THE CHEAP SEATS WITH STEVE CAMERON: So soccer, it is a big deal here?

It was a little bit like magic.

I’m talking about the first time I saw a professional soccer match, live and in person.

It was two decades ago last December, and I was working in Charlotte – but my employer (Sports Business Journal) had decided on a jump toward the vast international market.

So…

The suits on the fourth floor decided we should host a big commercial trade show – and do it somewhere overseas.

My day-to-day gig at that time was covering sports and entertainment facilities, a part of the industry in which the rest of the world was far, far behind.

Stakeholders naturally wanted to catch up, which is why representatives from so many countries turned, and why I wound up with pockets packed with business cards.

Heck. I got job offers from companies in Norway, the Netherlands and Croatia.

Meanwhile…

My bosses had wisely chosen London for the event, a great location because many team owners in the English Premier League (soccer) were American, and even though they didn’t exactly know how to build or expand a venue in Britain…

They had seen the phenomenon in action.

They had watched U.S. cities and club owners make truckloads of money with fancy new facilities.

SO. OUR corporate goal was pretty obvious.

We went to England with the notion that various stakeholders – designers, engineers, food merchants and so on – could likely explain the stadium boom to their potential global customers.

If all these people got together, we reasoned, the wildly successful U.S. facility model could be exported to, well…

Just about anywhere.

Ultimately, we were proven correct.

If you look at the sports building craze across various continents that a company like Kansas City-based design giant Populous keeps explaining and then encouraging, you’ll see the phenomenon the way we did – and suspect that almost every village in any country with more than a hundred people will wind up with its own soccer stadium.

Okay, I exaggerated, but…

Not by much.

Meanwhile, my goal on our trip was to enjoy London for a few days.

What I didn’t guess was that some of our conference attendees had extra tickets to a Champions League game between Arsenal (North London) and Juventus (Turin, perennial Italian champions).

Even in my ignorance, I thought it would be fun, so I said: “Sure, I’ll go.”
I assumed the game itself would be boring, but my new pals would be great company.

AND SO, much to my surprise, I became a soccer fun – and an Arsenal junkie.

You actually get goosebumps at a big-time soccer match (it’s called “football” everywhere but the United States), and once you have even the slightest clue, soccer games feel like jolts of electricity.

Here’s my point…

So far, I haven’t noticed much interest in soccer around Kootenai County.

Writing a column about sports, I was waiting for a flood of emails asking why I don’t write about club soccer on the international level – heck, Manchester United is the Arse’s hot rivalry, but still, I thought I’d hear from some United supporters.

Or worse, I’d get some nasty messages from swine Tottenham fans.

Look, there are great teams here at home. so…

What about the hugely successful Seattle Sounders in the U.S-based Major League Soccer (MLS),

Is no one interested in our own national teams, with the men battling to reach the World Cup and the Olympics – while the United States women absolutely rule the world.

I never, ever miss a U.S. women’s team.

Thus, my question…

Are plenty of you crazed soccer fans, and don’t feel like writing me about it?

Or…

Do you have no interest in the sport itself?

Please tell me.

Seriously.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published each Tuesday.