Current Events > Soccer will never gain traction in the US

(+) Yeah! (+)

In general, it seems like America disregards everything they don't feel like they're the best at. Sports, education, etc...

The_Yahtz09 posted...

JFC the ignorance in this topic.

and yet you say nothing to enlighten us. either engage in discourse or take your shitty attitude and show yourself out.

I dont think its about the nature of the game(futbol). But more that the big 4 NA sports garner all of our attention, so theres no room left for futbol. Also, the best American athletes go into the big 4 sports cause thats where the big bucks are at.

mustachedmystic posted...

I dont think its about the nature of the game(futbol). But more that the big 4 NA sports garner all of our attention,

I think a strong case could be made that soccer is more popular than hockey in this country.

Antifar posted...

I think a strong case could be made that soccer is more popular than hockey in this country.

Depends on the city tbqh.

Antifar posted...

I think a strong case could be made that soccer is more popular than hockey in this country.

Youd need to do some major work to prove that. I think it was only recently that the MLS surpassed 1/10th of the NHLs revenues.

Granted, its the MLS, but thats still the main avenue for American and Canadian fans to exhibit their support.

Rugby Union is the sport I think is very likely to expand remarkably in the US in the next couple of decades. It has some parallels with American Football and the US is hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2031.

Antifar posted...

I think a strong case could be made that soccer is more popular than hockey in this country.

I dont think so, Tim.

Antifar posted...

I think a strong case could be made that soccer is more popular than hockey in this country.

show me attendance and viewership numbers

Clone2022 posted...

show me attendance and viewership numbers

No one cares about hockey when you move passed the northern states like Michigan or Minnesota.
Football (Soccer) however is actually pretty huge in the South. You don't realize how many Mexican-Americans watch it religiously.

And just wait if rumors of Inter Miami going after Lionel Messi or Ronaldo are true.

K181 posted...

Youd need to do some major work to prove that. I think it was only recently that the MLS surpassed 1/10th of the NHLs revenues.

Okay, but unlike hockey, soccer (read: not MLS) is popular worldwide, and Liga MX actually has higher US viewership than the NHL iirc

Soccer is low on the totem pole in the US

I also think it's fair to point out Soccer has less pazazz then American Football, Basketball, and Hockey

ShineboxPhil posted...

No one cares about hockey when you move passed the northern states like Michigan or Minnesota.

Yeah, cause there are no NHL teams in The South, or California.

ShineboxPhil posted...

No one cares about hockey when you move passed the northern states like Michigan or Minnesota.

is that why dallas and nashville set the record for an outdoor hockey game?

Football (Soccer) however is actually pretty huge in the South. You don't realize how many Mexican-Americans watch it religiously.

they watch the euro leagues religiously not necessarily the mls. when i see hispanic kids running around theyre in barcelona jerseys not repping some dumpy mls franchise lol

What a load of crap the TC has posted.

I take it the TC is unaware that the MLS is the THIRD most watched sport in The US. It gets higher crowds than both the NBA and the NHL. It has the fourth highest average attendance in the US.

Almost every team in the MLS now has their own stadiums wih capacities in the 10 - 30,000's. We get MLS in the UK and in the game I saw part of once Sporting Kansas City were playing at home and the stadium was packed to the rafters.

The MLS get higher attendances than EVERY team in The Scottish Premier League outwith The Old Firm of Glasgow Rangers & Celtic who are Scotlands two biggest clubs.

The MLS has worked miracles to get Football popular in the US.

So would the TC like to try that again at how Football isn't popular in the USA.

i thought it was called football

mustachedmystic posted...

Yeah, cause there are no NHL teams in The South, or California.

Notice the fan attendance for a Dallas Stars game. They are a footnote in sports media.
ESPN was going on like NHL didn't even exist in the past 15 years before they finally bought broadcasting rights.
Better example, go to some random person from Dallas and ask them if they know who Tyler Seguin is and they'll have no clue who he is while they'll prolly know Cristiano Ronaldo.

