Another World Cup in four years.....yawnnnn
13 Jul, 2010 Athletic Turf NewsBy: Ron Hall
Start counting now. The next World Cup is only four years away. It will be take place in Brazil, a bit closer to home than South Africa.
From all accounts the 2010 World Cup is being counted as a smashing success. South Africa put on an exciting tournament that, from my seat in front of the television, seemed to mushroom into a colorful and raucous month-long party.
Even so, I can wait for the next World Cup. No problem. Four years might be enough time for me to generate a greater understanding and appreciation for the sport. Just maybe. Try as I might, I still find it difficult to appreciate the finer points of international-level soccer. Apart from the occasional goal, I didn't find it exciting, at least compared to what I see on our neighborhood fields when the grade schoolers put on their shin guards and go at it. Now that's action! Youth soccer is a wonderful game. The kids always look like they're having great fun.
On reflection, I realize that I view school and community-level soccer as sport whereas it seems to me that the World Cup (like the Super Bowl and like the Olympics) is more spectacle and backstory than sport. Too much hype. Way too much analysis, most of it conjecture. I like my sports neat, just like I like my Maker's Mark.
That said, the people that tally the impact of the World Cup are reporting that 715.1 million people watched the final that Spain won 1-0. That's slightly more than one of every 10 people on Earth. When the final numbers are counted, the 2010 World Cup will have attracted as many as 30 billion televison views, more eyeballs than the 2006 World Cup in Germany attracted.
Interest in the World Cup in the United States was at a record level as well. It was boosted by the excitement (fleeting as it turned out to be) of the U.S. team making it to the round of 16. An estimated 19.4 million Americans tuned into ESPN/ABC to watch the team from the West African nation of Ghana, with a population less than 1/10th of the United States, send our boys home. After the loss, all conversation about the World Cup dried up at the places where I hang out.
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