'Soccer'

[TFC]

When I first moved over here in '99, there was no fooking chance of getting a live game on telly, never mind watching City who had only just been promoted to D1, it was painful :(

Since then though, I will wholeheartedly complement whoever has been at the forefront of making the game more mainstream, today for example I will get 3 live games and a replay of Villa/WHU, tomorrow City live (yeah baby), the list goes on and I fooking love it. Sergios last minute heroics went a long way to raising the profile of the Prem over here, the following days news and sports news (what I managed to see despite the hangover ;) was full of that goal :)

As far as the MLS and US national team ever becoming a world power? The MLS will continue to become more and more popular but it will never eclipse the NFL popularity wise. That sport is the Daddy here, always will be (even though they cant celebrate touchdowns anymore FFS).

The national team seem to be making the right moves and I truly hope they do become a team that can compete in world cups, but it is going to take a LONG time.

 

[Frank the Yank]

Over the next 30 years it could become one of the biggest sports in the USA.

Many over there struggle with the more subjective calls in football though compared to American Football which has video technology.

They said the exact same thing 35-40 years ago (Christ I am getting old) when I started playing football. It never happened and never will. The US National team had a golden chance to make some real inroads the last World Cup but they fucked it up. We won our group and went out at the next hurdle. We were the only team to win the group stage to do so.....go figure.

 

[taconinja]

A few misconceptions to clear up...

Baseball barely matters outside of the Northeast Corridor and St. Louis-Chicago. You get enough fans to get the stadiums in several places near capacity when doing well but that's it. The reason baseball appears to have any popularity is due to one fact: aging sports reporters who grew up loving the game and refuse to stop talking about it. That's it. Most of the country couldn't be paid to go to a game and would rather face dental surgery than watch it on television.

Basketball is popular but only in spurts. It's personality-driven. Horrible television ratings for the most part although right now it's in a golden period.

NHL? Only someone insane or from one of the near-Canadian cities would claim it's very popular. Sure it has fans but in a country this size lots of sports can have sizable fanbases without really mattering.

American football is king as others have stated and I don't think European football will overtake it in the foreseeable future.

That said there's nothing stopping European football from becoming a major sport and the Premier League is getting better and better ratings. Globalization helps.

 

[Crouchinho]

Poor example. Football is the most popular sport in the World. Baseball has hardly scratched the surface of what football has achieved in terms of expanding its reach throughout the Globe.

It is the world's most popular sport for a reason. It's better than all the others.

Football will prevail in the States.

It's not a poor example at all, or you miss the point completely. I wasn't trying to make baseball out to be huge or anything, I was just comparing a national sport trying to conquer another country.

I know football is the best, it's my favourite sport too.

You could throw baseball at the UK all day long, week in week out, for decades, but it would never surpass football.

You could throw football at the Aussies, but it's never going to overtake cricket or Aussie rules.

Football could never overtake America, just like footy can't overtake ice hockey in Canada. We can make it bigger there but it would never conquer it

Ok well we're at cross purposes mate. I said prevail in the sense of holding its own rather than obliterating all in its path. We're probably not a million miles apart then on this!

That's how arguments get started in pubs!

Sorry if I came across rude, wasn't my intention, probably lack of kip! It would be nice if it did and got a lot bigger, I'd be chuffed if it even became a big 4. Having moved to North America I have enjoyed how much coverage there is on the box. Many people complained they had to buy a newspaper to see their teams score in the past, maybe a small print out of what happened.

It's nice to see big former players joining the MLS. I think a lot of these teams are on par with Scottish football right now

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

It's not a poor example at all, or you miss the point completely. I wasn't trying to make baseball out to be huge or anything, I was just comparing a national sport trying to conquer another country.

I know football is the best, it's my favourite sport too.

You could throw baseball at the UK all day long, week in week out, for decades, but it would never surpass football.

You could throw football at the Aussies, but it's never going to overtake cricket or Aussie rules.

Football could never overtake America, just like footy can't overtake ice hockey in Canada. We can make it bigger there but it would never conquer it

Ok well we're at cross purposes mate. I said prevail in the sense of holding its own rather than obliterating all in its path. We're probably not a million miles apart then on this!

That's how arguments get started in pubs!

Sorry if I came across rude, wasn't my intention, probably lack of kip! It would be nice if it did and got a lot bigger, I'd be chuffed if it even became a big 4. Having moved to North America I have enjoyed how much coverage there is on the box. Many people complained they had to buy a newspaper to see their teams score in the past, maybe a small print out of what happened.

It's nice to see big former players joining the MLS. I think a lot of these teams are on par with Scottish football right now

No worries pal. Glad to have posters from other clubs on here. You really make this forum a much better place.

As I said earlier I think that football will catch up with, but never overtake the big three sports in the US.

I'd argue that the MLS is better than the SPL right now and if it's not, it sure as hell soon will be.

 

[Why Always Ste]

with more mexicans each day moving to america football/soccer will get bigger

Eh?

Many Mexicans are flooding back to Mexico now, they can't get jobs in the states

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Average MLS attendance has now passed average NBA and NHL attendances. True there are more games for those seasons, but its still an improvement and a step in the right direction.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/soccer/...ses-nba-as-third-best-attended-american-sport

I don't think this is comparing apples to apples. A few of the MLS stadiums have a much greater seating capacity than the NBA or NHL. NBA and NHL arenas seat 15,000 to 21,000. Seattle (38,000), Galaxy (27,000), and Red Bulls (25,000) have much larger capacity than 21,000.

Was just going to say the same - the Boston Bruins and Celtics could pack way more fans into the TD Garden if the capacity was higher than 17,000.

Meanwhile The Revs rattle around with 10 - 12,000 in the 68,000 Patriots Stadium at Foxboro

The one thing I am finding though is the overkill, I mean the Red Sox play 6 times a week (I suppose the same could be said for cricket, but the games aren't on TV every night!)
I can imagine the look on the faces of the partners of City fans here if we were watching City 6 times a week (either on TV / bar or 3 consecutive nights at Eastlands!)

 

[Anonymous]

with more mexicans each day moving to america football/soccer will get bigger

Eh?

Many Mexicans are flooding back to Mexico now, they can't get jobs in the states

that may be the case but compared to ten years ago the latino community in america is now huge and growing, with more births and immigration. This leads to more football fans.

 

[CheesySmoker]

I bet if the sport was as competitively tought as american football is to younger generations the US would come up with some world beating players.

 

[blink922]

A few misconceptions to clear up...

Baseball barely matters outside of the Northeast Corridor and St. Louis-Chicago. You get enough fans to get the stadiums in several places near capacity when doing well but that's it. The reason baseball appears to have any popularity is due to one fact: aging sports reporters who grew up loving the game and refuse to stop talking about it. That's it. Most of the country couldn't be paid to go to a game and would rather face dental surgery than watch it on television.

Basketball is popular but only in spurts. It's personality-driven. Horrible television ratings for the most part although right now it's in a golden period.

NHL? Only someone insane or from one of the near-Canadian cities would claim it's very popular. Sure it has fans but in a country this size lots of sports can have sizable fanbases without really mattering.

American football is king as others have stated and I don't think European football will overtake it in the foreseeable future.

That said there's nothing stopping European football from becoming a major sport and the Premier League is getting better and better ratings. Globalization helps.

I wish this was true. I barely know anyone here (northern California) who doesn't like baseball and it's horrible. By far the worst sport out there. Can't even tell you how many games I've had to sit through at family gatherings.