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A Chicken in Every Pot, and a Road Trip for Every Sports Bar Regular

There will be a lot of fans rooting for Ghana in the stadium when it plays the U.S. in the World Cup today. This is not just because Ghana is the last African team playing in a tournament held in South Africa. In this case, vuvuzela honking will be the residue of design.

According to a throwaway line by a New York Times soccer writer who buried his lede but good, there have been a lot of Ghana fans present throughout the Cup because for them, the trip was free. Seeing the event as a national priority, the government of Ghana sent them there, most or all expenses paid (Based on my limited experience of international soccer fans, if the government was rash enough to pay for the beer, national bankruptcy is imminent).

I'm sure these trips went to the well-connected within Ghana's corrupt elite, because that's how hot sports tickets get distributed everywhere, the U.S. most definitely included. But I'd like to think some of them went to contest-winners, who had to show proof of their devotion to the Black Stars' cause. Number of soccer match-related arrests in foreign countries would be a fair measuring stick.

Like the vuvuzela, this creative approach to sports and political marketing is bound to spread to the U.S. Those angry white male voters we hear so much about would be much less angry if they thought an Annie Oakley (note to readers: archaic baseball term for a free pass to the game) trip to the Final Four or Daytona was hanging on their ballots. In fact, I'm sure that in the headquarters of the Deval Patrick, Tim Cahill and Charlie Baker campaigns, meetings are going on figuring out whether it's better to buy up a block of tickets for a Patriots late October road game, or to take the chance the Sox are going all the way to the Series this fall.

It will also lead to a new tradition in American politics. On victory night, reporters will ask a pol, "you've just been elected U.S. Senator, what will you do next?"

His or her answer will be "I'm sending other people to Disney World!"

posted by Michael Gee @ 6:19 AM