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Soccer: I know the soccer stuff has been greatly improved - mostly fixed, maybe. I know it was a lot of work. Speaking as a former season ticket holder for women\'s soccer - whcih made me and my friend who shared the tickets basically Bigfoot back in the Cowboy President days - I am certainly biased. But it must be said that the \
to:
Soccer: I know the soccer stuff has been greatly improved - mostly fixed, maybe. I know it was a lot of work. Speaking as a former season ticket holder for women\\\'s soccer - whcih made me and my friend who shared the tickets basically Bigfoot back in the Cowboy President days - I am certainly biased. But it must be said that the \\\"americans hating soccer\\\" stuff is increasingly dated. For all the confusion of the \\\"especially on the west coast and immigrants etc\\\" stuff, the reality today is that soccer is more popular than hockey. Here in San Diego, women\\\'s soccer sells out every game, largely due to Southern California-born US National Team star Alex Morgan. A lot of her teammates are Americans and a number of them are on our national team, and it wouldn\\\'t be completely bizarre for them to win the next World Cup. That last thing has been true before: they won at home in 1999 and had to explain to people on the plane home what that meant and why it mattered. But anyone who hasn\\\'t been to the US in the last 5 years has no idea how popular soccer is now.
I\\\'m sure it sounds crazy if you were here back when I was the weirdo staying up all night because a later World Cup in Europe didn\\\'t merit a tape delay here yet. I can hardly conceptualize it myself. But soccer hate comes off as rather alien now. It helps to understand that Republicans are willing to learn, and will claim to enjoy, any sport the US gets good at. There\\\'s been a lag in uptake of women\\\'s sports by that set, but it\\\'s increasingly mainstream now, with full coverage of both North and South American tournaments on basic cable and stream.
It also helps to understand that all our population density is in the stretch from Boston to DC, and these are people who have a centuries-long tradition of being very concerned with appearing well-read in politics. After all, it was a life or death thing from the 16th to 19th centuries. Californians tend to view Boston-To-DC people as cruel and politically retrograde, but the reality is more \\\"forthright and up to date on controversies\\\". That image is just overwhelmed by the massive number of gerrymandered, repressive states between here and there, and our embarrassing surfeit of \\\"us against the world\\\" politics in each state. I imagine there is a similar effect on foreign perceptions of americans, given that our fetish for individuality leads to a lot of our exported stories being about small towns in dozens of low-population states. In reality, people\\\'s lives are much more about being proximal or not proximal to the nearest big-10 city, and most of these are not big cities from a global perspective because our society has been absolutely swimming in excess deaths to the point we have several constitutional amendments all but explicitly welcoming them.
ETA TLDR: Soccer hate is generally a reaction to disastrous prior attempts to artificially create a market for the sport out of thin air. It was indeed seen as a children\\\'s fitness activity and not a spectator sport when I was growing up and people remembered the New York Comets fiasco where Pele was reduced to a gimmick in a league full of them, like a hockey-style overtime format, etc. The one gimmick that has been preserved is that travel to NJ is still required for NYC residents. Today soccer is more like a 2nd to 4th pro spectator sport depending on region, maybe 5th in very big hockey towns like Philly.
ETA2: I forgot to make this subtext explicit. I\\\'m talking about San Diego area so much because americans train for the summer olympics here, and lots of outdoor athletes (including soccer) are from here or Tampa where they can practice all year. If we are ignorant of any sports thing that has a major presence in or related to this country, it\\\'s Venezuelan baseball. Only hardcore fans know it exists, and we never remember the league\\\'s name, historically calling it \\\"winterball\\\" because it\\\'s a competitive pro sports league that offers a similar challenge to US pro ball in the season where it isn\\\'t happening here, due to South America being in another hemisphere.
I\\\'m sure it sounds crazy if you were here back when I was the weirdo staying up all night because a later World Cup in Europe didn\\\'t merit a tape delay here yet. I can hardly conceptualize it myself. But soccer hate comes off as rather alien now. It helps to understand that Republicans are willing to learn, and will claim to enjoy, any sport the US gets good at. There\\\'s been a lag in uptake of women\\\'s sports by that set, but it\\\'s increasingly mainstream now, with full coverage of both North and South American tournaments on basic cable and stream.
