Sports You Never Cared For

[IceCap]

I've actually watched a few games (that's probably the incorrect way to say itwhich is sort of my point)

Tut tut! They're matches. On a pitch. Wearing kits.

Anyone else see this?

Yes.

The thing to keep in mind regarding "trying to make soccer work" in the US is that MLS tried to Americanize the game when they launched, including having a bunch of teams named in the traditional North American style. The team names sucked and the Americanized elements of the game not only failed to convert non-soccer fans, they actively turned away the soccer fanbase that already existed in the US.

MLS has since carved out a small but stable niche by stripping away the Americanized elements they launched with and by rebranding teams to fall in line with naming aesthetics soccer fans recognize as being more "soccer-esque."

Yes, Real Salt Lake, Sporting Kansas City, and Houston Dynamo are rediculous.

DC United though? FC Dallas? NYCFC? Those are all fine, in my opinion. It's what's proven to work from a marketing perspective, and objectively speaking FC Dallas is a better name then "Dallas Burn" anyway.

Fact is that soccer is "working" in the US with traditional rules in place and "Europeanized" team names. Much more so then it did with a backwards counting clock, commercial breaks, and teams named in the North American tradition.

And it's impossible to really develop American soccer without FIFA. They suck but they run the show.

[The_Admiral]

objectively speaking FC Dallas is a better name then "Dallas Burn" anyway.

False binary. I can open my copy of An Exaltation of Larks to a random page and find something better than "Dallas Burn."

Okay, the first time I got "a charge of curates" and "a disworship of Scots," but I tried again and got "a barrage of shells" and "a fusillade of bullets." Fusillade and Barrage are intriguing.

He's right, though, that we shouldn't be traipsing about pretending we're English, saying things like "match" and "pitch" and "traipsing about." What is it about soccer that intrinsically makes you wear scarves and sing? Nothing that I can see. It's just pretending you're in England. I mean, it would be fun to wear scarves and sing to all sorts of sporting events, especially in the winter when layering is critical, but it just comes off as such an irritating affectation.

[IceCap]

objectively speaking FC Dallas is a better name then "Dallas Burn" anyway.

False binary. I can open my copy of An Exaltation of Larks to a random page and find something better than "Dallas Burn."

Okay, the first time I got "a charge of curates" and "a disworship of Scots," but I tried again and got "a barrage of shells" and "a fusillade of bullets." Fusillade and Barrage are intriguing.

He's right, though, that we shouldn't be traipsing about pretending we're English, saying things like "match" and "pitch" and "traipsing about." What is it about soccer that intrinsically makes you wear scarves and sing? Nothing that I can see. It's just pretending you're in England. I mean, it would be fun to wear scarves and sing to all sorts of sporting events, especially in the winter when layering is critical, but it just comes off as such an irritating affectation.

They gave out scarves during the Leafs' playoff series against Boston a year ago, and they sing at Habs games. Besides, singing isn't that far off from chanting a team name with "go" at either end.

Maybe my tragically (English) Canadian sensibilities are clouding my judgement here but I really don't see an issue withe "English style" team names. Yeah, Dallas Burn is terrible, but if that's the best they could do while trying to stick with the North American naming traditions? Bring on FC Dallas. Maybe a North American style name that doesn't suck will change the dynamic, but truth be told those are few and far between. Just checking out the old NASL roster of teams gives me a headache. Teamen? Darts? Rovers? Hurricane (not plural)? Rouges (with a soccer playing rhino as the logo)? Maybe the dominance of the "big four" sports in North America used up too many of the good names. I don't know.

I'm looking at Toronto's NASL history and seeing "Toronto City" (another British style name), "Toronto Falcons," "Toronto Blizzard," "Toronto Metros," and "Toronto Metros-Croatia" (as if the Croats were the key to making it work all along).

Of that list I'd taken "Toronto FC" over all of them save the Falcons, which is growing on me the more I think about it.

Point is that if FC Dallas gets people interested in the brand more then Dallas Burn did (and all evidence suggests that it has) then that's what you do. Sure you may be imitating your former colonial masters, but the name change will make lots of $$$$$$$$$. Which seems pretty American to me. So everyone wins.

[The_Admiral]

Besides, singing isn't that far off from chanting a team name with "go" at either end.

