Soccer/Euro Football? Why not as popular in America?

[Stand]

To be honest, I'm not from USA but I play soccer in Canada and have been doing so since I'm 5 years old.

I think most people don't like soccer but it's not really enjoyable to watch. I know you'll all say baseball is really boring to watch but yeah, baseball is our thing here and that's probably a culture thing.

I think if people give soccer a chance, they will love it.

[Radux]

As an aside, guys (and kudos for doing well so far): please try not to make this into a US vs. Euro thing. Again, you've done well so far, but try to keep it cool please.

[Deleted]

I understand your viewpoints behind this, as it is a culture thing. Football in England has been followed for well over a hundred years and you are literally bred into it. It is hard to explain how intense and exciting it gets. I mean I understand how a 0-0 can be boring, but it's more than that here where I think it ends in America. The banter/joking with away fans is fun, the rivalry is amazing. For example last December my team played our fiercest rivals and some friends from the states came over, never been to a soccer game before. After that he was hooked and is already planning to return this coming year. Give it a chance, stay with your team through thick and thin. I am sure it will advance in the U.S as your national team is becoming better and better with names entering the PL. The atmosphere, unity and bond of your team like in NFL will flow throughout the stadium, but we just sing and chant like crazy! I love soccer/football

[whill4]

Well the sport has only really been here maybe 30-40 years and the MLS is only like 15 years old. While sports like basketball and baseball have been here for a good 100 years if not more.

The sport is growing though as it is the most popular youth sport in america. And big name players like Beckham have brought a lot of attention and quality to the league. Arsene Wenger also recently said he thinks the future of the sport is in the US and Asia.

Soccer doesn't have to be liked by everyone in the US. I think Euros often forget how large the population is here. If even 1/6th of our entire population loved soccer like football or baseball the fanbase here would rival even the likes of top European countries' fan bases.

It will grow. Hell the MLS final is in 9 days and tickets have already been sold out and they were only made available just a few days ago..

[rektbrah]

becoming better and better with names entering the PL

This is a huge factor. More and more Australians are playing over seas due to the new managers plan to put the young A-League players in the socceroos. What's happening is these 21 year olds are playing internationally for Australia and then get snapped up by European clubs. However there's only a few. For the sport to really take off, the kids need to have a chance to make a career out of it rather than focusing on footy. If there's a chance to be successful, you'll find more and more children do it and the sport will grow.

Atm there's no pathway. I remember a few years ago when I was in the u/16 the AS Roma U/16 squad came and toured Australia and our team beat them 5-0. Australians are good enough, as I'm sure Americans are except no one bothers to scout here. (Mind you it probably wasn't their first and strongest team but these kids are gonna go on and make a career out of soccer)

The A-League is insanely hard to get into - even if you're good enough. The teams focus on winning year in year out as oppose to building a really strong squad from young players to challenge the Asian Champions League. Teams like Melbourne Victory would rather sign the 35 year old South American has been than the 18 year old local gun. Why? So they have experience straight up and this guy will be good for a year or two before he retires, as oppose to the 18 year old who will be good in a few years for almost a decade.

For the sport to really take off in Australia (and the same logic can be applied to America), more and more young and exciting LOCAL players have to enter their domestic league and then obviously the good ones will be shipped off to Europe. Right now this doesn't happen and the sport is more focused on winning titles rather than being a club. We see it in AFL, Gridiron (I think), NBA and all the other money-grabbing leagues. There's no junior system. It works with the draft picks, however A-League doesn't have that, nor do I support it. Since there's no draft picks there needs to be a junior system in place. Teams like Brisbane have a junior system, and what's happening? They were mid table for a few years now they're unstoppable and serious candidates for the Asian Champions League.

I've never been to England, but from what I read if you're good enough it's easy to join an academy and go on trials to a smaller club, maybe even larger ones. Here however the only trials you can do is for the local clubs seniors team which really isn't even semi-professional, nor if you perform well does it get you anywhere.