It also helps to understand that all our population density is in the stretch from Boston to DC, and these are people who have a centuries-long tradition of being very concerned with appearing well-read in politics. After all, it was a life or death thing from the 16th to 19th centuries. Californians tend to view Boston-To-DC people as cruel and politically retrograde, but the reality is more \\\"forthright and up to date on controversies\\\". That image is just overwhelmed by the massive number of gerrymandered, repressive states between here and there, and our embarrassing surfeit of \\\"us against the world\\\" politics in each state. I imagine there is a similar effect on foreign perceptions of americans, given that our fetish for individuality leads to a lot of our exported stories being about small towns in dozens of low-population states. In reality, people\\\'s lives are much more about being proximal or not proximal to the nearest big-10 city, and most of these are not big cities from a global perspective because our society has been absolutely swimming in excess deaths to the point we have several constitutional amendments all but explicitly welcoming them.
ETA TLDR: Soccer hate is generally a reaction to disastrous prior attempts to artificially create a market for the sport out of thin air. It was indeed seen as a children\\\'s fitness activity and not a spectator sport when I was growing up and people remembered the New York Comets fiasco where Pele was reduced to a gimmick in a league full of them, like a hockey-style overtime format, etc. The one gimmick that has been preserved is that travel to NJ is still required for NYC residents. Today soccer is more like a 2nd to 4th pro spectator sport depending on region, maybe 5th in very big hockey towns like Philly.
ETA2: I forgot to make this subtext explicit. I\\\'m talking about San Diego area so much because americans train for the summer olympics here, and lots of outdoor athletes (including soccer) are from here or Tampa where they can practice all year. If we are ignorant of any sports thing that has a major presence in or related to this country, it\\\'s Venezuelan baseball. Only hardcore fans know it exists, and we never remember the league\\\'s name, historically calling it \\\"winterball\\\" because it\\\'s a competitive pro sports league that offers a similar challenge to US pro ball in the season where it isn\\\'t happening here, due to South America being in another hemisphere.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
Soccer: I know the soccer stuff has been greatly improved - mostly fixed, maybe. I know it was a lot of work. Speaking as a former season ticket holder for women\'s soccer - whcih made me and my friend who shared the tickets basically Bigfoot back in the Cowboy President days - I am certainly biased. But it must be said that the \
to:
Soccer: I know the soccer stuff has been greatly improved - mostly fixed, maybe. I know it was a lot of work. Speaking as a former season ticket holder for women\\\'s soccer - whcih made me and my friend who shared the tickets basically Bigfoot back in the Cowboy President days - I am certainly biased. But it must be said that the \\\"americans hating soccer\\\" stuff is increasingly dated. For all the confusion of the \\\"especially on the west coast and immigrants etc\\\" stuff, the reality today is that soccer is more popular than hockey. Here in San Diego, women\\\'s soccer sells out every game, largely due to Southern California-born US National Team star Alex Morgan. A lot of her teammates are Americans and a number of them are on our national team, and it wouldn\\\'t be completely bizarre for them to win the next World Cup. That last thing has been true before: they won at home in 1999 and had to explain to people on the plane home what that meant and why it mattered. But anyone who hasn\\\'t been to the US in the last 5 years has no idea how popular soccer is now.
I\\\'m sure it sounds crazy if you were here back when I was the weirdo staying up all night because a later World Cup in Europe didn\\\'t merit a tape delay here yet. I can hardly conceptualize it myself. But soccer hate comes off as rather alien now. It helps to understand that Republicans are willing to learn, and will claim to enjoy, any sport the US gets good at. There\\\'s been a lag in uptake of women\\\'s sports by that set, but it\\\'s increasingly mainstream now, with full coverage of both North and South American tournaments on basic cable and stream.
It also helps to understand that all our population density is in the stretch from Boston to DC, and these are people who have a centuries-long tradition of being very concerned with appearing well-read in politics. After all, it was a life or death thing from the 16th to 19th centuries. Californians tend to view Boston-To-DC people as cruel and politically retrograde, but the reality is more \\\"forthright and up to date on controversies\\\". That image is just overwhelmed by the massive number of gerrymandered, repressive states between here and there, and our embarrassing surfeit of \\\"us against the world\\\" politics in each state. I imagine there is a similar effect on foreign perceptions of americans, given that our fetish for individuality leads to a lot of our exported stories being about small towns in dozens of low-population states. In reality, people\\\'s lives are much more about being proximal or not proximal to the nearest big-10 city, and most of these are not big cities from a global perspective because our society has been absolutely swimming in excess deaths to the point we have several constitutional amendments all but explicitly welcoming them.