No, it's way different. It's also way cooler and way better than our simplistic crap. I wish we were clever and coordinated enough to sing Rodgers and Hammerstein, but we pretty much top out at "de-fense." Our singers can't even sing our national anthem! I love it within the context of English soccer, but the pale imitation here just doesn't do it for me. I guess musical theatre and sports weren't meant to overlap here, at least not until someone inevitably writes Eli!: The 2007 New York Giants: The Musical.

[IceCap]

Besides, singing isn't that far off from chanting a team name with "go" at either end.

No, it's way different. It's also way cooler and way better than our simplistic crap. I wish we were clever and coordinated enough to sing Rodgers and Hammerstein, but we pretty much top out at "de-fense."

Just throw the lyrics up on the jumbo-tron XD

[The_Admiral]

Imagine an organist taunting Patrick Kane with the playing of "I Am Sixteen, Going On Seventeen."

[IceCap]

Yes. YES. YES!

[Needschat]

I've actually watched a few games (that's probably the incorrect way to say it…which is sort of my point)

Tut tut! They're matches. On a pitch. Wearing kits.

Anyone else see this?

I did, and I agree with a few things he said, especially about naming the team. Euro-centric names, they gots to go!

[DG_ThenNowForever]

You have to take it on a case-by-case basis.

"FC Dallas" is better than "Dallas Burn." It would also be better than Dallas Steers, Toros, Cowpokes, Border Patrol, Rangers, Minutemen, Shotguns, Roadside Armadillos and whatever else the likely Texas nickname would be.

However, "Seattle Sounders" is better than "Seattle Sounders FC," evidenced by you only hearing the latter in the stadium and on TV broadcasts. We had our choice of "Seattle Alliance" or "Seattle Republic," and we rightly turned them both down.

I have mixed feelings about the singing. Sometimes it's cool in the stadium, especially when you have a few hundred people there. Sometimes it's super dorky, like when the Sounders play Open Cup games at their 3,000-seat practice field and it looks like an overeager high school crowd. Also overeager are the majority of Sounders fans who insist on standing through the game. Hillsborough proved that it's a bad idea, so I wish people would just move past it and enjoy a seated game.

Scarves are fun and the NFL is aping it; they were a big part of Super Bowl merchandising last year and I fully expect to see NFL team scarves becoming a thing.

I guess ultimately my point is that it's okay to do things other people have done before you, even if it's a little dorky. Sports are dorky, at their core, and the athletic gear you buy doesn't make you any more or less a genuine fan.

[Soarindude]

You have to take it on a case-by-case basis.

"FC Dallas" is better than "Dallas Burn." It would also be better than Dallas Steers, Toros, Cowpokes, Border Patrol, Rangers, Minutemen, Shotguns, Roadside Armadillos and whatever else the likely Texas nickname would be.

However, "Seattle Sounders" is better than "Seattle Sounders FC," evidenced by you only hearing the latter in the stadium and on TV broadcasts. We had our choice of "Seattle Alliance" or "Seattle Republic," and we rightly turned them both down.

I have mixed feelings about the singing. Sometimes it's cool in the stadium, especially when you have a few hundred people there. Sometimes it's super dorky, like when the Sounders play Open Cup games at their 3,000-seat practice field and it looks like an overeager high school crowd. Also overeager are the majority of Sounders fans who insist on standing through the game. Hillsborough proved that it's a bad idea, so I wish people would just move past it and enjoy a seated game.

Scarves are fun and the NFL is aping it; they were a big part of Super Bowl merchandising last year and I fully expect to see NFL team scarves becoming a thing.

I guess ultimately my point is that it's okay to do things other people have done before you, even if it's a little dorky. Sports are dorky, at their core, and the athletic gear you buy doesn't make you any more or less a genuine fan.

Excellent post.

[smzimbabwe]

I don't like any sport that bases it's final outcome on judges. Everything else, I may not follow to some extent, but I've at least always made the effort to watch and learn about it, and if I didn't care as much for it, I feel that I gave it a chance. Some sports I just don't have much exposure to, so they're harder to follow.

[AnPheitseog]

I know, blah blah im repeating arguments, but

Rugby might be the biggest case of, if you know the game and how it is played, especially having played it yourself, then you will love watching the game. For newcomers however, one of the hardest sports to pickup and watch and the confusion would be boring.