K181 posted...

Youd need to do some major work to prove that. I think it was only recently that the MLS surpassed 1/10th of the NHLs revenues.

Granted, its the MLS, but thats still the main avenue for American and Canadian fans to exhibit their support.

Strong case to be made that MLS is the third most popular league in the US (behind the Premier League and Liga MX)

Anyways, allow me to show my work:
Since 2010, the most watched NHL game was the 2019 Game 7 between Boston and St. Louis, which drew 8.7 million viewers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Cup_Finals_television_ratings

Several different World Cup matches (men and women) over that timeframe have eclipsed that figure, including US-Wales this past Monday
https://www.giltedgesoccer.com/most-watched-soccer-games-in-history/
https://twitter.com/thegoalkeeper/status/1595212026007105536

Sure, the World Cup is a quadrennial event (every two years though if you include women), so let's compare league play to league play:
The NHL's national broadcasts on ESPN averaged 462k viewers last year:
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/05/02/Upfront/NHL-viewership.aspx

The NHLs new national broadcast deals with ESPN and Turner Sports are already paying off, and not just because the league more than doubled its annual rights revenue.
Viewership for nationally televised NHL games in the first year under the new deals was up around 18% compared to the leagues final season with NBC Sports in 2020-21. The average of 460,000 viewers per game across ABC, ESPN and TNT was the leagues highest mark since 2016-17, when NBC and NBCSN averaged 474,000. The first season under the new deals was the leagues first with a full 82-game schedule since 2018-19 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That's about on par with the Premier League, despite that league playing most of its games on weekend mornings:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/18/major-league-soccer-viewership-is-up-now-it-needs-networks-to-pay-more.html

NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, said it averaged 414,000 viewers for its English Premier League soccer package for the 2020-21 season. And so far in EPLs current season, NBC Sports said games averaged 609,000 viewers across its TV channels.

It's harder to find good numbers on Liga MX viewership, but there's reason to suspect it's larger than that of the Premier League:
https://the18.com/soccer-news/liga-mx-usa-tv-ratings-mls-epl-nbcsn-tudn-telemundo

Viewership of the Liga MX final and Champions League finals are within shouting distance of Stanley cup games (obviously, best of 7 vs one-off clouds things, but)
https://the18.com/soccer-entertainment/champions-league-final-tv-ratings-2021
https://worldsoccertalk.com/2022/06/02/most-watched-champions-league-final-in-us-history/

And just for good measure, the NWSL final drew 915k viewers
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/soccer/2022/11/01/nwsl-record-viewership-sponsors-vow-overinvest-despite-turmoil/10637048002/

I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that interest in soccer is higher than interest in hockey, given all of this

MLS average attendance was 21,006 across the league this year. NBA was 17,184. NHL was 15,841.

MLS regular season National games averaged 2.2 million viewers on FOX. NBA averaged 1.6 million. NHL National games averaged 460k.

In both viewership and attendance, MLS is more popular than both the NBA and NHL.

I don't get why people like find it so difficult to grasp why football (soccer) is so popular to the point he's offended by it.
And he's not the only one.

bigblu89 posted...

MLS regular season National games averaged 2.2 million viewers on FOX.

As the biggest MLS fan I know - this is laughably not true; that was the viewership for MLS Cup final
https://prosoccerwire.usatoday.com/2022/11/08/mls-cup-was-an-epic-and-got-tv-ratings-to-match/

The regular season average is roughly 1/10th of that
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/18/major-league-soccer-viewership-is-up-now-it-needs-networks-to-pay-more.html

For the 2021 regular season, MLS said it averaged 276,000 viewers for 31 regular-season games across ESPN channels, including ABC. Thats up from the average 233,000 viewers who consumed 39 MLS games in 2020 on ESPN platforms.

Antifar posted...

