Posted on 04/15/2014 8:40:04 PM PDT by kingattax
A new online poll found that Americans just are not interested in the the World Cup, which is the world's top sporting event.
According to the poll, "two in three Americans do not plan to follow this year's tournament," only "7 percent said they anticipated following it closely," 86 percent of Americans "said they either know nothing or only a little bit about the World Cup, and more than two-thirds did not know Brazil is the 2014 host nation."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
When I was a kid, no one was interested. So it’s gained a following. I love it. Great soccer. It’s a hell of a lot better than the Olympics.
They like it?
“When this country has been degraded to 3rd world status, the youth will be ready to join!”
At this point a majority of out youth are from the Third World; look at any schoolyard or playground.
“Once the testosterone starts to flow, no male is interested in soccer.”
OK. Once the commercials start, no intelligent male is interested in watching American football.
“Brazil is no doubt the favorite, but Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium should be in the conversation. Portugal could be a dark horse with Ronaldo.”
How is Spain left out of that group? They are the defending chamions for a reason, and they still have plenty of that talent. Portugal?
Soccer is the game of third world trash.
Sailing in this weather, what, are they nuts lol?
MLS:
19 teams, averaging 19k spectators a game. And per this link, 15 of them are in attendance decline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Soccer_attendance#Historic_average_attendances
NFL:
32 teams, averaging 68k spectators a game...and contrary to rhetoric in the media, the 2013 numbers were an improvement on the 2012 numbers - its on the upswing.
NCAA Football:
Set an all time record last year with over 50 million people attending college games in 2013.
Now - on to the actual comment that I initially responded to, that predicted Super Bowl like viewership of the World Cup.
In 2010, it was 24.3 million.
The latest Super Bowl - 111 million. Another record, BTW...the NFL is not withering away.
I’m going to stick with my prediction. The US World Cup viewership will come nowhere close to Super Bowl numbers.
Yes, Portugal is a definite threat. And they will feel somewhat at home in Brazil where Portuguese is the official language. They should get some good crowd support in the early rounds.
Given that the English Premier League is probably the #1 professional soccer league in the world, no wonder why ratings have been good.
Well, let’s see….they have most of the immigrants attention. That’s about it. That 1/3 business is probably way too optimistic.
2007 was the peak year for NFL attendance. The NFL's $60 million attendance problem
I’m going to stick with my prediction. The US World Cup viewership will come nowhere close to Super Bowl numbers.
Worldwide, the viewership for the World Cup will be over 700 million. The Super Bowl pales by comparison. And it is a foregone conclusion that the final game of the World Cup will draw less than the Super Bowl in the US. You don't have to be Nostradamus to make that prediction. I will predict that World Cup viewership will be greater than four years ago in the US.
An estimated 111.6 million U.S. viewers watched at least six minutes of the 2010 World Cup on English or Spanish language networks. And by the way, the 24.3 million who watched the World Cup in 2010 was a 41% increase over 2006.
Just as long as they don’t have all those stupid horns in the stadiums again.
Lionel Messi is Diego Maradona with class.
Cal Ripken Jr.’s real athletic strength was as a soccer player. Follow the money, Cal.
“You don’t have to be Nostradamus to make that prediction.”
That’s why I thought the initial comment was silly...and I can’t believe I’m still typing about it. Its patently obvious.
Now the article you cited about that $60 million attendance problem...its old. From before the 2012 season.
Now that chart you posted...its old. Doesn’t include the 2013 season.
What were the 2013 season numbers? 68,397. So lets see...it dropped for 3 consecutive years....and now its gone up for 3 consecutive years. What does the trend tell you? BTW, the y axis on the left is not correlated to the y axis to the right. This is a visual trick meant to amplify the steepness of the red line, vs the green bars. In general, I am distrustful of graphics that use these tricks (the global warming crowd does it all the time).
But where is the MLS chart? There’s this article:
http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2013/10/31/5047982/mls-attendance-2013-report
I love this article - it has the same cheerleader like tone as articles on the Chevy Volt sales. Here’s the money quote:
“Those numbers represent a mere 1.1 percent decline from 2012, and are still by far the second best totals in league history.”
When the NFL dips 3% in the midst of a recession, the sky is falling. When MLS drops 1.1%, it is dismissed. Let’s re-write the sentence for the NFL:
“Those numbers represent a mere 2.9 percent decline from 2012, and are still by far the second best totals in league history.”
Heck, from 2007 to 2008 the stock market lost half its value...so maybe ‘mere’ is the best way to describe a 2.9% drop.
Anyway, back to the original question at hand - Soccer’s popularity is still in its infancy in this country (just look at some of the comments on this thread). The fact that its numbers are so low allow for rapid jumps in popularity...and the fact that attendance dropped last year should be sobering to the soccer crowd.
You predicted an increase in US World Cup viewership. I agree with you. If for no other reason its back close to our time zone this time. But an increase doesn’t change the fact that it will not come close to Super Bowl viewership. That’s all I’ve ever said on this thread - again, its obvious, and surprising that its open to argument.
Even in Europe domestic leagues, that are not in England or Spain or Germany are not doing well....Everybody there pretty much follow the big Euro leagues.
Same in the US, watching the MLS compared to the Premier League is like watching Single A minor league baseball.
Me too and me too. Suh is a thug. I particularly enjoy Womens Olympic and world cup footie as well. They seem to put much more passion into their game.
I’ve been to matches at both Anfield and Everton. I was a big Leeds United fan. My mate and I stood on the Kop, wearing our Leeds scarves. Anfield is the absolute shrine of football. If you don’t catch a major tingle when the Koppites are holding their scarves aloft, singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” you have no soul.
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