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Forums - Sports Discussion - How to make football (soccer) popular in North America

 

What do you guys think of these changes?

Good idea. It would help ... 10 27.78%
 
Bad idea, football doesn't need any changes. 17 47.22%
 
Don't care/Whatever 9 25.00%
 
Total:36
Marks on 15 June 2015
Bofferbrauer said:
Cange the name of american football to american rugby. Seriously why is it called football if the players almost never kick the ball with the foot in the first place. It's much closer in every way to rugby than it is to soccer.


Haha yeah only problem is American football isn't at all like Rugby either though, since you can throw the ball forwards, and each time you're tackled play stops. It's not like any other sport at all really. It is weird it's called football though, besides field goals there's no kicking at all. 



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Chris Hu on 15 June 2015
Marks said:
venomcarnage said:
When your done it's not gonna be football anymore everybody does not have to like everything it's ok.


It'd still be football though, just a more offensive type game versus a tactical game. I'm just trying to think of ways it could become popular in North America. Not like the game needs fans, but it's an afterthought where I live. 


It's already popular where I live DFW.  I'm pretty sure that the FC Dallas is already more popular then the Dallas Sidekicks ever where and that pretty much was one of the most or most popular teams in the MISL.



Marks on 16 June 2015
Augen said:
They tried rule changes and less people showed up. Since adopting standard rues the sport has increased in popularity every year for 15 years.

20K average attendance this year, highest in league history. New television contracts 7x in value of previous ones for the league.

More people than ever in the US watched the World Cup with the final being the second most watched sporting event in the country behind only the NFL Super Bowl. Thousands gathered in hundreds of paces to watch matches. I was at Soldier Field with 30K pus to watch the US play Begium.

We don't need changes, the sport is doing fine and only growing in popularity. I don't know at what point a these statistics get it into folks heads that millions love the sport as it is. All we need is time for others to finally notice it.

Thats good to hear. I didn't look at any statistics I was more just going off my experience and the people in my area. It is definitely growing just not at the same rate as other sports in America. I can see it being bigger than NHL in America but not bigger than Football, Basketball or Baseball. 



Marks on 16 June 2015
Talal said:
It won't be football anymore if they make those changes.


It still would be the exact same gameplay, just quicker pace and higher scoring. And they could brand it as a variation of soccer, for example how rugby union and rugby league are the same basic sport but some variations. 



Marks on 16 June 2015
super_etecoon said:
Damn...soccer...um, football, owns the world. Leave US alone to our Football. I think it's lame we're trying to send it to London and Europe as it is.


Man I'm Canadian, I'm not a European trying to for soccer onto North Americas, I'm a Canadian trying to find ways that a variation of soccer could be popular here. And man I'd even watch it if it became the game I described. 

Hockey is #1 anyways :)



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Talal on 16 June 2015
Marks said:
Talal said:
It won't be football anymore if they make those changes.


It still would be the exact same gameplay, just quicker pace and higher scoring. And they could brand it as a variation of soccer, for example how rugby union and rugby league are the same basic sport but some variations. 


But then how would American teams and players compete internationally if their sport is played way differently. I don't know it seems like a bad idea to me.



Marks on 16 June 2015
Talal said:
Marks said:


It still would be the exact same gameplay, just quicker pace and higher scoring. And they could brand it as a variation of soccer, for example how rugby union and rugby league are the same basic sport but some variations. 


But then how would American teams and players compete internationally if their sport is played way differently. I don't know it seems like a bad idea to me.


Well that doesn't really matter in terms of a sport being popular. American football isn't played anywhere internationally besides Canada/USA that I know of...so some sort of North American Soccer could be the same way and just be played here. I'm sure Americans would still go to the olympics for normal soccer and whatnot though. 



Augen on 17 June 2015
Marks said:
Augen said:
They tried rule changes and less people showed up. Since adopting standard rues the sport has increased in popularity every year for 15 years.

20K average attendance this year, highest in league history. New television contracts 7x in value of previous ones for the league.

More people than ever in the US watched the World Cup with the final being the second most watched sporting event in the country behind only the NFL Super Bowl. Thousands gathered in hundreds of paces to watch matches. I was at Soldier Field with 30K pus to watch the US play Begium.

We don't need changes, the sport is doing fine and only growing in popularity. I don't know at what point a these statistics get it into folks heads that millions love the sport as it is. All we need is time for others to finally notice it.

Thats good to hear. I didn't look at any statistics I was more just going off my experience and the people in my area. It is definitely growing just not at the same rate as other sports in America. I can see it being bigger than NHL in America but not bigger than Football, Basketball or Baseball. 


The question is if it is popular, not if it is the number one sport. The US has 320 million people, it can support multiple sports.

I will say demographics are big things for the sport.  The majority of the fanbase is under 40, unlike all other sports.  Why I said give it time, we are growing up while sports like baseball are aging with concerns of dying off in the future.



NiKKoM on 17 June 2015

lol... MLS already had the no ties rules ... that was horrible



 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!) 

mornelithe on 17 June 2015

Only possible way to make Soccer popular in America is to allow NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL to fold under their own corruption...though, Soccer may suffer that fate, before any of the previous leagues ;)