US media responds to soccer boom
Matthew Wells
contributes to a range of British media outlets from his home in New York.
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"An investment in the future" - that's how one senior executive from the giant US sports broadcaster ESPN described its ground-breaking World Cup coverage.
Fanciful talk in the US media of football getting real traction has been around for decades, but now it appears to be real. Almost 20 million US citizens watched their team go out to Ghana, which matches the average viewing figures for baseball's World Series last autumn.
So what's making the difference now? For answers, I turned to a former Major League Soccer player, Greg Lalas, editor-in-chief of the MLS website. He's also a regular broadcaster and a genuine football thinker.
He has some shrewd points to make about how popular demand and internet fandom are helping US media to make a defining shift towards giving the beautiful game equal status - but admits there may be limits because "doing something with your foot is so foreign to Americans".
