An American View Of The World Cup

[philipl]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-...y?track=tothtml

Soccer dismissed.

[jim mk2]

Typical American head-up-their-own-arse view of the world.

Not that the Americans know there is a world outside the US.

Every four years, when the biggest sports tournament on the planet comes around, US newspapers publish dross "opinion" pieces on "soccer" like this. Americans are merely jealous because the real world plays football while no one else plays their own poxy sports.

[Cocker]

I think American who comes onto this board will have something to say about that

[BRFC4EVA]

A bit of tongue in cheek if you ask me.

[dave birch]

One wonders what his reaction will be when he finds out that "his" sport only attracts a world wide audience of .01 % of the worlds population.

BRFC4EVA, it's more likely jealousy, I ask you, how many watch baseball, how many watch American Football? They (those that write this tripe) can't abide anything that is not created by their own hand. If Football were America's no 1 sport, then we'd never hear the last of it.

[American]

Just a bit tounge in cheek, probably partially his opinion, just exaggerated. I hear the boring part a lot, or the lack of popularity part (funny that this usually comes from ice hockey fans - a sport that gets no ratings).

But, for all you say about the lack of worldwide interest in our sports, Jim, college football probably gets more spectators on a fall weekend than all of the major soccer leagues combined. I can think off the top of my head of about 20 teams who will fill stadiums larger than Old Trafford, and can think of about 5 or 10 that fill over 100,000 each home game.

[dave birch]

American, don't be so insular.

We, the rest of us, are talking "World Wide Audiences"

[American]

But popularity is about total numbers, not where those numbers come from...

[doctorryan]

A bit of tongue in cheek if you ask me.

Much more than a bit. It was definitely designed to amuse those who don't care, not to upset or get a rise out of those who do.

Oh boy, where do we begin? First of all; most of my fellow citizens don't "get" football (association) and in order to appreciate any sport (or anything for that matter) you have to "get it" on some level. So therefore I wouldn't waste any time or energy worrying about what most Americans, scribes or otherwise, feel about football. Enough of us do care, so much so, that our TSTs sold out immediately through both FIFA & the USSF and that small bunch of lads we're traveling to follow only happen to be rated top-5 in the world.

And Jim, while it is true that many Americans aren't to aware of the world outside the US, certain people have historically kept doing things outside our borders to remind them. Like, oh, say a couple of world conflicts, neither started by us, both avoided by us as long as was possible, but ENDED by us.

Edited June 4, 2006 by doctorryan

[Rovermatt]

If that piece is straight up then it's rather typical of the US attitude to the world outside its vast border. Belittling the fact that 1 billion people will watch the tournament is clearly based on the premise that America is the centre of the world. Who cares what one billion non-Americans do in unison for a month?

Will that amount of people watch the poxy 'Super' Bowl, the 'World' Series, the NBA finals (the winners of which are proclaimed 'world champions') the Stanley Cup? I doubt it.

Maddening.

Edited June 4, 2006 by Rovermatt

[dave birch]

So, on that basis, the best games in the football world are between Australia and Iraq; as those two teams hold the record for attendances at WC qualifiers.

No, we are talking world wide figures, and there is no way a US college football game would outrate a WC match, no way.

[American]

There have been a couple articles lately on how people come up with "worldwide audiences." I'll just say, don't anywhere near trust those numbers.

As for Doc's point about the tickets, we sent our applications in the second night and had to wait until extra tickets were made available (ones that FIFA couldn't give away to sponsors - over 60k have been returned) to even only get 2 matches.

So, on that basis, the best games in the football world are between Australia and Iraq; as those two teams hold the record for attendances at WC qualifiers.

No, we are talking world wide figures, and there is no way a US college football game would outrate a WC match, no way.

First of all, if you read, I was comparing the leagues, not the World Cup.

A couple years ago when both USC and Auburn went undefeated, they were offered over 50 million to have one game to decide who was better (the NCAA shot it down). The offer was from a company who knew it could make more than that just off of this one game.

You have to visit the south and midwest on a Saturday during college football season to truly appreciate the passion. It is on par with soccer worldwide.

I could do some research into comparable attendances on a given weekend, but I'm lazy...

[BlueMonday]

They are a staggeringly arrogant and inward looking hoard of uncouth oafs.

This is the biggest sporting event on the planet, attracting audiences and sponsorship that corporate America can only dream about.

His comments may be a glib, tongue in cheek swipe, the problem is that the American public tend to beleive what they are told about the rest of the world.

Do us all a favour, don't drink Budweiser when watching the world cup, drink a local brew. !!

[dave birch]

American, you want to compare the US code to Football? There would be more people watching Football, simply because there are more people playing the world game than the american version.

Read what this guy says in his article. It reeks of envy that his "home" game is not at the top of the pile.

edit:

I would hazard a guess that there are more people watching cricket worldwide than watching American Football

Edited June 4, 2006 by dave birch

[Rover4ever]

You have to visit the south and midwest on a Saturday during college football season to truly appreciate the passion. It is on par with soccer worldwide.

