By Another MF player (Jones) (207.194.173.209 - 207.194.173.209) on Friday, May 21, 1999 - 04:41 pm:
It was a fantastic end to a tough season for us Metro Ford lads. After seeing our arch rivals, the Firemen, win last seasons honors we had to read about their success in the city's major newspapers. Spoils goes to the victors, I guess. After winning this season's final against The Firemen, we were very much looking forward to our well deserved, if brief, moment in the spotlight. Typically for us, it never came. How is it that the best and toughest soccer league in the country can go SO unnoticed? I thought it would be a perfect time to quiz (and vent some frustration to) the editor of the Province Newspaper, Paul Chapman, on the lack of coverage on the Men's and Women's Provincial Finals and the Vancouver Metro Soccer League. Here are the resulting e-mails. It's a little long so forgive me for the ramble.
Paul Chapman
It was really nice to see that The Province Newspaper made an attempt to cover the senior men's soccer Provincial Cup that just rapped up recently. Thanks to Jim Coleman a small and brief write-up was included, a few days late, in the back part of your Wednesday print. My only problem with the editorial was that it was from 14 YEARS AGO! I assume that if I am to find out the result of this year's final I'm going to have to wait until Jim Coleman writes about it on Wednesday, May 9th of the year 2013.
I chose this paper because of it's commitment of bringing better soccer coverage from around the world. Although this has improved over past years, ignoring the local soccer scene at the climax of it's season proves that someone is missing the point. I hear celebrities talk about the press trying to sell more papers. What sells more papers then when someone sees one's self or organization in actual print. Covering the local soccer scene would do this. The soccer community is the largest sports community in Canada and coverage of local soccer games (maybe the game of the week) would keep the community more informed. This would create a source of information that people would turn to first for unbiased information on the local soccer scene. If The Province Newspaper doesn't have someone to cover this scene there is always people who do write for Internet soccer sites that could provide this service. I chose The Province over the National Post because of it's coverage of local sports. To express my disappointment would take too long. I am going to question my commitment regarding my subscription of this paper. It failed miserably.
Maybe the soccer community has failed to do it's job in informing the newspapers of it's important and championship games. Maybe the soccer community has to start pushing it's weight around to get better coverage than local baseball, lacrosse and high school sports. If this is the problem then someone should be told and my problem would then be with the people running BC Soccer and not The Province. I do expect The Province Sports Department to be on top of things that have to do with sports in the community. I could understand (bitterly) the overlook of the men's and women's senior soccer final if it took place in Prince Rupert or if the Canucks and Grizzlies were embroiled in the playoffs. We both know that hasn't happened in a few years and won't happen for a few more years.
Sorry to hear you're disappointed with our soccer coverage. We have some
staffing issues that precipitated our non-coverage of the event, we just
didn't have enough bodies to get someone out to cover it. That's why we
sent a photographer.
That, however, is not your concern. And I promise the event will be covered
next year.
However, it will be covered no thanks to the local soccer scene.
We used to sponsor the Province Cup, hence the name. But the organizers
have seen fit to not approach us, tell us when the event is, or where or
have any sort of coordination with the paper on the event. As a result we
dropped sponsorship two years ago.
Last year I personally covered the final, when they held it in Abbottsford.
This year I asked that although we couldn't get a writer to the event,
could someone, anyone, involved in the final call, fax or email us the
scores. They didn't.
Now, your point is well taken and we'll try harder to provide better soccer
coverage.
But what I blanche at is your criticism of other sports. I get twice as
many calls from the lacrosse, rugby, baseball and high school communities
complaining about our coverage of their sports than I do from soccer. And
more than 60 per cent of our readers have said we do an excellent job
covering soccer.
But beyond all that, the biggest complaint we continue to get, if you can
believe it, is from hockey fans who say they want more.
Anyway, my point being that I understand your concerns with our missing
this event, I have played soccer all my life, and still play in the over
30s league on the North Shore, so we'll try better.
But please don't try to tear down other sports to justify more coverage for
your own. We try to cover events on merit, not by comparison.
Thanks so much for your input, and you have my apologies.
Paul Chapman
Paul Chapman
Province Sports Editor
Mr. Paul Chapman,
Thank you for getting back to me so soon. I actually thought my E-mail would be given little attention or discarded (if I had received a nasty E-mail like that I may have done so). Getting back to me so quickly demonstrates your commitment to your readers and your decency. Good luck on the staffing issue and let's hope the person you hire is a soccer enthusiast.
Your answer to the reasons why local soccer is excluded from your paper was enlightening and has, unfortunately, leads to more questions. In my last E-mail, I had said that if the blame falls to the people of BC Soccer than my complaint is with them. Obviously, they are not doing their part in get local soccer the exposure it needs. In what way can this be achieved? You commented that you get twice as many calls from the lacrosse, rugby, baseball and high school communities complaining about our coverage of their sports than I do from soccer. If that is the case then the local soccer community is not complaining enough for local soccer coverage. All these areas have editorials cover these areas to a certain extent. Would filing more complaint be the most direct way of achieving more exposure?
Classification of what is local soccer may be another problem. I would not considered the 86ers local soccer although there are many players playing in both the 86ers league and the Vancouver Metro league. I wouldn't classify the University soccer teams in the University section of your paper as local soccer. I will agree with you that these teams do get decent coverage since I have played with both organization. The members of the Vancouver Senior Men's Metro Premier Soccer League feel that they are at least on par with the Western Lacrosse Association. Both display, arguably, the best local talent, draw crowds to their game and both have room to grow. It seems to the untrained eye that lacrosse has done a far better job in media relations than has soccer. Could the problem for local soccer be that there are higher tiers of soccer (World Soccer, the 86ers and then the Van. Metro Premier Soccer League (VMPSL))? Lacrosse only really has the leagues back east to compete with and therefor provide little competition for media coverage. Lacrosse seems to promote their star such as the Gait brothers and rightfully they should because they are awesome. The 86ers do. The VMPSL doesn't. Would this attract more attention to the mission? If they hire or appoint a media relations director would it be worth the time?
The media is unfairly receiving a bad rap concerning soccer's inability to flourish. I understand that the Pacific Coast Soccer League is having the same problem and your response was quite similar to the one you gave me. A local web site/forum called the "North Shore Pegasus Soccer WebPages" has a section in it that discusses media concerns. Some of the responses are totally inaccurate and blame the whole problem on the media. Being quite an interesting site and attracting many soccer readers from across the province, I'm wondering if I could publicize our e-mails in hopes of shedding some light on this problem. If you haven't already, I recommend checking the site out. I believe it does have a section for North Shore over 30's summer leagues (http://www.centrallimit.com/forum/
), . Soccer has many problems that need to be tackled and media coverage is just a small fraction of it, but it is a start. Some of us are tired of watching the bumbling of the Canadian Soccer Association and want to change things that they feel they can. Unfortunately for you, the Province Newspaper is the starting point. As a fellow soccer player and fan, I'm sure you can understand this point of view. 
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