Soccer in U. S. Circling Wagons for Gallant Stand
To many, it is finally the light at the end of the tunnel, a tunnel that has always isolated soccer from the rest of the sporting community in this country.
Last Monday, in Switzerland, the United States won the bid to host the 1994 World Cup, soccer’s equivalent of the Super Bowl or the World Series.
Only more so. Much more so. This is super hype on an international scale. Not even the Olympics can approach the World Cup in terms of pure nationalistic fervor around the globe.
Such emotion over soccer has always been foreign to these shores. But now, those who have long predicted a soccer explosion in this country feel vindicated.
Two decades ago it was believed that the American Youth Soccer Organization was the vanguard of the movement. Wait until all these youngsters playing soccer grow up, went the argument, then let’s see what the national pastime is.
OK, so they were wrong.
A decade ago, it was the North American Soccer League. Superstar Pele was packing stadiums, and again it was believed by soccer enthusiasts that the sport had finally arrived in America, to take its place beside football, baseball and basketball.
OK, so they were wrong again.
But this time . . .
Marwan Ass’ad, soccer coach at Cal State Northridge, is among those who believe soccer’s cup will truly runneth over in America in the next decade. But he cautions about filling that cup too quickly. After all, there might be a light at the end of the tunnel, but it is still going to take six years to reach it.
“The first thing we have to do is to form a professional league,” Ass’ad says. “We are going to have another shot at a league with the World Cup coming. The opportunities for that don’t come along very often. The investors were scared off by what happened to the NASL. But the people behind it are still alive. They can talk about what went wrong and why it went wrong.
“One of the frustrations of our national program is that the only pro league we have now is the Major Indoor Soccer League. An indoor league does not prepare you to play outdoors.”
One possibility is to take teams from the Western Soccer Alliance on the West Coast and the American Soccer League on the East Coast, both semipro organizations, to form the core of a new bona fide major league.
Whatever form it takes, Ass’ad has some simple advice for the new league: Think small.
“The problem with the NASL,” Ass’ad says, “is that they treated it like baseball and football. They traveled all over the country for their games and paid high salaries. It took a crowd of 30,000 just to break even. When they got Pele, they drew 70,000. They took the easy way out. Everyone would go see Pele. That was easy. But without him, the league died out.”
Ass’ad believes he has a better game plan this time around.
“This pro league should be at full throttle by 1992,” he says. “But let’s play it cool. Let’s start out slow in 1989, 1990, not throw so much money into it, but do the little things right. Let’s start with a team goal of only maybe drawing 5,000 a game the first year. And let’s use American players. The colleges are producing good enough players for a pro league. What we need are American-bred players and a league that is credible, competitive and entertaining.
“If you can get a TV contract, that’s it. Then it doesn’t matter so much if you get a lot of fans or not. This time around, you have ESPN, other cable networks, Prime Ticket. If people can see a team on the road through television and identify with it, you have an excellent chance.”
Among the WSA teams are the California Kickers, based at Birmingham High in Van Nuys. But that club, in its third year, is struggling to draw more than a couple of hundred people a match. Still Ass’ad, who has built soccer into one of CSUN’s most popular--and successful--sports, thinks that the Valley could figure in the new pro league.
“A professional team in the Valley,” he insists, “could draw 10,000 a game.”
His eyes always seem to grow bigger and his voice louder when he talks about soccer, but when the subject turns to the World Cup, Ass’ad becomes electric.
“It is going to absolutely shock the hell out of the local news media,” he says. “They are going to be so taken away. There are going to be journalists here from all over the world. They are going to see different cultures--Saudi Arabians, South Americans, Europeans. And all this for one sport. It’s bigger than the Olympics.”
Who needs the World Cup? Just spend 20 minutes with Ass’ad and you will find yourself on the soccer bandwagon.
“So many people love this game in this country. But the problem has been that it has not been done right. You’ve got to live for it,” says Ass’ad, beating his fist against his heart, “ live for it.”
