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Old 06-16-2010, 07:59 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by azriverfan. View Post
No, because little kids in South America and Africa who walk around with no shoes on and kick 50 year old used soccer balls can't afford football equipment let alone the coaching staff to teach them.

The fact of the matter is the sports the U.S. kids play require money for the most part with the exception of basketball but even then you need a couple of goals as opposed to soccer in which you can kick around a can an open field in the middle of nowhere. Soccer is a poor man's sport which is why its the most popular sport in the world. Furthermore, the U.S. sports can exist within a microcosm. Europe is so small they need to compete with their neighboring countries which would be like states here.
This hast to be the most ignorant reply I’ve read. Europe is so small they need to compete international……..If you knew anything about soccer leagues around the world you would know that there exists tons of teams within a same city. In London alone there are 5 teams in the premier league. In addition there is a system of relegation with 2nd and 3rd tier leagues. In the United States you have on team per city (with the exception of big market regions like L.A. or NYC), and if your team sucks then screw it, they stay at the bottom of the league without an opportunity to compete for anything else. Basketball (the best sport in the US) has gone international, and it has the potential to become big, but the reason that gridiron football has remained a US thing (and maybe Canada) is because only here in “America” we enjoy watching a bunch of fatties in costume crashing into each other. Last, but not least, the fact that soccer requires only a ball, does not mean that is a poor man's game, but instead, a creative, imaginative sport that does not need or the show props that the NFL has.
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Old 06-22-2010, 09:06 AM
 
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
11,974 posts, read 25,384,695 times
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I don't see any sport overtaking soccer but basketball does seem to be becoming widely popular and could become a distance second.

As for American football.. it will have trouble spreading because it is too similar to rugby, and the differences are things that international sports fans don't like (constant stoppages, fancy equipment required to mark first downs), and players wearing so much gear it's hard to tell them apart) Rugby gives fans a physical game with the same objective (touchdowns) but without the issues American football has
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Old 06-22-2010, 09:22 AM
 
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actually i agree with azriverfan when he says "Soccer is a poor man's sport which is why its the most popular sport in the world"

it can be played anywhere. really...for a sport to be a universal sport it must be a poor man's sport (but at the same time offer the believable opportunity to become a multi-millionaire), this is for 2 reasons

there are more poor people than rich people in the world
the rich can play the games of the poor but the poor cannot play the games of the rich
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Old 06-22-2010, 10:06 AM
 
Location: Kansas City, MO
5,765 posts, read 10,968,519 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by velodrome View Post
actually i agree with azriverfan when he says "Soccer is a poor man's sport which is why its the most popular sport in the world"

it can be played anywhere. really...for a sport to be a universal sport it must be a poor man's sport (but at the same time offer the believable opportunity to become a multi-millionaire), this is for 2 reasons

there are more poor people than rich people in the world
the rich can play the games of the poor but the poor cannot play the games of the rich

So, what are the games of the rich and the games of the poor?

Horse racing and polo are the games of the rich because they take horses.

I can play a game of football with my friends with a $5 football from Wal-Mart, I can play baseball with a $5 baseball bat and .99 cent baseball, I can play basketball with a $5 ball, I can play hockey with a .99 cent tennis ball and sticks from the woods, and I can play soccer with a $5 ball from Wal-Mart too.

But, when you get to play competitively in all these sports, they all cost money. Soccer takes cleats, balls, shin guards, and other gear just like all the other sports do.

Ask my parents how cheap soccer is to play. They spent thousands on my soccer career between the time I was 8 and 18.
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Old 06-22-2010, 10:56 AM
 
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Polo and golf are rich man's sports. American football and baseball are not, at least not from a Western perspective.
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Old 06-22-2010, 11:12 AM
 
93 posts, read 115,794 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RjRobb2 View Post

But, when you get to play competitively in all these sports, they all cost money. Soccer takes cleats, balls, shin guards, and other gear just like all the other sports do.

Ask my parents how cheap soccer is to play. They spent thousands on my soccer career between the time I was 8 and 18.
Well I've only ever played with a ball and cheap-ass boots to be honest, in regular t-shirts and shorts so these can often show differing experiences.

What were the thousands spent on, out of curiosity?
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Old 06-22-2010, 11:17 AM
 
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I think it is also one of the reasons that most professionals in the major European leagues come from working class backgrounds
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Old 06-22-2010, 12:31 PM
 
Location: Kansas City, MO
5,765 posts, read 10,968,519 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by velodrome View Post
Well I've only ever played with a ball and cheap-ass boots to be honest, in regular t-shirts and shorts so these can often show differing experiences.

What were the thousands spent on, out of curiosity?

You can play other sports in cheap ass gear too. My point was that any sport can be played expensively or cheaply. Soccer is no more a poor mans game than anything else. Basketball is the game played by the most inner city youth in this country, not soccer.

Thousands were spent on boots, registration fees, travel for tournaments, shorts, shirts, and camps which can cost several hundred each. On top of that, I dislocated both of knees, broke my nose twice, and had several other injuries where I had to visit doctors. Thousands rack up pretty quickly when you play sports on a competitive level regardless of the sport you play.
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Old 06-22-2010, 12:51 PM
 
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agree with you on basketball

as for the tournaments, fees and all that stuff - think this is the real difference here between the US and Europe, if as a kid you show any sign of promise you'll get picked up into the youth system of a professional team at an early age.

most professional soccer players tend to be from more working class backgrounds where a lot of the above wouldn't really have been possible, and some now at top clubs across Europe were scouted from some pretty poverty stricken countries around the world
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Old 06-22-2010, 01:11 PM
 
93 posts, read 115,794 times
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I think this kinda comes back to the original point. that in the majority of the worlds countries it is the poor mans sport and therefore the universal, but in the US if it requires money for camps and tournaments and registration fees to play at a semi-decent level, then it cannot be the poor mans sport

But in terms of the original question, of what could surpass soccers popularity worldwide - soccer is popular because in the majority of countries in the world you can play at a decent level with no money (and be scouted from complete obscurity)
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