The only people who worry about the popularity of soccer in America are Americans.
Dude, you don’t understand demographics, and you don’t understand a growing hate for the hip hop thug culture the NBA allows. As the MLS becomes more popular, you can kiss the NBA goodbye.
I think more people will be following Barclays Premier League....You are already seeing more and more Americans getting into Fantasy Soccer, just as Fantasy Football was a huge boon for the NFL.
Certainly soccer has its celebrated stars, from Pele to Beckham, but those skills seem muted on TV where we’re often looking at small figures on a large field and therefore these feats appear less impressive than they really are.
Soccer would be fine if we had American Rules Soccer.
Quarters, haltime, cheerleaders, more penalty kicks, higher scoring games, cheerleaders, and so on.
Did I mention cheerleaders? Lots of them.
The lack of scoring in soccer is frustrating both for fans and players; yet, it results in games of great tension. Allowing more scoring would drastically change the nature of the game. And who knows whether for the better. I don’t think the game will go beyond having a rooting interest in America’ team in the foreseeable future.
There is a lot to be said for cheaper tickets and fewer teams playing fewer games.
Eventually, soccer will be the number 1 sport. More immigrants(legal and illegal) and no replenishment of whites will ensure that.
I don’t think soccer will thrive as a spectator sport in the US, and I find it curious that it is so popular around the world.
For one thing, there is not much scoring, which turns many Americans off. In addition, many soccer games end ties, which Americans don’t like, particularly if the score is 0-0—all that effort and nothing to show for it. By contrast, baseball games never end in ties.
Sorry Kareem, soccer is no more tactical than lacrosse, field hockey, basketball, or ice hockey. The same concepts apply to all field team sports.
At least in lacrosse and hockey, you can hit the other team without a stupid red card.
And World Cup flopping is worse than even in the NBA.
When other sleep aids just won’t do the job turn on soccer. :-)
Ha! I always use the Olympics example too. Soccer doesn’t exist in this country as far as most americans are concerned - except as a young children’s sport.
I kinda like watching bits of it when in an Irish pub, but it’s part of the atmosphere. The only actual scores I see is when they are showing the highlights - and occasionally the guy in the back corner with his girlfriend...
1. We have a generation of people who grew up playing the game and really enjoy it.
2. It's cheap to learn and play, so participation is quite strong across demographic lines.
3. The increasing demographic and political influence of Latinos--most of whom grew up die-hard soccer fans--will make the sport far more popular in the near future.
4. The issues of long term injuries from playing American football is starting to make mothers steer their male children away from taking up American football to alternatives--and soccer is a big alternative.
5. Basketball is starting to suffer because many American players drafted into the NBA only know basketball by playing the AAU circuit plus only one year in college. As such, rookies in the NBA don't have the mature playing skills of rookies of 20 years ago.
In short, soccer is here to stay, and could within 15 years become one of the Big Four American sports besides American football, baseball and basketball.
English Premier League matches in the US get a 0.3 to 0.4 rating.
In other words, matches played in another country by foreign teams already get almost half the viewership that domestic hockey games get.
The World Cup isn't replicable on a day to day basis any more than the Stanley Cup finals are.
The Stanley Cup gets maybe a 3.5 rating depending on who's playing.
The FIFA World Cup US game got a 14 rating.
Don’t care much for watching the game but do enjoy watching the hooliganism that follows it.
Soccer along with conversion to the metric system...yawn...
This debate resurfaces every four years during the World Cup, and then fades away for most Americans until the next WC. The international spectacle and the gradually improving US team attracts significant interest in the US every four years, but, otherwise, the game just doesn’t offer enough to interest most Americans when we already have year round sports of the games that originated here.
I am a Canadian who came out to Israel 30 years ago, a big sports fan, primarily hockey and baseball. In Israel the big sports are soccer and basketball. I came around to basketball since Maccabi contends for the European title every year and this year won again. But try as I may I could not get interested in soccer. The last game I watched all the way through was 1987 when Israel played Colombia. I think if Israel were to qualify for the World Cup I would watch but not because of the game, rather the national interest. I suppose you have to play a game to appreciate it and I never did. Maybe if they had the offside rule of hockey it might open the game up. I don’t know. I just find the game too boring to watch although it must be fun to play.
Mixed metaphor?
-PJ