‘Everything Stops’ for Game Telecasts : World Cup Fever Engulfs L.A.’s Eastside
Merchants along Brooklyn Avenue in East Los Angeles swear that even the traffic on the busy commercial street dies down during the daily telecasts of the World Cup soccer tournament from Mexico.
“It’s no joke,” said Ricardo Villaruel, behind the counter of his auto parts shop on Brooklyn. “My employees don’t work, my customers don’t come in, the streets are empty. Everything stops until the game is over.”
“It’s all anybody talks about. It’s all you see on TV, hear on radio, read in the papers,” he said, good-naturedly chiding two employes who sat in front of a television set tuned to the morning game.
But Villaruel wasn’t complaining. “After all,” he said, “this is El Mundial!”
Short for “World Cup” in Spanish, El Mundial is awaited with great anticipation every four years by millions of soccer fans around the world. Although of less significance in the United States, El Mundial nevertheless keeps a substantial number of residents of this city of transplants glued to their television sets.
In restaurants, bars and thousands of homes across Los Angeles, the tournament stirs nostalgia and nationalistic fervor among immigrants rooting for the teams of their former homelands.
The staunchest fans among them have long since departed for Mexico, where the games, which began May 31, are scheduled to continue through June 29. Some of those who remain occasionally call in sick at work and cancel business appointments to watch key matches.
“Our customers call to tell us to come by later--after the game,” said Jose Paraga, manager of a seafood distributorship that caters to Mexican restaurants.
“In my office, when Mexico played Belgium, all the Mexicans called in sick. We were down four out of 10 people,” said Roberto Diaz Jr., who works at a correspondence school in Los Angeles. “I know a lot of guys at other places who have missed work or taken vacation time to stay home and watch the games.”
At Los Angeles’ Spanish-language television station KMEX, which has exclusive local rights to the Spanish-language broadcast of the games and boasts the event’s “most complete coverage,” ratings are up. The station plans to broadcast all 52 games for a total of 142 on-the-air hours, station spokeswoman Sybil Alicia McNair said.
“The numbers are fantastic,” said the station’s research director, Jon Yasuda.
According to Arbitron Rating Service, more than twice as many households were tuned to KMEX’s telecast during the first weekend of the soccer matches than to ABC’s major league baseball game that day. And the high ratings appear to be holding for weekday games.
Yasuda estimated that the station’s audience has grown about 30% during the World Cup broadcasts. And, as the tournament heads toward a conclusion, Yasuda anticipates that the station may earn its highest rating yet for a single program.
‘Impassioned’ Response
Viewer response to the broadcasts has been “impassioned,” McNair added. Fans have telephoned the station to “express outrage” over bad calls on the playing field. And, before planning a weekend trip out of town, others have called the station to make sure that the broadcast signal would reach them, she said.
The calls have come not only from the station’s traditional Spanish-speaking viewers, but also from Europeans, Koreans, Iraqis and Hungarians. “You name it,” McNair said. “I’ve been absolutely amazed.”
As in the past, the World Cup has drawn the attention of the Southland’s European and Asian, as well as Latino immigrant communities, but Mexicans lay special claim to this year’s event.
“There’s double the excitement” in the Latino community, said Diaz, who grew up playing soccer in the streets of his native Mexico and now helps manage two local amateur soccer leagues. “We’re celebrating the cup, as well as the fact that it’s taking place in our country.”
Wild Cheering
In East Los Angeles, game schedules are tacked on the walls at offices and homes. World Cup bumper stickers and T-shirts can be spotted on the streets. And the sportscasters’ feverish chatter in Spanish, emanating from car radios and televisions inside stores and homes, is occasionally punctuated by the wild cheering of the crowd as the announcers shout “ Goooooooooool! “ signaling another score.
In some areas, friendly bets are wagered among neighbors and friends.
Half a dozen tailors at a small shop on Brooklyn Avenue complained last week, with humor, about their run of bad luck, which so far had them losing seven of nine bets to the guys at the barbershop and another tailor shop down the street.
“We’re big futbol fans here,” one of the men boasted. “And we’re big losers too,” another added, as they all broke into laughter.
Seated at their sewing machines, the tailors kept one eye on the television set and another on the intricate stitching of the Mexican charro outfits that are the shop’s specialty.
‘It Stays With You’
Owner Julio Vazquez, like most of his employees, was “raised on futbol” in his native Mexico. “It stays with you,” said Vazquez, who has maintained his interest in the sport since coming to the United States 15 years ago.
Although he also has developed a love of baseball, Vazquez contends that soccer is the faster, more captivating of the two games. “And, it is totally dependent on skill, not luck, like baseball. . . . Futbol is a beautiful game,” he said.
Television and videocassette-recorder sales have nearly doubled at some of the largest furniture stores on the Eastside, according to salesmen there.
“While the games are on, business is almost dead,” said Raquel Bensimon, an administrator at Dearden’s, a downtown furniture store that caters to Latinos. “As soon as the game’s over, they’re all in here buying TVs and VCRs so they can better watch and record the games.
“There’s such enthusiasm for the games in Los Angeles that, after each World Cup, I always wonder how it is that we still don’t have good soccer played here.”
2 Professional Teams
Although not noted for its professional soccer--Los Angeles has two new teams, the Los Angeles Heat and the Hollywood Kickers, besides the indoor Lazers--the sport is booming at the amateur level. The world’s most popular sport has come to Southern California along with immigrants from around the world.
Over the last decade, the number of adult amateur soccer teams in the area has quadrupled, with any number of an estimated 600 teams battling it out on weekends at parks and school fields across Southern California.
Diaz, whose two leagues are part of about 40 affiliated with the California Soccer Assn. in Southern California, said there are at least as many non-affiliated leagues that belong to another, independent association. This reflects a total of about 25,000 players participating in organized amateur soccer leagues in the area, Diaz said.
Most of the amateur leagues have cancelled activities during the World Cup competition, he said. “If we hadn’t, no one would have shown up for the (league) games,” he added.
In his leagues alone, about one-third of the players and their managers have either already gone to or are planning trips to Mexico, he said. Those who stay behind gather daily at the league office or at each other’s homes to watch the World Cup games.
Phones Ring Off Hook
After Mexico’s first victory in the tournament, “the phones were ringing off the hook at the league’s office,” Diaz said. “Everybody just wanted to express their happiness. . . . There’s a lot of hope that our country will make its best showing in the history of futbol. “
As a child, Diaz, now 30, “dreamed of going professional.” His father, who had played amateur soccer in Mexico, founded a soccer league in Los Angeles soon after he settled here more than a decade ago.
Now, Diaz looks forward to the day when his 4-year-old son will carry on the family tradition.
There may be some competition, however.
Last weekend at the home of Vazquez, the tailor, two television sets were on. In the living room, Vazquez watched the World Cup game. His teen-age son had the set in his bedroom tuned to the National Basketball Assn. championship final.
