Posted on 06/26/2010 8:07:11 PM PDT by Chet 99
Friday, June 25, 2010 1:11 AM EDT
As you know, we are all in the grip of World Cup fever.
It's reached such intensity that if you walk into a sports bar anywhere in the United States and mention Landon Donavan's stunning extra-time goal against Algeria that allowed the USA to finish atop group C and advance to this weekend's round of 16, literally several people will actually know what you're talking about.
And only a couple will want to beat you up.
The World Cup is, of course, that quadrennial event when the entire sporting world can join together as one and revel in the joy of pointing out how stupid the Americans are for hating soccer.
But Americans don't hate soccer. We also don't hate haggis, or warm beer, or eating snails or invading Poland or any of the other things that Europeans like to do. We just don't think about them much. (OK, to be perfectly accurate, Glenn Beck DOES hate soccer and the World Cup, accusing the rest of the world trying to "shove it down our throats." Evidently someone told him it is a game played by foreigners.)
But, you may say, America's performance in World Cup play this month has drawn decent ratings for the telecasts and certainly must be inspiring a whole new generation of fans.
To that I say, someone has been blowing a vuvuzela too close to your head. Americans will happily watch our athletes every four years in the Olympics, too. That doesn't mean that women's gymnastics or luge is going to become the Next Big Thing In Sports. (Heck, if they only have to do it every four years, Americans will even get kind of excited about watching curling.)
Soccer has been the official Next Big Thing for about the last 35 years. Professional leagues have risen and fallen, great stars of the game - who may have seen better days -have been imported and now our national team is rising through the top ranks of world competition.
And American soccer still hasn't broken the glass ceiling that, in most polls, puts it just below horseracing and just above lacrosse.
This is despite the fact that every suburban child in America is required - by law - to participate in a soccer league at some point in his or her life. This is how most of us become acquainted with soccer, watching our kids cluster around a ball - at least the ones who aren't standing at random points around the field, contemplating dandelions - their little legs flailing, until one kid does the only logical thing and picks up the ball and RUNS with it.
It makes you think, "Gee, a warm beer would taste great about now."
TOM REILLY is a Sun Chronicle news editor and former soccer dad whose daughters have moved on to more interesting - and expensive - pursuits. He can be reached at 508-236-0332 or at treilly@thesunchronicle.com. Read his blog at thesunchronicle.com/reilly.
Yes MLS attendance is high, but the money is on TV and MLS TV ratings are pathetic.
Ratings for the finals will be crap at best. This weekend slaughtered US interest.
You are entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts. We shall see.
All the facts I’ve presented are the REAL facts, not my own. The FACT is that MLS ratings on TV stink, the FACT is that they won’t go up no matter what happens in the world cup, the FACT is that world cup ratings aren’t that impressive, and the FACT is that all the teams America would care about are out so the only viewers world cup is going to have left are the die hards.
The FACT is that you are a sick puppy who is obsessed with soccer and the World Cup. Get a life.
Nothing sick or obsessed, but I thought it was funny you were throwing around the same stats in this thread that I already debunked.
Your own numbers show the problem the rest of the cup is going to have. Games with the US team had 11 million viewers, but the overall average was 3 million viewers. Pealing off the US team gets rid of 8 million viewers, over 2/3.
If somebody needs to get a life it would be the guy parroting the canard from the 70s that soccer is going to get popular in America any day now. Pele couldn’t do it, the world cup can’t do it, nothing can do it. Soccer is just not an American game.
Something else I found while Googling ealier this evening you might find interesting. Most of the MLS home soccer stadiums seat only in 18,000 - 25,000 range, some in the lower 30,000’s , it looks like a couple above 50,000. But they have built many new stadiums with those low seating capacities. Apparently, they aren’t planning to challenge major sports in total attendance any time soon with their 30 game schedule, plus the additional games for teams who make the playoffs.
http://www.portlandmls2011.com/2010/02/mls-101-stadiums/
http://www1.justluxe.com/travel/philadelphia-news__695815.php
Soccer would be a lot more exciting if people crashed into each other more. But nothing ever seems to happen. They kick a ball down one way and then they kick a ball the other way. Back and forth, back and forth. Yawn! Yes, those guys can run. They are in real good shape, that's for sure. But then again, I have joggers running by my house every morning but that doesn't mean I'm out there in a lawn chair at 6AM blowing those stupid horns every time they pass by.
Another thing I don't like about soccer is that their names are so hard to pronounce. Nobody in soccer has simple names. Always something foreign sounding like Alejandro Fernando. Huh? What about something simple like Bob Jones or Dick Hertz? I guess Pele is a simple enough name but how do you pronounce it? I don't know anybody in this country named Pele.
Also, the game is so...European. Now when I think European, I'm thinking things that are kind of gay. Like man-purses, open-toed sandals with white gym socks, men named Sergio and such. Now maybe this sport appeals to homosexuals here in America but their numbers can't be that great. Certainly nothing on the scale of NFL football, college basketball or even the Pro Bowling tour.
In summary, I'm just not thinking this whole "soccer" thing is ready to catch on here in America.
Through 50 games of this year’s World Cup, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC are averaging a 1.8 U.S. rating, 2,081,000 households, and 2,781,000 viewers. The rating is 48 percent higher than the last World Cup in 2006. Univision is not included in these figures.
I was a big soccer fan long before and will continue to be in the future. Go Galaxy! Go Sounders!!!
Actually, most MLS stadiums are in the 20-30 thousand capacity. And, most were built expressly for soccer, using private money, unlike NFL where taxpayers get soaked for stadiums, and owners hold the city hostage, threatening to move.
And, MLS has had 3 really good expansions lately, Toronto, Seattle and Philly, and next year, Portland and Vancouver. Its working, there are great fan bases and its an exciting game, get over it.
But it’s meaningless. Again, a quad annual event can’t make a sport major in America.
2.7 million viewers in a country of over 300 million people is less than 1%. The fact that it’s higher than last year is meaningless. 99% of the populace is completely ignoring your sport. Your numbers prove that soccer is no where near even being the 100th most popular sport in the country, forget 5th.
You get over it, clown. Like all to many, you don't even know what your are responding to. You just see something that's part of a long discussion, then start shooting from the hip.
And here are attendance figures posted earlier which are one the better indicators, attendance on par with medium to big school, high school football in South and Southwest:
And, my description of the stadium sizes was much more accurate than yours. And the two big ones appear to be NFL stadiums, also.
This discussion is about whether soccer in the USA will become as popular as the three major team sports. It's far, far from that now, and from the attendance figures, and stadium sizes, the owners don't expect it to compete with the major sports in the foreseeable future. - The discussion has not been about whether soccer is a good game, or has fans in the USA, or whether the MLS is successful.
You sure get defensive, talking about a sport.
Geez
MLS is doing fine and growing, its not going to hurt you if someone else likes something that you don’t.
And really? Calling names in a thread about a sport? How sad.
Soccer has absoluletly no appeal to mainsstream.
I stand by that, To many years to blow it off.
I’m not mainstream. I don’t need mainstream acceptance to enjoy the sport that I enjoy. Truth to tell, I’d rather enjoy soccer with those that really love it than have to explain it to once every 4 year fans.
I haven’t had a television on in my house for almost four years.
It’s very liberating.
You're the one who's sad, using that childish, middle school cliche: "Get over it." That's for fourteen and under, though many over fourteen do see unable to avoid the temptation.
And maybe you should know the subject of a discussion before you join in with your childish cliches.
Wow, you are seriously thin skinned. If a thread about a sport gets you so worked up, I wonder what something serious might do.
Get over it.
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