As the biggest MLS fan I know - this is laughably not true; that was the viewership for MLS Cup final
https://prosoccerwire.usatoday.com/2022/11/08/mls-cup-was-an-epic-and-got-tv-ratings-to-match/

The regular season average is roughly 1/10th of that
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/18/major-league-soccer-viewership-is-up-now-it-needs-networks-to-pay-more.html

My bad. I did look at the finals numbers.

bigblu89 posted...

MLS average attendance was 21,006 across the league this year. NBA was 17,184. NHL was 15,841.

MLS regular season National games averaged 2.2 million viewers on FOX. NBA averaged 1.6 million. NHL National games averaged 460k.

In both viewership and attendance, MLS is more popular than both the NBA and NHL.

Fantastic post.

Well what have you lovers of your crap American sports got to say about that?

The MLS is trashing those crap sports in Ice Hockey and Basketball! Bye.

Weird flex dude.

CassandraCroft posted...

Fantastic post.

Well what have you lovers of your crap American sports got to say about that?

The MLS is trashing those crap sports in Ice Hockey and Basketball! Bye.

Lol and don't get me started on you.
"Hockey is bad because i don't like it"
You come off just as clueless as the tc.

Clone2022 posted...

that is one of the biggest complaints with the nba. but at least its high scoring and were in an era where every team has a star player so theres still plenty of drama and excitement in all the games. its not like that for soccer, its very top heavy with certain teams and lower ranked teams how no star players whatsoever.

This is the biggest problem with American sports though. They're not really 'team' sports if you only care about the individual. Also, you could argue there's more drama in a lower scoring game, because it means one goal can change everything. If you rely on one star forward (I'm looking at you Argentina), but have a terrible defense, and a small team goes ahead, they can just shore up, frustrate the 'better' team, and go on to win. That is thrilling, if you have any attention span.

Anyway, there's enough money floating around in football, that they don't need the 'cash cow'.

Just to continue my hockey/soccer comparison:
NHL's current TV deal with ESPN/Turner comes out to $625 million a year - NBC's deal with the Premier League is $460 million a year:
https://nypost.com/2021/11/18/nbc-comcasts-premier-league-deal-proves-soccer-is-major-us-sport/
CBS pays another $250 million for the Champions League and Europa League:
https://prosoccerwire.usatoday.com/2022/08/19/cbs-champions-league-rights-six-year-deal-1-5-billion/
ESPN is spending $175 million on La Liga
https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/la-liga-espn-tv-rights-usa-bein-sports/
Apple's new deal with MLS is $250 million a year
https://theathletic.com/3490012/2022/06/14/mls-agrees-to-10-year-broadcast-deal-with-apple-worth-2-5-billion-sources/

The money really adds up on soccer's side of the scale.

@mustachedmystic posted...

Yeah, cause there are no NHL teams in The South, or California.

We have three teams in California

Don't even like soccer/football, but the fact that Americans think the rest of the world cares if it's popular or not there is pretty funny.

Great post, and you didn't even include the stat that is most favorable for soccer

6. Playing the Game

Handball, which requires only a wall, a ball, and one pal to play against, might be the only sport thats easier to play than soccer, where you need at least 3 pals.

So comparing soccer participation with hockey is difficult because it costs so much more to play hockey. And rinks are hard to find outside of the Northeast and Upper Midwest. For example, Los Angeles County only has eight.

One study, from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association in 2018, estimates that 2.2 million kids ages 6 to 12 play soccer while 324,000 play hockey. The same organization, in 2018, estimated that there are 11.9 million soccer players of all ages, and 2.5 million hockey players. USA Hockey has 383,652 registered youth players and 561,700 overall. US Youth soccer estimates that there are 3 million soccer players aged 5 to 19.

Zeeak4444 posted...

@

We have three teams in California

I know

Butterfiles posted...

Great post, and you didn't even include the stat that is most favorable for soccer

I wanted to play ice hockey as a kid but being born to an immigrant family, we couldn't afford it.
It really is a game for the wealthy elite and isn't accessible to a lot of people so i settled with ball hockey.

mustachedmystic posted...

