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When I look around the stands and listen to conversations there are a lot of fans who are obviously immigrants but hardly any of them are mexican.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RjRobb2
When I said that games are mostly Caucasian fans, I was trying to make a point that MLS has a primarily white fanbase. Surveys have proven that over and over again. The MLS is slowly gaining more Hispanic fans but they still prefer the Mexican League.
I think the fan base is mostly caucasian because the bulk of soccer is being played in the suburbs.
While most hispanics are mexican in my part of the city that's not generally the case. In the northeast the hispanic population is dominated by Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Cubans. Baseball is far more popular.
That's kinda an apples to oranges comparison. 81 vs 8 games? You can't draw many conclusions from what you're referencing.
huh? you can't draw many conclusions from the fact that the Eagles sell 536,000 tickets and the Phillies sell 3,240,000? I can draw a lot of conclusions and the first one is that baseball has a much broader base of popularity.
There are a few reasons football has a bigger TV audience but the most important is that you don't have to pay extra to watch them on TV.
If I wanted to watch all 162 Phillies games (I don't) I'd have to pay for CSN or MLB TV. Comcast already gets enough of my paycheck.
If I really want to see a game (from any local team) that's only covered on some special cable channel I'll just walk down to the pub.
So soccer will always lose out on many of the best available athletes. plain and simple...
It's pretty well known and scientifically proven that African Americans (on average) have more of the fast twitch muscle fibers that give you the ability to run faster, jump higher, etc (see: the fastest man in the world, any year, most running backs, receivers, and defensive backs in football, and basketball players). Please don't shoot back with the white player named ________ that runs ____ fast and jumps ____ high. There are exceptions to it. On the opposite side, Caucasians, with more slow twitch endurance fibers, are better suited for aerobic activities - distance runners, swimming, cross country skiing, cycling, etc. That assessment is correct. Many of the best available athletes aren't playing soccer in the US. I've been trying to make that point throughout this thread.
huh? you can't draw many conclusions from the fact that the Eagles sell 536,000 tickets and the Phillies sell 3,240,000? I can draw a lot of conclusions and the first one is that baseball has a much broader base of popularity.
You really didn't do that math and make the argument, did you?
In 81 games, the Phillies sell 3.2 million tickets, per the numbers you're using. Fine.
In 8 games, the Eagles sell 536,000 tickets, per the numbers you used. Fine.
The numbers are ONLY different because of the number of games. Multiply the 8 games by 10 to get roughly the same amount of games in a baseball season. Philly is a passionate (to a fault sometimes) sports area. I have no reason to believe they won't go to 80 football games. You get 5.4 million tickets. That's bigger than 3.2 million.
You can't compare 8 games in a football season to 81 games in a baseball season and say baseball is more popular.
I would not recognize Peyton Manning or Reggie Bush if someone pointed them out to me. However, I would recognize Randy Johnson, many Dodgers players, Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and many others. Baseball does have superstars. Last time I checked a baseball helmet doesn't cover a player's face. Baseball will never be as big as football on TV, and that is where you get casual observers. As was previously stated, baseball is not a good sport for TV. That leaves a lot of people who are only vaguely interested out of the loop.
We have a large number of Hispanics in this entire country that are perfectly legal.
By the way, both Dallas and Houston have their regular season games on an English speaking channel. They have to, it is a requirement of MLS. On top of that, the MLS has a National Contract with ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel.
Kids are playing soccer everyday in this country, even in Texas. It has the highest participation in all of youth sports. Dallas is huge in youth soccer.
When I said that games are mostly Caucasian fans, I was trying to make a point that MLS has a primarily white fanbase. Surveys have proven that over and over again. The MLS is slowly gaining more Hispanic fans but they still prefer the Mexican League.
Most soccer fans around here are Hispanics. You have to go to the inland county to find white people who like it. Soccer leagues? Hispanic around here and where I grew up. Sure, some white kids would play it casually, but it was not a focus sport for most kids.
Not every other country loves soccer, either. My husband grew up in the Philippines. He says they could care less there. The biggest sort there is basketball, and they are crazy about it for some reason.
Slowly getting a little more popular? Yes; since most Gen X'ers played it when they were young, and also due to the increasing number of illegal immigrants from Mexico and other Central American countries where the sport is more popular.
As baby boomers like me die out, it's bound to get more popular. But to me, bowling, curling, and golf are MUCH more exciting to watch.
Soccer is very popular in South America also, out of 8 teams who are still left in the world cup, 4 are from South America I know it's hard to believe but there are plenty of affluent South Americans and even some Mexicans and Central Americans in the USA(some illegally here too) Maybe Texas just gets all the poor first generation hispanics but that is not the case in other states. My zip code is 70% hispanic(if not more) and the household income is twice the national average.
You are just turning this topic into a class and illegal immigration rant. You don't like the sport, fine, I hate baseball myself with a passion, this is a free country so I just switch the channel or ignore the games if I'm forced to watch them.
To all posters, I see where this could lead. Let's drop the whole illegal/legal immigrant notification. Just name ethnicity please.
Anyways like the growth of all sports leagues, it will be gradual. However, if done right, I think it could overtake hockey on a national average as hockey is still very regional in interest while people play soccer nationwide.
I think they should probably keep the game pure though and try to link MLS to the success and interest of international competition (with primarily high class AMERICAN players) in the public eye.
It's hard though because in CONCACAF (North American region) only Mexico and US matter.
huh? you can't draw many conclusions from the fact that the Eagles sell 536,000 tickets and the Phillies sell 3,240,000? I can draw a lot of conclusions and the first one is that baseball has a much broader base of popularity.
Please tell me you arent serious. You are going to compare those numbers when one comes from 8 games and the other comes from 81? One team plays 10x as many games as the other. You cannot compare those figures and come to any type of conclusion. My 8 year old daughter would tell you that. If you're still in school, I think you need to take some math courses and maybe even a statistics course.
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