BigSoccer.com is a
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
-related
Internet forum in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. The site has more than 150,000 registered users and had over 1.2 million unique visitors during the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
. Forty percent of the site's traffic comes from outside the United States, with the site having particular popularity in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
,
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
and
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.
Influence in American soccer
BigSoccer, described by Richard Deitsch of
SI.com
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excelle ...
as "arguably the nerve center of American soccer", is read by prominent members of the American soccer community, including players, officials and coaches, as well as members of the media.
Former
Chicago Fire general manager
Peter Wilt
Peter Wilt is an American soccer executive and founding president and general manager of the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer (MLS). He contributed to the efforts to expand MLS to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has remained active in the soccer ...
regularly used the site to communicate with the club's supporters, and
D.C. United
D.C. United is an American professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...
senior vice president Stephen Zack does the same. Former
US national team head coach
Bruce Arena
Bruce Arena (born September 21, 1951) is an American soccer coach who currently serves as the head coach and sporting director of the San Jose Earthquakes.
He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Lacrosse Hall of Fame. ...
, who was introduced to BigSoccer by his successor
Bob Bradley
Robert Frank Bradley (born March 3, 1958) is an American association football, soccer coach, who most recently managed Norwegian football team Stabæk Fotball, Stabæk fron 2023 - 2024.
A native of New Jersey and graduate of Princeton Universi ...
, said the site "helps me with some reports from Guatemala. I can find out more about their team over the Internet than just about any other way." And in October 2006,
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
commissioner
Don Garber
Donald P. Garber (born October 9, 1957) is an American sports executive who has been the commissioner of Major League Soccer (MLS) since 1999. Garber is also the CEO of Soccer United Marketing and a member of the United States Soccer Federatio ...
invited BigSoccer readers to submit questions, and his answers, whose subjects ranged from the league's marketing strategy to expansion, were posted on the site.
History
Founded by Jesse Hertzberg as personal hobby in 1995 with Ethan Beard joining in 1997, the site was originally located at www.inch.com/~huss and was created in the wake of the
1994 FIFA World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...
in the United States and in anticipation of the launch of
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...
(which eventually was delayed from 1995 to 1996). The site was used to post links to MLS and US Soccer related news, with a particular focus on his local MLS team in New York (soon to be announced as the
MetroStars, now known as the
New York Red Bulls
The New York Red Bulls are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conferenc ...
).
In the beginning, a significant number of BigSoccer posters came from the North American Soccer (NAS)
listserv
The term Listserv (styled by the registered trademark licensee, L-Soft International, Inc., as LISTSERV) has been used to refer to electronic mailing list software applications in general, but is more properly applied to a few early instances of ...
. In the early to mid-90s, the NAS list was one of the best sources of information and one of the few opportunities for community for supporters of the
United States men's national soccer team
The United States men's national soccer team (USMNT), officially recognized as USA by FIFA, represents the United States in men's international Association football, soccer. The team is governed by the United States Soccer Federation, which is ...
. With the advent of MLS, the NAS list soon sprouted listservs for many of the teams in the new league as well. As the "bulletin board" technology advanced, the listservs soon faded away.
The site evolved in two directions, becoming two distinct sites, MetroFan.com and SoccerBoards.com (which evolved into the current BigSoccer.com). While MetroFan continued to focus on the local MLS squad and eventually evolved into MetroFanatic.com, SoccerBoards invited other MLS fan clubs to join an interactive forum where they could share news, gossip, opinions, etc. about their local MLS side, the league, and US Soccer, as well other soccer teams and leagues around the world.
SoccerBoards continued to be a hobby for its founders until 2000, when, with financial backing from StarMedia Network, the business was renamed BigSoccer and became a full-time endeavor. The company acquired Matchday USA, a soccer magazine and online retailer, later that year. Though the magazine was subsequently shut down, the retail operations have grown substantially and today the BigSoccer Shop, in partnership with 365 and
Eurosport
Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...
, carries over 10,000 products from dozens of countries and hundreds of teams.
In addition to NAS, many smaller online soccer communities migrated to BigSoccer. These include
Soccer America
''Soccer America'', the oldest soccer-specific media publisher in the United States, was founded in 1971 by Clay Berling in Albany, California. The magazine is headquartered in Oakland, California.
History
The magazine was founded by Clay Ber ...
Graffiti.
Partnerships
* In 2003, BigSoccer partnered with
News Corporation
The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...
's Fox Sports World to become the network's official online community provider. The relationship was terminated in 2004.
* In August 2006, BigSoccer launched a partnership with Major League Soccer, to become the official supplier of online community tools to the league's and teams' official websites.
References
External links
*{{cite web
, url = http://www.soccerloop.com/interviews/big.soccer/
, title = SL Interview: Jesse Hertzberg
, accessdate = 2007-01-19
, publisher = Soccer Loop
, archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20070105224445/http://www.soccerloop.com/interviews/big.soccer/, archivedate= 5 January 2007 , url-status= live
Association football websites
Sport Internet forums
Soccer mass media in the United States
Internet properties established in 2000