JULIO CORTEZ/ LATINO REPORTER DIGITAL Bryan Romero (left) and Andre Berroa dance as they celebrate Brazil's 1-0 halftime lead against Croatia in a World Cup soccer game televised at Restaurant Feijao Com Arroz, in Ft. Lauderdale, on Tuesday.

World Cup start
raises fútbol fever

The recent restless nights endured by Miguel Ibarguren reflect his life’s priorities.

He’s had trouble sleeping before: As his wedding day approached 12 years ago, and during the nights leading up to the birth of his two children.

This time, it’s the World Cup.

“For the last 10 days, I haven’t been able to sleep because I’m so excited,” said Ibarguren, an Argentine and managing director of Spanish Voices Marketing and Advertising in Hollywood, Fla.

“I consume everything I can about it online. (In) the month of June I’m not taking on new work. … That’s how fanatic I am. The whole world stops for this thing.”

Six of the 32 participating countries in Germany this year are from Latin America: Ecuador, Costa Rica, Argentina, Paraguay, Mexico and Brazil.

NAHJ convention attendees can join the billions watching the Cup at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Hyatt Pier 66 for the U.S.-Italy match. A workshop on whether soccer can be a major sport in the U.S. precedes the match.

History shows it’s the expatriates who have shown more enthusiasm for the World Cup in the country where the World Series and Super Bowl draw larger audiences and revenues.

The impact of the U.S. Latino audience is evident in the amount paid for TV rights for the Cup. Univision paid $325 million and ABC/ESPN $100 million, according to Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal.

ESPN spokesman Mac Nwulu said Hispanics in the United States prefer the Spanish-language coverage, but ESPN and ABC are “banking that someday English-speaking Hispanic people would like to hear the World Cup on English-language television.”

Whatever the language, the Cup’s reach and reverberations spread beyond the United States.

Coco Cubillas, a soccer marketing manager in Miami and son of a Peruvian fútbol legend, understands this fully.

“When they talk about my dad, people say he was able to make an entire nation rise to their feet,” said Cubillas, whose father, Nene Cubillas, is the seventh-leading scorer in World Cup history and also played for the now-defunct Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League.

“Can you really say that about a Michael Jordan? Did he move an entire nation?”

The event certainly moved local businesses to adjust for the influx of fans. Katherine Guilfoyle, manager of the Playwright Irish Pub and Restaurant in Miami’s South Beach, said doors would open at 9 a.m. instead of the usual 11 a.m. for the early games.

Guilfoyle said Germany’s six-hour time difference was much more business-friendly than that of Japan and Korea in 2002. Those games aired in the U.S. overnight.

Real estate agent Carlos Carrillo, 29, said he expects to watch the games at Miami’s Churchill’s Pub, cheering for the U.S. and Mexico, with his laptop close by.

“I’ll just have my cell phone, some paper,” said Carrillo, who is Mexican and Cuban and was born in the United States. “I’ll have my laptop in the trunk and if something has to get done, I’ll just go to the parking lot and come back and watch.”

Those going to Germany, like Carlos Garcia, will leave it all behind. Garcia, owner of Empire Title Insurance Corporation in Miami Lakes, eyed the trip three years ago.

“I made time to take a month off,” said Garcia, a Guatemalan who will cheer for Brazil. “Four years ago ... I called in sick every day for a month. It was worth it.”

Contact Willie Bans at Willie_beemen@yahoo.com.