World Cup Soccer: Real American Men Watch Football
India has never played a single match in the history of world cup soccer. Yet about 44.4 million Indians watched the 2006 world cup held in Germany. This number is expected to grow by about 35% this year. The numbers of viewers are very high considering that a vast majority of Indians still do not own a television set and most of the game start times are set according to the convenience of the European, North and South American viewers.
The United States on the other hand has appeared in the last six FIFA world cups and also hosted the 1994 World Cup. America is ranked #14 in the world and there is tremendous coverage of the world cup (ESPN is showing all the games live and American viewers can also watch it live on the internet). But in 2006 only about 17 million Americans watched the world cup.
It is very difficult to pinpoint why Americans do not like soccer. You will find soccer fields everywhere in the country. The sport is very popular in schools and most Americans are familiar with the rules in general. America also has a professional soccer league known as Major League Soccer (MLB) that is more organized and competitive than the soccer leagues in most of the countries that are participating in the world cup in South Africa.
The general theory is that Americans do not like to watch a sport that is low scoring. I think it is completely wrong. Americans love watching a “pitching duel” in Baseball (pitching a no-hitter in Baseball is national news and is not considered a boring event). Although small compared to Baseball and American Football (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL) has a fanatical following (the most expensive seat in my hometown of Philadelphia is a ticket to watch the Philadelphia Flyers). Of course there is a strong following for NASCAR which has got to be one of the most boring sports on earth.
There are a couple of reasons I can think of which explains why soccer is not popular in America. The most popular sports in America is American football (National Football League) followed by Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey (NHL). These leagues are well established and have generations of followers. It is extremely difficult for a new sports or a league to capture the imagination of these die hard fans (Soccer is a summer sport in America and it competes with Baseball for viewership).
This year Philadelphia was awarded a soccer franchise by Major League Soccer (MLB). The new franchise called Philadelphia Union has a fanatical following. The team has a new stadium and all the season tickets are sold out. Yet the games are not broadcast on any local channels. None of the many local sports radio talk shows discuss events surrounding this team and the results of the games are not shown in the local news. American media likes to cover sports that have a lot of breaks (there are TV timeouts in the NFL) and soccer does not fall into this category.
I think the key reason why soccer is not popular in America is because Americans (like some Australians) consider soccer to be a sissy sport. It will take a lot of time and marketing to breakdown this barrier. But there is some hope. The England vs. USA matched was watched by about 16 million viewers which was slightly more than the first four games of the NBA finals between Boston and Los Angeles. What we now need is a world cup every year and not every four years!!
Related posts:
- An Indian Who Loves American Football
- India Playing Cricket in Empty Stadiums
- Winter Olympics Should Be Discontinued
- Sports Should not be Based on Gender
- Sir Donald Bradman is the Greatest Batsman?
Category: Sports & Entertainment
yes there is in fact nothing manly about any sport
i know a lot of girls who are better than me and many of my friends who are guys or apparently “men” in this context
i think its quiet sexist to say that sports are manly and cooking is femine
so is driving, etc
and most imp whining
the term “whiny as a girl”…needs to be stopped…every guy i know whines like an irritating piece of trash, including me
about jobs, on blogs, politics, sports, life in general, etc
Welcome KP,
Let me speak for myself :) There is obviously no room for sexism in our society and not just in sports. I would even argue that publishing your gender (like say in the About Me section of a blog) can also be considered as sexist by some!!