I know

ohhhhhh I see the sarcasm now, my bad.

bigblu89 posted...

MLS average attendance was 21,006 across the league this year. NBA was 17,184. NHL was 15,841.

this is misleading because soccer plays on an nfl type schedule once a week whereas the nba and nhl play several games a week. hockey audiences get double/triple dipped with diminishing returns and soccer benefits from drawing one massive crowd for one game per week.

MLS regular season National games averaged 2.2 million viewers on FOX. NBA averaged 1.6 million. NHL National games averaged 460k.

national games for soccer averaged 300k, nhl does 400k+

https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/mls-tv-ratings-2022-season-espn-abc-disney-apple-tv-rights/

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/05/02/Upfront/NHL-viewership.aspx

impressive for soccer i had no idea they were this big. it certainly doesnt reflect on sports talk media but it still isnt more popular than hockey.

Clone2022 posted...

this is misleading because soccer plays on an nfl type schedule once a week whereas the nba and nhl play several games a week. hockey audiences get double/triple dipped with diminishing returns and soccer benefits from drawing one massive crowd for one game per week.

national games for soccer averaged 300k, nhl does 400k+

https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/mls-tv-ratings-2022-season-espn-abc-disney-apple-tv-rights/

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/05/02/Upfront/NHL-viewership.aspx

impressive for soccer i had no idea they were this big. it certainly doesnt reflect on sports talk media but it still isnt more popular than hockey.

The NHL is also a 100 year old league while the MLS started in 1993.
It's pretty impressive they closed the gap that much in viewership with the NHL.

Related: https://twitter.com/FOXSportsPR/status/1595543507049250817

And that's just the English-language viewers
https://twitter.com/NBCSportsPR/status/1595406325797748741

In the 90's there was a show called Unhappily Ever After. It was one of those sitcoms heavily influenced by Married With Children.

I remember Nikki Cox(not the soccer player) had a line where she said "Soccer is for people who can't catch," and the studio hit the applause button. I was rolling when she said that, but that's the kind of insults soccer has always gotten lol

It's kind of funny as boring as golf is, people can name drop Tiger Woods in America, but the average person couldn't name a single Soccer player.

In regards to baseball, it's super boring too. I think it's popular because of the whole tradition and it's an "American pasttime".

I think soccer, or any sport/event for that matter, can increase its popularity by allowing Yao Ming to randomly enter the game/stage for 60 seconds and just suplex as many people as he can.

I'd tune in to to the PGA or National Spelling be if I knew at some point Yao Ming would be suplexing some poor terrified bastard straight to hell

--Zero- posted...

It's kind of funny as boring as golf is, people can name drop Tiger Woods in America, but the average person couldn't name a single Soccer player.

I think that impression is outdated; the average person could name Ronaldo or Messi or, hell, one of the women's national team players. Every year, FIFA is one of the best selling video games in the US

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I was just looking that up and I can't believe the attendances that Atlanta United are getting.

70,000+ for for MLS matches?! Bloody hell. The teams in The English Premiership (with the exception of Manchester United) cant match that.

So folks you want to tell me again just how unpopular Football is in the USA.

I got into soccer the summer of 2006, during the World Cup. Went and rented a soccer game from blockbuster and all

i started watching premier league soon after that

Soccer is more about historical rivalries and national pride than the actual sport. I think basketball could be the same way, but the NBA kind of monopolized it so all the good players just come to North America for money, not around the world as much.

Uglybass69 posted...

Soccer is more about historical rivalries and national pride than the actual sport. I think basketball could be the same way, but the NBA kind of monopolized it so all the good players just come to North America for money, not around the world as much.

Eh all the sports beside American Football have their own version of the World Cup. Doesn't really change much from that standpoint.

And it's not like the big 4 don't have rivalries too.

Yeah, I had no idea MLS drew so many fans. It will be interesting to see how well St. Louis City SC does when they start play next year.

Is their any traction to this rumor of a possible MLS/Liga MX merger?