[Harry Botter]

To be perfectly honest i find it very very boring. This is just my opinion so dont flame me, please. My wife played soccer for years and years before her knee injury would not allow her to effectively play as well as she liked. I tried watching many games, i watch the world cup with her and even US soccer when im around and not busy. I just find it grueling to watch a game for 90 minutes (ish?) and nothing happens at all except people running around a field with a ball. To me its like watching porn and only watching the lead ins to the scene and stopping it right before the sex happens. It an build up and up and then nothing. Very much like hokey for me. Now having said that, i dont find other sports particularly exciting either. I will occasionally watch football to see my fave team play if im not working and its on a channel i receive.

[rektbrah]

To be perfectly honest i find it very very boring. This is just my opinion so dont flame me, please. My wife played soccer for years and years before her knee injury would not allow her to effectively play as well as she liked. I tried watching many games, i watch the world cup with her and even US soccer when im around and not busy. I just find it grueling to watch a game for 90 minutes (ish?) and nothing happens at all except people running around a field with a ball. To me its like watching porn and only watching the lead ins to the scene and stopping it right before the sex happens. It an build up and up and then nothing. Very much like hokey for me. Now having said that, i dont find other sports particularly exciting either. I will occasionally watch football to see my fave team play if im not working and its on a channel i receive.

Soccer is more about tactics and ball movement. People usually talk about how that goal was created, who did that awesome pass or who stole it from the defence. If the games scoreless you look at the chances, you look at the splitting passes and just the domination of one team. However, yes, there are incredibly boring games where truly nothing happens, but that's with every sport. I suppose it's like an acquired taste. If you watch it and study it and have a passion for it, then it's the greatest sport in the world. I used to be a very passionate AFL fan when I was younger because I liked big numbers. Then I started playing soccer, understood the tactics and followed the big leagues over the world.

The two sports can't compare. The endurance, skill, precision, team work, agility and just overall ability that a soccer player has does not compare to AFL.

[Harry Botter]

Soccer is more about tactics and ball movement. People usually talk about how that goal was created, who did that awesome pass or who stole it from the defence. If the games scoreless you look at the chances, you look at the splitting passes and just the domination of one team. However, yes, there are incredibly boring games where truly nothing happens, but that's with every sport. I suppose it's like an acquired taste. If you watch it and study it and have a passion for it, then it's the greatest sport in the world. I used to be a very passionate AFL fan when I was younger because I liked big numbers. Then I started playing soccer, understood the tactics and followed the big leagues over the world.

The two sports can't compare. The endurance, skill, precision, team work, agility and just overall ability that a soccer player has does not compare to AFL.

You are right. I dont make fun of people for liking soccer when i dont because thats not cool. I wouldnt like being made fun of because i like something someone else does not like. but i suppose i could do more research into it and try to understand it better.

[Duskmourne]

I think it's just that our "sport slots" are full up year round. American sports fans have basketball, football and baseball to take up their attention. All three of these are so ingrained in our culture that other sports become secondary to us. I don't think it's a matter of not liking soccer. But we already have big games to watch on the same day soccer is happening.

Still, American awareness of soccer has been increasing.

I also think it might help a small bit if everyone else understood that we have great difficulty calling it by it's proper name, due to our connection with American football.

[Hedleyazg]

What's interesting about the MLS is that they are third in attendance of all sports in the U.S. They moved ahead of the NBA and are just behind Major League Baseball. The NFL has the most attendance by a lot though.

Those numbers are misleading due to the fact that the NBA/NHL, etc play in arenas with limited seating. Pretty sure baseball/football/soccer stadiums hold far more many people than an Arena.

30k in a place that holds 70k isn't as good as 17k in an arena that holds 17.5k, etc.

[koodledrum]

Those numbers are misleading due to the fact that the NBA/NHL, etc play in arenas with limited seating. Pretty sure baseball/football/soccer stadiums hold far more many people than an Arena.

30k in a place that holds 70k isn't as good as 17k in an arena that holds 17.5k, etc.

That's what i thought to be honest, most hockey/basketball arenas can't hold the same number the NFL/MLS/MLB stadia do!

As for the sports popularity, i guess it's a taste thing, many americans don't like it cos there's long periods of not much happening in the same way i don't like like American Football because i think it's mostly about short spurts as opposed to consistent action & well, frankly half the guys look like they'd die if they did a 45 minute half without a break!

