Current Events > Soccer will never gain traction in the US

(+) Yeah! (+)

Soccer and baseball are a chore to watch. That said this topic is dumb as soccer is getting more popular as each year passes. Baseball on the other hand is the opposite

As an American who was dragged into AYSO by a family who mostly still plays, and who had friends who actually enjoy playing, I'm very confused by this statement. Maybe it doesn't have as much traction as it did then, but it's still a fairly popular sport.

Axiom posted...

Soccer and baseball are a chore to watch. That said this topic is dumb as soccer is getting more popular as each year passes. Baseball on the other hand is the opposite

this topic kicked ass. even learned a thing or two myself. soccer is gaining popularity alright but is it sustainable? until they start producing their own world class players or attract them here the talent pool will always remain subpar to other leagues. the mls is basically a semi popular minor league and that definitely has a shelf life if not capitalized on

Clone2022 posted...

this topic kicked ass. even learned a thing or two myself. soccer is gaining popularity alright but is it sustainable? until they start producing their own world class players or attract them here the talent pool will always remain subpar to other leagues. the mls is basically a semi popular minor league and that definitely has a shelf life if not capitalized on

If MLS introduced promotion and relegation, I'm certain it would become more sustainable. Adding that to it would make games mean more, and once a fanbase starts to realise that every game has a purpose, surely they'd get more into it?

EDIT: Why doesn't MLS have relegation and promotion? With traditional American sports, I don't understand the lack of it either, but since football isn't one, why not follow what works everywhere else?

DarbzFoshan posted...

EDIT: Why doesn't MLS have relegation and promotion? With traditional American sports, I don't understand the lack of it either, but since football isn't one, why not follow what works everywhere else?

MLS was built to keep costs down for owners. Runaway spending was perceived as having doomed the NASL, which was quite popular in its heyday but burned out in the early 80s.

Relegation is viewed as too big a risk: for owners paying big fees to buy teams, for cities to invest in soccer-specific stadiums, and for the league to potentially see its biggest TV markets slide down the ladder.

Clone2022 posted...

this topic kicked ass. even learned a thing or two myself. soccer is gaining popularity alright but is it sustainable? until they start producing their own world class players or attract them here the talent pool will always remain subpar to other leagues. the mls is basically a semi popular minor league and that definitely has a shelf life if not capitalized on

@Clone2022 The MLS has attracted many many many world class players to go play for their clubs. The highest profile being when David Beckham went and played for Los Angeles Galaxy.

Many clubs in Europe have had Americans play for them.

But you are right about one thing the MLS is still sub-par to the other leagues around the world. After the dismall performances of The USA in previous World Cups made the MLS look suspect and put the MLS into a very bad light. It got people wondering if they were doing enough to promote Soccer. get people interested in it and training them properly.

But in saying that the MLS must be doing something right. It has lasted a lot longer than previous attempts at Soccer leagues in The US.

For instance the original National American Soccer League (NASL) started in 1968 but was defunct by 1984 but even before that it was going down the tubes. MLS has been around now for around 26 years.

DarbzFoshan posted...

If MLS introduced promotion and relegation, I'm certain it would become more sustainable. Adding that to it would make games mean more, and once a fanbase starts to realise that every game has a purpose, surely they'd get more into it?

EDIT: Why doesn't MLS have relegation and promotion? With traditional American sports, I don't understand the lack of it either, but since football isn't one, why not follow what works everywhere else?

i dont think american fans or owners like the idea of relegation. it was brought up recently for the nba and people shat on the idea pretty unanimously.

i think the league owners need to get together and set up a strategy to money whip all the top players in the world and then promote the shit out of it on network tv. then youre cooking with gas.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/1/7/AAZ1uBAAD6o5.jpg

DarbzFoshan posted...

EDIT: Why doesn't MLS have relegation and promotion? With traditional American sports, I don't understand the lack of it either, but since football isn't one, why not follow what works everywhere else?

North American sports have a draft system where bad teams are able to rejuvenate their team with upcoming prospects.
Teams that are bad actively tank in order to get a lower ranking to get a better draft pick.
Promotion and Relegation wouldn't work.

--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.

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".

Yes theres a lot of bots mixed in, but Ronaldo has 502 MILLION Followers on IG.

6% of the entire World population follows Ronaldo on IG.

ShineboxPhil posted...

North American sports have a draft system where bad teams are able to rejuvenate their team with upcoming prospects.
Teams that are bad actively tank in order to get a lower ranking to get a better draft pick.
Promotion and Relegation wouldn't work.

I get that for NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL. Whilst I think it's a terrible system, it is what it is for you guys. But if you don't have it for football, the MLS has a ceiling for how successful it can be. Without that extra bit, you won't be able to get players over in their prime. That's how I see it at least.

bigblu89 posted...

