I just realized why soccer isn't popular in the U.S.?

Question

What's your opinion on this:

Soccer is very popular in poor 3rd world countries. Countries where they don't have the resources to buy baseball gloves, bats and balls. American football pads, basketballs and hoops, etc. Most Americans can afford these.

They play what they can afford, a pig's intestine they can kick around.
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I'm being 100% serious. Do you think resources have nothing to do with what sports get played in certain parts of the world? It's one of the main reasons basketball is played in the inner cities. Must less expensive to put up two rims, than to build a baseball field.
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CONTACT, the most popular sport in Japan is baseball, do your research before trying to make a point.
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artist, what exactly would you classify Brazil and Uraguay as, wealthy??? Their per capita incomes are $7200 and $9200, respectively. Per capita for U.S. = $36,300. Nice try though.
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Art, it's just an expression. Calm down.
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Answer 1

Soccer is not popular in the U.S. because we prefer not to fall asleep during games.

RockytopRon, soccer is not popular in the U.S. Before you cite the 1999 Women's World Cup as a sparkplug for the game, tell me: Who won this year's WUSA title? Nobody, because the league folded two years ago because nobody was willing to drive to the stadium and pay 20 bucks to see it.

You know why the '99 U.S. women were popular? Because they appealed to the male libido. Yes, they were great players, but they were already mostly age 30 and up, with more yesterdays on the field than tomorrows.

Once those players' skills deteriorated to the point that putting them out there meant sacrificing victory for eye candy, the guys left the stadium, and the women and young girls weren't enough of a combined revenue source to keep the WUSA going. It's got nothing to do with talent. It's got everything to do with the fact that women alone can't keep a league going, and men aren't going to watch athletic women they haven't seen in skimpy outfits over and over again -- and soccer outfits, though showing off some fantastic legs, are not skimpy.

Is that fair? No. Those Americans, male and female, who are good soccer players deserve the chance to exhibit their talent in front of people willing to pay to see them. There just aren't enough people willing to pay to see them -- in this country.

Answer 2

Soccer is appealing to 3rd world countries I believe for a lot reasons that you've said. But to play soccer you realize that it is an intense and enduring sport, but it's appeal to kids is that it involves a lot of running around with your friends and as a result you have fun and gain knowledge of the inside strategies of the game. The game grows on you, IMO.

Soccer has to compete with American football. Most kids are exposed to football through pop-warner, then when they go into high school. Hmm...what's the most popular team sport in high school? Football, play well enough in high school to get noticed then it's on to NCAA. What's the most popular college sport? Football.

Play well enough in college and you get drafted to the NFL? What's the most popular championship sporting event in the US? The superbowl. That kind of says something for the popularity of the sport does it not?

American Football in ingrained into our society far more than soccer is. Baseball with little league also stems itself at a young age for kids. Yes there are a lot of foreigners who play the sport, but look on any MLB roster you will still find a lot of US born players.

Basketball also appeals to kids as someone else said, it doesn't take much to construct two rims and then find a basketball. That's probably why it's a very popular inner city sport.

So this is all what we grow up with, it's what we are used to seeing everyday since most of us have been kids. I think that is what a lot of non-Americans fail to realize when they blast Americans for liking what we deem as "football" and the "boringness" of baseball. You didn't grow up with it, you never got involved with the sport, you don't see the inside strategies or the strategies of the game or the players' roles. You only see the overview of the game.

Yet you would be highly offended if an American blasted what you deem to be the greatest game in the world because you grew up with the sport and the small inside details about it are what excite you.

I wish more people around the world would realize this, as well I wish more Americans would realize the same about soccer, or what most of the world considers "football"

At the very least if you can't find intrique in a particular sport at least have some decency to respect it for what it is, and for it's fans that do enjoy it.

Answer 3

I think that is probably a large part of why it IS popular in many countries, but not why it isn't in the US. The US plays more sports than any other country, and we can't exactly pay attention to twenty different sports at the same time.
The arguement of the Dominican Republic and cuba playing baseball instead of soccer is a poor one, as many of those kids dream of making it to the MLB to play, and to get out of those countries, others follow their countrymen in the MLB. Oh, lets not forget, soccer is very popular there as well. It is also a sport that doesn't require a special field like baseball does. Soccer, football, Lacrosse can all share the same field with little conversion work. just different colored lines and different goals.
But yeah, having money doesn't mean you can't like soccer (Europe). I played soccer, but I hate watching it, and quit playing when they moved the season and had to chose between soccer and football. I chose football.

Answer 4

Hmmmm let's see. The countries that have won a World Cup - Uruguay, Brazil, France, Italy, West Germany, England and Argentina. Not a single third world country in the bunch. But somehow, we see a good number of baseball players who are from countries that, while not necessarily "third world" (Dominican Republic, Cuba, etc.) have fewer financial resources than most of the big soccer countries. Soccer is not popular in America for the simple reason that we don't know soccer very well. The immigrants who came in to this country in the latter part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century chose to take up an American game in order to try to "become American". It was not until much later that soccer become popular among first generation immigrants here, as these later immigrants tended to hold on to more of the traditions of their homeland. If economics are the only reason that baseball is popular, why is it not popular among middle eastern sheiks?

Answer 5

What about the DR and Cuba? Those are pretty poor 3rd world countries where baseball is the most popular sport.. If you were going to make a comment like that I would expect you to have a little more common sense.

In Europe soccer is very popular. Hmmmm, let's see...England, Spain, France, Germany...Don't look like 3rd world to me, need I say more?

The best players in the NBA are foreign and the MVP hasn't been won by an american in 3 years, Dirk (German), Nash (Canadian). The NBA is grabbing talent from other countries.

Answer 6

USA football is a good cure for insomnia. It says it all when the most popular thing about the Superbowl are the bands that are playing and the TV adverts. Says it all about the game when you have to pad it out with bands and cheerleaders to hide the fact that its just a very dull game.

Answer 7

I feel the reason is because Many Americans grow up watching ESPN which plays NFL and MLB 85% of the time so many americans grow up around Football and baseball

Example Canadians grow up around Hockey chances are they will Follow Hockey more

Answer 8

You lower yourself. Look, baseball USED to be the game of the poor. Now you say it's a yuppie sport. Soccer deserves its due, and every time some know-nothing boob like you says stuff like this the baseball forum pays with visits from the soccer people. They are wrong to do it, unless people like you are here saying such stupid stuff.

Answer 9

Wrong, very wrong.

Soccer is popular in the US. Look at all of the leagues for kids, look at how popular it is in High schools these days. The only level its not popular is the professional level and that is because we are not as good as the other countries so people don't want to watch.

If US soccer teams were good enough to win Gold medals or World Cups fans would watch, TV would broadcast the games more and sports broadcasters would have to talk about it more.

Winning changes everything...look at how popular womens soccer became after they won the world cup.

Answer 10

I agree, I just made that point in another question.

It remains popular in Europe due to the history, at one point they two could only find an intestine to kick around.

Americans played baseball without gloves for a long time, just like soccer players never wore shoes, both sports have evolved, its just soccer stopped evolving 100 years ago, even without evolving (so easy a caveman could do it) soccer somehow remains as popular as it is. People that are simple enjoy simple things.