ETA TLDR: Soccer hate is generally a reaction to disastrous prior attempts to artificially create a market for the sport out of thin air. It was indeed seen as a children\\\'s fitness activity and not a spectator sport when I was growing up and people remembered the New York Comets fiasco where Pele was reduced to a gimmick in a league full of them, like a hockey-style overtime format, etc. The one gimmick that has been preserved is that travel to NJ is still required for NYC residents.
ETA2: I forgot to make this subtext explicit. I\\\'m talking about San Diego area so much because americans train for the summer olympics here, and lots of outdoor athletes (including soccer) are from here or Tampa where they can practice all year. If we are ignorant of any sports thing that has a major presence in or related to this country, it\\\'s Venezuelan baseball. Only hardcore fans know it exists, and we never remember the league\\\'s name, historically calling it \\\"winterball\\\" because it\\\'s a competitive pro sports league that offers a similar challenge to US pro ball in the season where it isn\\\'t happening here, due to South America being in another hemisphere.
I\\\'m sure it sounds crazy if you were here back when I was the weirdo staying up all night because a later World Cup in Europe didn\\\'t merit a tape delay here yet. I can hardly conceptualize it myself. But soccer hate comes off as rather alien now. It helps to understand that Republicans are willing to learn, and will claim to enjoy, any sport the US gets good at. There\\\'s been a lag in uptake of women\\\'s sports by that set, but it\\\'s increasingly mainstream now, with full coverage of both North and South American tournaments on basic cable and stream.
It also helps to understand that all our population density is in the stretch from Boston to DC, and these are people who have a centuries-long tradition of being very concerned with appearing well-read in politics. After all, it was a life or death thing from the 16th to 19th centuries. Californians tend to view Boston-To-DC people as cruel and politically retrograde, but the reality is more \\\"forthright and up to date on controversies\\\". That image is just overwhelmed by the massive number of gerrymandered, repressive states between here and there, and our embarrassing surfeit of \\\"us against the world\\\" politics in each state. I imagine there is a similar effect on foreign perceptions of americans, given that our fetish for individuality leads to a lot of our exported stories being about small towns in dozens of low-population states. In reality, people\\\'s lives are much more about being proximal or not proximal to the nearest big-10 city, and most of these are not big cities from a global perspective because our society has been absolutely swimming in excess deaths to the point we have several constitutional amendments all but explicitly welcoming them.
ETA TLDR: Soccer hate is generally a reaction to disastrous prior attempts to artificially create a market for the sport out of thin air. It was indeed seen as a children\\\'s fitness activity and not a spectator sport when I was growing up and people remembered the New York Comets fiasco where Pele was reduced to a gimmick in a league full of them, like a hockey-style overtime format, etc. The one gimmick that has been preserved is that travel to NJ is still required for NYC residents.
ETA2: I forgot to make this subtext explicit. I\\\'m talking about San Diego area so much because americans train for the summer olympics here, and lots of outdoor athletes (including soccer) are from here or Tampa where they can practice all year. If we are ignorant of any sports thing that has a major presence in or related to this country, it\\\'s Venezuelan baseball. Only hardcore fans know it exists, and we never remember the league\\\'s name, historically calling it \\\"winterball\\\" because it\\\'s a competitive pro sports league that offers a similar challenge to US pro ball in the season where it isn\\\'t happening here, due to South America being in another hemisphere.
Changed line(s) 3 from:
n
Soccer: I know the soccer stuff has been greatly improved - mostly fixed, maybe. I know it was a lot of work. Speaking as a former season ticket holder for women\'s soccer - whcih made me and my friend who shared the tickets basically Bigfoot back in the Cowboy President days - I am certainly biased. But it must be said that the \
to:
Soccer: I know the soccer stuff has been greatly improved - mostly fixed, maybe. I know it was a lot of work. Speaking as a former season ticket holder for women\\\'s soccer - whcih made me and my friend who shared the tickets basically Bigfoot back in the Cowboy President days - I am certainly biased. But it must be said that the \\\"americans hating soccer\\\" stuff is increasingly dated. For all the confusion of the \\\"especially on the west coast and immigrants etc\\\" stuff, the reality today is that soccer is more popular than hockey. Here in San Diego, women\\\'s soccer sells out every game, largely due to Southern California-born US National Team star Alex Morgan. A lot of her teammates are Americans and a number of them are on our national team, and it wouldn\\\'t be completely bizarre for them to win the next World Cup. That last thing has been true before: they won at home in 1999 and had to explain to people on the plane home what that meant and why it mattered. But anyone who hasn\\\'t been to the US in the last 5 years has no idea how popular soccer is now.