Yes theres a lot of bots mixed in, but Ronaldo has 502 MILLION Followers on IG.

6% of the entire World population follows Ronaldo on IG.

What does he do?

All I know about him is from that ass-aweful bronze face statue tribute, and his shoe-wang pic. Lmao

DIS is da reason football will never be big in da US lol, its cause murica sucks at it and will literally never ever win da WC

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/400-current-events/80243672

Is that because America sucks at soccer? Seriously, the country isn't even in the Top 100.

Veggy Imma let you finish but this is literally the single most memorable sports team in history

https://i.imgur.com/FfbzNCV.jpg

008Zulu posted...

Is that because America sucks at soccer? Seriously, the country isn't even in the Top 100.

Lmao yes they are. What a moronic post.

GS4Life posted...

Veggy Imma let you finish but this is literally the single most memorable sports team in history

https://i.imgur.com/FfbzNCV.jpg

Dream team was amazing but you could argue more would say this...
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/5/0/AAOGfWAAD6pa.jpg

Brazil are overrated

if scoring and faster pacing is really that matters, why futsal isn't bigger than football/soccer?

Vicious_Dios posted...

What does he do?

All I know about him is from that ass-aweful bronze face statue tribute, and his shoe-wang pic. Lmao

Hes a football player but you knew that already and are just trolling.

https://sportsbrowser.net/most-popular-sports-in-america/

Going by the numbers on this site, soccer is the 4th most viewed sport in the US, but football is far and ahead #1. Baseball is still twice as popular, but what surprises me is that soccer is more popular here in the US over Hockey.

Not much of a sports guy, but I do love football. And being in a more rural area, I can't think of but 1 person I know who is a soccer fan. My family is massively into pretty much every sport, but no ones into soccer at all, except I think a few watch the World Cup when it comes around.

bulletproofvita posted...

Brazil are overrated

That 2002 team was legendary.

Ricemills posted...

if scoring and faster pacing is really that matters, why futsal isn't bigger than football/soccer?

This is a good point: indoor soccer has existed in the US since the 80s - it hasn't proven more popular than the outdoor game

I'd rather watch a soccer match than a baseball game, baseball sucks.

ShineboxPhil posted...

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.

So true, even my buddies, who don't watch soccer at all know who Ronaldo and Messi are lol

(I live near Dallas)

toadfan64 posted...

https://sportsbrowser.net/most-popular-sports-in-america/

Going by the numbers on this site, soccer is the 4th most viewed sport in the US, but football is far and ahead #1. Baseball is still twice as popular, but what surprises me is that soccer is more popular here in the US over Hockey.

Not much of a sports guy, but I do love football. And being in a more rural area, I can't think of but 1 person I know who is a soccer fan. My family is massively into pretty much every sport, but no ones into soccer at all, except I think a few watch the World Cup when it comes around.

Why is that surprising? Someone already stated the South being a huge market for soccer. No one here in Texas cares about the NHL

I can invest in the new USL team coming to Jacksonville, and I will

Tebow is one of the owners

US doesn't like soccer cause they suck at it

Ever since 2010 they have added 14 teams and next year they will be adding one more team with that the league will have 30 teams. The league is made of US and Canada.

MLS defeated Liga MX which is the Mexican League in this year's tournaments where they have 2 tournaments where they play each others best league teams.

US National team beat Mexico for the Gold Cup and beat them once again for the world cup qualifiers and tied the last game.

These are the teams that have been added throughout the years.

2010 - Philadelphia Union
2011 - Portland Timbers / Vancouver Whitecaps FC
2012 - CF Montreal
2015 - New York City FC / Orlando City SC
2017 - Atlanta United FC / Minnesota United FC
2018 - Los Angeles FC
2019 - FC Cincinnati
2020 - Inter Miami CF / Nashville SC
2021 - Austin FC
2022 - Charlotte FC

toadfan64 posted...

https://sportsbrowser.net/most-popular-sports-in-america/

Going by the numbers on this site, soccer is the 4th most viewed sport in the US, but football is far and ahead #1. Baseball is still twice as popular, but what surprises me is that soccer is more popular here in the US over Hockey.

Not much of a sports guy, but I do love football. And being in a more rural area, I can't think of but 1 person I know who is a soccer fan. My family is massively into pretty much every sport, but no ones into soccer at all, except I think a few watch the World Cup when it comes around.

Hockey is a very regionalized sport. You don't find nearly as many displaced fans with hockey as you do the other 4 major US sports.

Whereas, in football and especially basketball, you tend to have people who root for individual players as opposed to the teams.

But it already has been gaining traction in the states, especially the last decade.

It's pretty huge here in Orlando.