I have been to the Longhorns against the Aggies which is among the top 2 or 3 games in College football in terms of passion and rivalry. Yes, everythings painted Orange in the UT campus, and 80,000 fans are yelling hook 'em horns on their way to the game. But IMO it doesnt really beat the passion and rivalry between Iran Vs. Saudi Arabia in a World Cup Qualifier or even a Wahda vs. Al Ain derby here in the UAE. Its a lot like the latter, but few college football games reach out to people across economic and social classes the way soccer does.

[American]

Ok, I'm bored and trying to get out of doing my timesheets...

I picked a random weekend in October (the weekend of the 15th) last year. 53 games were held in college football, total attendances of 2,177,396 for an average of 41,083. The top attenance was 111,249. Some of the larger schools were on the road (Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Penn State, etc.) and it wasn't "rivalry weekend" (just to show I picked at random).

Add another 921,607 for 14 pro games (average of 65,829) and there were over 3 million (average of over 46k) that attended live "american football" games that weekend (and that doesn't count non-Division 1a college teams, equivalent to non-league).

I'd be interested to see what the average was for the top 6 or 7 "soccer" leagues (would be an equivalent number of games) was for that weekend.

The point isn't which is bigger, etc, the point is that you say we can't dismiss a sport just because it isn't big over here, but I say you can't dismiss one just because it is only big over here. Smacks of the same elitism you accuse him of.

[dave birch]

American, you're talking about a game, played in one, two, maybe three countries around the world.

We're talking about one game that's played in more countries than you can think of.

There are more members of FIFA than there are of the UN.

Got to go, I've a game to watch

[Philly Rover ®]

First off, that article was clearly tongue-in-cheek.

Second of all... I'm sick of having to defend the non-football fans in the United States. A large percentage of the American population just doesn't like the sport--well, let them, but don't lump the rest of us in there with them and label the entire country a "head-up-their-own-arse" land of ignorant jerks.

I'd hazard a guess that baseball is the fastest-growing sport in the Western Hemisphere (i.e. almost half the world), but most of you couldn't give two craps about the sport. Does that make all of you completely ignorant as well?

Oh, and regardless of whether American football is played in two countries in the world, as you say dave--doesn't that make it even more impressive that the Super Bowl gets as many worldwide fans as it does? American... it'd definitely be interesting to see those figures from rivalry weekend.

[Eddie]

I'd hazard a guess that baseball is the fastest-growing sport in the Western Hemisphere (i.e. almost half the world), but most of you couldn't give two craps about the sport. Does that make all of you completely ignorant as well?

I agree about not lumping all Americans together, but I would think that there is no way that Baseball is the fastest growing sport. It would be miles behind a sport like Basketball.

I think the reaction of non-americans is just the result of the fact that this sort of opinion is expressed a lot on a lot of different issues.

[Drakefyre]

I think this thread shows most clearly that foreigners have no sense of humor.

[ihtd]

I agree about not lumping all Americans together, but I would think that there is no way that Baseball is the fastest growing sport. It would be miles behind a sport like Basketball.

If we are talking about fastest growing sports it were baseball a few years back with the Asian nations taking a huge interest in it but that has changed significantly. Basketball is the world biggest growing sport at the moment and i know my basketball. African nations have slowly been putting provisions in place to meet the demand of young people wanting to play the sport and as such the number of African players playing in the Euroleague and in individual leagues accross Europe has increased significantly. The sport is now also being taken seriously in Asia which in previous years it was thought to be a game that would not suit them but they are at least trying. Its always been popular in America if you excuse a few situations but in Europe it has really taken off. The Euroleague and ULEB Cup have a lot to do with this, it gives the European players and some of the Yanks that play in Europe to really show their talents off to a large audience. In England we are severely lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of skill but it is a hugely popular sport with most major cities having teams and leagues e.g. i play in the Doncaster League which is 4 divisions down from the top flight( if the club were to become a franchise and gained the promotions towards the top flight it could only be promoted if the club were a franchise).

Anyway thats my rant over on basketball and it being the fastest growing sport worldwide.

As for 4/5 people supposadly not interested in the WC, its a load of BS prmoted by the Yanks to try and make it sound like a minor event, this is from the same people whose Baseball final is called the World Series but is only contested by American teams. You do the maths?

[Lathund]

I think this thread shows most clearly that foreigners have no sense of humor.

To me it was quite obviously tongue-in-cheek, but there are a few things that could explain how people didn't spot it: It's not too different from real, "serious," articles from the US on football, that also tend to be full of inaccuracies and extremely poor "reasoning". And, the big one, it's not actually funny. At all. "Soccer would get bigger audiences if they started playing with heads of princes instead of leather balls", "Soccer would be more popular if everyone started using steroids like they do in the real sports, Am. Football and Baseball". Hilarious, isn't it?

