After more than a decade, a full-time, professional outdoor soccer league—Major League Soccer (MLS)—has returned to the United States. Following the staging of a highly successful World Cup in 1994, soccer supporters in the United States have the opportunity to demonstrate that the game can indeed take its place among the big four of U.S. team sports (baseball, basketball, football, and hockey). There are many obstacles—economic, historical, sociocultural, and ideological—to this goal. This essay will explore the sporting and social tensions that the MLS faces and that its presence may provoke.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abrams, N. D.
(1995). “Inhibited but not `crowded out' ”: The strange fate of soccer in the United States. International Journal of the History of Sport, 12(3), 1-17.
2.
Armijo, M.
(1996, August 12). Major League Soccer scores big with its fans. Arizona Republic, pp. D1, D5.
3.
Berling, C.
(1989, June 8). We don't get no respect. Soccer America, p. 4.
4.
Berling, C.
(1990, July 19). The failure syndrome. Soccer America, p. 4.
5.
Bernstein, A.
(1996, April). Green light. Sporting Goods Business, p. 36.
6.
Boyle, R. H.
(1963). Sport: Mirror of American life. Boston: Little, Brown.
7.
Brown, R. H.
(1987). Society as text: Essays on rhetoric, reason, and reality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
8.
Burgi, M.
(1996, April 29). Soccer kicks back. Mediaweek, p. 40.
9.
Cervantes, N.
, Khokha, S., & Murray, B. (1995). Hate unleashed: Los Angeles in the aftermath of Proposition 187. Chicano-Latino Law Review, 17, 1-23.
10.
Clifford, J.
, & Marcus, G. E. (Eds.). (1986). Writing culture: The poetics and politics of ethnography. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
11.
Cress, D.
(1996, March 18). MLS goes African. Soccer America, p. 17.
12.
Crothers, T.
(1996, October 28). United way. Sports Illustrated, pp. 52-53.
13.
“Flashback.” (1996, April). World Soccer, p. 67.
14.
Gabriel, J. A.
(1995). Racializing immigration in the U.S.Discourse & Society, 6, 570-572.
15.
Gardner, P.
(1996). The big bang. World Soccer, pp. 4-6.
16.
Glenn, J.
(1996, November-December). The un-American game. Utne Reader, pp. 26-28.
17.
“Growing stars.” (1996, April 13). The Economist, p. 27.
18.
Hasian, M.
, & Delgado, F. (n.d.). The trials and tribulations of racialized critical rhetorical theory: Understanding the rhetorical ambiguities of Proposition 187. Unpublished manuscript.
19.
Herbst, D.
(1997, January-February). MLS gets some passing grades after a promising first year. Soccer, pp. 38-39.
20.
“House votes.” (1996, March 23). Congressional Quarterly, pp. 834-838.
21.
Jensen, J.
(1996, March 11). New game plan. Advertising Age, pp. 21, 25.
22.
Jones, G. L.
(1990, November). Soccer and the media. Soccer International, pp. 19-25.
23.
Lasso, G.
(1995). Proposition 187 and Latinos. Unpublished manuscript, Washburn University, Topeka, KS.
24.
Leonhardt, D.
(1996, January 29). Is Major League Soccer using its head?Business Week, p. 52.
25.
Lever, J.
, & Wheeler, S. (1993). Mass media and the experience of sport. Communication Research, 20, 125-143.
26.
Mahoney, R.
(1996a, April 29). MLS beat: Big-time soccer arrives. Soccer America, pp. 16-17.
27.
Mahoney, R.
(1996b, November 11). MLS last bastion for soccer-bashers. Soccer America, pp. 20-21.
28.
Mahoney, R.
(1996c, December 9). Let the wheeling and dealing begin!Soccer America, p. 16.
29.
Mahoney, R.
(1996d, December 9). MLS roundup. Soccer America, p. 16.
30.
Mahoney, R.
(1996e, December 16). Newman looks inside and out for answers. Soccer America, p. 12.
31.
Markovits, A. S.
(1990). The other “American exceptionalism”: Why is there no soccer in the United States?International Journal of the History of Sport, 7, 230-264.
32.
McGee, M. C.
(1990). Text, context, and the fragmentation of contemporary culture. Western Journal of Speech Communication, 54, 274-289.
33.
Meacham, J.
(1996, April 3). Soccer reboots: Major League Soccer confident in new game plan. San Jose Mercury News, pp. D1, D8.
34.
Morgan, W.J.
(1983). Toward a critical theory of sport. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 7, 24-34.
35.
Morgan, W. J.
(1985). “Radical” social theory of sport: A critique and a conceptual emendation. Sociology of Sport Journal, 2, 56-71.
36.
Murphy, A.
(1996, April 15). Goal-poor. Sports Illustrated, pp. 30-31.
37.
Real, M. R.
, & Mechikoff, R. A. (1992). Deep fan: Mythic identification, technology, and advertising in spectator sports. Sociology of Sport Journal, 9, 323-339.
38.
Rushin, S.
(1996, September 16). A real kick. Sports Illustrated, pp. 46-51.
39.
Shaughnessy, D.
(1990, November). He gets no kick out of soccer. Soccer International, pp. 20-21.
40.
Smith, M. P.
, & Tarallo, B. (1995). Proposition 187: Global trend or local narrative? Explaining anti-immigrant politics in California, Arizona, and Texas. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 19, 664-676.
41.
“A soccer league with an edge.” (1996, January 29). Business Week, p. 52.
42.
Sugden, J.
(1994). USA and the World Cup: American nativism and the rejection of the people's game. In J. Sugden & A. Tomlinson (Eds.), Hosts and champions: Soccer cultures, national identities and the USA World Cup (pp. 219-252). Aldershot, UK, and Brookfield, VT: Arena/Ashgate.
43.
Sugden, J.
, & Tomlinson, A. (1994). Soccer culture, national identity, and the World Cup. In J. Sugden & A. Tomlinson (Eds.), Hosts and champions: Soccer cultures, national identities and the USA World Cup (pp. 3-12). Aldershot, UK, and Brookfield, VT: Arena/Ashgate.
44.
an Dijk, T. A.
(1995). On propositions, racism and democracy. Discourse & Society, 6, 147-148.
45.
Woitalla, M.
(1996, May 6). Friends in the media. Soccer America, p. 9.
