Results of a Valentine's Day survey covering San Diego County with a scientific sampling of residents shows that the best-known Major League Soccer stars (as well as local MLS stars) are being ignored by the English-language news media in the region, despite the high name-recognition... especially in the cases of David Beckham and Cuauhtémoc Blanco.

The one-day poll of the general public, a part of the 'Soccer Fandom in San Diego' report to be released this spring, shows that these two soccer superstars are better-known by local residents (sports fans and non-fans) than most local athletes, including the vast majority of team members of the Padres and Chargers, the only two major league franchises currently in existence in San Diego.

Yet, other data accumulated during the past several years shows that the news media in San Diego virtually ignores all of Major League Soccer, as well as local college soccer and the local high school championships - very popular and of high interest among residents - but ignored by news media, especially local television news.

Beckham and Blanco debuted on the same weekend last summer for their respective MLS teams, and despite the fact that they are two of the three highest-salaried MLS players, being millionaires many times over and famous for many years prior to joining MLS, TV sports news virtually ignored them both throughout the season.  Beckham only received significant attention at the very beginning of his Galaxy career, and Blanco news has been practically non-existent in the local English-language TV news ever since that weekend and through to the Fire's great 2007 playoff run. 

Additionally, several local TV news outlets in San Diego completely ignored the MLS Cup in 2007 and all of the postseason matches of the Galaxy, and now even that team's significant amount of 2008 preseason news including this past week's tournament, where a record crowd for soccer in Hawai'i saw Beckham set up two goals in a victory over Gamba Osaka as a part of the inaugural Pan-Pacific Championship tournament.

In the Valentine's Day survey, residents were asked if they knew the names of numerous athletes, and then asked if they knew each individual's sport, team, other facts - they were allowed to elaborate in detail.  Beckham was the most recognized of all non-San Diego athletes listed; Blanco's name was better known than most of the local MLB and NFL stars - but has been inexplicably ignored by most local news media.  Similarly, local pro stars in MLS and other leagues as well as on the national teams were mostly ignored by local TV news, and there were zero MLS highlights or news by many of the English-language outlets on several of the most notable individuals who are native San Diegans, who attended school here, or who have always lived here.

A summary of the extensive data shows:

KUSI and KFMB news both completely ignored the MLS Cup; neither showed news or highlights on local MLS stars during the season.  Both showed  Beckham stories with a negative slant and evident anti-soccer bias, and both completely ignored Blanco from his signing to his debut, to his Goal of the Year accolades and playoffs effort with the Chicago Fire.

XETV showed the least MLS of any station in San Diego in 2007:  Even though they are a Fox affiliate - and MLS is shown on Fox Sports Net, Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports Espanol - they completely ignored the first part of the MLS season as well as an entire three-month stretch which included major matches of both Beckham and Blanco and the playoffs.  They also showed the least local soccer news; no men's local college highlights, and no mention of the High School CIF Championships.  (The local SDSU Aztecs play in the Pac 10 and famously defeated UCLA last season;  the local HS soccer championships get higher attendances than many of the HS basketball championships held the same weekend.)  There have been many instances of major soccer news stories where XETV was the only station in San Diego with no coverage;  this includes everything from Freddy Adu's historic signing to Taylor Twellman's game-winning bicycle-kick goal in the 2007 MLS Cup playoffs. 

Those in the survey who identified themselves as sports fans were asked their favorite sport, and although soccer was among the top favorites, their sport is still largely ignored by the English-language sports news media in San Diego, and given far less coverage than many sports of less interest in the community.  In fact, a majority of the poll participants agreed that the media indeed ignores soccer too much, and that they themselves would like to see the media in general cover soccer more in San Diego at all levels - from pro to college to youth.

Details of this particular survey and more from the upcoming report will be posted as released via the San Diego MLS Project blog, http://mlsdevelopment.typepad.com/san_diego_mls_project/