The Full-Court Press

[powerof11]

Jeremy Loome ponders Toronto FC's communications department.

http://www.rednationonline.ca/The_Full_Court_Press_apr_6_10_column.shtml

[Free kick]

This touches a topic that I have been pondering since day one and which I though would change over time. But now in year four, I have not seen any changes. The big question, as stated, is whether its the club's fault for this situation, the mainstream media, or the league. I thinks its mostly the media and the state of the league with perhaps some blame to the club.

There is a ton of information that I have been wondering about that doesn't get answered and what information that I know, I get through the internet. The internet has its limitations in that the people in the internet communities mostly have day jobs and are more often consumers of information rather than providers. They are preoccupied with other things and its not their full time jobs to to provide discussion and information. When it comes to other sports, the providers of information have access and there exists competition for that access. The NFL is by far the most popular sport in the US and that's not because of that one game per week that's played over four months. There are six days a week in the fall and eight other months of the year when there is no football played and those days get filled with information. That cant be because of the league office or the clubs who volunteer info. Besides, NFL coaches and clubs personnel strike me as the most egotistical and the least willing to volunteer info.

In other sports, information is feed to you but with TFC/MLS you still have to seek it out and sometimes its not there because few have the access and there isn't the competition for that access. The situation is no where near as bad as the days of the USL but still, I haven`t seen much details of the new CBA(other than the three DP's), for example. And its the same with the inner workings with club or league and many of the things that you mentioned. If you read the "Beckham experiment" by Grant Wahl, you would have read lots of things would not make the book noteworthy had that same scenario played itself out with a local pro team in any sport other than soccer. And the reason for that is that all that is contained in the book would have been out there. What ever is newsworthy does get reported but we often already know that info already from press releases. There is an industry ( beyond what appears in forums such as this one) that consists of conjecture and talk that is sorely missing when it comes to soccer/MLS/TFC. It has to extend beyond just the specialists in the field of soccer. That is key a part of sustaining interest in the game.