Competing fandoms: Philadelpha Comic Con vs. the World Cup

RB Silva & company at Philly Comic Con

Sometimes fate conspires to pit two interests against each other. Since June 13 I’ve been watching every soccer match in the undisputed king of world soccer tournaments — the World Cup. But even beyond the matches and surprises (Ghana matching Germany? Costa Rica beating Uruguay and Italy?) is the spectacle of fandom, and the creative ways it shows its love and support for the national teams. There’s been everything from face-paint to full-on costume, and I love it.

On Saturday, June 21 there were three World Cup matches: Argentina vs. Iran (1-0); Nigeria vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina (1-0); and the aforementioned Germany vs. Ghana stunner (2-2), and I didn’t see even one match. That’s because I was at another event that is all about the spectacle of fandom and creative ways to show love and support for  the world of comics, sci fi/fantasy/horror and gaming — Philadelphia Comic Con.

It’s funny, because there is probably not a whole lot of overlap between the two fandoms. In fact, the individuals involved in each often hold deprecating views of each other — the antagonism between geeks and jocks is standard in television shows and coming-of-age literature and films. And yet, the expression of fandom is indisputably the same.

Marvel’s Ironman fan vs.  Spain’s La Furia Roja fans

Ironman at Philadelphia Comic Con

La Furia Roja fans before Spain's second match

Nintendo’s Attack on Titan fans vs. Japan’s Samurai Blue fans

Attack on Titan cosplayers at Philly Comic Con

Japanese national team fans at the first match

Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier fans vs. Chile’s La Roja fans

Two sets of Captain America: The Winter Soldier cosplayers

Chile's La Roja fans before the second match

Dr. Who fan vs. Costa Rica’s Tico fan

Dr. Who cosplayer at Philly's Market East station.

Tico fan at a friendly preceding World Cup play

Marvel’s Captain America fan vs. United States’ Stars & Stripes fan

Captain America cosplayer at the PA Convention Center

U.S. national team fan in face paint

Sometimes, of course, the twain do meet in more ways than costume amd custom.

At the Philly Comic Con booth of artist R.B. Silva, who draws DC’s comic book Superman, we talked about the stunning Brazil and Mexico draw of last week. Silva is from Santos, Brazil, and we did a little trash-talking — me extolling El Tri’s vigor, Silva and his cohort minimizing everything but Mexican keeper Memo Ochoa’s ability to shut down Brazil’s prodigious striker Neymar.

And, on the way home from Comic Con — on a train with tired fans full of Dr. Who and Captain America: The Winter Soldier cosplayers — the first thing I checked? The scores of the fantastic three games of the day.

We are all part of communities within communities within even larger communities.

For me, much of the joy of attending an event like the Philadelphia Comic Con or following the World Cup, comes from the unpredictable and the wonderfully predictable. No matter who we are rooting for every four years, or dressing in tribute to every year, we come to celebrate our affections — creatively and unabashedly — together.

Cosplayers at Philadelphia Comic Con

Counting down to the World Cup

Very cool that the Bishops in South Africa have blessed the football stadiums, initiated an educational campaign about human trafficking, drafted a special World Cup prayer (and no, there are no petitions in it for the home team) and and set up this web site: www.churchontheball.com.

World Cup fever is everywhere.

Tomorrow, folks.

Church on the Ball from CatholicStudio on Vimeo.

Let’s talk soccer: A new Union, striking workers and the World Cup

There are only four sporting events I will watch without coercion: the World Series, the summer and winter Olympics, and the World Cup.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s not about expertise in any of the sports involved. I haven’t engaged in many summer or winter Olympic sports – only cross country skiing, swimming and equitation – and never at a level that would approach competitive (or in the case of skiing, even proficient). And while I know the rudiments of baseball and soccer, I’m blind to the finer points of both games. In the latter case, I can’t even credibly speak about the sport in English because all the terminology resides in my memory banks in Spanish….

So it takes some nerve on my part to be writing this post at all.

But there can be something really compelling about sporting events of this magnitude – and that’s what gets me every time.

