| RolStoppable said: Attendance levels are outpacing those of Austria. Fantastic |
I think you have a serious lack of knowledge here.
Spain is currently the leading football nation in Europe. Its top league has 20 teams, and more than half of those teams would be more than happy to have an 18k attendance figure per match. Most Spanish teams are essentially broke and only survive on (kind of institutionalised) trickery. The US is a particular case for football (the real football, not handegg). I discussed that way back around 1978 with a group of US teachers (who all actually knew "how soccer works" then) 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 has changed over the years, particularly due to two facts. Firstly, the rise of women's soccer (which is a commercial money loser anywhere in the world) where the US actually is the leading nation. Secondly, soccer introduced into the US school system, which allowed everyone to participate, not only the ones with the most steroids on hand. US soccer suffered a lot because despite being highly popular for younger people, at the end of the day there was no future for a professional career. US soccer had to survive a lengthy period going from "boring, no blood, no cash" to "hmm.. interesting after all".
