Why in the U.S the media don't really care about soccer?

I have been living in the U.S for a couple of year now and
I do not really see that the media give Soccer a lot of importance.
They only give a soccer game sometime. Why?

well, I live in canada, but fortunately, we get plenty of soccer here...we get 3 or 4 Serie A games a week, and occasionally Coppa Italia matches. Also, we get pleeeeenty of Premier League matches, and one channel that gives me lots of league games (brazilian, german, spanish, etc)

so i guess i cant complain

Well, my *best* guess is that it's not a *Ad friendly* sport like the others that we, North Americans, watch. No tv time-outs, commercials every 5 minutes, etc...

One of the networks biggest complaints is the 45 minutes *commercial free*. Some even suggested on stopping play for 5 minutes in each half during MLS games.

What amazes me is with all the technological gadgets that the American networks use, they've never used the *split screen* like I see on SportsNet, TSN, TLN, etc...

yup the commercial thing must have been the main reason of why they dont really like broadcasting soccer...
take a look at my poor country indonesia (hehe) we got FREE soccer games on TV every weekend (serie A, premiership, and i dunno what else since ive been away for 2 years now) not to mention the champions league and UEFA league...
other thing is that becoz the women are so good and the men soccer team have only been recently improving a lot, may be the audience are not so interested in watching soccer in here, plus there are not so many stars here in US, well there are, but they have passed their gold time...
i suffered a lot when i first came here, becoz there was NO SOCCER ON WEEKENDS!!! hehe, but later on, i guess that CARTOON NETWORK channel makes me really enjoy TV other than soccer hehehe...

i guess americans are more obsessed with their own sports (Gridiron, Ice HOckey and Base/Basketball) and soccer doesnt get much attention. its the same in australia, we only have the one channel that covers football (SBS) but they dont have Milan games, they cover all world soccer, so undestandably Milan doesnt get much time. When the champs league was on they broadcasted the Milan-Real match.. that was great, i was quite pleased

however i think cable TV might have a bit more soccer, but since it is our 4th football code (behind league, union and afl) those codes come first.. shame

mad4milan said:

What amazes me is with all the technological gadgets that the American networks use, they've never used the *split screen* like I see on SportsNet, TSN, TLN, etc...

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lol, you MUST be Canadian I have FoxSportsWorld Canada (for digital cable...have to order it) and they have PLENTY of soccer... they're showing Boca vs River Plate right now :devil2:

lol @ Mad4Milan's signature. I do not care about this topic. But Mad4Milan, have you heard about the Fabian Barthez Virus?

Your computer craps out and it can no longer save anything

LOL I read a similar version of the Barthez virus...

The David Beckham virus - This affects newer computers mainly. The computer looks great, all the lights are on, but nothing works.

The Roy Keane virus - Throws you out of Windows.

Saw those on This Is Anfield

Main reason is that while the rest of the world was getting into soccer from the 1890's to about the 1940's, America was getting into baseball. I don't know if you have noticed, but we like to do our own thing.

In my opinion they are very similar in the fact that there are very long periods with very little excitement then, a whole lot of excitement very quickly, then back to no excitement for a while (not always but this is how a lot of it works). Soccer I think is also like baseball in that it's something you have to grow up w/. I love baseball, not because the sport is great, but it reminds me of when I was a little kid and spent a lot of carefree time w/ my dad. That feeling gets me through the boring parts of the game. Growing up I always loved playing soccer the most so that why I a big fan.

The advertising thing didn't come into play until the 1970's when we developed the A-League when Pele came to play here for the Comets. Sports are on TV here because it makes money, not because people like it and when there are no commercials there isn't much money to be made.

The other thing that holds it way back here is that our great athletes don't play soccer because there is hardly any money to be made. IMO a great athletes can basically choose what sport they want to specialize in (i.e. baseball, basketball, or football) either way the league minimum for all 3 sports is higher then the maximum salary that can be made playing soccer in the MLS. If there was more money in it, then more people would play, that would result in better players and ultimately in better games. Finally leading to more fans.

