Fred Nykamp's bounce from Canada Basketball to leading the Canadian Soccer Association -- first reported by Mark Wacyk at cishoops.ca and subsequently confirmed -- can be read as an indicator of where the two sports stand politically in this country.
Whatever you want to say about Nykamp, this implies there's a lot more cash and clout to be had in soccer than basketball. Canada is a winter sports nation (gotta work with what the good Lord gave ya) first and foremost, but there is a lot more political will to improve the state of Canadian men's soccer than basketball. The push is on for Canada's national men's team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup and validate those taxpayer dollars that went toward building BMO Field and landing this summer's under-20 worlds.
To a one-track political mind, regardless of party, supporting soccer is a way to appear worldly and curry favour with two big voting blocks — suburban soccer moms and newer Canadians. So what if basketball was invented by a Canadian, has a longer history in this country, a better track record here and a global span that surpasses every other team game other than fútbol? Basketball, especially in Stephen Harper's Canada, is pretty much a redheaded stepchild, despite all the strides that have been made across the country in terms of Canadians playing in the NBA, WNBA, NCAA D-1 and in terms of the somewhat increased public interest in the CIS.
The fact of the matter is that soccer is trendy and a way to get votes. It's a strong statement for the nation-state to qualify for the World Cup than to qualify for the Olympics in basketball. A World Cup qualifying match gets coverage; it's hard to say how many media outlets in Canada will send reporters to cover Leo Rautins' national team at the Aug. 22-Sept. 2 Americas Olympic qualifier, even though it's that expensive or difficult to get a flight to Las Vegas.
So it's understandable why Fred Nykamp or anyone else would toss aside the brown ball and pick up the white one. It doesn't mean our basketball players are any less accomplished or deserving — their game just doesn't have the political capital, which is OK, since many of us can embrace the game's "nichetude."
True, it's T.S. for Canada Basketball to have this happen with the Olympic qualifier just three months away, but that's just all the more motivation.
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4 comments:
If you want to experience being a sporting red-headed step-child and embracing niche-tude, try being a minor football coach in this country. We get assaulted from all sides, soccer AND hockey. The most frustrating part comes when the kid wants to play football, but mom or dad flatly says no, and trundles them off to soccer. There, they wander around like Stevie Wonder for an hour, eat orange slices, and go home. Generally, all we need to do is get a kid out to football for an hour, and he'll never go back to soccer again. Getting them there, though, is the hard part.
Frankly, I don't get this push on soccer. As a northern nation, it is never going to be "our game" on an international level. Hockey and basketball, OTOH, are sports where we can compete internationally.
I'm not sure this is terribly political, as soccer moms are blissfully unaware of our FIFA world ranking, and new Canadians who eat up the game all vote Liberal anyway. :-) I just sense embarrassment over the fact that a game with so much international prominence is one where we are struggling mightily, and as a result there's a push to change it. I think they are peeing into a stiff breeze, but good luck to them.
as it happens, there was a big story in the syracuse post-standard this a.m. about how leo rautins is canada basketball's mr. everything.
they also mentioned that andy will be jacking up three's for the pan-am games team.
It might be embarrassment, but the political component definitely seems to be there... remember the tax break the Tories dangled in the last election...
And yes, basketball by no means is the only one getting the stepchild treatment. Football gets it, and so does baseball.
The tax break was for all sports, though, not just soccer. At $500 maximum per kid, though, I have maxed out by very early in the year, what with both a hockey goalie and a figure skater in the house. I'll get a $155 tax credit out of the deal for '07, or enough to fill my minivan with gas twice (almost).
Canada's biggest problem with soccer is that the sport will never get all of the best athletes. In this country, those kids are generally playing hockey, or in many cases basketball. (Basketball has an advantage in that it is tied into the school system more strongly than is soccer.) Kids start off playing soccer because it is the cheapest and easiest thing for mom and dad to sign junior up for, but my experience in coaching youth sports has been that when the kids get a choice in the matter, soccer often gets dumped in favour of something else. I'm starting to see that now with the 11-12 year olds I coach in football. The kid signs up for football, discovers there is a scheduling conflict the two, and upin trying on a helmet for the first time is then all over a very reluctant parent to dump soccer in favour of football. Parents love house league soccer because it is "safe" and non-threatening, but for those same reasons the kids start to chafe a bit at it once they get older.
Sports don't always need government cash or international attention to grow, though. Lacrosse registration has tripled in Ottawa in the last five years, and it is booming in other parts of the country as well, even outside of the traditional strength areas of BC and Ontario. You'll never see a lacrosse player endorsing Gatorade, yet the grassroots growth in the game has been nothing short of phenomenal.
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