The FIFA World Cup came to a close on Sunday, July 11, with a deserving win by Spain over The Netherlands. The match was far from pretty, but people watched in large numbers, including here in the US. According to reports (http://bit.ly/aCZQvB), over 15.5 million people watched the final match on ABC, setting a record for US viewership, while another 8.8 million watched Spanish-language coverage on Univision. There is no doubt the numbers are impressive and had the US team not lost in its first elimination match against Ghana, who knows if that number could have gone even higher.
On the heels of World Cup came news of Thierry Henry, the French soccer superstar, signing with MLS’s New York Red Bulls. Without question, the news for soccer in the US has been pretty decent of late. So, it’s probably a good time to once again ask the question (paraphrased for timeliness) I posed several posts ago. What will the interest in World Cup and the signing of Henry mean to soccer in the US at the professional level? (more…)
The NASCAR road show comes to town this weekend as Chicagoland Speedway plays host to NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races, July 9 and 10, respectively. For the past year, Craig Rust has served as President of the ISC-owned track located in Joliet, Ill. As he and his team prep for the biggest weekend of the year at the Speedway, Craig joins DeepThoughts for a quick Q&A: