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Every popular American commercial sport revolves around high scoring and timed intermissions. Soccer doesn't have any of that which is why businesses don't like it and players are forced to wear sponsored jerseys.
Another reason why Hockey isn't big enough either even with the addition of shootouts. In order for Soccer to get popular they would have to change the gameplay significantly. Nobody likes to sit through 2 hours of 1-1 tie game.
it's funny that you say that. one of the arguments i've heard made by a number of sports writers about the rising popularity of soccer among younger families is that it's much easier to plan around going to a 1 hour and 50 minute soccer match than it is to go to a baseball game that could be anywhere from 3 to 4 and a half hours, or a football game that is designed to watch on TV with all the TV timeouts and stop in action. It's not hurting those sports yet, but don't be surprised if you see people opting to watch NFL at home rather than going to the stadium. Whereas, it will always be easy to take your family to a soccer game and it's only 2 hours out of your day, virtually no matter what the outcome is.
And don't forget the refs just randomly add time to the end of games. Makes no sense. Talk about anti-climactic.
it's not random. the official keeps time. when there's a stop in play, he records the time, and it's added at the end of the game. it's no different than a basketball or football clock stopping when play stops.
what NFL game have you watched where a quarter is exactly 15 minutes long?
That was one of the complaints , the other being its not named after New Jersey or Newark...so between the 2 it turns off people in the local area which has a huge soccer following.
it's not random. the official keeps time. when there's a stop in play, he records the time, and it's added at the end of the game. it's no different than a basketball or football clock stopping when play stops.
what NFL game have you watched where a quarter is exactly 15 minutes long?
It's completely different. If there is a stoppage of play in football they stop the clock, so we always know exactly how much time is left. That makes a lot more sense than trying to add time to the end of the game.
Portland and Seattle were drawing more fans as "minor league" teams than some MLS teams were drawing. The addition of those two teams to the MLS has been very good for the league as a whole. But where soccer will really see gains is the more recent TV deals for the top tier leagues in europe to be televised in the US. I do like seeing the improvements in the MLS, but it will only do so much. I cannot understand why the Red Bulls cannot draw a bigger crowd, given their location. It's a beautiful stadium too. Chicago Fire has a decent draw, and the Union have a very strong fan club - why do you say they are managed horribly? My cousin is the DC united coach.
Team naming , Stadium location , marketing are all done pretty badly by those teams. The Red Bulls are named after an Energy drink and are also named after New York , that turns off the local soccer population which is huge. The Chicago fire stadium is located about an hours drive from Chicago itself , thats a horrible distance to place your team stadium. Same issues affect the New England Revolution , although a new stadium in Boston or near Boston is in the works... The Philly union suffers the same Problems as Chicago and New England , an isolated stadium that is hard to reach and outside the core fanbase area... The Stadium's out west and in Canada along with DC and Houston have done it right. DC is building a new state of the art arena....so it will be even accessible...and grow even bigger. They seem to be trying to fix this region's Soccer mess , New York is getting 2 teams , one of the Connecticut cities is getting a team aswell.
Every popular American commercial sport revolves around high scoring and timed intermissions. Soccer doesn't have any of that which is why businesses don't like it and players are forced to wear sponsored jerseys.
Another reason why Hockey isn't big enough either even with the addition of shootouts. In order for Soccer to get popular they would have to change the gameplay significantly. Nobody likes to sit through 2 hours of 1-1 tie game.
Team naming , Stadium location , marketing are all done pretty badly by those teams. The Red Bulls are named after an Energy drink and are also named after New York , that turns off the local soccer population which is huge. The Chicago fire stadium is located about an hours drive from Chicago itself , thats a horrible distance to place your team stadium. Same issues affect the New England Revolution , although a new stadium in Boston or near Boston is in the works... The Philly union suffers the same Problems as Chicago and New England , an isolated stadium that is hard to reach and outside the core fanbase area... The Stadium's out west and in Canada along with DC and Houston have done it right. DC is building a new state of the art arena....so it will be even accessible...and grow even bigger. They seem to be trying to fix this region's Soccer mess , New York is getting 2 teams , one of the Connecticut cities is getting a team aswell.
It may really surprise you, but the Union ranks 6th in the entire MLS for percent attendance in 2013. The stadium only holds 18,500 people and their average game attendance is 17,680 or 95.57%. The five teams ahead of them are: San Jose, Seattle, Kansas City, Montreal and Portland. The Union is arguably the most succesful US MLS team east of the Mississippi. That's a pretty good achievement in a sports obsessed town given that the MLS season runs concurrent with hockey, basketball and baseball and runs through the summer into football season.
The club has been so succesful that they are talking about expanding the stadium to allow for more seating. The stadium holds 18,500 people, but was designed to be expandable to 30,000.
As for why they built it in Chester, there are a couple of reasons...
1. There was economic development money available through the state to build in Chester and add-on to the project involving the casino.
2. Chester is a much cheaper area to operate in than in Philly proper. That means it was easier to make the team financially viable. While the Union is not one of the two profitable clubs in the MLS, they rank 4th in draw for advertising revenue meaning the team is popular with advertisers and their jersey space commands a premium. Given the way revenues are shared in the MLS, the Union is among the key clubs, especially with their low operating costs.
3. Chester is very easily accessible for suburban families and parking costs are very low. To have put the Union in the sports complex in Philly, it would have added substantial cost to attending a game and been more of a barrier than a help. City dwellers can take the SEPTA R2 line to near the stadium and grab a shuttle bus that runs on game days. Drivers have an easy shot over Commodore Barry from NJ or coming up 95 from DE or down 476 to 95 from the western PA burbs.
I think you have more of an issue with where the stadium is located than you do with how the actual club is run, because the Union is arguably one of the best run clubs in the MLS from a business perspective and has no problems drawing fans even if it doesn't fit your idea of urban utopia.
It may really surprise you, but the Union ranks 6th in the entire MLS for percent attendance in 2013. The stadium only holds 18,500 people and their average game attendance is 17,680 or 95.57%. The five teams ahead of them are: San Jose, Seattle, Kansas City, Montreal and Portland. The Union is arguably the most succesful US MLS team east of the Mississippi. That's a pretty good achievement in a sports obsessed town given that the MLS season runs concurrent with hockey, basketball and baseball and runs through the summer into football season.
I'll bet soccer is popular in those cities because they have very little competition from other sports, particularly since the other sports teams in those cities are traditionally pretty bad (with the exception of the Montreal Canadians).
If you take a city like New York or Chicago, they have very popular football/baseball/basketball teams that will detract from any interest in soccer.
I love soccer but definitely not a fan of stoppage time being added to the end.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sonofagunk
Not on FIOS, everywhere. Fox killed FSC and Fox replaced FSC with FXX
Fox Sports 1 is available on FIOS, I just checked.
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