New Soccer Media Springs From World Cup Fever

Beware that which is spawned by the World Cup. 

In 1966 it is said that interest in the Germany-England World Cup overtime final encouraged the founding of not one but two professional soccer leagues in the soccer wasteland that was the United States.  These were the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer Association, which in 1967 merged to form the North American Soccer League, which folded in 1984.  Then in 1999 the popularity of the Women's World Cup, played in and won by the United States, convinced investors to back the Women's United Soccer Association, which played from 2000 and folded in 2003.

So now the New York Times reports that interest in the upcoming World Cup in Brazil has led to three new quarterly soccer publications: Eight by Eight, Howler and XI.  Eight by Eight published its first edition a month ago and the other two are just a year old but already XI is experiencing financial difficulties. 

I can relate.  Back in 1973, Tom Breen, Don McKee and I left the Courier-Post to work at a start-up called Soccer Weekly.  Breen, who later went the the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and McKee, who moved to a long career in the Sports Department at the Philadelphia Inquirer, were superb journalists, and we had a free-lance photographer named George Tiedemann, who later worked for Sports Illustrated.  And we still didn't last more than a year.


I haven't yet read any of the new magazines, which reportedly have experienced editors, writers and financial backers. And all have digital editions.  But will they be around when the glow of Brazil '14 fades?  History says the odds are against it.