- Joined
- Sep 17, 2011
Does it ever? It's only ever a few weeks of attention followed by a slide back into obscurity until the next Olympics.Dots said:Will US skating gain interest out of the Olympics?
Does it ever? It's only ever a few weeks of attention followed by a slide back into obscurity until the next Olympics.Dots said:Will US skating gain interest out of the Olympics?
Really? I've heard the opposite from many others. Though some of them think the decline isn't necessarily due to scandals but because our culture evolved away from FS. Think about the music, costumes, choreo, and even attitude that are "required" by FS elites. Look at the dancers on TV and compare them with ice dancers with their costumes.. FS is stuck in 1940 mentality and 1940 level of corruptions. (we still call women "ladies" in this sport)We will be in a better position to assess how much has changed in terms of interest in four years time. But I think the interest will always be there. I'm almost 39 and clearly remember the Harding/Kerrigan farce and the Salt Lake scandal. They didn't alter things much in the long term despite some heralding the death knell of the sport. Those that believe Kim is a victim of injustice might feel the sport is doomed but I doubt it.
In 1967 there were 100,000 people playing soccer in the US; by 1984, that number had grown to over 4 million.[11] Girls high school soccer experienced tremendous growth in playing numbers throughout the 1970s and 1980s—from 10,000 in 1976, to 41,000 in 1980, to 122,000 in 1990.[12]
The 1970s and 1980s saw increased popularity of the college game. Women's college soccer received a significant boost in 1972 with the passage of Title IX, which mandated equal funding for women's athletic programs, leading to colleges forming NCAA sanctioned women's varsity teams. As part of the United States' bid to host the 1994 World Cup, U.S. Soccer pledged to create a professional outdoor league. That effort culminated in the launch of Major League Soccer in 1996, which helped develop American players in a way that was not possible without a domestic league. Many of these players competed in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where the United States reached the quarterfinals, its best result in the modern era.
The growth of the women's game during the 1990s helped increase overall interest in soccer in the United States. The number of women's college soccer teams increased from 318 in 1991 to 959 in 2009.[18] Both the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cups were held in the United States. The crowd of over 90,000 at the Rose Bowl for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final remains the largest crowd in the world to witness any women's sporting event.[citation needed]
Really? I've heard the opposite from many others. Though some of them think the decline isn't necessarily due to scandals but because our culture evolved away from FS. Think about the music, costumes, choreo, and even attitude that are "required" by FS elites. Look at the dancers on TV and compare them with ice dancers with their costumes.. FS is stuck in 1940 mentality and 1940 level of corruptions. (we still call women "ladies" in this sport)
I couln't agree more. That's why I like people like Johnny Weir or Ashley Wagner (even Gold's biatchy faces), real people. I'm done with the little miss perfect ice princess concept. The minute USFSA understands that figure skating will never be seen as a masculine-stereotype mainstream sport or a ladies' social behavior little school (since everybody knows very few guys are straight anyway and most of our top girls are tough and agressive competitors), that is accepting the spot they have in the sporting world, then they might have a change differenciating the sport and making it somewhat more interesting to the non fan eye.
*whole post*
About soccer in the U.S., the interesting thing is that the sport has become more popular as a participatory activity, but not as a spectator sport. Also, it is the women's side of things that has grown. The Title IX boost to girls sports in schools was crucial, as the Wikipedia article mentions.