You cant compare the "billions vs millions" because the world cup is multiple games and the superbowl is only 1 game. Personally i like soccer but the flopping turns me off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vJn5XxWg9U

Chess has become extremely international recently and it's much more exciting.

Oxford

an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Chess is not a sport.

because we dont have stars. American sports are driven by stars and without a dominating American star we dont care.

Is there any "hockey" country that's also big on soccer?
I can't think of any.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Is there any "hockey" country that's also big on soccer?
I can't think of any.

Sweden and Russia.

Its a beautiful sport. Americans just don't have patience - they want fast paced action and instant gratification or else they lose attention. And it honestly doesn't make sense since scoring in any sport is arbitrary. Only casual fans judge a sport by scoring. The beauty of any sport is the tactical and technical challenge en route to scoring.

For example what makes football great isn't the number of TDs scored, its the chessmatch that happens between the lines - all the moving parts and mini-battles going on. Likewise, a basketball game should be judged by how a team unfolds its strategy and how the other team counteracts it - this again has little to do with the actual score. A 90-85 game can potentially be way more entertaining than a 140-135 game.

Likewise in soccer, the beauty is the movement of the team and players on the pitch, how they try to pull and stretch the defense in different directions trying to open up holes. All while using individual skill to exploit matchups.

USA soccer tends to be more fundamental so alittle more boring than brazilian or spanish style which involves more technical skills and chance-taking. Germany sorta perfects that tactical method that we're trying to achieve.

I used to be one of the top haters of soccer until I started playing Fifa, watching the game more, and actually understanding whats going on. Now I love it, its my top sport. And for the reasons I described I still love basketball. But football is going downhill in my mind. I think they are manipulating the rules way too much to favor higher scoring. They completely took away that run/pass balance. You used to need a complete team in order to win a superbowl, nowadays you just need a top QB. Basketball scoring and pace is higher than ever, but I think its a natural evolution of the game, not by arbitrary means from above.

Soccer has gained traction, it probably already surpassed hockey in terms of popularity in the US and will probably overtake baseball within our lifetimes.

electricbugs2 posted...

Sweden and Russia.

wait, really?

The main reason US soccer doesn't flourish is because kids don't play it for fun on the streets. I mean honestly thats where you develop your skills and natural instincts. The best comparison is basketball, because you have to have a high degree of skill and athleticism. Youth basketball players don't just develop their skills at practice, they play/practice at the park, hours on end, and you refine those skills at practice. You can't just send kids to soccer camps and organized soccer practice and expect them to become world-class players. You can make a list of top-100 soccer players in the world - Pulisic would be the only one in that list and he'd be somewhere in the 50-75 range. And pulisic spent some time in his youth in England, his dad was a soccer player and coach, and in his late teenage years essentially moved to Europe. McKinnie is probably the 2nd best american and he'd probably rank in the 125-150 range.

Basketball takes a hell of a lot less space in a neighborhood than a soccer pitch, and anywhere in America that has that space is already playing (gridiron) football.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Basketball takes a hell of a lot less space in a neighborhood than a soccer pitch, and anywhere in America that has that space is already playing (gridiron) football.

Thats BS. You can play soccer on a basketball court and literally just put 2 objects of any kind down to be the goal posts. You can play soccer on any street. Kids just aren't inspired to play it because the culture here doesn't promote that.

Dan_Haren- posted...

Kids just aren't inspired to play it because the culture here doesn't promote that.

Why do you suppose that is?
Soccer is still pretty big in 'Merica! until high school, for some reason.

Questionmarktarius posted...

wait, really?

Yup, soccer is bigger in Sweden than hockey is, they're just better at hockey. Same as Russia (Soccer and basketball are both huge).

Questionmarktarius posted...

Why do you suppose that is?

When it becomes high school most boys start to focus on the sports that are big in college in hopes of a scholarship (Football, basketball, hockey in Minnesota and the east coast, and to an extent baseball) and the girls go all in on basketball and volleyball.

College soccer is a niche sport in the NCAA. It's plays a back seat to Lacrosse at some schools. That's why.

electricbugs2 posted...

It's plays a back seat to Lacrosse at some schools

Lacrosse is just Sky Hockey

Questionmarktarius posted...

Lacrosse is just Air Hockey

Having played Lax for a short time growing up, it's more like hockey for nutjobs. Most violent sport I played, and I played hockey and American football for years.

Edit: To clarify that's box lacrosse. Field Lacrosse isn't that rough but box lacrosse is a Neanderthal sport lol.

electricbugs2 posted...

lacrosse is a Neanderthal sport lol.

and that's why Americans still know it exists.
Violence is mandatory in American sports. Even Baseball.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/5/AAEhCpAAD7FT.jpg