Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Why Soccer Will Never Be a Slam Dunk in America

TIME ^ | 07/01/2014 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[SeekAndFind]

Soccer doesn’t express the American ethos as powerfully as our other popular sports: We are a country of pioneers, and we like to see extraordinary effort rewarded... with points.

Has the time finally come to slap a Do Not Resuscitate bracelet on soccer’s prospects for popularity in America?

If it were up to me, the answer would be no, because soccer players are among the strongest, fittest, most strategic athletes in the world. But, for various reasons, the sport itself does not seem destined for the popularity that supporters have been predicting for the last decade. I’m reminded of the end of Man of La Mancha, when Don Quixote lies dying, but is suddenly inspired to rise once more and proclaim, “Onward to glory I go!” And then he drops dead. Soccer has been proclaiming this impending U.S. glory for years, and while there are signs of life in the body, the prognosis is not good.

This dire diagnosis probably seems crazy in the face of the current World Cup TV ratings success. Between Univision and ESPN, 25 million viewers tuned in to watch the U.S. play Portugal last Sunday. Compare that to 15.5 million viewers that the NBA finals averaged this year, or the 14.9 million averaged in last year’s baseball World Series. Worse, the NHL playoffs averaged only 5 million viewers. Only NFL football consistently beats soccer’s best rating.

The problem with those statistics is that it’s like using the ratings of bobsledding during the Winter Olympics to declare a new renaissance for bobsledding in America. The World Cup, like the Olympics, happens every four years, so the rarity factor alone will account for inflated ratings.

[kevkrom]

They mostly play at different times of the year. MLS goes up against baseball.

For now. If MLS really wants to be considered a serious league, however, they're going to have to eventually change to the fall-through-spring season that the other top leagues use so that are on the same cycle for transfer markets and extra-league competitions (e.g., CONCACAF Champions League).

[dfwgator]

And exhibition matches of top Euro teams played here in the US usually sell out in a matter of hours.....And usually their best players only make a token appearance.

[gusty]

The irony of it is that Cassius Clay was the name of an abolitionist in the early 19th Century, while Muhammad Ali was a name used by many who held East Africans in bondage. So which name is really the slave name, I say it is the current one.

[gusty]

I would argue that it is already in the top Four. Hockey had its brief chance in the early 90’s, but it went nowhere. Hockey is pretty irrelevant nationally in the sports conversation. Even in Canada, the sport on the grassroots level has become a sport of the well to do. It is so expensive to play, that a large percentage of NHL draft picks today come from the upper middle class or wealthier. In the next 15 years, I predict soccer will be in the Top Three, passing baseball. Baseball’s over 55 nursing home fan base is not healthy for MLB’s long term prospects, plus on the grassroots the sport has collapsed. In my area, towns that fielded 10 teams on the LL level are having trouble fielding even one team today. I say this with no pleasure, as someone who played baseball at a high level.

[dfwgator]

It is so expensive to play, that a large percentage of NHL draft picks today come from the upper middle class or wealthier.

Or from Russia, Sweden or Finland.

[Grams A]

Sports in the U.S. has been historically unique. Previous generations of kids grew up playing baseball, basketball and football. We have American symbols of baseball, apple pie, peanuts and cracker jacks with a whole host of famous broadcasters many of whom are now gone.

But cracker jacks and apple pie cause obesity, parents don’t like the violence of football, kids teams don’t keep score, everyone gets a trophy at the end and kids soccer teams often have the same number of girls as boys. Sports in the U.S. in the past has been about competition and being the best. Not so much with the new generation.

The children of immigrants play soccer. Baseball, football and basketball are too American for them.

[gusty]

I accept the edit.

[dfwgator]

Which is kind of the point that “American” sports aren’t so American anymore.

Baseball is full of players from Asia and Latin America.

More NBA players come from Europe and South America

NHL players from Russia, Finland and Sweden (not to mention Canada)

That pretty much leaves the NFL.

[Political Junkie Too]

Why Soccer Will Never Be a Slam Dunk in America

Mixed metaphor?

-PJ

[longtermmemmory]

after this last draft, the NFL might as well limit itself to san franfreako.

[morphing libertarian]

NHL players from Canada is not exactly a sign of the deterioration of “American” sports. The Canadians have been there forever.

[dfwgator]

I kinda said that tongue-in-cheek

[gusty]

I have found the turning away from football by the young has less to do with injuries, than the inherent daddy balling on the youth level. What usually happens on the youth level is that the head and assistant coaches kids get to play QB, RB, and WR while the rest of the kids get to block or not play at all. It is cronyism at its finest.

[morphing libertarian]

slow on the uptake this morning

freep on

[Straight Vermonter]

Between Univision and ESPN, 25 million viewers tuned in to watch the U.S. play Portugal last Sunday. Compare that to 15.5 million viewers that the NBA finals averaged this year, or the 14.9 million averaged in last year’s baseball World Series. Worse, the NHL playoffs averaged only 5 million viewers. Only NFL football consistently beats soccer’s best rating.

This number has been quoted an nauseum. It means nothing in terms of on going sports viewing.

In the last summer Olympics gymnastics drew . In the last winter Olympics figure skating drew 25 million viewers.

Does anyone think that this shows we are becoming a country that watches gymnastics or figure skating regularly? Of course not. We watch these things because of they are an event not for the sport itself. Similarly the Superbowl has become a much bigger event than a game. Many (most?) of the viewers are people that seldom or never watch another sporting even all year.

[gusty]

This is a fact. Last summer, 2013, on ESPN two games were played back to back, Yankees-Orioles and Spain-Brazil (Confederations Cup), MLB scored a 1.6 overnight in a primetime slot, while the soccer game got a 1.5 in the afternoon. Same channel, same day.

[Straight Vermonter]

The MLS points out that more people on average attend one of their games (18,807) than attend either NHL (17,455) or NBA (17,408) games. While that may be true, the reasons for that appear to be pretty simple: cheaper tickets and fewer teams playing fewer games.

There is a lot to be said for cheaper tickets and fewer teams playing fewer games.

Also those NBA and NHL games are sellouts (or nearly so) and MLS games are played in 60,000 seat football stadiums.

[gusty]

To add, a common path to the gridiron is to play soccer as a youth to build athletic ability and then step onto the gridiron in HS. Youth football does absolutely nothing in preparing a player for the higher levels. The coaching makes LL baseball coaches look like Tony LaRussa, and that is a low bar to say the least. It is populated by daddyballers and lunatics for the most part.

[RinaseaofDs]

The Sounders in Seattle sell out Century Link Field. Same place the Seahawks play. Seattle’s bonkers about soccer.

[trisham]

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