Another thing is that most guys in the US consider it to be a "gay" sport because the contact is mostly harmless and guys are always falling all over the place complaining about injuries. We are a society that if someone is going to get hurt they better real get hit, no pussing around. There isn't one American sport where people take dives (except the MLS). Not to mention the taking you shirt off after a goal - can players please stop doing that! Like football, granted they wear pads, but I have seen guys going full speed in football get blind-sided by someone else going full speed right at the knee or ankles and the guys just gets up and lines up for another play. No rolling around or complaining, just solid ass kicking.

Another minor factor is that most high-school guys here who are into soccer and play it a lot are stoners and usually end up just smoking pot instead of going to practice (at least that's the way it is in the bay area)

Final thing is that everywhere else in the world has youth academies and in the US they are not allowed at all. If we could get the MLS teams to set up boarding schools where young talented American can practice most of the day and be schooled at the same time, we would get better a lot faster.

In Europe is you sign for a club and go through it youth system, the player is being taught by basically the same coaches for 6 to seven year so there is a lot of consistency in their training. Here they play in grammer school w/ 1 coach then a PAL league w/ another coach, then to high school jr. varsity w/ a dif. coach, then the SR. PAL, then varsity w/ another coach, then to college w/ even another coach. All the while each coach he has a different style or strategy, which also hold up the players’ development.

Seamus said:

Another thing is that most guys in the US consider it to be a "gay" sport because the contact is mostly harmless and guys are always falling all over the place complaining about injuries. We are a society that if someone is going to get hurt they better real get hit, no pussing around. There isn't one American sport where people take dives (except the MLS). Not to mention the taking you shirt off after a goal - can players please stop doing that! Like football, granted they wear pads, but I have seen guys going full speed in football get blind-sided by someone else going full speed right at the knee or ankles and the guys just gets up and lines up for another play. No rolling around or complaining, just solid ass kicking.

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do u play soccer man? becoz if u do play the real soccer then u will know how badly hurt ur leg could be after the game... i dont like using shinguard when i play soccer (except for the tournament where they require to use it) and everytime after the game i can see bruises all over my legs... and not to mention the elbow thing, i use to play defender so i dont know how many ppl i have hit with my elbow, but i almost got into fight a lot just becoz of the elbow thing...
also, since i came here and going to the rec center where i play soccer and there are guys who play football too, i have never seen those guys who play football fight with each other but in the other hand almost every single game i play every friday there is always one fight (at least) and i mean real punching and kicking... it doesnt make me proud but at least it says that soccer (football in british english) is not gay at all...
but hey, i understand if the americans dont really into soccer, they r just different with the rest of the world... at least i like their NBA...

I'm not saying that it dosen't hurt - it does. But there is a big differance. In football the point is to be physical and hurt someone, in soccer it isn't.

I was just answering the question. Plain and simple a lot of American guys that are into sports see it that way. When I said mostly harmless it was a mistake, I ment to say less physical then other American sports. i was hurring to get out from work.

Don't get pissed at me - I like soccer remember? I'm just pointing out the way other people see it.

I have noticed that out of my friends that are really into sports, the ones that like soccer are all of my friends that are smart.

I have a friend that rips on soccer all the time, he always says it gay and calls them fairies, but he got up at 4:00am for a week straight to watch some golf competition in Europe and stayed up late night watching Tennis in Australia - Who does that make any sence?? He is an idiot, but do you see what I mean people in America who don't like soccer tend to be of less the decent mental status and thoes that can appreciate it and follow it tend to have a little more going on upstairs.

For God Sake the US play Jamica today and it wasn't even on TV - What does that tell you? We won 2-1, if you want to read the game summary it is here: http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=27859&itype=

hehe no man, im not pissed on u, just saying that it's a man sport... and even if i play against those big football players, i wont hesitate to take their legs on hard tackles... hehe
now i have a question that even my english prof here couldnt answer: why do americans call it soccer? where did it come from? and why do the football players not using thier foot a lot (only the kicker and once a while) but they still call it football?
anyway, no hard feeling man...

mtfco said:

why do americans call it soccer? where did it come from?

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Well, it's obviously because of the confusion that it would cause.

The game of *football* as we North Americans refer at, already existed and was part of our lives when the game of *football* known to the Europeans came across the Atlantic.

