I have spent a lot of time thinking about the comments that are made all to often that the Canadian Mens National team will get more support when it starts to get better results. That has led to me trying to figure out where the line is going to be. What does the team have to do to win over enough support to even fill up half of BMO field?
Let us imagine for a moment or two that Canada makes it to the finals of the Gold Cup or even wins it and along the way they beat a team like Mexico or the United States. Would that be enough to win over any new supporters? I would say no. That might seem like the pessimistic answer but with the Gold Cup receiving limited coverage in the Canadian media, granted Sportsnet, the Score and CBC are all putting in a real effort, not enough people are going to realize that Canada is involved in a major tournament this month. It is shocking how many people who play soccer and claim to like the sport I have come across that don't even know that the Gold Cup is underway right now. So that is why I think that even winning the Gold Cup will not do that much to boost the support for the team. I hope I am wrong and that a good showing this month means a few more people will come out and support the team this fall when it begins its world cup campaign but unless the team gets a lot more attention in the news people will continue to be oblivious to the fact that they are already now worth supporting.
I will say that if Canada wins somehow this month, or even makes a good run, it should still have more of an impact then the runs of 2000 and 2007 because the coverage is improved since then. The games are all being shown on TV even if its on Sportsnet's alternate channel and a dedicated group of journalists and bloggers are doing their very best to get the word out. That will all help, even if it is only slightly, and at this stage every extra fan that can be won over is going to be a boost in the long run since they might one day bring a friend along to see a match and that is the best way for support to grow in numbers.
Now to get back to my original point of what would it take to get a decent amount of support for the team across the country and in the Toronto area. I think it would take the team making a serious push towards World Cup qualification. If they were to make it to the final stages and for example have a match at BMO field against either the United States or Mexico with a spot in the WC on the line then that stadium would be packed. Maybe even if the same spot is on the line and we are hosting a match against Costa Rica or Honduras we would see a full stadium with most of the crowd being pro-Canadian. But the fact of the matter is that Canada is still probably some ways off from making a serious push to qualify for the world cup and any such push is going to require the team being almost unbeatable at home. That creates a sort of catch 22 for the program since they need strong support to provide that much needed home field advantage but they clearly need to win more before they are going to receive that kind of support.
I guess the best that we can hope is that the group of people already dedicated to the cause continue to put in the hours of tireless work trying to support the team and with each passing game the crowd grows slightly larger. It is going to take a lot of time but since support helps with results we need to give the best support possible to the team so that in the future more fans will come out who have been waiting to see results first. Sadly though the people waiting to see results first are going to be missing out on a lot of good matches and great times.
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