Does America respect soccer? This is a sport where no significant 'points' may be scored for perhaps the whole of the match. This is a sport that is looked down upon by vast sections of the media as that "Beckham Experiment" you play if you can't do football, baseball or basketball.
So why was Clint Eastwood guest of honour at French club Lyon’s game against Sochaux to celebrate the city’s first Film Festival in October 2009? His skills on the pitch matched those of Diana Ross in the 1994 World Cup, but his presence was noted.
Even Britney Spears arrived for a recent Hollywood dance class as a soccer mom, resplendent in tiny red shorts and yellow socks rolled up to the knee.
Hollywood Embraces Culture of Soccer
British film maverick Ken Loach, who recently directed Looking for Eric, starring the ex-Manchester United player turned actor Eric Cantona, has his own take on why Hollywood has embraced football, especially in England.
"I suppose some of them see it as quite a sexy place to be," said Loach. "In some ways football has become a bit more like Wimbledon, where people are sitting in stands instead of standing on the terraces.
"But I think it's more the fact that players at the top level are seen as much more sophisticated. There are more French, Italian and Spanish footballers here now and those cultures bring a certain sophistication which wasn't perhaps there 10 or 20 years ago."
Although Kevin Costner wants to make a movie of the touchdown kind, he appreciates the ambiance of English football is something entirely different.
The king of the sports movie said: “My first introduction to English football was in 1990 when I was over here making Robin Hood and I got invited to an Arsenal game. Having watched sports all my life in America, there was no comparison in terms of the emotion that was in the stadium.”
After filming the hooligan flick, Green Street, Elijah Wood was equally taken aback by the passion of England’s East End fans. Wood insists: “It's amazing. I've never been to a sporting event with the amount of passion football supporters seem to have.”
Soccer to Challenge NBA and NHL
Aided by the relative success of the national team in the Confederations Cup, American attendances have grown. In the summer, over 81,000 filled the Rose Bowl at Pasadena to watch Inter Milan play Chelsea. Despite an age-old bias by the media towards soccer, "The Beckham Experiment” cannot be said to have failed.
In the last three years alone, MLS average attendances have grown from 15,000 to over 17,500, and with ticket prices vastly cheaper than the NBA and NHL and a World Cup to come next year, the omens are looking good for increased revenue and more celebrity promotion.
17 Million American Viewers Watch 2006 World Cup
The chasm that previously existed between professional footballers and film stars is a thing of the past, strengthening the relationship between both parties. For instance, after their epic penalty-shoot out victory against Uruguay which sealed World Cup qualification to the 2006 World Cup, the Australian team celebrated with John Travolta in the dressing room. The Pulp Fiction star then offered to personally fly the squad to Germany, declaring: “"I'd like to play my part for Australia."
The English and Spanish-language telecasts of the 2006 tournament combined to attract an estimated 16.9 million American viewers, comparable to the average viewership of the 2005 World Series. Hollywood and soccer may learn to love each other even more after the 2010 World Cup.
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