US loses last night and is eliminated from the World Cup qualification.

Brutal news for Fox. Not just next years World Cup, but it also stunts development of soccer in this country. Given Fox has put a lot of their eggs in the soccer basket, that's huge.

Saw somewhere that this was a 200 million dollar loss for Fox.

(10-11-2017 09:47 AM)stever20 Wrote:  US loses last night and is eliminated from the World Cup qualification.

Brutal news for Fox. Not just next years World Cup, but it also stunts development of soccer in this country. Given Fox has put a lot of their eggs in the soccer basket, that's huge.

Saw somewhere that this was a 200 million dollar loss for Fox.

I believe it. You can count me as one American who won't watch the World Cup if USA is not in it.

Fox and NBC spent a billion on TV rights. All the games on at 3am and no USA. While I feel bad for the players. I hope this causes US networks to think twice about paying FIFA stupid amounts of money for events that inappropriately sited.

It's a big blow all-around. Fox, the World Cup, US soccer programs...maybe even the sport as a whole. But, yeah...Fox gets it big-time. At some point, as they love hurling money as much as the Mouse does/did, someone's going to feel the sting...college sports look like an easy target, especially with some tanking numbers.

Convenient in a way, though. No US participation in a Russian event...

game times aren't quite that bad looking at it. Mostly from 8am in the morning to 2pm in the afternoon. But still, not great times, especially given the '14 World Cup was in Brazil and the '15 Women's World Cup was in Canada so both with perfect game times.

And now with the US out, just a brutal mix. But I think it's even more than just the World Cup that loses out for Fox. Fox has put a lot of eggs in the soccer basket. If development is stunted or worse- going to be something that Fox won't be able to bounce back from easily. Especially given the '22 World Cup is in the middle of winter.

No soccer...what will I do with myself.

Substantial embarrassment and disappointment for US Soccer - especially since MLS has risen to highest levels in recent years, and the amount of time and effort placed at instructing and developing younger levels.

nice troll job-
Jay Onrait‏Verified account
@JayOnrait
This is what @FOXSports gets for cancelling our show.

Onrait was one of the hosts for Fox Sports Live that got cancelled earlier this year. Classic.....

I am not pleased but I don't buy the doom and gloom either. Yeah Fox will lose money. Not my problem, I don't have any stock in them.

Major League Soccer is stronger than it has ever been. The USL has a number of teams doing great business at the gate.

US Soccer won't get the bump of interest that has come in the past but what I saw in qualifying was a team that was going to bounce out of pool play and never make it to the knockout rounds. I'm not sure a no win performance in pool play was going to create much of a surge in soccer interest.

USMNT is a mess right now. There was no sense of urgency in most of the qualifying process. Even trailing T&T you have to wonder if there wasn't some, "well Mexico and Costa Rica will get at least a draw each so we are safe".

There has been a complacent attitude that the WC spot is ours if we field a team. Well welcome to the real world. No one owes the US a spot, it has to be earned and we sure as hell didn't earn it.

Right now our future is a coach who will 71 come next World Cup and a 19 year old who is likely the face of US soccer for the next decade and a half.

That's not true. It is unlikely Arena will take the US into the next qualifying cycle. I wasn't a fan of his hire because it was clear he was hired to patch this qualifier and not be the guy who built US Soccer for 2022. He was John L Smith hired to interim Arkansas after Petrino.

(10-11-2017 09:47 AM)stever20 Wrote:  US loses last night and is eliminated from the World Cup qualification.

Brutal news for Fox. Not just next years World Cup, but it also stunts development of soccer in this country. Given Fox has put a lot of their eggs in the soccer basket, that's huge.

Saw somewhere that this was a 200 million dollar loss for Fox.

Did Fox sleep with your wife or something? You really seem to take delight in their failures.

(10-11-2017 11:02 AM)RutgersGuy Wrote:  

(10-11-2017 09:47 AM)stever20 Wrote:  US loses last night and is eliminated from the World Cup qualification.

Brutal news for Fox. Not just next years World Cup, but it also stunts development of soccer in this country. Given Fox has put a lot of their eggs in the soccer basket, that's huge.

Saw somewhere that this was a 200 million dollar loss for Fox.

Did Fox sleep with your wife or something? You really seem to take delight in their failures.

like folks don't do the same with ESPN?

This is devastating for Fox. No other way to spin it.

This isn't good for Fox, but it's not a complete disaster. The World Cup has drawn pretty good ratings for rounds even without the US since it has become almost a quasi-Olympics-type event for US viewers. (Of course, the World Cup is more important than the Olympics for most other countries.) Mexico is honestly as big of a draw from a TV standpoint in the US (albeit a lot of those viewers will be siphoned off by Telemundo's coverage). Fox losing 3 group stage games that would have featured the US certainly hurts, but this isn't tanking the overall long-term investment in soccer. The fact that so many sports fans are now paying attention to the USMNT qualifiers in the first place is quite a sea change from a decade ago.

