Day -680. WorldCup2018
After a few days of talking up the enthusiasm for football in North America, and just as I was nearing full belief that North Americans have finally embraced soccer as a serious sport, I get hit by an idiosyncrasy of football fandom in North America that throws me right back.
To be fair my recent posts were about football in the US and today's reminder happened in Canada but it is the same league and I feel it is safe to say that spectators' actions are fairly similar.
I got off my train from work this evening at the station about 500 metres from the Toronto FC stadium. As I exited a loud cheer went up, a cheer that was definitely that of ecstatic supporters celebrating a goal. I thought for a second that it might have been to celebrate a win at the final whistle, as a number of Toronto FC shirt wearing fans had been getting on my train. But as I looked towards the stadium it was obvious that the match hadn't ended. I ventured towards the stadium to see if I could get a glimpse of the scoreboard. As I did a number of people were coming out, which made me think that it was near the end. I checked the score online and the goal just scored had given Toronto a 1-0 lead in the 68th minute. And more and more people were, maybe not spilling, but slowly streaming out of the stadium. In the 68th minute!
I cannot imagine any football match in Europe where the home fans would leave more than 20 minutes before the end, just after their team had gone into the lead. One or two might, if they had a wedding to go to...indeed, if the two people were the groom and best man. It may be argued that the young families were leaving because the children had to get to bed. Or that the older fans had to also get to bed. But this was a cross section of demographics. And the huge majority of them were wearing Toronto FC shirts, which made me think they were semi-serious fans.
I was so baffled that I was almost ready to ask some of them why they were leaving and if it hadn't been for my bike and no lock, I may have asked them for their ticket.
It made me realise that despite all the progress (and it has come a long way) it is still very easy to make fun of North American football. Attending a football match is still just a source of entertainment for many spectators, or customers. It's just another thing to do in the social schedule before they move on to something else in the same evening. An hour at the game, and then we'll meet at the bar on the other side of town that is the place to be on a Wednesday night. It's still hilarious being at a match and noticing how many people are coming in way after kick-off and how many people are just constantly walking around. There's always people moving, everywhere. It's as though half the spectators can't just sit still and watch.
Despite all this, I will still repeat what I've said for a few days. I wouldn't be unhappy (quite the opposite) if Fifa decided to make a bold statement, take the World Cup away from Russia and give it to the US. The infrastructure is there, and regardless of what I wrote above, there is still lots of enthusiasm. It's a useless dream, I know, because Fifa will never do that. But if they did, I would buy my tickets and sit in my seat until the 90th minute. Quite easy anyway when the beer an ice cream sellers walk though the stands continuously.
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