Soccer's popularity in the US has been steadily increasing over the past couple of decades, spearheaded by WC USA '94 (which by the way still holds the WC attendance record despite featuring only 24 teams instead of the current 32) and the creation of MLS. It's been a long journey but it has finally "arrived" in that the US mens and womens national teams attract huge crowds even for friendies and MLS is now third in average attendance behind the NFL and MLB, essentially tied with the NBA and NHL. TV viewership is another matter, but networks have greatly expanded coverage of MLS and national games over the past decade.
There's multiple reasons it's still not as big here as it is in the rest of the world though... namely #1 it's competing with 4 other major sports leagues here which have roots that go back well over a century in North America for attention / viewers. No other country in the world has that much top tier competition. And #2 the best American athletes all play the other 4 major sports, and the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL represent the top talent in their respective sports, whereas at least a dozen other countries have better overall talent in soccer than the US and its professional league does.
Oh... and in the 4 major other sports in the US, athletes don't go down like they've been shot whenever they come within 5 feet of an opponent. That's a big turnoff for American sports fans used to seeing dudes collide with each other at full speed or getting checked into the boards or on the ice and getting right up like nothing happened instead of rolling around in "pain" for 5 minutes while the rest of the team takes a water break.
On 2/24/13, MB1025 said:
You know I was always wondering why no one ever used the dollar sign for $ony, but then I realized they have no money so it would be pointless.