As for the popularity (And I suppose mainly directed at American); Making these comparisions is quite pointless indeed, because the structure of Am. football in the states and the structure of Football in most countries around the world is VERY different. Am. football probably has a higher average attendance per game. What does that tell us? That it's a more popular sport? Less popular? Better? That fans are more passionate about their teams? Less passionate? No, it tells us absolutely nothing of the kind. There are fewer professional teams around in Am. football, and thus they each on average have a bigger following than the average professional Football club in England, Spain, Italy or Germany. They also play far less games in a season (I believe it's 16? Or something close to that anyway, compared to the 60 a football club can play), and thus there will be more attention on one game.

What makes football so great to me is that people everywhere love it. It may not be the biggest sport everywhere, but wherever you go in the world you'll see football being played. Everyone knows it. Some may value how "big" a sport is in terms of the average interest level of all the countries in which it's played, some by raw attendance numbers, some by other criterias that I can't be arsed to list now, but I prefer to look at how widespread it is. And no sport can compare to football in this aspect. People from all social classes, all religions, all "races", all continents, all ages, all <insert anything you can think of>. I agree that simply dismissing something that a lot of people care about is wrong, but I'd say it's "more wrong" to put the interest of one people above the interest of almost every other people, rather than the other way around. Which, to emphasize further, doesn't mean I condone dismissing Am. Football just because Europe don't like it, or anything similar.

How fast a sport grows is largely irrelevant though, as an increase from 1 player to 100 players would be a huge increase, but it'd still be a tiny sport (And before any overzealous yank jumps me, I know very well that both Am. Football and Baseball are bigger than that even here in Sweden, where "nobody" gives a crap about them). Take Floorball for example. It took ~15 years from the creation of the sport to it becoming the second most played sport in the country, ahead of well established sports like hockey, handball, basketball, tennis, athletics etc. That's, by any standards, explosive growth. And yet I suspect that 90% (If not more) of you have no idea what the sport is. In case it wasn't clear, the point of this example is that "fastest growing" alone means nothing, and that labelling someone ignorant for not knowing about something fast-growing isn't quite the same as labelling them ignorant for not knowing something that's far more widespread, albeit not fast-growing.

But indeed, the popularity of the Super Bowl is quite amazing. I don't care about Am. Football much at all, but yet I stay up to 5 A.M once a year (Usually before a school/work day) to watch it, but I can't explain quite why I might start liking it more if I watched some games in person, that weren't broadcasted commercially, as the constant commercial breaks really annoyed me.

Edited June 4, 2006 by Lathund

[joey_big_nose]

Ok, I'm bored and trying to get out of doing my timesheets...

I picked a random weekend in October (the weekend of the 15th) last year. 53 games were held in college football, total attendances of 2,177,396 for an average of 41,083. The top attenance was 111,249. Some of the larger schools were on the road (Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Penn State, etc.) and it wasn't "rivalry weekend" (just to show I picked at random).

Add another 921,607 for 14 pro games (average of 65,829) and there were over 3 million (average of over 46k) that attended live "american football" games that weekend (and that doesn't count non-Division 1a college teams, equivalent to non-league).

I'd be interested to see what the average was for the top 6 or 7 "soccer" leagues (would be an equivalent number of games) was for that weekend.

The point isn't which is bigger, etc, the point is that you say we can't dismiss a sport just because it isn't big over here, but I say you can't dismiss one just because it is only big over here. Smacks of the same elitism you accuse him of.

2.2mill attendance

divided by Population of US- 300 million

equals 0.007% of population.

Premiership Unofficial Average Attendance: 33,875 x 10 games (one round of fixtures) equals 338,750

plus English League Championship Unofficial Average Attendance: 17,719 x 12 equals 212,628

plus English League One Unofficial Average Attendance: 7,668 x 12 equals 92,016

plus English League Two Unofficial Average Attendance: 4,242 x 12 equals 50,904

thus Total average english weekend league attendance: 0.694298 million

divided by England population of 50 million

equals 0.013% of population. A pretty comprehensive win for 'blighty!

ps. the true acid test would be to work out combined english Union, League, Cricket and footie versus Gridiron, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey. But I canna be bothered!

Guardian puts the boot into myth of America sporting passion. This time Baseball get it in the nuts.

[Drakefyre]

Baseball is one of the most boring sports people pay money to watch. Give me some 0-0 draws any day.

And the US has the most soccer players in the world, according to every statistical report on the subject that I've seen (most recently National Geographic).

[Eddie]

Baseball is one of the most boring sports people pay money to watch. Give me some 0-0 draws any day.

And the US has the most soccer players in the world, according to every statistical report on the subject that I've seen (most recently National Geographic).

Surely that willy competition is simply down the fact that you have a population nearly 6 times the size of ours. Even if every single Brit played football only 1 American would have to in order for you to beat us. Your population is larger than any European nation and it would only be in South America or maybe a country like Russia where you would find a large population with a large enough interest in the sport that they could possibly rival you. The only thing you can really say as result of that is quite simply, why aren't you better at it?