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Forums - Sports Discussion - major league soccer slowly on the rise in North America

Augen said:


Except I have posted that the US v. Ghana match in round of 16 got higher ratings than the US England match in the group stage.  Ratings tend to be affected by day and time and what network they are on more than anything.  The 2010 World Cup saw a significant increase over 2006 which saw a significant increase over 2002.

"24.3 million total American viewers in 2010 (vs. 19 million in 2006), making it the most viewed soccer game in U.S. history according to Neilsen ratings."

I also have shown clear data that the domestic league has grown in scale and interest and that people do not watch and then give up, many stay and numbers grow.  Sorry if I am getting defensive, but this thread is a cycle of "state outdated perception" "have perception refuted by evidence" "ignore evidence and restate perception" is wearing on me.

You do sound defensive because you seem to be saying that two things cannot happen at once.  I worked at a small retail business at the time and we had the World Cup games playing on the television.  Many, many people told me what I've told you here today, that they tried watching and lost interest.  It was enough of a theme that I standardized responses at the ready.  You cannot tell me that because some people kept watching that other people did not.  I don't even know what you're disputing, to be honest.  I said that many people get excited for a World Cup but do not end up becoming fans of the sport.  You can believe otherwise if you like.



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RolStoppable said:
Attendance levels are outpacing those of Austria. Fantastic!

Although I have to say that the typical American franchise system takes out some of the fascination of the sport. If bad teams can phone it in without suffering any penalty, then that leads to a lack of fan interest and passion.

Dude, what an achievement ^_^

As you surley know, there are 20 Professionell Clubs in Austria, along with over 2000 Non Prosessionell competitive clubs. All this in a Country smaller than NYC, populationwise. We had a friendly in 2013, Austria won this one (and we very barely win).

Below I just compiled a small list for 2013/14 attendance averages in europe. [Source]

Country Average Highest club average Average
Germany 43.173 BV 09 Borussia Dortmund 80.524
England 36.589 Manchester United 75.185
Spain 26.867 FC Barcelona 75.166
Italy 23.365 FC Internazionale Milano 52.038
France 20.693 Paris Saint-Germain FC 45.164
Netherlands 19.289 AFC Ajax Amsterdam 50.329
Turkey 13.714 Galatasaray SK İstanbul 35.531
Ukraine 11.966 FK Shakhtar Donets'k 41.034
Russia 11.797 FK Zenit Sankt-Peterburg 18.993
Belgium 11.672 Club Brugge KV 24.923
Switzerland 11.026 FC Basel 27.825
Portugal 9.982 SL Benfica 33.954
Scotland 9.732 Celtic FC 46.486
Poland 8.277 KKS Lech Poznań 19.576
Denmark 7.671 Brøndby IF 16.867
Sweden 7.627 AIK 18.900
Norway  6.828 Rosenborg 1917 BK 14.806
Austria 6.102 SK Rapid Wien 13.027
Israel 5.473 Maccabi Tel Aviv FC 12.008
Czech R. 5.001 FC Viktoria Plzeň 10.208
Greece 4.250 Olympiakos SF Piraios 17.756
Kazakhstan 4.181 FK Aktobe 8.313
Serbia 3.567 FK Crvena Zvezda Beograd 18.170
Romania 3.560 FC Dinamo Bucureşti 9.251
Croatia 3.489 HNK Hajduk Split 12.500
Cyprus 2.996 AS Omonia Lefkosía 8.913
Hungary 2.653 Ferencvárosi TC 8.678
Finland 2.287 HJK Helsinki 5.098
Slovakia 2.131 FC Spartak Trnava 2.933
Belarus 2.119 FK Gomel' 4.256


theprof00 said:

Was that in the article? This is big news indeed. But how do you think those networks are going to afford that contract? It's going to take a lot of advertising to pay that off.

But yes, this is great news for soccer. Monetization really was the only thing standing in its way.

