What They Can't Touch, And No One Cares What's Up With The Club World Cup

I don't know that every Friday will be something a little less formal or sectionalized, but let's go with it today. Any of you who followed me on Deadspin, or even at times in the olden days as SCH/CI/FFUD, know that every so often I like to ruminate on the nature of fandom. Certainly it gets to be a trickier thing to remain a fan these days, and yet we're still here.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about that lately, especially as I just finished listening to a podcast on the last days of the Oakland A's--maybe Rob Manfred's sorriest undertaking as commissioner, which is quite the claim I admit. Something like the A's move to...well, wherever it ends up being (I still believe it's just as likely they end up right back in the East Bay at some point as anywhere else) is a test not just for A's fans or baseball fans, but all fans. Something so cynical, so balloon-handed, so callous can make any fan of any team wonder why they bother. Because we all know something like it could come for us one day. And even if we're safe from that, it rips open how things really work.

It has not been easy to be a Hawks fan the past few years, at least for a lot of people. And none of it was our fault, really. It goes beyond just the terrible hockey that we've all watched for seven years now (good god). We don't need to rehash it all now, because you know the list. Maybe the nature of our fandom has changed, but our fandom remains. I'm writing this and you're reading this, after all.

You can look at any sport and quickly recognize all the ways that the people who run it don't give a flying fuck about the sport itself or its fans. They just see it as a structure merely meant to line their already bottomless pockets. Baseball may be the worst– given how it's watered down the regular season, turned the playoffs into a month-long car crash, completely salted the Earth on the offseason by turning the free agent market--the hot stove that's supposed to keep the fan fires burning--into a wasteland, etc.

Baseball is hardly alone, of course. Just the most egregious. Every league is rife with the stadium/arena grifts, or ploys to keep salaries down, and owners that only value the next dollar instead of the next win. It's hard to fight against at times for fans. Some give up on the fight, and we can't blame them.

Deep down, we're all suckers, and we know it. But there's got to be more to it than just admitting our fate, our lack of gumption or ability to change it, that keeps us coming back. We're not just accepting that this is the way it is and we're too lazy or dumb to walk away. We must also know something the owners don't, even if what we know is exactly what they prey on to make yet another few million they'll never notice. There is something at the heart of all this that owners and commissioners keep mining.

I think I know what it is. There's still a feeling, at moments, that is the most pure thing in the world. Some of you may wonder why I've become such a soccer fan, but honestly no sport has caused me to leap into the arms of a total stranger than footy. But you all know that moment in your own way, the feeling that rings through everything.

It's not only the most glorious moments. It's just the feeling of zoning out and watching a game sometimes. Or talking about your team with a buddy. That is what the owners suckle on to do all the things that tear at the fabric of what makes us fans, and yet it remains strong to all of us.

And it doesn't have to be the owners and commissioners who take a hatchet to it. It can be listening to everyone outside say the things they do about the Hawks, and they're not wrong to. It's not the people saying it, or what they're saying, but that feeling that something has been sullied. For some it's the disappointment of using the same logo. I know a fair few who couldn't get past it, and that's right for them. That feeling of participating in something insulting or wrong. That our pursuit of that pure exhilaration has made us culpable in something.

And yet, for a lot of us the purity of that moment, of that feeling, where your brain shuts off and all you are is feeling and reaction, remains standing. A Bedard wrister from the circles that goes through two defenders and goes bar down, that's what we're here for, no? That base is what gets attacked from all sides as a sports fan, seemingly every day. Perhaps what's so galling about the A's move is that so many have had the possibility of feeling that again ripped away from them, for over a decade now before the final blow came down yesterday.

Maybe that's why, even though I partake, the discussion of sports through the prism of gambling leaves me so cold. It's missing the point. Gambling, for me, is a nice additive for games or matches that I have no emotional investment in and I don't have much else to do. But those who treat it as the main crux, in place of that urge and affirmation, it's just wide of the mark.

But yet despite all the efforts and all the robberies and all the vampire squids that populate the powers in all the leagues, we can still have that. They can't. They can pretend, but they'll never know that feeling we get. And they can't kill it, either. They've already won so much. Maybe all that money means they'll be happier than we could ever know. But I tend to doubt it. Look at how they act. Look at what they chase. Look at how they're never satisfied and they have to find a new grift.

Yeah, that pursuit is what leaves us vulnerable to all the price-gouging, cynicism from the owner's box, and all the other capitalistic slime that comes with sports. It won't ever stop. But in that moment when the ball or puck hits twine to win a game, do you think about all that stuff? Or is your day and mood lifted?

It isn't much. But it's something. I'm going to hang onto it. I guess that's why I started this.

The Kickmen - No One Cares What's Up With The Club World Cup

Speaking of ways sports are sucked dry, let's move to FIFA. The main discussion so far this season isn't about any club or league, but how the continuing expansion of competitions and matches have reached the breaking point. Players are talking about walking out, coaches bemoan how they can't keep their players healthy, fears of players' careers being ruined before their 30, etc. Analysis of Euro 2024 was rife with obvious observations about how exhausted every player looked.

As a fan, even I'm burned out. I don't have to do the running, but even fans have their limits. I've known ever since it was announced that I didn't give a shit about the Club World Cup that will take place on these shores next summer. I just assumed that most clubs would send their youth teams or something, and if they were forced to play their first choice lineups it would only lead to quicker and more thorough burnout.

Also, fans need a break too. We have a cycle we're comfortable with, which is major international tournaments every two years, but in the intervening summers we get to take a breath. FIFA is trying to take that away and leave us without any rest.

And it appears I'm not the only one who has decided they'd rather have the break, or at least TV companies have decided I'm not the only one. The Club World Cup can't find TV partners. Those companies have people they pay a lot to figure out who would watch stuff, and apparently they've concluded that not enough people will watch this tournament to make it worth paying FIFA all that much.

FIFA can be pretty stubborn, and this almost certainly isn't where the dam breaks. But it's nice to know that they may take a bath on this, and perhaps conclude it wasn't worth it in the first place. Our victories are few, we must revel in the ones we get.

Please share, forward, and rewteet. Best way to spread the gospel of...whatever this is. Especially while it's free! Have a great weekend!