The German Model
By Max J. Rosenthal • Aug 8th, 2007 • Category: American soccer, World Football Culture • 3 responsesI have said it before, but in light of great articles from Soccernet’s Uli Hesse-Lichtenberger, it bears repeating: the Bundesliga, not the Premiership or La Liga, should be MLS’ role model. Uli’s latest article on fan power in Germany has some great examples of why:
Depending on the club, the cheapest Bundesliga ticket for an adult will set you back between 8 and 10 Euros. Those tickets are, of course, for a part of the grounds many younger and non-German fans only know from hearsay, namely the terraces.
Now, it’s important to note that there is by and large only one reason most Bundesliga grounds still have standing areas: because the fans wanted it that way.
With a young and unsettled league, there’s still hope that supporter power can take root in the States. In some places, like DC and Toronto, organized supporters have won a good deal of cooperation and leeway from their clubs. The Sons of Ben already have a wide-ranging list of consultation demands on everything from team colors to stadium design elements to game-day transportation deals. And following Toronto’s success, Don Garber’s comments have seemed to say that MLS now recognizes the vital need for dedicated support, which bodes well for both existing and future groups.
Then again, tell that to Red Bull fans.
Max J. Rosenthal is
Email this author | All posts by Max J. Rosenthal
Along with Hesse-Lichtenberger, I’d like to talk up Raphael Honigstein at footballunlimited, whose Bundesliga pieces are always pretty good. I miss the Bundesliga on FSC something awful.
We could only dream of MLS adhering to anything like the German model, with its reasonable prices and the at-least-in-many-places emphasis on the local community having some stake in the sport. I’m sure it’s not perfect and I’m sure things will change for the more unctuous there too, but still, I have to respect the way things are there. There are no doubt deep sociological roots contributing to the differences between here and there, too. Those can’t and won’t change. I’m afraid - and I’ve been a follower of MLS since it started - that the best the league can, or is willing, to do is to play up the superficial elements as they emerge (look, we love “European-style” supporters groups!), without being set up for - and actively stifling the desire for - real, substantial links between team and community.
As a longtime Metro supporter now waiting for an option that doesn’t involve being part of a soft drink advertisement, the biggest joke rationale (and there have been dozens of them) thrown out there by desperate Metro fans during the takeover was that the new owners would bring a “European sensibility” to the organization. Not least it’s attitude toward supporters and the culture of the sport. Of course, anyone who looks at what the company does, it’s general m.o. with its soccer teams, would see that that’s total nonsense. They’re the antithesis of “European”, if we’re going to roughly equate that with “traditional”. Ironically, MLS’s one European owner will be the last to consider anything truly (not superficially) “traditional” here.
Definitely, I’m also a fan of Honigstein, though I do usually like Uli’s fan/culture focus more. Somehow I fell out visiting the Guardian Football site when I started using Google Reader, I’ll have to start again with the next season.
Out of curiosity, with everything going on at Giants Stadium (painful, by the way; I’m a huge Giants fan), would you or other RBNY fans ever consider defecting to another NYC team if it looked to be more traditional or European and embraced the fans?
Such a question, Max. The answer is pretty easy, I guess: Yes, no, maybe, and I have no idea.
I can only answer for myself honestly, and that means I have to start out with this; I am emphatically not a RBNY fan. I detest their tacky, superficial global-team-branding approach. To me it transgresses everything I love about the culture and traditions of this sport - especially the idea that each club is local and particular, is special. I detest that this happened to my team. I’m not onboard with offering my team’s identity (ten years old or not) up for anything. And most importantly, I am of the mind that it simply cannot work. As it is obviously not working now. I am a Metro fan, so since the takeover I’ve progressively drifted off to being a casual MLS watcher, a follower and enthusiast (albeit a somewhat critical one) of American soccer. No more Direct Kick, no more appointment viewing. I watch when I’m around to watch. I haven’t been to an MLS game in 2 years now. And you know, I’ve actually been just fine like that.
That said, I would like to have a team to care about once again, even if I can’t help but be a bit more jaded than I once was. Where that team will be is anyone’s guess. Such disenfranchised Metro fans - and I won’t be so presumptuous as to guess just how many do or don’t feel exactly the way I do - just adds to the incredibly fragmented NY area soccer fan base that’s out there. This has always been an issue with that market and it’s just that much worse now. You have people who don’t go to NJ because it really is too far and too much of a hassle from where they live. You have people who don’t go to NJ because they are NYers who look down on NJ and would never follow a team from there. You have people who don’t go to NJ because they are waiting for the second coming of the Cosmos (and in an area where there are still people waiting for the second coming of the Dodgers, don’t expect them back any time soon). You have people who used to go to NJ, but don’t go to NJ anymore because the Metros’ endless shenanigans and crapitude burned them out. You have the immense number of people who simply are never going to go to MLS games, full stop. You have people who are still going to NJ, but are from NY and sitting on the fence about who they’ll root for when the NYC expansion takes place. And you have people who, through it all, are totally diehard and will revile anyone who dares go over to the new side.
I can’t predict any of what happens with them. Certainly some go from the NJ side.
I will predict that NYC expansion will happen soon enough, and yes, NYC deserves it; people who think RB ought to be “filling up the stadium” before NYC expansion is even considered have absolutely no understanding of the dynamics of the area. They fail to recognize that there is a soccer population in the region who, for one of many reasons WILL NOT go to NJ to watch that team, no matter who is on it or how they’re playing.
I put myself in that group now, though my own reason is only one of many, and a comparatively minor one at that.
Bottom line for me: I’m open to considering either NYC expansion (which should and will happen in the next 2-4 years, I reckon), a CT expansion team (definitely a longshot, but it’s home) or the re-rebranding of RBNY when that experiment fails or the corporation gets done with it (as they almost certainly will). Whichever comes first. If a USL team came around, I’d probably go for that, too. One of those options, that’s what I’m waiting for now.