World Cup Withdrawal

World Cup Withdrawal

204 countries tried, and the Spanish (by far the most deserved winners) emerged victorious. ESPN/ABC took the largest team of broadcasters of all nations. Paul the octopus had the winning bracket. The Nigerian government suspended all of its players for two years for underperforming. Sarkozy smuggled the ringleaders of Les Abominable Bleus into the Palais under cover of darkness and punished their reprehensible behavior by making them listen to Carla’s albums until their ears bled. All but the last are true, and this at least is partly so.

The talk in the U.S. is, once more, as to whether the game has reached a critical and TV spectator–fueled mass to register on the Richter scale of sports here and thus occupy a more prominent position in the collective sporting consciousness of the nation. Do we have the infrastructure to develop the game? Do we have the talent? Do we have the commercial support? Do we have an appetite for the game beyond grass roots "soccer"?

My contention is that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter to the rest of the world if the U.S. joins in, and it shouldn’t matter to Americans. As with content, the real question should be: Is it relevant? Is the World Cup an event that will engage a U.S. audience with passion and interest? Partly, yes. Is it a growing audience? Undoubtedly. Will Americans ever have the passion for football, er, soccer that the Europeans and South Americans have? Never. But is there a market for it? A qualified yes ...

And it is the “somewhat” answer that should interest us as marketers—there are passionate fans here, but we just don’t have the critical mass of them that we have for say, NFL. This time around, apart from the wanting to win aspect, I also detected a wistfulness to be part of the World Cup, which is less about sport and winning and more about somebody throwing a GREAT party that everyone seems to be enjoying more than us.

My advice on this is that there are plenty of parties—just as there is a plethora of content—so just enjoy the ones that mean the most to you and don’t try too hard to be the coolest kid on the block or like everybody else’s content. Just do what works for you. By all means extend your repertoire and try the new stuff. If it works, great.  

And if not, we always have the World Series, which, when you think about it, is a velvet rope World Cup with 203 less guests ...

Posted By: Craig Waller