Personally, im a fan of all sports, or at least what is a sport

NASCAR, meh on the technicalities of being a sport, even though it is physically demanding and boring, save the crashes.

Underappreciated sport would be gymnastics.

On sports I dont like? In general, im not a fan of the college system of sports. Give me juniors any day, or the professional minor sports, but not college.

[twi]

I don't care for basketball, but I think that's because it's the only major sport I never played as a kid. Or maybe because during my sports-conscious years I've never lived in an area that had a team.

I don't understand the appeal of MMA. Maybe I'm missing something, but that kind of stuff strikes me as what someone turns to after they strike out in every other avenue of life.

[wonderbread]

I'm watching formula one for the first time today

I can honestly say I'll never get into it

They didn't complete a lap and wrecked and now they have been stopped for a half hour now. Atleast in nascar when there is a wreck they stay on the track and keep logging laps. They only red flag it if its a big wreck blocking off the race track, or weather. And they use to towards the end but since have stopped with the green white checkered rule

[MSRebel22]

I have never liked hockey,being from Mississippi and naturally I've never liked any sport that the SEC didn't support.

Soccer is stupid, except for the World Cup or Olympics.

Ultimate Frisbee is just stupid

[kansas sports fan]

hockey soccer nascar wich isn't even a sport in my opinion wrestling mma ufc any of that stuff

[WinMINTwins]

I can't really get into tennis. A nice series of volleys can be intense, but they're rather seldom and don't make up for the rest of each match.

Nothing about NASCAR appeals to me. I've heard it said that the live experience is much better, but can someone explain that to me? Is it the tailgating? Because from the outside, I don't see anything enjoyable about the actual sitting in the stands, waiting for the pack to return to your side of the stand while getting sunburned. (Apologies for the reduction, but that's the sense I get from it.) I also don't get the apparent entertainment that comes from collisions that NASCAR's marketing seems to portray. Seems a bit morbid, especially considering that people actually die in some of these things. This could be hypocrisy, seeing as how I love hockey and, to a lesser extent, football, but I guess the threat of death is not as present, or at least as immediate (what with the long-term consequences of concussions), in those sports.

I'm fine with people saying they've tries soccer and don't get it, or they've watched this World Cup and still think it's boring, or they find FIFA downright evil and can't support anything they touch. I hate it, though, when the sport is treated like a "hipster thing," or dismissed as a sport for athletes who are somehow of lesser ability and are therefore less masculine. The diving is certainly ridiculous at times, but it's not a problem limited to this sport, and it certainly doesn't mean that the players are weaker or not as athletic. The whole xenophobia thing that comes with some soccer hate is stupid too. Just because it's popular in Europe doesn't mean it's not okay for it to exist in America.

[illwauk]

Golf and tennis for me... especially golf. While I can understand why tennis is appealing to some, golf has always seemed to me like one of the most boring things a person could possibly do, let alone watch on TV. I've never played or watched a round in my life, and plan to go to my grave that way.

NASCAR is a weird one for me because I get the appeal of auto racing in general, but I can't help but feel it takes a lot more skill to drive Indy/Champ, F1, or even Sprint Cars than it does to be a NASCAR driver. In fact, I think NASCAR's popularity has a lot more to do with the cultural space it occupies in 'Murica (and ultimately the sponsorship it draws because of it) than the competition itself.

[IceCap]

Golf and tennis for me... especially golf. While I can understand why tennis is appealing to some, golf has always seemed to me like one of the most boring things a person could possibly do, let alone watch on TV. I've never played or watched a round in my life, and plan to go to my grave that way.

I never got into golf, but my dad's into it. From the way he acts while playing I think he secretly loathes it. All the joy he seems to get out of it revolves around it being a means to spend time with friends or family. The game seems more like an inconvenience then anything

[OnWis97]

I think it's a rule that if you golf you have to deride your own golf abilities and pretend you are unhappy with where your game is at. Plus it's frustrating as hell not being able to get a little ball into a little hole from 400 yards away in four shots.

I golfed some in high school and just did not have the love to spend the time and money to do it enough to get good...so I am sometimes surprised at how many people keep it up. Good for them but it's not my thing.