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 would be big here too if it was the only game in town but we have year round sporting events.
Soccer is an amazing test of physical endurance, skill and strategy.
As a spectator sport, I don't think anything compares.
It is only ignorance of the finer points of the game, understandable in North America when it comes to soccer, that prevents more of an audience.
In Canada, it is the familiarity of playing and watching soccer from a toddler that makes it fascinating.
In America, other sports such as baseball connect to the soul.
An American growing up in Italy or Brazil would be a lifetime rabid fan of soccer.
Similarly, one growing up in India might have an affinity for cricket.
The big thing lacking in US Soccer is the emergence of a marketable superstar. Look how much having a Mia Hamm helped with Women's soccer, but there is nobody on the Men's team that is really marketable.
Oops - Canada = HOCKEY!
Anyways, the point is the more knowledgeable one is about a sport, the more interest.
I'll never forget the first time I understood and watched Texas Hold'Em, after years of wondering what the point of the game was, I was hooked.
And so it goes.
You don't hear too much about soccer scholarships. Maybe that's why, no demand for the sport.
It's amusing because Foreign Big Money in Football/soccer has done everything possible to make soccer a big time sport in the US. They started with little kids on Sat. am, all those small towns around the US with soccer moms and dads running the kids to games and practice in between jaunts to the town dump. They moaned on NPR that baseball and football...not to mention basketball...had an unfair advantage since those sports swallowed up most of America's attention and money.
They want the US totally involved in soccer, to the point of mania, ala Brazil, Mexico, the UK, Germany, etc.. All they see are dollar signs, and they're finding the US a tough nut to crack. Doubtless, with broken borders and twenty four million illegal aliens already here, soccer will become much more popular. One Happy Hemisphere will see the rest of the hemisphere moving north, bringing soccer mania with them. It's all about money. The US has a national 'identity', a history of sports, and it's baseball and football, not soccer.
I'd like to call BS on it, too, but I'll settle with being a 6%'er ;^)
I see too many kicks in soccer that are either to clear the ball of kicked into a crowd where anybody has a shot at the ball. That's what I'm referring to in 'mindless kicks'. They appear mindless to the fan unless a goal is scored on said kick.
I like soccer, myself, but distrust the motives of the people behind this push to make it 'America's sport'. It's not, for whatever reason...and if you think about it American individualism runs counter to soccer...the team mentality thing. Just a thought.
And, Univision doesn't have that irritating trait of putting the stats, or information windows and other nonsense directly over the ongoing activity on the pitch.
I consider the repeat offenders to be disruptors, seeking any opportunity to drive a wedge between FReepers, thus weakening our unity, however so minimally.
Soccer, no commercials for 45+ minutes, wonderful!
Soccer; a 90 minute game which finishes in under 2 hours.
Football; a 60 minute game which takes around 3 hours.
Why do you say 'we' when you put in your $.02?
Hey, I just coughed up $02, six, now seven, times. And you say I'm cheap! ;^>
Sorry. We never talk anymore...it's all the little things. You don't open up and share your feelings like you used to back before you hit it big. Back when there was no .02...but we didn't need money...we had each other.
NOW LOOK. OF COURSE IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT I NEVER CARED ABOUT THE MONEY WHY DO YOU HATE MY MOTHER?
There is nothing about your mother I hate! I thought you'd be like her. I had a thing for her. There, now you know ...
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