Gold Cup may not mean much, but Copa America matters. |
I do find it interesting that FIFA did not influence better timing of Gold Cup, Copa America, and WWC. These three on at the same time is not smart. I am sure there were some scheduling challenges but this could have been done better. Having all three finals on one day is silly. Anyhow, as far as women asking for more investment ... there is nothing wrong with that ask, but until they have greater viewership outside of an every four year tourney asking won’t matter. People either watch more or they don’t. It is not up to FIFA to make this happen, it is up to the investors, players, clubs, and leagues. Getting in a huff about it publically doesn’t really help, in fact it will turn some viewers away. |
1. None of these games are on at the same time, so everyone is free to watch all of them if they want. Rapinoe is whining (as usual) because she knows the other tourneys are going to steal some of the media attention from her. And she and her teammates have gotten used to fawning attention from the sheeplike fangirls in the media who have tossed their professional responsibility out the window in this tourney. 2. The WWC is the only thing in women's soccer that makes any money and gets any real attention from anyone. And whining from the USWNT is going to make that worse, not better. The global audience for the Copa America final probably will be at least 10x that of the WWC final. As for the Gold Cup, El Tri is one of the most popular sports teams in the US as well as Mexico, so you can guess the size of the audience there. 3. I think it's hilarious that the people lining up to take potshots at Phil Neville are jumping through every hoop they can find to defend the USWNT members' bad behaviour at every turn. |
One more thing: Scheduling for the men's tourneys is based on the window between seasons in most major professional leagues (which in this case means Europe) so as to minimize disruption to FIFA's biggest moneymaker. So that explains why they're all held in June and July. |
Last time I checked July has only just started. Also, Neville is a good coach but a clown of a person. The media loves clowns so he’ll do well. |
| Woah there... you can be annoyed that FIFA scheduled all 3 finals on the same day without calling Copa America meaningless. Calm down, Phil Neville. |
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Also, and I’m only playing devil’s advocate here, one could make the argument that having 3 finals on the same day can only be good for the overall growth and exposure of the game, women’s soccer included. I think it’s great that we pretty much have 12 hours worth of soccer games and discussion about those games.
It’d also be neat to have them on separate days, more days in which we can watch international soccer. Great! Last point. I can’t help but think that AFCON is getting the short end of the stick here. There’s a 4th international competition also going on at the moment, why aren’t we talking about that too? |
You might have noticed that tickets are on sale for the Arsenal-Real Madrid match July 23 at FedEx Field. That's a little more than 2 weeks away, which might give you a good idea of when players need to report back to their clubs. People who actually follow soccer, as opposed to USWNT fangirls, already know this. Also, Rapinoe is a good player but a clown of a person. The media loves clowns, which is why she gets so much attention. |
Greater viewership does not happen on its own. It requires many things, including a solid product that people want to see, players that they have grown to love or hate, and significant money and time spent promoting the game and the players. By way of a single example of promotion, there have been many articles written comparing FIFA’s efforts to promote the MWC when it was last played in France vs FIFA’s promotion efforts with this WWC in France. The lack of promotion of the women’s games by FIFA is pathetic, and includes, among other things, virtually no signage that the WWC was even going on in France. I don’t fault the US women for trying to draw attention to this disparity at the WWC. As others have said, this is the biggest platform for these women and the best chance for people to hear about these disparities is if they are raised now, while people are paying attention. |
If I understand it correctly, the WWC and Copa America have been on the same 4 year cycle since 2007. Gold Cup is every 2 years. Yet I think this is the first time the men’s finals of those tournaments have been scheduled at the same time as the Women’s World Cup. Point being, FIFA seemed to have figured out how not to schedule these events on the same day in years past, despite the “pressing” needs of the international promotional tours of the European club teams, as they try to draw more fans from North America and Asia. Speaking of, these preseason friendlies like Arsenal/Real Madrid, are examples of FIFA trying to promote and grow the men’s game. They are great ideas, even if it is hard to get too excited about friendlies. It would be interesting to see what might happen with the women’s game if it received similar promotion efforts. I appreciate the men’s game was built over decades, and it would take time to build the women’s game. But it would be nice to see FIFA take the lead in investing in the women’s game much more than it has done previously. |
| i absolutely hate team USA. |
Who cares? |
| Oh god Rapinoe playing...why? Guess its time to go into this match a player down again. |
| Damn, those Dutch women are tall! |
We get it, you have to post something along those lines before every game they play due to your compulsion. Stop trying to hijack a rational conversation, or better yet contribute to it in a constructive way. |