Real Newspapers Cover Soccer

[futfan]

Time to drop subscriptions to the Tennessean.

'Tis a sad, sad thing when the state's capital city daily barely acknowledges a sport as popular as soccer.

 

You'd think somebody would be looking at the demographics - like the number of households (and associated household income) involved with youth soccer. Geeze, talk about a "missed opportunity."

And of course, there's that "news value" thing - that 2 high schools in the Tennessean's back yard - Brentwood & Hendersonvlile - are showing up in national rankings.

Hmm.....and the household demographics of those two towns are among the most appealing you'll find to advertisers.

 

Maybe the Tennessean folks should take a look at the demographics of readers of US Youth Soccer Magazine:

http://www.tpgsports.com/soccer/reader_demo.htm

The Illinois Youth Soccer Assn has its demographics online:

http://www.iysa.org/web/advertisingdemographics.html

 

The TN State Soccer Assn doesn't have its demos online, but it does say it currently has 105 local member associations involving 47,000 youth and amateur players, more than 1,500 referees, 750 local administrators and 2,500 coaches.

And TSSAA reports 231 high schools across Tennessee have soccer programs.

 

Yet pick up the Tennessean, and you'd be hard-pressed to discover that anyone plays soccer in this state. So don't even bother to pick up a copy at all.

[Kendren]

I agree, American newspaper coverage of soccer is shameful, and it only gets worse at the local level. I'm happy that given the opportunity to cover high school soccer for the television station I work for, everybody jumped at it. We have 2 TV stations (local access) here in Scott County, and between the two of us, cover at least all of the 2 school home soccer games, and I'll be travelling to Lenoir City to cover Oneida there tomorrow night. So not ALL of the local media outlets ignore soccer. But if a paper like the Tennessean can't devote a few column inches to soccer, and (I'm assuming) gives entire articles to spring football PRACTICE, I agree with you completely.

[Seldon]

Great post!

 

The Tennessean probably has better coverage than the Knoxville News Sentinel. Knoxville has the #1 and #2 teams in the state and the #2 and #12 teams nationally (Farragut and Bearden) and coverage is almost non-existent. Sure the Farragut-Bearden game was covered, but that's about it. Other games may merit a line or two on occasion, but it's rare. Unless a parent or coach calls in the results to a game, they don't even print box scores.

[mapercy]

Review Appeal in Franklin does a good job covering soccer as well as other high school athletic events.

[futfan]

Mapercy, does the Review Appeal cover local games played locally - or do they cover the *sport*? Do they provide region or state scores or standings ? Do they cover the local team if the game isn't at home?

 

I'm not knocking local, hometown newspaper coverage of events in the hometown. But local coverage is really all a local paper is equipped to handle. Larger dailies, especially those the size of the Tennessean, cover sports on a much broader scale. We should be seeing stories not only about high school soccer across the region (and preferably with a statewide perspecitive), but also coverage of college soccer. There are several excellent college soccer programs in this state. Even at the club level, TN has some nationally ranked teams.

 

But the Tennessean just ignores soccer at all levels. Of course, the Tennessean's got Joe Biddle, who neither understands, nor likes, the sport.

Still, you'd think the demographics - with that prospect of additional advertising revenue - might cause a change of heart.....

[UPSGregg]

Here in Clarksville The Leaf-Chronicle, or the "Laugh Comicle" as it is also known is pretty much on the same level as the papers mentioned so far. It usually sticks to minimul coverage but when a team does well, which has really only been Clarksville High over the years, they'll jump right on that bandwagon and the next thing you know they'll have articles on the front page of the sports AND main page like they did last year all through the post season leading up to the finals. It's amazing how people percieve soccer in this country. They think soccer is some easy sport for sissy's and that not many people play it or want to watch it when in reality it has been proven to be the second toughest sport physically to endure behind dirt bike racing and right up there with basketball as the most common played sport by youths. So what gives?

[mapercy]

Review Appeal pretty much local only. They will cover out of town at times.

Pro, collegiate, international=little or no coverage.

[kcteagle]

Chattanooga Times-Free Press does a pretty good job on High School sports. They do some sports better than others and guys soccer probably gets better coverage than girls but I would say that overall it is good.

[SyFi]

I agree seldon, the news sentinal does not cover very much in the way of this wonderous sport we all call soccer. To me i think soccer should be covered by more tv stations and news papers then just a little few. Plus the only coverage that news sentinal does cover is Bearden and Farragut. It is good for them to cover those games but they need to see more to the other schools that play in this area. There are other big rivalries that should be covered rather then Bearden and Farragut all the time. Give them some coverage and then we will talk.

[chs23]

while i agree that many newspapers do not cover soccer well enough, i think that the idea to drop a subscription because of that is absurd. the tennessean is one of the better newspapers in the southeast, in terms of news reporting.

 

that being said, cookeville's herald-citizen generally does a good job, but that may be because of cookeville's great season last year

[Seldon]

Local papers with a small market usually do a good job. The Oak Ridger and the Kingsport paper, for instance, provide detailed reports and pictures of most of the local teams' soccer. But then, there's not a lot else to report ans they know that a large section of there readers are interested in the "local guys and gals".

[jusluvsports]

The Tennessean definitely does not cover high school sports the way they should - not only soccer, but all of the sports - the most you can hope for is an occasional token article on some player and box scores for only a few of the games - I am really shocked that they haven't tried to beef their coverage up this week with so many sports having district and regional tournaments - COME ON - just how many of their readers do you think have students (children, grandchildren, etc.) that are involved in sports - WAKE UP!!