Just curious, why exactly do you think America is less excited by soccer than the other countries? Why hasnt it ever been popular here?
2006-09-12 17:35:09 · 26 answers · asked by lonelioness 4 in Sports ➔ Football ➔ Other - Football
The Americans formed their own isolated culture once they migrated to that far continent...but it is silly to think that the whole world plays a boring game and they have all other games that are fun..is the whole world stupid? no...I don't see what is so fun in American football or baseball..the majority love football and only the Americans call it soccer
Every nation has its culture and the American culture is different..that's waht's it all about.
2006-09-12 21:59:32 · answer #1 · answered by mido 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A very interesting question. The short answer is that there hasn't been the consistent financial investment by owners or corporations. The NASL failed because they wanted to be up and running with the big leagues of the world but did not get the gate income to support their overhead. The MLS approach is encouraging in that they are about the growth of their popularity.
Culturally, soccer has always been popular, just not on the professional level. That is yet another positive step that MLS has taken. They want to develop American talent that can be marketed. Signing retired stars from around the world will help if it is done wisely.
2006-09-12 17:42:00 · answer #2 · answered by Awesome Bill 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's slow, low scoring, too much playacting and is seen as a "foreign" sport. No different than Canada, South Africa, Australia (Socceroos aside their league is minor at best), New Zealand and other ex-Brit colonies where soccer struggles against far more exciting sports.
Soccer was fairly popular back in the '20s and the NASL days of the late '70s and '80s. Read OFFSIDE by Markovits and Hellerman for a fuller understanding.
Anyway, as someone who grew up with soccer in the NASL days I liked it but now it's terrible. That last World Cup was brutal. Give me a bad hockey or football game any day over the best soccer in 2006.
2006-09-12 17:40:35 · answer #3 · answered by fugutastic 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is mostly because of tradition and isolation from the rest of the soccer playing world. Over time, we developed "American" sports which have now become the popular sports. As this happened, soccer did not have the influx of good athletes that other countries did. A critic of this last statement would say that soccer is the most played sport among American youth, but my response is that it is not an inner city sport like it is in European countries. That means that the aggressiveness needed in international competition is simply not developed in the suburban youth. As a result, the American teams have had difficulty in becoming competitive, which creates a cycle of disinterest and lack of able players. Bottomline: American soccer players are wimps compared to European players
2006-09-12 18:11:32 · answer #4 · answered by CWEED 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that the sport has always been popular in other countries. The American pastime was/is baseball, American football played in the public high schools, colleges. Basketball same thing here in America we are indoctrinated at an early age. Soccer IMHO never was able to get a foot hold here because it was not considered our sport. Another reason I have heard discussed is that since we are not good at it like in the world cup we don't watch it.
2006-09-12 17:49:55 · answer #5 · answered by Bigboi47 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because we have other sports going on. I try to be open minded about soccer, but when the World Cup ends in penalty kicks, thats not good!
Then the team that wins the Cup is not even ranked #1 the following day is laughable.
Baseball is such a great and intellectual sport.
American Football is like a military struggle. Of course its a physical sport played by large angry men. But its got non stop strategy going on with every play. Its a great struggle of brains and braun!
Then we have basketball, not my favorite, but I still prefer that over Soccer. I am a German American so I do follow the German team out of ethnic pride, but thats about it.
Again, we have other major sports to occupy our time. However, this is the first time I ever saw the World Cup get this much attention. It is making some small inroads.
2006-09-12 17:41:44 · answer #6 · answered by TG Special 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
American sports are better suited for TV, and we are TV junkies! Baseball and football (and even basketball to a degree) are totally ready for commercial breaks.
Also, America has never really been educated (on TV) about soccer. In the US, only soccer players care about it, and only soccer players really understand what is going on--if you don't play, you don't get it--it's just a bunch of guys passing the ball a lot and taking a dozen shots or so and hoping one or two goes in. If everyone could see the matchups, understand why they pass backward so often, knew what a cross is, and didn't have to ask what offsides means, they'd like it more.
Hell, we'll even watch tennis if the announcers tell us what's going on.
2006-09-12 18:43:09 · answer #7 · answered by wayfaroutthere 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No one has it right, the real reason? Commercials. Soccer is a high speed game, not many breaks except for half time, If they cant show commericals sports channels dont want to show it, if we dont see it we dont want to play it, its a never ending cycle.
If you look at america, the most popular sports have quite a few breaks, Football, Basketball, Baseball...
2006-09-12 17:44:37 · answer #8 · answered by Peter 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because America cares about the important sports like Basketball and Football.
2006-09-12 17:53:59 · answer #9 · answered by substance 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good question! I was wondering the same thing too! but I think america is less interested in football 'cause they got used with their american fooball/soccer and 'cause they're too proud of their tradition to let the european king of all sports,to spoil their history.
2006-09-12 23:35:16 · answer #10 · answered by denise p 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