Well, this question has been floating around message boards, talk shows, blogs and articles since I've been following the sport. However, in view of David
Beckham's coming to America, it's worth another look. After all, David (yeah, were on a first name basis) came here for a "new challenge," let's take a few minutes to see what he's up against.
I. High-school soccer players
Soccer is in direct competition with American Football, Baseball, etc. for young athletes. Currently, as compared to other sports, there is little money in soccer for Americans. For example, the league minimum salary for NBA players is around $400,000 while for
MLS the
maximum salary unless you are one of the 13 designated players (
Beckham,
Blanco, etc) is around $300,000. It's not hard to see why most gifted young American athletes choose to concentrate on
Basketball or other established American sports over soccer.
Unlike in other countries where "normal" people play soccer, this market force leaves American soccer teams stacked with "fringe personalities" which are loathed by many Americans (not myself,
btw). Result?--soccer players are viewed the same as people with lots of
tattoos, or have purple hair, or listen to
Emo, etc. Mainstream America just doesn't go for it.
II. Lack of television coverage
Soccer is not profitable for television networks. Okay, let me rephrase that a bit. Soccer is not as profitable as sports that lend
themselves more easily to advertising. In America, sports are subsidized largely by advertising dollars. Let's compare the NFL to the English Premiership (
EPL). The
EPL is the most watched soccer league in the world, with an estimated 1,000,000,000 (yup, 1 Billion) fans following the clubs. The NFL mainly only markets to U.S. consumers, and although I've not seen an estimate as to how many people follow the NFL--it has to be less than 300 million. This means the NFL has 1/3 of the fan base of the
EPL, yet manages to extract roughly the same (
or slightly more) TV revenue per team. This shouldn't be too surprising since networks have roughly 2 hours of "down" time in an American Football game to squeeze in Budweiser advertisements--translation, more revenue for both teams and networks.
What this means is that even if the ratings of televised soccer in the U.S. were to grow equivalent with the major American sports leagues, it will not actually be as profitable to the networks. The networks are afraid of a less profitable product cannibalizing ratings from the more profitable sports. The bottom line--the financial interests of television networks are not aided by growing soccer viewership.
III. Perception of low scoring
This is the label soccer gets, and I think it's unfair and seems to be only perpetuated by the misinformed. Baseball, hockey, and even American Football games often end in low scores, as long as your team wins, you're not really concerned about the score. A typical soccer game will end 2-1--similar to hockey, football (14-7, anyone) and baseball (
pre-steroids and without the harder ball).
IV. America has left tie by the wayside.We love closure in America, and so the tie has all but left the American sports
landscape in favor of often complicated overtime situations. I felt this worthy of its own
post and have outlined a few situations were a tie (er "draw" as it's more commonly known) can be a desired end to a game.
V. The pace of action in a soccer game is foreign to Americans.
Soccer vs. Basketball. In Basketball, the teams take turns at scoring with each team having 40-100 chances. This is in stark contrast to soccer where even when two attack minded soccer teams meet you may only get a total of 10-20 real chances at getting a goal. This is different, but it means each chance is more significant and making soccer less of a statistical game.
Soccer vs. Baseball. The differences are obvious...baseball is a relaxed sport. We sit around and talk, listen to announcers, read the newspaper, flip to another channel when the bottom of the lineup bats, etc. Basically, you don't know if something will happen, but you know when to watch for it. Soccer requires constant vigilance and attention from fans--something harder to come by in America these days--Ritalin anyone?
Soccer vs. Football. American football is a field position battle. The buildup is clear--yes, there is the occasional long pass or break-through run, but generally the position of the scrimmage line announces how close each team is to scoring. It's like two ancient armies lining up for battle. There is anticipation before every play starts and the factors (down, yardage, position, etc) that affect the tactics change for every play. In soccer the buildup is a little more hidden. Much like a "dry" joke, to appreciate the buildup in soccer you need put in a little effort--understand player capabilities, team tactics and strategy--it's there, you just have to know where to look.
The bottom line...soccer is just different than the mainstream American sports. It can be just as enjoyable (if not more so), but it requires a little effort. In my opinion, it's well worth it but I'm not going to force it on anyone.
Ah, 60 percent. Okay, granted, none of my predictions were against popular expectations, but I did predict two draws accurately. Better than BBC's Mark Lawrensoon, Football Expert.
