“I also get tired of the anti-soccer drivel I read on this site.”
For all of the smack people talk now, I grew up a few miles from where the Cosmos played, and soccer is still immensely popular here in NJ. The difference is that the European leagues are more popular than MLS, but people will still pay a pretty penny to watch those European games live in bars/clubs. This includes many Europeans, not just the Brazilians or other South Americans as many believe (in fact, most of South America’s best talent plays in Europe anyway).
This past World Cup I would go to bar in Newark to watch some of the games around lunchtime, and the diversity (I hate that word) of the fans was incredible: a complete cross-section (students, suits, etc.) of all ethnicities and ages as well (though exclusively male), out for a long lunch to watch something they enjoy, then heading back to wherever they worked. It was great.
You gotta love the comment from another article (it may have been from ESPN.com) about the selection processes for the Olympics and the World Cup. The guy who wrote the article described Rio de Janeiro as a place that "resembles a Grand Theft Auto game without the reset button."