[Antti]

I believe it's an advertising issue. Soccer doesn't have many breaks so commercials are at a minimum, therefore big money is minimized which leads to an inability to attract the needed stars.
This may seem minor, but the other major sports incorporate commercials into their sports.
The NBA and NHL have mandated commercial breaks and both do semi-well, although both suffer from similar issues.
Commercials are a massive draw of NFL games.

As for soccer being boring argument. Soccer is no more boring than any other sport, it's a matter of what you know and how familiar you are with the game. Baseball is wildly popular, and literally nothing happens. The NFL is king of kings, and there is more time standing around then there is being played.

[Northern Goblin]

As for soccer being boring argument. Soccer is no more boring than any other sport, it's a matter of what you know and how familiar you are with the game. Baseball is wildly popular, and literally nothing happens. The NFL is king of kings, and there is more time standing around then there is being played.

Seconding this, to the neutral eye Motorsport and Cricket are two of the most boring things. To fans of the sports who have an understanding of what's happening, it's a great bit of action.

[koodledrum]

I don't tend to buy the "we don't have the money to get the big names" argument either, you could have all the money in the world, but if you're a prime player then you want to be playing somewhere watched worldwide in big numbers - that's the Premiership, La Liga or Serie A, those leagues are broadcast internationally, allowing players to potentially earn millions in sponsorship deals around the world. Sounds crazy, but if you took Alex Rodriguez, LeBron James, Ben Roethlesperger, Sidney Crosby & Lionel Messi to Thailand for example, Messi would be treated like a God, mobbed by fans & a sizeable chunk of the population would know who he is, they'd struggle with the rest of them. The exposure people have to high profile players in Europe is massive, frankly if you want to be anyone in football you want to be at a top club in Europe as you know that's where you're going to make the money - MLS can never compete with that, regardless as to the money they have.

The reason guys like Beckham & others past & present (Henry, Pele, Beckenbauer) went to the US to play was because they knew it opened up the US domestic market without having the requirement to be "A Grade" players, without wanting to be too harsh, MLS standards of play aren't the same as they are in other big market leagues - he has maximum exposure without needing to be the player he was at Man Utd. A few years ago places like UAE & Qatar had that sort of draw, the US has always had it because it's low skill big return football, these guys know where a paycheque comes from, so the money argument doesn't hold much weight, it's all about being seen.

I don't think it's the fact that the US teams suck (lets be honest, they're better than the majority of European nations) nor the fact that Team USA's players are bad (they're not actually too bad - right now Carlos Bocanegra is proving to be a very fine central defender in my eyes) but when you can only draw limited numbers of "big names" at the twilight of their careers it's not going to bring excitement. Americans are very much used to watching sports which others find mundane (NFL, NASCAR, MLB) but by the same measure they have the biggest names in those sports - with football, they can't say the same thing, so it's boring with average guys, making it a niche market.

[Skarsguard]

All sports in the U.S are in decline except Football (NFL/NCAA).

[kirbyrules]

for me its about as boring as golf to watch or baseball for that matter... not sure why baseball is so damn popular though... and i have played all three in a team before so it's not like i don't know anything about these sports. its just really boring to watch

edit: I realized that I don't really like watching anything when I would rather just be playing it. And this goes for any sport e-sport

[RollTide]

All sports in the U.S are in decline except Football (NFL/NCAA).

I wouldn't say that. Attendance has been hit due to the economy, but the sports themselves are thriving. NBA, prior to the lockout had one of it's most successful seasons its ever had. The NHL is slowly bringing itself back from the edge after the lockout and has slowly began to break back in to the mainstream. The MLB is still the same as ever.

[hellcat1991]

i just cant watch nfl i dont get how american people can find it fun when all it is a stop start game with men wearing to much protective gear

[RollTide]

i just cant watch nfl i dont get how american people can find it fun when all it is a stop start game with men wearing to much protective gear

Without that protective gear, people would be getting mangled.

[Northern Goblin]

Without that protective gear, people would be getting mangled.

Or as we call it, Rugby Union!


Edit: Totally nonserious post before someone gets into the tackle restrictions of RU