It's the Culture, Stupid

Soccer Digest, August, 2001 by Brent Dicrescenzo, Hugo Boss

From Soccer Mom to Futbol Madre? Will the integration of Latino-Americans ultimately be the key to soccer's potential on- and off-field success in the U.S.?

THE "SOCCER MOM COOKBOOK" (McClanahan Publishing House, 1998) features quickie canned goods recipes such as Muddy Cleat Cake and Penalty Kick Pot Pie. Suffice it to say the cuisine hardly tastes authentic. Most telling though are the Hand Ball Burritos, composed with "relish" and "Velveeta Cheese, grated." These are hardly the type of concessions you'd find from a vendor in Mexico outside an America game at Ex-Hacienda Coapa Coliseum. Recipes such as Hand Ball Burritos, Easy Score Mexicali Dinner, and the suspicious Maradona's White Bean Soup and Crowd Pleasing White Chili serve as rather tenuous metaphors for the issues and stereotypes of American soccer. They do, however, hint that the overall success of the sport lies not only in organizational foundations but also in its language and lexicon--one that isn't represented on the almost Latino-free U.S. national team.

A Harvard University study on gender gap in the 1996 U.S. presidential election defined "soccer moms" as "suburban, married mothers of children under the age of 18." The term even now carries a similar definition in Webster's Dictionary. The etymology of the phrase traces back to a 1982 article from Ludlow, Mass., concerning a man who stole $3,150 raised for a local soccer league. "Soccer mom" pops up again in 1991 when a mentally ruptured California mother shot her two daughters and then tried, unsuccessfully, to kill herself. Yet the term really gelled into its modern demographic description during the Bob Dole vs. Bill Clinton campaign after Republican consultant Alex Castellanos told the Wall Street Journal: "The working soccer mom is the swing voter of this election."

Many people think of soccer moms as a mess of highlighted hair and painted nails hunched over a Dodge Caravan steering wheel, rushing from work to practice. Perhaps more tellingly, soccer moms are considered white and middle class.

In the recently published "Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism" (Princeton University Press), authors Andrei Markovits and Steven Hellerman explore the peculiarities, history, and future of American soccer. That book's appendix provides the following statistics, culled through 1997: 74.5% of soccer participants (4,639,000) in the U.S. come from households earning more than $25,000, while 21.2% (3,870,000) earned $75,000 or more a year. 76.7% of the total participants were white, 15.3% Hispanic, and 4.7% African American. Over the past 20 years the sport has expanded tremendously--mostly in Suburbia. In a 10-year trend analysis of sports participation at American high schools, soccer placed fourth behind basketball, football, and track, yet showed a 76.2% gain over the last decade, the largest of any sport.

All of these numbers and terms swamp the larger ultimate objectives of fielding a highly competitive national team and winning the World Cup. While America has revolutionized and invigorated the sport for women, the fate of the men's squad remains cloudy. But two things seem increasingly clear: The United States should take every means to incorporate its growing minority populations--particularly the Hispanic populations--and for inspiration it should focus its attention South rather than East.

In the 22nd Dallas Cup Mexican underage clubs throttled the competition from the U.S. and Europe, sweeping all six rifles. Yet the U.S.'s second division, the United Soccer Leagues, chose to send a large delegation over the ocean to England to attend the Premiership's "Exit Trial," a showcase for young Brits who failed to make the grade with their top clubs rather than cast an eye toward Mexico. Paul Gardner, longtime columnist for Soccer America and World Soccer, asserts that "the USA blatantly refuses to acknowledge that its southern neighbor regularly produces superb youth teams."

This year MLS has begun marketing to Hispanics in earnest The Miami Fusion was forced from the Orange Bowl in culturally diverse Miami, where international matches featuring teams from Latin and South America are exhibited regularly, to Ft. Lauderdale's Lockhart Stadium, former home of the NASL's Strikers. Now, almost as a reward for bettering last year's league-worst attendance--a paltry average of 7,460--and improve its product, MLS has scheduled two Fusion games for the Orange Bowl this summer.

MLS has also organized a Hispanic Heritage Nights promotion, and last month exhibitions between Mexico and Ecuador and the U.S. and Haitian U-17 clubs were scheduled to follow MLS games in Chicago and Miami, respectively. (The Mexico vs. Ecuador match was later cancelled after an attack on Ecuador's coach.)

That marketing won't work, however, unless the kids playing the game are tuning in to watch the sport, too. In the United States, the overwhelming marketing and television presence of the NFL, NBA, major league baseball, and even the WWF eclipse MLS--despite the large numbers of youths participating in extracurricular soccer. Critics claim the sport acts like mere exercise with cheap equipment fees, while the children dream of Shaq's dunks `n' Jeeps or A-Rod's pop and purchasing power. Soccer needs its Tiger Woods, The Rock, or Allen Iverson, a groundbreaking player with a clothing line, hip-hop CD, or mid-budget action picture in the works.