I\\\'m sure it sounds crazy if you were here back when I was the weirdo staying up all night because a later World Cup in Europe didn\\\'t merit a tape delay here yet. I can hardly conceptualize it myself. But soccer hate comes off as rather alien now. It helps to understand that Republicans are willing to learn, and will claim to enjoy, any sport the US gets good at. There\\\'s been a lag in uptake of women\\\'s sports by that set, but it\\\'s increasingly mainstream now, with full coverage of both North and South American tournaments on basic cable and stream.
It also helps to understand that all our population density is in the stretch from Boston to DC, and these are people who have a centuries-long tradition of being very concerned with appearing well-read in politics. After all, it was a life or death thing from the 16th to 19th centuries. Californians tend to view Boston-To-DC people as cruel and politically retrograde, but the reality is more \\\"forthright and up to date on controversies\\\". That image is just overwhelmed by the massive number of gerrymandered, repressive states between here and there, and our embarrassing surfeit of \\\"us against the world\\\" politics in each state. I imagine there is a similar effect on foreign perceptions of americans, given that our fetish for individuality leads to a lot of our exported stories being about small towns in dozens of low-population states. In reality, people\\\'s lives are much more about being proximal or not proximal to the nearest big-10 city, and most of these are not big cities from a global perspective because our society has been absolutely swimming in excess deaths to the point we have several constitutional amendments all but explicitly welcoming them.
ETA: I forgot to make this subtext explicit. I\\\'m talking about San Diego area so much because americans train for the summer olympics here, and lots of outdoor athletes (including soccer) are from here or Tampa where they can practice all year. If we are ignorant of any sports thing that has a major presence in or related to this country, it\\\'s Venezuelan baseball. Only hardcore fans know it exists, and we never remember the league\\\'s name, historically calling it \\\"winterball\\\" because it\\\'s a competitive pro sports league that offers a similar challenge to US pro ball in the season where it isn\\\'t happening here, due to South America being in another hemisphere.
I\\\'m sure it sounds crazy if you were here back when I was the weirdo staying up all night because a later World Cup in Europe didn\\\'t merit a tape delay here yet. I can hardly conceptualize it myself. But soccer hate comes off as rather alien now. It helps to understand that Republicans are willing to learn, and will claim to enjoy, any sport the US gets good at. There\\\'s been a lag in uptake of women\\\'s sports by that set, but it\\\'s increasingly mainstream now, with full coverage of both North and South American tournaments on basic cable and stream.
It also helps to understand that all our population density is in the stretch from Boston to DC, and these are people who have a centuries-long tradition of being very concerned with appearing well-read in politics. After all, it was a life or death thing from the 16th to 19th centuries. Californians tend to view Boston-To-DC people as cruel and politically retrograde, but the reality is more \\\"forthright and up to date on controversies\\\". That image is just overwhelmed by the massive number of gerrymandered, repressive states between here and there, and our embarrassing surfeit of \\\"us against the world\\\" politics in each state. I imagine there is a similar effect on foreign perceptions of americans, given that our fetish for individuality leads to a lot of our exported stories being about small towns in dozens of low-population states. In reality, people\\\'s lives are much more about being proximal or not proximal to the nearest big-10 city, and most of these are not big cities from a global perspective because our society has been absolutely swimming in excess deaths to the point we have several constitutional amendments all but explicitly welcoming them.
ETA: I forgot to make this subtext explicit. I\\\'m talking about San Diego area so much because americans train for the summer olympics here, and lots of outdoor athletes (including soccer) are from here or Tampa where they can practice all year. If we are ignorant of any sports thing that has a major presence in or related to this country, it\\\'s Venezuelan baseball. Only hardcore fans know it exists, and we never remember the league\\\'s name, historically calling it \\\"winterball\\\" because it\\\'s a competitive pro sports league that offers a similar challenge to US pro ball in the season where it isn\\\'t happening here, due to South America being in another hemisphere.
