I went to the hockey game with my friend Paul who is a big-time fan. As we walked up to Joe Louis Arena I noticed that aside from the beggars and vendors on the streets I was one of few blacks that were going to the game (once inside, I counted 2 other people). Given the game of hockey this was totally understandable and this might not be shocking to many of you but think about it: the Wings play hockey, a mostly white suburban sport, in an arena located in downtown Detroit while the Pistons play their basketball in Auburn Hills, a suburb of Detroit that is roughly one hour north of the city... think about it. The sports cater to specific demographics yet are in totally opposite areas. Those in attendance at the hockey game mostly consisted of white males, which is not surprising, but this made me think of the demographics of the American soccer fan: are they truly soccer moms and dads with kids in tow, suburban and privileged white kids, or first generation Americans and foreigners? All three of those could be true, but is it fair to put all fans of the beautiful game in a box? Sometimes I feel as a soccer fan that I am made to choose what other sports I like, for instance, most people are surprised to find out I like football and basketball in addition to soccer and hockey. Do people make you choose between Jordans and Air Force 1s? or hip-hop and jazz music? This might be a stretch but do you get my point? Back to the game...
The pace of the game was exciting; there was a lot of back and forth action, it was fast paced with big hits and timely goals. The crowd was into it from the beginning which made the playoff atmosphere very fun. For reasons obvious to everyone I understood why blacks are not into hockey: its cold and involves skating on ice. Looking back at our African heritage it makes clear sense, we were birthed on a continent straddled on the equator so the concept of moving around on frozen water is foreign to us. At the same time though I asked myself, how come we as blacks are not more adept to playing soccer? The African's play the game very well and many of them have gone abroad to countries like Italy, England, Spain, and even the US where they have succeeded, so if we are descendants from our African ancestors how come more of us have not taken well to the game over here? Blacks that like soccer are a minority in the US but abroad it is the complete opposite. Honestly, like I said in my last post I think it is more of a cultural thing than anything but that can be changed. In all actuality hockey was in danger of falling completely out of the public view until Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby injected some long-needed youthful energy into the game and the ratings have been stronger since. When you look at other sports besides football, basketball and baseball, there is someone or something that is bigger than the game. For soccer to succeed with black America it would not hurt if there was a star that was marketed as the 'face' of the sport in the country. I will take a look at other stars in other countries and try and parallel them to their unheralded counterparts in the US. Until then enjoy the beautiful game for all that it's worth.
