Posted on 06/28/2006 3:40:11 PM PDT by new yorker 77
Despite a high level of media coverage for the World Cup soccer tournament, three-fourths of Americans (78%) are not following the action very closely if at all. A Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults found that just 6% are following the tournament very closely.
Nine percent (9%) of men are paying close attention along with 3% of women.
The Super Bowl remains the biggest sport championship in terms of fan appeal. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Americans say it’s their favorite championship to watch. The World Series is the only other championship to reach double digits—12% of adults say it’s their favorite.
One-fourth of all Americans (25%) say they don’t want any sports championships.
Despite the general lack of interest in the World Cup by the US audience, the soccer tournament is more popular than the NBA basketball championship and the NHL’s Stanley Cup hockey title. Both of those events were being held at the same time as the World Cup.
Fourteen percent (14%) of Americans say they played soccer in an organized league at some point in their life.
Fifty-two percent (52%) of Americans believe there is a professional soccer league in the United States (and they’re right).
The survey was conducted before the U.S. soccer team was eliminated. However, few were surprised by the lack of success--just 5% of the nation’s adults thought it was very likely the U.S. team would win the tournament.
Soccer has no real fan base in America thank God.
It's beyond boring.
I estimate that 50% to 75% of Americans are watching the games on Univision as well. The coverage is better, and the women wear less clothing.
If you read the methodology, it says a computer called 1000 respondents and asked them to answer a question. How many people hung up? How many people didnt answer the phone during dinner? How many don't speak English?
If you are dialing landlines at dinner, you aren't going to get a true sampling of the American public.
I happen to belong to the other 88% to 94% who never watch professional sports. I have no clue why radio stations fail to broadcast an otherwise popular regular program to substitute Professional sports?
It makes no sense.
Compared to Super Bowl ratings Soccer has a long way to go in the US. The longer you live in this country the more you see what a dud sport it is compared to the NFL and even the NBA. Baseball is fun to play but can get real boring to watch if the pitchers are good.
Uh-oh. You sparked BurbankKarl into a breathless rage as he seeks to deny poll results he doesn't like.
“If you take the rating for the U.S.-Italy match on ABC (4.4),” the Journal-Sentinel reported, “and combine it with the Univision rating for the match (1.7), you get a 6.1, which makes it the weekend’s most-watched daytime event, beating the U.S. Open golf tournament and the NASCAR auto race in Michigan.”
Because it means no more than 6% of Americans are insane enough to watch an exercise in futility engaged in by people so queer they don't use their hands.
Did they really name it the World Cup, because they realized it needed more support?
I've probably watched about ten minutes of soccer in my life. I'm sorry I wasted that much time on it.
Well it's 6 to 12% per sport, which adds up when you think about all the sports. They said only 25% don't pay attention to any sport championship at all (which would presumably mean they don't watch sports at all, I mean if you're not going to pay attention to the championship what would you pay attention to). So that's actually 75% that pay attention to some sport at some level some time.
Compared to the Super Bowl EVERYTHING has a long way to go, it's hands down the most popular sporting event in the country far out performing anything else.
Prolly 'cuz soccer ain't a real sport???
Soccer: more boring than golf.
If you have no emotional ties to the team, then yes, soccer may not get your blood flowing. That's part of the problem, the US simply doesn't compete in the upper echelon.
Passion comes from following your team, it's no different than any other sport. Major League soccer in this country does not inspire the kind of rivalries like you have in College Football, or even in baseball (Yankees-Red Sox).
But once you watch the US play in a game against a superior opponent, and yet they do hold their own, it's hard not to get caught up in it. But you have to have something emotionally invested in one of the teams to appreciate what the World Cup is all about.
Soccer is a lot of mindless kicks and running up and down to field for nothing, in football every play is calculated and every player has a job to do and you have winners and losers on every down. How can it not be the most exciting game to watch ?
No it's "prlly cuz" comparing it to the SB is simply an unfair comparison. The 2nd place championship (World Series) only has 1/3 the interest as the Super Bowl, does that mean baseball isn't a real sport and has a long way to go?
The fact is the numbers for the World Cup are pretty good, soccer is gaining popularity in America. It'll probably never threaten the NFL, but hey that's the NFL. Don't know why so many idiots have staked so much of their tiny sense of self worth on soccer being unpopular. I don't like Formula 1 racing but none of my ego is staked on it being unpopular, it exists in a world that I ignore because I don't like it. Your life will be better when you grow up enough to ignore sports you don't like instead of having to bash them to prop up your esteem.
I love football, but let's face it, 90% of the time you're watching football you aren't actually watching football, you're watching a replay or a commercial. It definitely is not, never has been, nor ever will be the most exciting game to watch. Maybe in the final two minutes of a close playoff game... maybe.
Some games end up like that, but when the best teams in the world play, it isn't mindless. I love American Football as much as the next guy. But I can tell you I was every bit into that USA-Italy game as I was for any Florida Gator football or basketball game. And football is 5-10 seconds of intensity, followed by a minute of...nothing, until the next play. A good soccer game is non-stop action for 45 minutes. Some games are better than others, but you could say that about any sport.
That can be said of any game unless it's a blow out.
Soccer is kind of like the metric system. We don't get and we don't want to...just my .02
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