Sound Off: Is Football (Finally) on the Rise in America?

[dickey1331]

Quote: Originally Posted by inkcil

I thought it was clear that I was speaking in the context of Soccer rising to the level of the other major sports in terms of National interest and following. Of course many Americans watch the MLS, the Premier League and other world leagues year round, but is soccer on the rise in America? I would say no. In other words, for example if it was (hypothetically) the 8th most popular sport in America (behind the Big 4, X-games, Motorsports & Golf) before this World Cup it will not be 7th or higher when the Cup is done. Let the dust settle and check back in a year. It will still be 8th. IMO.

MLS isn't the 8th sport in America. They average more fans in the stadium than NHL and NBA and 8th overall in the soccer world. These are 2012 numbers so that was all before this World Cup.

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by dickey1331

MLS isn't the 8th sport in America. They average more fans in the stadium than NHL and NBA and 8th overall in the soccer world. These are 2012 numbers so that was all before this World Cup.

So national popularity is determined by average number of fans that attend an event, regardless of stadium capacity, ticket price, number of events, merchandise sold, TV audience or TV revenue? By that logic, wouldn't NASCAR be far and away the most popular sport in America?

BTW, who's that in your av?

[Cavani161]

I think I posted this in another thread about the popularity of the sport. I coach a competitive team at the youth level, U12. Parents have told me they won't allow their kids to play football and it all has to do with the concussions in the news with the sport. Some of the kids play two sports, and this second sport is typically baseball. There's not one kid on my team that plays football, or on any of the other two U12 teams we have in the league.

On the 4th, I was at the high school on the football/soccer field for the fireworks and got there early, and there were more kids with soccer balls running around then there were kids with footballs throwing back and forth. Going back 10 years ago this probably wasn't the case.

American footballs popularity will be going down, based on it's issues of player safety and the global force that is soccer knocking on the door.

[dickey1331]

Quote: Originally Posted by DrJones

So national popularity is determined by average number of fans that attend an event, regardless of stadium capacity, ticket price, number of events, merchandise sold, TV audience or TV revenue? By that logic, wouldn't NASCAR be far and away the most popular sport in America? BTW, who's that in your av?

Comparing it to baseball and basketball attendance is a little far fetched but comparing it to other soccer leagues and MLS being 8th in attendance is pretty damn good.

The guy I was replying to doesn't think MLS will ever be one of Americas top sports and that's just wrong. It may not be right now but it's going to be.

Also my avatar is Katy Perry

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by dickey1331

The guy I was replying to doesn't think MLS will ever be one of Americas top sports and that's just wrong. It may not be right now but it's going to be.

I certainly agree that MLS is going to grow, but it depends how you want to define "top" sports, I guess. In terms of revenue, MLS has an extremely long way to go to catch the NHL, never mind the "Big Three". NHL revenue for 2014 is 3.7B $US (and will be more than 4B in 2015), which surpasses the Bundesliga, La Liga, and Serie A.

I'll be curious to see the TV ratings and US enthusiasm for the World Cup in 2018, where all games will an 8-10 hour time difference between Russia and the East Coast (as opposed to 5-6 hour time difference when the WC is held in western Europe). That's one of the reasons I think the USSF should push hard for a combined CONCACAF/CONMEBOL Copa America (with guaranteed US-friendly time zones) to become a regular event in between World Cups.

Quote: Originally Posted by dickey1331

Also my avatar is Katy Perry

Cool.

[eyeamg0dly]

Quote: Originally Posted by SteelersFreak

Honestly, in about 100 to 200 years I think history books will look back on American football and think "What the **** were they thinking?" The more research they do on playing football, the worse and worse it looks for the health, football is either going to become non-existant or its going to become flag football, seriously. And its not necessarily because its really THAT dangerous, but when you have former pro players not allowing their kids to play football because of what happened to them, that tells you something and more importantly, it tells parents something.

I don't think anyone who has played football knew of the future health risks and now are regretting they even played. I know I am. I severely dislocated my knee playing high school football. Two surgeries later and I am ready for a full knee replacement now. However I am way to young to have my knee replaced so I have to deal with the pain. Do I regret playing, yes, I would much rather trade my health over a chance of never playing past high school football. But guess what, you are just as much at risk of injury in any sport you play.

NFL might be having health problems with concussions and ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) but they aren't the only ones. Hell the disease is named after a baseball player and what is their risk to concussions compared to NFL players?Even soccer has concussion problems and IIRC is right behind football for concussions and ALS. The people who think some sports are relatively safe over others have very bad misconceptions about them.

[iTz BlaKe B]

If it helps I'm from a single A region (The smallest possible in High School sports) and I'm pretty sure none of the schools had soccer but now several, enough where our region competes. There are even some schools in the region where the best player on the football team is a soccer player converted to kicker. The fact that in 4 years over half a region got soccer is pretty good growth. I think the biggest problem is unlike football or basketball most teenage kids don't even know the rules of soccer.