I don't particulary why in North America they decided to name it *football* since only the kickers & punters use their feet, but my best guess is that the sport derived from rugby - aka rugby-football.

Did you know that the first professionnal *American football* team was the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, known then as the Hamilton Football Club. Offically on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1869.

In *European football*, the first club was Sheffield, in 1862 - if I'm not mistaken.

BTW, they also refer it as soccer in Australia so there isn't confusion with another beautiful game: Aussie Rules Football. Am I correctamundo?

I know your not pissed

Soccer is actually British I read this at a couple of places but this is the best explanation:

"Soccer" was originally called "association football" during the formation of the Football Association in England in the 1860s. This was to maintain a distinction from the other football game being organised in England at the same time based on the handling codes, whilst Association Football conformed to the dribbling codes. The other football came to be known as "rugby" football, named after the Rugby School in England, where it is said that a certain young student, William Webb Ellis, picked up the ball in his hands during an association football match and ran with it over the goal line. Master Ellis asked his teacher, who was refereeing, if that was a goal. The reply was, "No, but it was a jolly good 'try'", which is where one of the rugby scoring terms comes from. Rugby Union was formally organised by 1871, but suffered another split by 1893 when Rugby League was formed. I digress.

Near the end of 1863, Charles Wreford-Brown, who later became a notable official of the Football Association, was asked by some friends at Oxford whether he cared to join them for a game of "rugger" (rugby). He is said to have refused, preferring instead to go for a game of "soccer" - a play on the word "association". The name caught on.

English public schoolboys love to nickname things, then as much as now. The tendency is to add "er" to the end of many words. Rugby [Union] Football became "rugby", and then "rugger". Association Football was better know as "assoccer" and naturally evolved into "soccer" which is much easier for a schoolboy to say...

Therefore, the word "soccer" has been used in the mother country of all football-type games since at least the mid-19th century. The word "football", however, was more descriptive of the game (i.e. kicking a ball with the feet!) and was the term more frequently used. The British exported the game, so naturally the word "football" was the name mostly used all over the world. In recent decades it has been noted that the word "soccer" is apparently increasing in usage. The word "football" still appears in formal designations, however, in for example, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The word "soccer" is more commonly used in several countries around the world that play other forms of football. When Australians say "football", they mean Australian Rules football instead [Well in southern states they do, in the north they mean Rugby League]. The Irish have Gaelic football. In the USA and Canada, of course, there is Gridiron football. Rugby Union, Rugby League, Australian Rules, Gaelic, American and Canadian football all owe their roots to Association football. With the exception of Gaelic Football, they all use an ovoid shaped ball. None is as popular around the world as Association football.

"Football" is the world standard name for "soccer". I always used the word "football" (and still do, wherever I can). The word "soccer", however, is engrained into the origins of the modern game of association football as much as any other aspect of The Game much of the world enjoys today.

The whole artice can be found at: http://www.ukraine-observer.com/archive.php?section=POTPOURRI&issue=146

I think the reason why soccer is not popular in the US is because of MONEY. People's Sports entertainment dollars go to the big 3 sports (football, baseball and basketball) and to hockey. Then there's other so called sports like wrestling and Nascar.

If soccer is to catch on, then the major TV networks should start pouring in money to the game like the way they do with the big 4 sports. But the networks dont do it since the revenues they can generate in terms of advertising is minimal due to the near impossibility of putting in enough commercials during the games.

IMO if they want to make it big, then they should figure out a way to insert commercials during every foul or stoppage of play so the networks can then generate revenues (sorta like injury timeouts in the NFL). Of course this will change the rhythm of the game a bit but to me thats the only way to generate money from soccer.

And they need to get some kick ass marketing people and a good commissioner like a Gary Bettman (from NHL) or David Stern (NBA) who can sort of make the soccer league a commercial filled extravaganze and money machine. Then there'll be more and more big time sponsors with big time bucks coming in to the sport. And of course the fact that the league owns all the teams doesn't help matters either. We need crazy lunatic owners like the guy from Dallas Maverics to start throwing money around and importing big names in their prime to create a buzz about the sport.

