Viewers click off soccer as U.S. exits Cup

The World Cup is entering its final match, but it is over in the United States. The surprise run by the U.S. team that ended with a loss to Germany is another reminder of just how important perception is in attracting viewers, even if only for the short haul.

Years ago the America’s Cup of yachting was held in Australia. Dennis Connor was the skipper and head of the U.S. boat syndicate that created a national stir. Television was covering and creating the event at the same time.

A massive amount of promotion by ESPN, the network carrying the event, created another one of those one-time mini tornadoes of sports. The races, like the soccer matches, were in the middle of the night. People were caught up in the moment and the event. It became a happening.

When that America’s Cup ended, so did the general interest in the race in the U.S.; not just for that year, but right through today. The same loss of interest has already happened to soccer with the exit of the U.S. from the World Cup.

There will be a few more fans of soccer in the U.S. than there were before this World Cup, but not many. This year’s World Cup was primarily an excuse by the frenzied side of fans – the ones TV continues to cultivate – to be loud, stay up late, drink more, and feel like they were part of something.

Once that something, the U.S. team run, was over, it was time to look for the next happening, which is just what sports television and its fickle fan base are looking for right now.

One commentator said, “If soccer really wants to increase its fan base in this country, they should award six points for a goal.” That comment raises a point regarding the perspective a scoring system can have on a sport.

The growing tendency of sports fans in this country is for action that ends up on the scoreboard. Baseball and hockey have tried everything to increase offense. Basketball has seen scores go down, but has substituted slam and jam in its place to make it look like more is going on.

Football, purposefully or inadvertently, achieved an offensive perception when it awarded six points for a touchdown. Think about how dull the game might have been perceived if a touchdown counted one point.

Baseball has another way of continuing a perception that there is a lot more going on then there really is and that’s in the daily league standings.

Some brilliant mind decided that in figuring out how many games a team is behind the leader, you take the difference in wins and losses and divide by two. Why divide by two?

If the Sox are 10 games over .500 and the Yankees are at .500, the Yankees have 10 games to make up, not five as would appear in the standings. That’s why when a team gets behind by double digits, it is an enormous deficit to overcome.

Perception in life has always mattered to numerous issues. Sports are no different. What has changed in sports is that there are more and more instant perceptions created by the media to attract viewers, listeners and readers for a short duration.

That necessitates the use of hype and hoopla and the creation of more and more happenings to sell and hype. That is the business of today’s sports.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and CBS sportscaster.