Big Soccer = Ratings (and other Administrivia)

Lots going on these days. The Freddy Saga. The DCenters choices for DCU awards. My rather poor camera skills at the reserve division games. So go read that stuff for actual soccer content. Yes, as opposed things like this.

Yesterday this site recorded the most traffic it has ever seen. Part of that had to do with The Freddy Saga, but the vast majority came from the outing of this blog over at BigSoccer. While I wasn't tracking traffic when CNN/SI talked about this site, I did see at least the tail end of that trafffic spike. MGoBlog's linking to the post regarding the Copa Sudamericana saw another spike. This one blew those two away.

What does this tell me?
1) That there are a lot of US Soccer/MLS/DCU fans interested in reading diverse soccer media opinions.
2) That the soccer blog world serves as a complement to, and not a competitor to, the well-established soccer sites like BigSoccer. What the blogs do tends to be slightly different than what you get at places like BS. Not better, just different.
3) That the existing media coverage of Soccer has improved, but lacks diversity. We have great beat reporters around the country (Steve Goff, Tobias Lopez, etc...) but few commentators, which I think is where the blogs are stepping in. We also don't have the sports radio infrastructure to allow for people to engage in a free-flowing argument of different ideas or interpretations of what happens. BigSoccer is serving as a global watercooler for these fans, and allowing people to learn a lot about the game.

Now, that's probably overly simplistic, but there you have it. The existing media has given people some of what they want, but not enough of it. So soccer fans themselves are stepping into the void. And good for them.

More Administrivia...
Updated the Blogroll (finally). There are some good people writing out there, many of whom are also BigSoccer posters as well (no, I'm not going to out them. Well, other than scaryice who uses the same handle both places). Working on site design changes (minor things, like a new heading graphic and the like), but haven't finalized what I like yet. And yes, you can contact me directly at "thedcenters (at) gmail (dot) com" with anything you want to say.

Oh, and if it seems like I'm not commenting on something, it's because I'm lazy, drunk, or both.