Soccer viewers are 18-34 demogrpahic so each set of eyes is considered more valuable and companies know how loyal we are to our clubs.  It is a risk on their part, but I don't think they did it blind.



pokoko said:

You do sound defensive because you seem to be saying that two things cannot happen at once.  I worked at a small retail business at the time and we had the World Cup games playing on the television.  Many, many people told me what I've told you here today, that they tried watching and lost interest.  It was enough of a theme that I standardized responses at the ready.  You cannot tell me that because some people kept watching that other people did not.  I don't even know what you're disputing, to be honest.  I said that many people get excited for a World Cup but do not end up becoming fans of the sport.  You can believe otherwise if you like.

Sorry, I had to step away because I knew I was letting emotions get best of me.

Let us put it this way.  More people keep watching, the needle has moved and while majority may still not watch it exposure every four years with the World Cup does increase interest in the sport.  It is a slow progress, but the progress is there and it is adding up especially among under 40 crowd.



Ascii said:

Dude, what an achievement ^_^

As you surley know, there are 20 Professionell Clubs in Austria, along with over 2000 Non Prosessionell competitive clubs. All this in a Country smaller than NYC, populationwise. We had a friendly in 2013, Austria won this one (and we very barely win).

Below I just compiled a small list for 2013/14 attendance averages in europe. [Source]

Country Average Highest club average Average
Germany 43.173 BV 09 Borussia Dortmund 80.524
England 36.589 Manchester United 75.185
Spain 26.867 FC Barcelona 75.166
Italy 23.365 FC Internazionale Milano 52.038
France 20.693 Paris Saint-Germain FC 45.164
Netherlands 19.289 AFC Ajax Amsterdam 50.329
Turkey 13.714 Galatasaray SK İstanbul 35.531
Ukraine 11.966 FK Shakhtar Donets'k 41.034
Russia 11.797 FK Zenit Sankt-Peterburg 18.993
Belgium 11.672 Club Brugge KV 24.923
Switzerland 11.026 FC Basel 27.825
Portugal 9.982 SL Benfica 33.954
Scotland 9.732 Celtic FC 46.486
Poland 8.277 KKS Lech Poznań 19.576
Denmark 7.671 Brøndby IF 16.867
Sweden 7.627 AIK 18.900
Norway  6.828 Rosenborg 1917 BK 14.806
Austria 6.102 SK Rapid Wien 13.027
Israel 5.473 Maccabi Tel Aviv FC 12.008
Czech R. 5.001 FC Viktoria Plzeň 10.208
Greece 4.250 Olympiakos SF Piraios 17.756
Kazakhstan 4.181 FK Aktobe 8.313
Serbia 3.567 FK Crvena Zvezda Beograd 18.170
Romania 3.560 FC Dinamo Bucureşti 9.251
Croatia 3.489 HNK Hajduk Split 12.500
Cyprus 2.996 AS Omonia Lefkosía 8.913
Hungary 2.653 Ferencvárosi TC 8.678
Finland 2.287 HJK Helsinki 5.098
Slovakia 2.131 FC Spartak Trnava 2.933
Belarus 2.119 FK Gomel' 4.256

Great data. With our 18K average puts between Netherlands and Turkey. Most stadiums here are 15-30K capacity so we may level out at 20-22K in next decade with sell outs.



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DirtyP2002 said:
vivster said:
I guess if the US would put their mind to it they could be one of the leading football nations.


I heard this before...

Is there any team sports that America is always in the top 5 of the world that is actually played by Europeans / Asians?
Basketball, handegg, Baseball are pretty much US only.




Not really no.

Baseball is HUGE in South America and Japan.

A lot of Europeon countries are quite fond of basketball as is China.

Football is... well a version of Football. 

Assosiation Football is the only codified football that really is popular outside of it's home state.

Even Rugby has different Rugby football rules that makes it different country to country.



