Column: A major loss for American soccer

I watched in sadness on Thursday as FIFA President Sepp Blatter crushed my dreams, Bill Clinton’s dreams and Landon Donovan’s dreams by announcing that the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held in Qatar, a small nation in the Middle East.

The United States, which had sent a group including Clinton, Donovan and Morgan Freeman to make a presentation to the FIFA executive committee, was seen as the front-runner going into the decision to host the event in 12 years.

Unfortunately for the United States, it was eliminated in the final round of voting, the round which gave Qatar the nod to host the World Cup.

As FIFA and the world look ahead to the coming World Cups — 2014 (Brazil), 2018 (announced Thursday as well: Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) — American soccer fans are left to wonder what could have been if the World Cup came to the United States in 12 years.

America saw the inception of Major League Soccer with the last World Cup that was held here, which just finished its 15th season this November with the Colorado Rapids taking home the title of league champion. What would soccer in America have gained with a World Cup in the year of 2022?

Let’s start with the attention soccer in the United States would have attracted this year as well as the following. The MLS season just ended, which would make next year’s season the first season after the country would have gained the bid. Because of the attention news outlets and ESPN would be giving the sport, more people would have started paying attention to the MLS.

Could this have mattered? Could this have changed the way people in the United States see soccer?

My answer to this question normally would have been no; Americans may start paying a little more attention but soccer wouldn’t shift to become one of the top-tier American sports.

That would have been my answer if the National Football League’s and National Basketball Association’s seasons next year looked to be normal.

Both the NFL and the NBA look like they could be facing lockouts next year, though, and as the seasons for both sports march on without any new bargaining agreements in sight, fans should start looking for something else to pass the time while they wait for the lockouts to end.

The possibility of an NFL lockout became real when reporters saw a letter sent out to players from the NFL Players Association advising the players to save their paychecks in anticipation of the lockout: “It is important that you protect yourself and your family.”

The NFLPA predicts a lockout in the NFL, and people close to the discussions surrounding the collective bargaining agreement in the NBA seem as morose about the subject, if not more.

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In October, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that team owners wanted to see players’ salaries reduced by a total of $750–$800 million, and since then there has been no word that the owners and the NBA Players Association have been able to make any progress.

With two of America’s favorite sports facing impending lockouts and Major League Baseball coming off one of its worst-rated World Series ever, FIFA could have taken the perfect opportunity to grow soccer’s fan base in America.

Unfortunately, the FIFA executive committee did not see the value in giving the United States the bid in 2022, and most Americans will probably retain their current view on soccer: insignificant.