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Like sombody else said...I guess it depends on how you define "popular"
Hockey is probobly more popular than soccer with the couch potatoes of this country....
But, as a rec. hockey player I have to drive almost 2 hours to find the nearest league to play in. While, the fairly small town I live in now has plenty of adult soccer leagues to play in. You drive past a lot of parks here and people are playing soccer. I'm sure there are much much more soccer players in this country than hockey players or stock car racers. I guess by my same logic softball is pretty popular too....
All sports have a 24 hour channel nowadays. It doesn't mean anyone is watching it. Other than a championship game of some kind, what soccer games are shown on ABC or ESPN's main channel?.
Soccer games arent shown often on ABC but they are shown on ESPN's main channel fairly often. When the Champions League was going, they had games on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN Classic all at once.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ProgShred
NASCAR is on a major network for every race. The merchandising market for NASCAR is huge, from toys to car parts to office supplies and on. As long as NASCAR has a big money market in America and soccer doesn't, that will not change..
NASCAR is shown on a major network because that is who they have their contract with. MLS has contracts with several networks and cable channels instead of one network.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ProgShred
The only way it could change for soccer in America, they would have to alter the rules. For one, they would need to play on a smaller field to decrease boredom and increase scoring opportunities. Americans don't have time to watch pass, pass, pass, intercept, pass, pass, pass, intercept, pass, pass, pass, intercept, pass, pass, pass, out of bounds for an hour or more before someone has a legitimate shot at a goal. Soccer would also have to get rid of the flopping when guys fake injuries and roll around on the grass to draw a penalty on the other team.
That's a bunch of ignorant bull****. A bigger field actually makes for a more attractive game. Fields are the size they are for a reason. I have watched thousands of soccer games and have never seen an hour go by before a shot on goal. Regardless, there are many things that happen in a sequence of a game that are just as interesting as a shot on goal.
How many baseball games go innings without a player getting into scoring position or how many football games go several possessions without a team going in the red zone? It happens all the time.
Why do fans have so much time to sit and watch the 45 seconds between each play in an American Football game or they 20-30 second gaps between pitches in a baseball game? To say that the same people that sit and watch a 3 hour 15 minute football game with 14 minutes of action dont have time to watch a two hour soccer game with nearly non-stop action is ridiculous.
There is far more action in a soccer game than a baseball or football game and it is nearly non-stop.
I agree that diving has become a probably in soccer but that same thing happens in football and basketball as well.
Most people in the U.S who are die hard soccer fans are Hispanic. Soccer in the U.S is not as equally popular among all racial demographics. Until the soccer fanbase in the U.S starts to transcend race, it will never be considered the 4th most popular sport in the country.
In the U.S I bet the number of Hispanics who were glued to their tv sets during the 2006 World Cup tournament was alot higher than the number of Whites who did the same thing.
Do you have stats to back that up?
I hang out with hundreds of soccer fans at bars and games all the time. Hardly any of them are hispanic. Most of them are white, middle class males.
Toss up between Hockey and Auto Racing, while both have made it into the national eye, Hockey is only ferverently followed in the North and parts of Midwest, Racing is in parts of the Midwest and mainly the South. I am from DC and Philly and I really havent seen much of a big deal made about Auto Racing in these areas.
It is true that Hockey is really only big with certain Yankee states, and even then it's support amongst Blacks/Hispanics is low.
Soccer I read is growing at a good clip but a few markets aside it really seems like an afterthought in tv coverage, plus I am willing to bet most ardent soccer fans are Hispanic or European and they are WAAAYYYYY too spoiled with the high level of overseas play in comparison to the US.
Football more popular than baseball? I find that hard to believe, but I guess in some parts of the country that could be true. I'm from the northeast, and baseball is king, but just moved here to the southeast, where football may be more popular, especially college football (which holds absolutely no appeal for me). I love watching the NFL but college to me is amateur hour.
Definatly depends where you live. Like in LA, baseball and basketball are more popular (because we dont have a team) but at the same time I think throughout the state football is #1
Here in metro Detroit I would have to say baseball is the #4 sport. Hockey is definitely #1, Probably basketball #2 and football #3 but these two are close.
I may be biased because personally I can't stand baseball but it seems that it gets little interest here in spite of the local franchise (Tigers) doing fairly well.
^ here's a funny link, that should indicate how popular Ice Hockey is to most of the country.
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