As an American still in high school, I can confirm that soccer is definitely growing in popularity, I thought it was just me that noticed at first XD I mean, it of course isnt as big as American football still (however being in the Pacific North West American football definitely isnt as strong as in Texas, I have lived in a few states during my high school years). I have noticed a gradual interest in the sport, with the overly enthusiastic fans of the sport converting others into liking it and so forth. Actually in one high school I attended, soccer was the biggest sport.
I'm not a sport expert in the slightest, I dont even watch sports; but I do know when I hear about something, and soccer is only continuing to grow here :P



StarOcean said:
As an American still in high school, I can confirm that soccer is definitely growing in popularity, I thought it was just me that noticed at first XD I mean, it of course isnt as big as American football still (however being in the Pacific North West American football definitely isnt as strong as in Texas, I have lived in a few states during my high school years). I have noticed a gradual interest in the sport, with the overly enthusiastic fans of the sport converting others into liking it and so forth. Actually in one high school I attended, soccer was the biggest sport.
I'm not a sport expert in the slightest, I dont even watch sports; but I do know when I hear about something, and soccer is only continuing to grow here :P


The Pacific Northwest has three of the better supported clubs (Portland, Seattle and Vancouver) and watching the crowds can se ehow young they are (lots of 20 somethings).

I am not sure how it will work with collegiate and high school system as academies grow in prominence, be interesting to monitor.



Kasz216 said:
drkohler said:

) and it boils down to one thing only we all agreed: Soccer was not brutal/violent enough for the average American. Football: muscle packed steroid homunculi crashing into each other = good, bloody, lotsa cash. Soccer: lean and quick people running after a ball = boring, no blood, no cash.

That is a silly arguement

It may have been or it may not have been at the time. It was exactly the key agument I was told then (by a group of people I'd certainly consider with a higher than average education level. This included several sports teachers, including football teachers at various levels. Also some freshly crowned soccer teacher who was looking for advice..).



drkohler said:
Kasz216 said:
drkohler said:

) and it boils down to one thing only we all agreed: Soccer was not brutal/violent enough for the average American. Football: muscle packed steroid homunculi crashing into each other = good, bloody, lotsa cash. Soccer: lean and quick people running after a ball = boring, no blood, no cash.

That is a silly arguement

It may have been or it may not have been at the time. It was exactly the key agument I was told then (by a group of people I'd certainly consider with a higher than average education level. This included several sports teachers, including football teachers at various levels. Also some freshly crowned soccer teacher who was looking for advice..).

Well that's a problem because there is no such thing as a football teacher.

Like i said, there are plenty of nonviolent sports that are very popular in the US.

Most likely, the people you talked to, just don't really know the history of the sport.


It's like people who call American Football, handegg, they do so only out of ignorance of well... Football.

Football is Assosiation Football as much as  Cheese is Cheddar  Cheese.

 

Football was a loosely codified name for many many games throught the english speaking world, and basically every country tailored the game of football to their own liking based from one of the two main forms of football that originated in England.  Assosiation Football (Via cambridge rules) and Rugby Football.

Soccer and Rugby were actually the terms invented by the British to keep the games apart before Soccer became so popular as to take the name Football, due partially to it being adopted as the name in foreign countries, being known soley as "Futball" and such in some places.

 

The REAL question isn't why does America (And other english speaking countries) not like Assosiation Football as much as everybody else... it's why does everybody else like Football so much?   Isn't it weird that there is one sport that's universally the most popular in 70% + of the world.  That's generally not how culture works, everyone generally has their own tastes in food, music, enteratainment etc.  (Though that's changing someone due to dominant amreican culture)

 

and the real answer?   Look who was dominant at the time Assosiation Football spread and became popular.  

 

Just how America is rewirting a lot of countries culture and taste in cinema through hollywood, England did the same thing with sport.  English sailors spread the game everywhere, mostly by Cambridge rules.

The countries where it's not popular outside of england were coincidentally the places that already knew football, and the many ways it could be played.

 It was helped by it being such an economic game.  We used to play Soccer all the time where i lived.  Far more then baseball or Football....  why?  All you need is like 2-4 people some trash cans and a ball.

The only thing we played more was basketball... and i'm 32.