|> perhaps the only) major sport to suffer would be baseball.
|> They are both played outdoors, and both involve 10-15 kids
|> per game. So presumably the two sports would be competing for
|> the same players.

Almost every child on my son's soccer team also plays baseball.
The sport that is getting hurt by soccer's popularity is American
football. I had a major college football coach tell (somewhat
tongue in cheek) that soccer was ruining football because it
was siphoning off the best athletes.

Kevin

--
Kevin Gamble

Phone: 919.515.2983    FAX: 919.515.3777
Snail: ETS, Box 7641 NCSU, Raleigh NC 27695.7641

{|> I think ESPN is basically a baseball channel. They do show many
{|> other sports, but I think baseball is their bread & butter.
{|>
{|> If soccer were to become popular in the states, the first (and
{|> perhaps the only) major sport to suffer would be baseball.
{|> They are both played outdoors, and both involve 10-15 kids
{|> per game. So presumably the two sports would be competing for
{|> the same players.
{
{
{Almost every child on my son's soccer team also plays baseball.
{The sport that is getting hurt by soccer's popularity is American
{football. I had a major college football coach tell (somewhat
{tongue in cheek) that soccer was ruining football because it
{was siphoning off the best athletes.
{
{

I'm not sure that either really suffer.  In Utah we have families with an
average of 4 kids (big for USA).  There are not enough fields for all the
soccer and football teams to practice.  My senior men's team shares a field
with a High School boys Varsity and JV as well as High School girls Varsity
and JV.  The promotion of soccer in the area is fantastic.  Every family I
know has at least one member playing soccer.  Here, there is a shortage
of coaches not a shortage of players.

-Eric
THE MUFC fan in Utah

on a positive note, the Big Ten Conference has been addressing
gender equality issues in regards to college athetlics, that is providing
an even split between men and women athletic scholarships.  The big
winner has been womens soccer.  Many Big Ten schools will
be adding a womens soccer teams for the '94 season.  

I'm sure the gender equality is/will be  spreading to the 100's of U.S. .
Universities.  Women's soccer has every thing to gain in that many schools
already have mens teams (and thus have a pitch to play on).  Equipment cost
for Soccer is less than Football, Baseball, and Hockey.

John L    

sitive note, the Big Ten Conference has been addressing

Unfortunately, the U. of Illinois is not one.  Instead they athletic
association canned men's swimming, diving, and fencing.

Greg

stuff deleted

        Here at U of Texas at Austin in responce to a Title IX lawsuit the
university just added a women's varisity soccer team.  The men's team remains
a club sport.

David

Well at least in California there is no conflict with baseball, in the 8-15 age
bracket.  Both my sons have participated on select/all-star teams for both sports
and the only "conflicts" we have had has been with tryouts. Basically Soccer
runs from mid August through January and Baseball runs mid Feb thru July.  I am
sure there will be more conflicts in High School, but we'll drive off that bridge
when we get there.  

The more obvious conflicts I have seen re: seasons, has been american football vs
soccer. Basketball falls in between both soccer and baseball.  

Rgds.
David Edwards

My prediction is that title IX will be great for women's soccer and bad for
men's soccer. Why?  The colleges with money will simply add another sport to
the women's offerings, most likely soccer in most parts of the country.  The
colleges without money probably will drop men's sports to meet title IX
guidelines; men's soccer being the new kid on the block may be among them.
The only way to guarentee growth of both men's and womens's college soccer
programs nationally is if soccer becomes a revenue producing (profitable)
sport.>
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