So, let’s talk fútbol.

The World Cup will take place in June 2010 in South Africa – with inaugural games slated for stadiums in Johannesburg and Cape Town – and most of the world will be watching. Netherlands is in, as are Australia, Japan, the two Koreas, and, of course, the host site, South Africa. Other berths are still up in the air, with teams at different stages of the qualifiers according to region.

Like all host sites in advance of World Cup stints, South Africa is in the throes of nationwide stadium and transportation infrastructure building. Not without hitch. The photos that accompany this post are by Catholic Standard & Times freelancer Kevin Cook, who is currently in South Africa. They were taken July 8 in Soweto’s Soccer City, one of 35 major sites that saw 70,000 construction workers go on strike that day. (Click here to see more photos and to read about Cook’s experiences in South Africa.)

According to media reports, the construction workers’ demands include higher minimum wage, maternity leave, and annual bonuses (Read news report here).

It is interesting to me (I am an editor of a Catholic newspaper, after all) that one day before the workers went on strike, Pope Benedict XVI’s social justice encyclical “Charity in Truth” was released. In it, the pontiff reaffirms the role of labor unions in the pursuit of economic justice for their communities. According to Cook’s blog, the striking workers are asking for a 10-15 percent raise in their current wages, “2,000 Rand a month – roughly 250 US dollars.” Which seems shockingly low to me from a U.S. wage perspective. (I hope any of my readers who know more about the wage structure in South Africa will comment, or send me an e-mail.)

In any case, South African officials are worried that if the strike continues, the venues in South Africa will not be ready in time for World Cup play.

Not that any of this is generating much press here. Despite our obsession with sports and the fact that the U.S. national soccer team is consistently a contender within its North, Central America and Caribbean group, by some inexplicable quirk soccer has never become the phenomenon here that it is in the rest of the world.

Still, in May it was announced that Philadelphia will have a new professional soccer team – the Philadelphia Union – starting in 2010. The team will play its home matches at a new 18,000+ seat stadium in Chester, Pa. – approximately 13 miles from downtown Philadelphia.

A brave proposition. Attendance was good the year the U.S. hosted the World Cup – but our professional soccer franchises don’t draw great crowds. Not even after importing megastar David Beckham.

Perhaps the timing of the Union’s first season will help – particularly if the U.S. national team qualifies and performs well during the World Cup.

It is fitting that the Union’s stadium will be in Chester rather than some swankier location. Soccer is, at its foundation, an incredibly egalitarian sport – stripped down to a ball and skill and no more. You can play it as spectacularly on the streets of a shantytown as you can on a groomed pitch. As a sport, it is beloved equally by the most educated and the least; those with enough money to own teams and those with barely enough to pay for the batteries in the radios on which they listen to the matches. I hope the Union’s stadium ticket prices reflect that reality. I hope, too, that many of our region’s new immigrants come to feel that the Union is their hometown team.

It’s all about connection. The possibility of connection, anyway, and soccer comes as close to being a global conductor as anything in our fractured world.

Okay, that might be a little exaggerated – but only a little.

Mention Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Mueller, Jairzinho, Rivelino or Giorgio Chinaglia to almost anyone of a certain generation – outside of the U.S. – and you’ll have instant conversation. Mention Bebeto or Zinedine Zidane and you’ll have the younger generation chiming in. Talk about Italy’s reemergence at the last World Cup, or the year Turkey and Korea placed third and fourth, or the year Cameroon’s made its historic run ….

It can turn ugly, of course – there have been riots at soccer matches, nasty jingoism, and even a fútbol-instigated war – but at its best, the sport is a language spoken readily by most of the world, no translators needed.

Commonality of experience. A common narrative. The evolution of personalities and Cinderella stories watched from every corner of the earth at once.
Pretty amazing.

(Okay, I’m stopping now. Before I get too terrified at the fact I just wrote over 900 words about a sport …).

Click here to go to the World Cup web site; here to read about the Philadelphia Union, and here to link to the Pope's social justice encyclical.

Photos of Soweto Soccer City workers striking ©Kevin Cook. Used by permission.