Home Court Disadvantage

Surely our nation's greatest strength is its diversity. Folks from every nation make the U.S. their home and they add to the fabric of our experience.

But is our nation's greatest strength also our national team's biggest disadvantage? The fact that Americans come from all over the world could be the very reason why we can't seem to get our act together in the fan department the way other nations can. Because when it comes down to it, it seems that you can change a person's location, but you can't change their loyalties.

It is totally understandable to me. If I suddenly decided to make Brazil my home, I would certainly not be able to cheer for the Brazilian team when the Americans came to town. I would make sure the next generation of my family cheered for the American teams as well.

But the difference is that we would be a handful of Americans in an enormous Brazilian arena. Our lone chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" would likely go unnoticed under the singing, dancing, drumming and cheering of the dedicated Brazil fans.

We may be the only country where it doesn't matter who we play against or which city we choose to play them in, our opponents will always be able to find a crowd of die hards who will beat the drums and sometimes out-cheer the home team's fans. And chances are, they're more easily reachable and more organized than we are.

This past weekend in San Jose, CA, the men's team played China. With a huge Chinese population in the Bay Area, it is no surprise that our opponent's fans came out in force. The Chinese media pumped the match for weeks beforehand and covered the results afterward. The mainstream Bay Area media? Not so much.

But the ability to fill the San Jose Event Center is likely one of the reasons that the Bay Area was chosen for the match. Men's volleyball in the U.S. is hurting, with many collegiate programs cut and many others on the chopping block. Thank goodness for the gold in Beijing for renewing interest or who knows where we'd be.

The result last weekend was a great bipartisan crowd which was near capacity on night one and sold out on night two. If we had relied on just USA Volleyball fans, our team would likely have played in a half empty arena. Maybe we should be grateful. We may not be able to get an arena chock full of fans who cheer for us, but we can still fill an arena with fans. That's something.

Next weekend when the men's team heads to China, they'll be lucky to see ten Americans in the crowd. The Chinese fans will be making so much noise, they will not be able to hear themselves think. The same will happen in just about every country to which they travel.

Should we be taking notes? What would it take to get enthusiasm and dedication like that within our own shores?