‘For club and country?’ The impact of the international game on US soccer supporters from the 1994 World Cup to the present

Abstract

ABSTRACT While compared with the big four professional sports in the United States, soccer remains a marginalized spectator sport; yet it has gained a sizable following over the past two decades. TV audiences and stadium attendance for domestic club matches are growing and supporters’ groups that follow the professional sides have emerged and established themselves. Rather than being introduced to the game as fans of their local clubs, however, many passionate soccer fans in the United States continue to enter soccer fandom via the Men’s and Women’s National teams. The 1994 FIFA World Cup on home soil as well as the success of the Women’s National Team thus play a prominent role in drawing new fans to the game, some of whom begin to follow the sport regularly in the form of domestic club games. For many of these fans, ‘club’ and ‘country’ remain complementing objects of soccer fandom rather than competing points of reference.