Can The Philadelphia Union Take Advantage Of This Hideous Sports Scene?
By Kevin Kinkead
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Each weekend, the CBS 3 sports department puts together our half hour "Sports Zone" show, which airs right after the news on Sunday night. We invite guests to our studios to talk about the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Sixers, and whatever else is going on in local sports.
If you watch the show, you've probably noticed that we still focus heavily on the Eagles, even though it's been more than a month since the lowly Redskins knocked the Birds out of the playoffs.
That's because, truthfully, there's not much else to talk about.
The Sixers are tanking, and that's alright, because there's actually a plan in place.
The Flyers are also tanking, they just haven't realized it yet.
And no one really knows what the Phillies are doing these days, but Dom Brown just got a raise, so think about that for a moment ...
Anyway, it's true that Jay Wright's Wildcats look like one hell of a team, but the provincial nature of college basketball probably limits city-wide interest in Villanova.
So unless you're into arena football, that leaves us with ... the Philadelphia Union, which hasn't done a whole lot this offseason.
The team added a nice depth piece in forward C.J. Sapong, and they've brought in four guys from the later rounds of the MLS draft. Beyond that, they're sort of sitting there while other teams throw millions of dollars at superstars both foreign and domestic.
This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Majority owner Jay Sugarman told Union fans in November that there are "certainly going to be teams with greater resources than the ones we have."
Manager Jim Curtin, who just turned 35, was blunt at his inductory press conference when he said this:
"I believe in ideas and principles in a league that's moving forward right now and ways that we can attack that. So, we'll build a strong defense. Someone needs to stop the David Villas and the Kakas that are coming in. We're not going to be the club that spends $7 million on three different designated players. That's not going to be us, so we have to build from the back "
It's clear that the Union aren't going to be big spenders. I think Jay Sugarman is probably the Billy Beane of Major League Soccer, and I wrote about it a few months ago.
Sugarman is a smart guy who shows an interest in data and analytics. Maybe that will pan out, and maybe the academy will start to produce in time, but this season Philadelphia is walking into a gun fight with a knife.
It's unfortunate really, because this team is in perfect position to make a splash, or turn heads, or whatever cliche you wanna throw in there. Philadelphia's sports scene is a barren wasteland of bad play and bad contracts, so signing a superstar would catch the attention of people who otherwise would spend their summer waiting for Darin Ruf to actually see the field.
Union popularity probably crested in 2011, when the club made the playoffs and began to challenge the Sixers for the attention of fans. Philly drew well that year, probably 17k fans per game, while the Sixers weren't actually tanking, but weren't really doing anything exciting either. (They got smushed by Miami in the postseason)
You're also coming off a World Cup that scored phenomenal ratings in the United States. Our sister station, Sports Radio 94 WIP, took soccer phone calls last summer, and I guarantee that the struggles of the Phillies contributed to the increased time that the sport received during those few weeks.
So what's the point?
The point is that the bar has been set so incredibly low by the Phillies, Flyers, and Sixers, that the Union can make a big impression just by winning a few games this spring.
Remember when former 49ers coach Mike Singletary said, "I want winners!"?
Well, Philadelphia also wants winners.
You saw the city fall in love with the Taney Dragons last summer. This is a town that cheered for little league baseball and cheered for Smarty Jones back in 2004.
If people will cheer for a horse, then they'll cheer for soccer.
But should they?
Kevin Kinkead is a writer and producer for Eyewitness News, follow him on Twitter: @KevinKCBS3