OK, now we're getting somewhere with some good conversation. First, the rules are not that similar though they are called the same thing. The blue line in hockey changes everything about the comparison. HAVING SAID THAT I would say that hockey's low scoring is a factor in its popularity problems and the league addressed their offside rule a few years ago and loosened it for this very reason. If hockey could ever get to a norm of say 5-4 instead of 2-1, it would take off.
Second, a hockey puck can easily be rifled the entire length of the ice so there's a more practical need for such a rule and a blue line and red line, etc.
And third, your premise that no one complains about it simply is not true. Hockey talks about their rules all the time and is much more flexible in changing the. Recently they reduced the size of pads goalies could use.
BUT, you asked an excellent question.
I am one of those who actually prefers a 2-1 pitchers’ duel, over a 10-9 slugfest.
And what about basketball, sure teams score a ton of points, but you could still tune into the last two minutes of most games without really missing much.
In soccer, if you blink, you could miss the important moment of a game. Plus you don’t have the constant stop/starts of the other sports, with TV Timeouts and all that nonsense.
Also soccer is about the drama over a long season, the best day of the season is the last week, not because of the teams battling for the title, but because of seeing which teams would avoid the drop......It was amazing on the last day of the EPL season last year, because the situation changed from minute-to-minute as teams scored goals, that made them safe, at the expense of other teams. It was hard to top that for pure drama. And avoiding the drop, in terms of financial impact, means even more than winning a title. It’s a huge drop in revenues between being in the EPL and the Championship (the 2nd Division).
There's always some sideshow going on that's very entertaining to somebody.
But scorring? If they made the goal about 5 ft wider they'd get up there in basketball's numbers!
One advantage of an offsides rule is that it offers some measure of protection for a defensive player who gets involved in the offense. That's why defensemen in hockey consistently play inside the opposite blue line when their own team has possession of the puck in that offensive zone. If an offensive player was permitted to position himself ten feet in front of the opposing team's goalie without any need to be concerned about an offsides rule, the opposing team would have to keep a player back to cover him as long as he stood there.
My biggest complaint about the offsides rule in soccer is that it's based entirely on the position of the players on the field rather than on field markings (I think the old NASL used an offsides rule similar to hockey). It's ludicrous that a team with the ball can be offside even in its own end of the field. I can't imagine what that is supposed to accomplish.