Yes, soccer is a dull sport. Period.

Yesterday I wrote about the unsubstantiated river of flack by the local newspaper that continues to promote a proposal by some PR machine to build a soccer practice facility in Newark for a Columbus team, and do it at someone else's expense. This river of flack mindlessly repeats over and over that if Newark builds it, it "could attract as many as 500,000 people a year."

Coincidentally, yesterday I blundered onto a comment on Topix made about a week ago in response to a little item I posted at the Topix Forum last September regarding the folly of the soccer field idea. The comment was made by "Buddy" in rebuttal to my belief that soccer is the world's dullest spectator sport.

"Buddy" said: "What planet are you talking about? Soccer has an incredibly large following, if not the largest spectator sport in the world. Hell, two South American countries went to war over a soccer game."

Today I read this from the New York Times on-line report:

"CARY, N.C. — More than 105,000 fans attended Ohio State’s first football game of the season Sept. 1, a slightly larger gathering than the Buckeyes’ men’s soccer team attracted Aug. 31 for its opener. That match drew 519."

Also, today is the day that the Ohio State soccer team plays for the NCAA championship title. Who knew?

Today, the Dispatch played that story on Page C5. Today, the Advocate didn't play it at all.

There will be 500,000 visitors a year? Pfft.

I don't care how many people watch it in other countries, and I don't care how many mommies and daddies drag their families out to the small-fry soccer fields on Saturdays, soccer just plain sucks as a spectator sport.

To review the foolishness of Newark constructing a soccer practice field for a Columbus team, go to the search box at the top of this page and enter "soccer."