This week’s readings were about the 1994 World Cup in the US. It focuses on the influence of soccer on the US, both expected and in reality. Before going into this reading, I knew there was a huge, but unsuccessful, push to turn the US into a soccer nation. These efforts were prominent in the 1950s to 90s, and would eventually stagnate for years. This nation has never been closer to fully embracing soccer. Major shifts in the American soccer world, including Messi moving to Miami and the World Cup being held here, have contributed to it. The article talks about how, after the 94 World Cup, despite being held in America, the sport was still marginalized. There was a massive push to turn the sport into a major American sport industry. The authors tie this failure to a few different factors. The first was a lack of deeper girth in the population. While the World Cup was a spectacle, the soccer institutions of America didnt capatalize on this. The momentum that the World Cup gave died off after a few months.
The 94 World cup majorly capatalized on corporate sponsors. The event was essentially shaped by them. This caused two major effects. Firstly, it established the new trend of corporate control over the sporting events, limiting the influence of grassroots and other smaller organizations. Additionally, it would cause these events to become major spectacles. Mechendisinng and advertisements would become a ludicrous business that future events would follow through on.
This article highlighted lots of trends that started with the 94 World Cup. I found it interesting how many of these trends benefited the organization in the long run, but didn’t work in the US. I think this year’s Cup will be far more successful than the one well over thirty years ago. The unique mixture of our current soccer landscape in the world will produce an interesting World Cup.
Week 3
-Porter Cockrum
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