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Over on X, the everything app, they're once again arguing about the choices American soccer fans and would-be soccer fans make when it comes to following the sport at club level.
World Cup Fever has the country gripped, with the United States men's national team pulling in record-setting TV ratings and with millions of fans attending high-priced games, or maybe even free watch parties, seeing international soccer history get made in their backyards. When the World Cup ends, there will be a soccer void created, and what league and teams will fill it?
Adam Booker of OneFootball kicked the proverbial hornet's nest by expressing frustration that a good portion of these newly-minted World Cup soccer fans will turn to the English Premier League rather than teams that play here at home in the United States.
His tweet drew out the usual bristling and criticism of our domestic American leagues, with people whining about the quality of play, a lack of promotion and relegation, the non-elite place US leagues like MLS hold in the international soccer food chain, and a lack of prestige, history, or community buy-in for American teams when compared to other top-level domestic pro sports.
The arguments on either side, with the other side of this coin being simply "support your local team," are beyond exhausted at this point, but seeing this all play out anew is interesting when viewed through our local New York City lens, and in the wake of another recent summer sports phenomenon.
Soccer is huge in New York. This shouldn't even be a controversial statement that requires backing up, given the crowds gathering at local bars, at public watch parties, or in immigrant enclaves in Queens when national teams with heavy local followings play their World Cup matches.
While the sport is undeniably popular in New York, the local club teams remain niche. They will each likely pick up some new fans and followers thanks to the World Cup, but it's still a long road for teams like NYCFC or the Red Bulls or Gotham FC or Brooklyn FC to capture the zeitgeist on the same level as either the World Cup, or as our other local pro sports franchises.
I don't think it comes down to local sports fans only accepting "the best of the best" when it comes to what they follow and support, meaning they'll eschew the local teams in favor of only teams from the cream of the European or international crop. If that were the case, the New York Jets and New York Mets wouldn't have any fans left. The local soccer teams just haven't yet reached the point where they are central figures, or more central than they are now, in the city's sporting culture.
There has not yet been a level of local soccer hype comparable to what surrounded the New York Knicks on their march to the NBA title in June. They picked up bandwagon fans like crazy, and I don't think it was entirely about their actual success on the court as much as it was about people wanting to be a part of it, to quote that oft-played Frank Sinatra song about the city.
In soccer terms, right now there are more people clamoring to be a part of the scenes that play out at places like FancyFree in Brooklyn when Arsenal FC plays, than there are ones willing to travel to the Bronx or Coney Island to watch a less-glamorous version of the sport get played in person.
