Heraclitean Fire

Soccer in the US

All the coverage about the position of soccer in the US, and whether Beckham moving there will have any impact, had me thinking. If his new home ground is only half-full, he’ll still be playing in front of about 13,000 fans. It’s true, that’s not very many compared to the Bernabéu or Old Trafford, but it’s a good crowd for a match in the Rugby Union Premiership and a miraculous one for county cricket.

Average attendances for soccer in the US (the 5th most popular team sport) are significantly higher than those for rugby in the UK (the 2nd most popular team sport). In fact, according to this list of sports attendances on Wikipedia, the English rugby premiership draws the biggest audiences of any non-soccer league in Europe, and it still only has an average attendance of 10,271; not just less than Major League Soccer, but less than the National Lacrosse League in the US.

Perhaps ‘why don’t Americans like soccer?’ is the wrong question. More interestingly: why does Europe only manage to support one team sport as a megabusiness while North America supports three or four? Why is Europe a sporting monoculture?

Tags cricket, David Beckham, England, football, rugby, sport, USA

Culture

The Last King of Scotland

I went to see The Last King of Scotland tonight. It’s very good (fine performances all round, a convincing portrayal of the weirdness at the centre of a dictatorship) but it doesn’t exactly send you out with a spring in your step and a cheerful optimism about the human condition. I guess the world isn’t ready yet for a sparkling romp set in the court of Idi Amin.

I feel I ought to have something more thoughtful to say about it but I don’t just at the moment. Maybe tomorrow.