Also, note that the fallout from the 2022 World Cup Qatar scandal with FIFA meant that Fox got the 2026 World Cup rights without having to bid for them. 2022 was always going to be rough with the winter timing, but 2026 will be a monster since it's going to be US/Canada/Mexico-based (meaning that the USMNT will be there regardless of the qualifiers and the US time zones will dictate TV coverage). It will all even out in the end - there's just going to be short-term pain for Fox here.

(10-11-2017 11:22 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Also, note that the fallout from the 2022 World Cup Qatar scandal with FIFA meant that Fox got the 2026 World Cup rights without having to bid for them. 2022 was always going to be rough with the winter timing, but 2026 will be a monster since it's going to be US/Canada/Mexico-based (meaning that the USMNT will be there regardless of the qualifiers and the US time zones will dictate TV coverage). It will all even out in the end - there's just going to be short-term pain for Fox here.

but that's assuming Fox gets there. 9 years from now, we have no clue what TV will look like. In today's world, it'd be big, but 9 years from now who knows.

Anyone else think that once Mexico and Costa Rica saw the US score at half-time, and realized that the US could be eliminated, they went into tank mode? Both were leading at the half, then each gave up two goals and didn't score themselves.

(10-11-2017 11:46 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  Anyone else think that once Mexico and Costa Rica saw the US score at half-time, and realized that the US could be eliminated, they went into tank mode? Both were leading at the half, then each gave up two goals and didn't score themselves.

definitely think that this happened.

(10-11-2017 10:52 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  That's not true. It is unlikely Arena will take the US into the next qualifying cycle. I wasn't a fan of his hire because it was clear he was hired to patch this qualifier and not be the guy who built US Soccer for 2022. He was John L Smith hired to interim Arkansas after Petrino.

Arena was hired because the current USMNT is a mess. There has been a long term failure to identify and integrate more talent that is at Pulisic's level and in his age bracket. The team is too reliant on 30-something guys who are at least a few years past their prime. Arena was thought to be the right guy to make the best of this limited team because his career M.O. is to ride or die with older veterans.

Will this be the wake-up call that motivates a long term fix to this mess? Given the resources available to the USMNT, the goal should not be barely qualifying for a World Cup instead of barely missing out on qualifying.

(10-11-2017 11:48 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(10-11-2017 11:46 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  Anyone else think that once Mexico and Costa Rica saw the US score at half-time, and realized that the US could be eliminated, they went into tank mode? Both were leading at the half, then each gave up two goals and didn't score themselves.

definitely think that this happened.

Wouldn't shock me at all. Granted, if the US can't even tie Trinidad and Tobago (much less beat them), they have no one to blame other than themselves.

(10-11-2017 12:00 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(10-11-2017 11:48 AM)stever20 Wrote:  

(10-11-2017 11:46 AM)dbackjon Wrote:  Anyone else think that once Mexico and Costa Rica saw the US score at half-time, and realized that the US could be eliminated, they went into tank mode? Both were leading at the half, then each gave up two goals and didn't score themselves.

definitely think that this happened.

Wouldn't shock me at all. Granted, if the US can't even tie Trinidad and Tobago (much less beat them), they have no one to blame other than themselves.

Very true - all the US needed was one of three things to happen:
1) At least TIE T&T
2) Have Honduras and Panama (playing the top two teams) tie or lose.

No excuse to at least not tie T&T

(10-11-2017 11:49 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(10-11-2017 10:52 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  That's not true. It is unlikely Arena will take the US into the next qualifying cycle. I wasn't a fan of his hire because it was clear he was hired to patch this qualifier and not be the guy who built US Soccer for 2022. He was John L Smith hired to interim Arkansas after Petrino.

Arena was hired because the current USMNT is a mess. There has been a long term failure to identify and integrate more talent that is at Pulisic's level and in his age bracket. The team is too reliant on 30-something guys who are at least a few years past their prime. Arena was thought to be the right guy to make the best of this limited team because his career M.O. is to ride or die with older veterans.

Will this be the wake-up call that motivates a long term fix to this mess? Given the resources available to the USMNT, the goal should not be barely qualifying for a World Cup instead of barely missing out on qualifying.

Arena was a patch job hired to do a patch job because USSF was afraid to do what needed to be done and rebuild. The leadership was afraid we wouldn't qualify if we started a rebuild. Well we didn't qualify and we are going to do a rebuild, we are just going to start a year later on it.