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August 30, 2007
Controversy over Merc's soccer coverage heats up
A quick scan of the last six months of the blog will indicate that we've had issues with the Mercury News over their coverage of soccer, both in terms of quality and quantity. Well, we're not the only ones.
Over on BigSoccer, someone started a thread entitled, "Mercury News: Love It or Leave It?," which includes a poll asking subscribers if they're happy with the soccer coverage.
There are now over 100 responses to the poll, and despite the fact that it's not a scientific sample, the powers that be at the Merc can't be too pleased with the turnout. Of the 102 respondents, 61 report being current or former Mercury News subscribers. Of those 61, only four — that's seven percent — report that they're happy with the paper's soccer coverage. Of the 93 percent who report displeasure with the Merc's treatment of the beautiful game, 53 percent of that group has already cancelled their subscriptions because they finally couldn't take its "anti-soccer" attitude any more.
We think this should serve as a wake-up call for the paper, but if it doesn't, maybe a little ridicule from their peers in the San Jose media will help. We are referring to the Metro's latest "Silicon Alleys" column, in which writer Gary Singh serves a double espresso of pro-soccer sensibility to the sleepwalkers at the daily.
Here's how he begins:
Since there still exist sports writers in this town who can't function unless they're continuously bashing the sport of soccer from every possible manufactured angle while basking in their own irrelevance, I feel it necessary to hurl ridicule in their general direction. They know who they are, and it's not unique to San Jose, really. Pretty much every rube from the backwaters of every wasteland everywhere in America who doesn't understand the sport develops an irrational fear of it. For whatever reason, they feel threatened and they honestly want Major League Soccer to fail.So, now that the San Jose Earthquakes—the oldest pro sports franchise in the history of the city—will finally emerge again next year, and despite the undeniable growth of the sport in the United States, there still exist farmers town armchair commandos masquerading as sports journalists who continue to bash soccer because they just don't get it. Simply put, there is no other country on planet Earth where people are so hysterically against one particular sport.
Actually, that may be a triple espresso. Drink up now, Mercury News.
The Superliga final was played last night and, wow, what a match. We won't go into the details here in case anyone hasn't watched their TIVO yet, but let us say that MLS and the MFL get high marks for the inaugural version of what has been a thrilling tournament. Yesterday's game had everything a soccer fan could want — incredible drama and tragedy, nail-biting suspense, and finally, a winner taking home a million dollar purse. Not to mention some weird foreshadowing courtesy of a scoreline advertisement, as Steven Rubio notes in his match report.
Posted by Jay at August 30, 2007 06:55 AM