Whether you like it or not, in America the only sports that grow are the ones that generate money. That's why NHL and PGA that sucked for so long are now huge 'cos they figured out a way to monetize their sport. Soccer also needs to do that in the US if they're to ever become as big as it is in Europe and the rest of the world.

mtfco said:

yup the commercial thing must have been the main reason of why they dont really like broadcasting soccer...
take a look at my poor country indonesia (hehe) we got FREE soccer games on TV every weekend (serie A, premiership, and i dunno what else since ive been away for 2 years now) not to mention the champions league and UEFA league...
other thing is that becoz the women are so good and the men soccer team have only been recently improving a lot, may be the audience are not so interested in watching soccer in here, plus there are not so many stars here in US, well there are, but they have passed their gold time...
i suffered a lot when i first came here, becoz there was NO SOCCER ON WEEKENDS!!! hehe, but later on, i guess that CARTOON NETWORK channel makes me really enjoy TV other than soccer hehehe...

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Look at my native country HAITI We cable for free. They give the calcio,
the champions League and others.

I mean what About the Radio Some country do not have electricity 24/7.
Even they can not see the game but the heard it.

ads216 said:

Then there's other so called sports like wrestling and Nascar.

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What?? You don't consider wrestling a real sport? I'm going to the "No Way Out" ppv next week...

ads216 said:

then they should figure out a way to insert commercials during every foul or stoppage of play so the networks can then generate revenues.

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Like I mentionned before, in Canada they use those moments to insert split-screen commercials. I just don't get it why they don't use this format in the US. IMO, it's better alternative than stoppage of play altogether and it doesn't affect the flow of the game.

mad4milan said:

Did you know that the first professionnal *American football* team was the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, known then as the Hamilton Football Club. Offically on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1869.

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CFL for life my friend hahaha im from Toronto... im not a big Argo fan but i guess i like them

Im not a big football fan... i like Hockey and "Soccer" most... basketball and baseball aren't too bad, and i dont really care for american football (or Canadian football for that matter)

Well here the thing with the MLS - it has 10 teams, 6 of which are owned by the same guys. The only reason why it is still around is because of his money and the way they have set the league up. 1 major problem is that a lot of the teams end up spending most of their money renting the arens to play the game. LA built the 1st soccer onlly stadium for the Galaxy and when more teams can do that they will start making a lot more money. Which will allow more $ to be spent on players. My team the earthquakes rent SJ states football stadium, but they get none of the profit from parking or food or alcohol says which is where all the money is to be made. The ticket says just about pay for the renting and runing of the team.

Another thing that is really killing the MLS, the refs can't figure out the concept of playing the advantage. If a midfielder gets fouled while passing a perfect through ball to a forward who is open on goal, the ref will blow the whistle ever time guarenteed! The reffing here is horrible, I know everone says that, but here it's true. There is also no quick re-start, the ref. always allows the defence to get back and set up.

Well 1st of all no David Stern or any NBA gimicks - the NBA may be getting more popular overses but it's doing horribly here. The players don't give a shit about the sport in the slightest. No one really wants to win, just make money - it's sort of turning into a joke over here + they have been wasting a ton of money supporting the WNBA. Players don't even want to waste their time for the national team anymore. It's gone way down hill and is basically surviving off Micheal Jordan.

Baseball is really living off it's past as well. Nascar is becoming, you'd be suprised at how much money it makes. Football is has become America's sport.

I didn't know that the same guys owned 6 teams. I thought things were doing better. I remember at first, a couple of teams had to move but after that, didn't hear much about struggling squads...

All those strikes aren't helping baseball either. The crowds at Nascar races are unbelievable and it's growing quite a following in Canada too. Personnaly, I don't really enjoy it. A bunch of cars on a oval for 3 hours... The arguments are fun to watch though... so are the crashes - when nobody gets hurt of course...

Your right about bball, all about the moulah, making the highlight reel and the shoe contract... Instead of making the quite simple jumshot with the higher percentage of going in, they elect to try those impossible moves which don't quite work...

Can somebody explain to me why they use smaller balls on the WNBA? In college, they use the *regular* ones...