As a kid in the United States, I was an avid soccer fan. As such, at the time, the sport was ridiculed. It was a sport for little kids and wimps. A sport of phantom fouls and skimpy shorts. More than once I heard that it was a Communist sport, despite the fact that no Communist country ever won the World Cup and that several Communist countries, most notably Venezuela and Cuba, had baseball as their national sports.
Eventually, soccer grew. The 1994 World Cup, and the fact that the Americans made it to the second round, grabbed the attention of millions of kids like myself. In 1996 the Atlanta Olympics saw Nigeria beat Brazil in one of the most famous upsets. That same year Major League Soccer began. Despite early troubles, the league has grown to twenty teams and attracts some of the most famous players around the world.
Over 15,000 football fans attended the game between Cuiaba Arsenal and Coritiba Crocodiles at Arena Pantanal.
Now, living in Brazil I wonder if any American sports could take off in similar fashion. Basketball is already popular with many Brazilian born players practicing their craft in the NBA.
However, there is another sport that is making surprising inroads in the South American nation; American Football.
To demonstrate how far the sport has come, I attended the semifinal of the country's championship between Cuiaba Arsenal and Coritiba Crocodiles. The game was played in Arena Pantanal, a stadium, which hosted 4 World Cup games in 2014. The game didn't attract 5 or 10 thousand. Nope, it brought in over 15,000 fans, the largest crowd to ever witness an American football game in Brazil.
Attracting 15,000 people to an event in a city with average temperatures over 100 degrees and asking them to part with their money is quite a feat. This was also done in a metropolitan area of just 800,000 during an economic crisis.
Even more impressive is that the team, Cuiaba Arsenal, has no paid staff. The team, and the league as a whole uses social media and word of mouth marketing to bring people in. Of course approval from the state's governor for the use of the stadium and beer sales helped.
On the positive side, the game attracted a young population that is more worldly and open to sports and culture from other countries. Furthermore, ESPN covers games on a weekly basis during the NFL and NCAA seasons. The Superbowl has been covered for many years now.
One should be cautious to get too excited though. It is important to remember that teams like Cuiaba Arsenal don't pay their staff or players anything. Any profit is spent on road trips. Moreover, the sport is complicated and requires educating a population. Additionally, football is expensive with pads, helmets and footballs needing to be purchased. Soccer requires simply a ball and anything that can be used for goal posts. Finally, Brazil does not have the level of expatriates (Americans living in Brazil) that help prop up soccer in its early days. Being the land of immigration, soccer was imported by group after group over a period of a century.
Despite the uphill battle, it will be interesting to see how the sport grows in the country. It will be particularly interesting to see if the sport can takeover markets like Cuiaba, which has a weak soccer presence. Another thing the team did, which brought it success was by adopting the whole package of the American sport. The team has cheerleaders, a female team, runs flag football tournaments and even co-promotes halftime shows with popular musical acts.
On July 9, Cuiaba Arsenal will take the field again in Arena Pantanal against the popular Corintians Steamrollers. If the team attracts the crowd it was able to late last year, it will be a good sign of continued success. After all, who doesn't like a winner?
