Alan Abrahamson: The US Isn't A Soccer Country - what do you think?

There are people that think the US is a soccer country?

Obviously. Good soccer players in Europe are under contracts before their 18th birthday and are in serious leagues.

If Portugal (population ~10 million) has equal ability to the US (population ~300 million) then we are recruiting soccer talent at best 1/30th as well as Portugal.

This was interesting though, apparently the US is known as one of the fitter teams:

http://fittish.deadspin.com/world-cup-the-better-you-are-the-less-you-run-1592125133

College football is the route to the NFL. College soccer is barely a step up from high school age club soccer. Real soccer players the world over are playing for real club teams at that point. The NCAA has nothing to do with that.

The US is not a soccer country, but it's not a 100-fold gap.

More soccer trolling. He even admits as much: "It’s difficult to know which is more fun. The column. Or the howling in response from the soccer crazies."

This line was particularly egregious: "[T]he American team had been up 2-0 and a real team at that level does not, can not blow a two-goal lead — emphatically prove[s] my point." This is just silly, and it makes one wonder if the guy has actually watched as much soccer as he claims. Every team has outlier results, some extraordinarily good, others extraordinarily bad. One could just as easily say that Spain is not a real team because of their epic collapse against the Netherlands.

He points out that half of MLS teams are losing money. Well so are half Europe's biggest soccer clubs. So are lots of NBA teams. Heck, many MLB teams are only making money because the taxpayers paid for their stadiums. I realize that MLS has taxpayer funded stadiums too, my point is just that MLS appears financially weak when compared to real businesses, not when compared to sports franchises.

Also, comparing MLS and NFL TV contracts isn't really fair, since premiership soccer in the US is far more popular than MLS on tv. NBC paid $250 million to broadcast EPL in the US this year. Of course, we should probably also include college football with the NFL if we're really comparing sports. NFL and college football are obviously in their own category, but soccer (even lowly MLS) is quickly gaining ground on the other big American sports. An interesting X-factor about the growth of US soccer, as a fan sport, is that the fan base highly educated and affluent. Sports that attract a wealthy demographic can do quite well even if they don't have spectacular ratings.

Mostly his point boils down to the fact that football is entrenched. There's an obvious feedback effect when it comes to the popularity of a given sport--the more people like it, the more people are going to like it. If 100,000 of your closest friends are attending the college game down the street, then you want to be there too. If you're treated as royalty for playing high school football, well, that has nothing to do with anything intrinsic to the sport itself.

The World Cup frenzy in the US really demonstrates this feedback effect. People in bars and parks around the country were going absolutely nuts after Brooks scored his late goal against Ghana. And even outside of the World Cup, the American Outlaws supporters group has reached a critical mass where fans don't feel ridiculous or alone going nuts over their team. The atmosphere during the US vs. Nigeria FRIENDLY match was as intense as any game seven I've ever seen in the US (and I've seen game 7s live in all 3 sports that have them). Or try going to a Seattle or Portland MLS game, where again, the fan intensity for regular season games is unmatched outside of college football. (NFL doesn't come close.) Or consider growing interest in EPL. I used to watch games at home or at an expat bar. Now that most of my male friends watch EPL, I catch about twice as many games because I feel like I'm part of a fan community.

Kickmeballs has never taken off in the U.S.

Bordeaux wrote:

Obviously. Good soccer players in Europe are under contracts before their 18th birthday and are in serious leagues.

Most are training w/ clubs in youth league and on full-time by the time they are 14.

Isn't he just stating the obvious in such a manner as to draw a reaction and increase his hit count?

A lot of people, myself included, pay attention to soccer during the World Cup and pay much less attention outside of that. It's not like anyone is following Curling now that the Winter Olympics have passed. That said soccer has become a legitimate second tier professional sport in the US and is more or less on par with hockey in viewership.

Also apparently The Big House in Ann Arbor has sold out an exhibition game between Man U and Real Madrid this summer. I found that surprising.

Also, I feel like American bars were packed during the World Cup. More so than any other event when the local college or pro team isn't playing.

Ohio State v. Michigan Baseball had 1012 in attendance this year. So I guess soccer is just as popular as baseball according to Mr. Abramson's analysis and baseball is one hundred times less popular than football.

His TV analysis is also very short sighted. American Football, Baseball, and Basketball fans never watch any foreign Football, Baseball, or Basketball Leagues. On the other hand, NBC paid $250 million over three years for the American rights to the English Premier League. Fox pays nearly the same for the Rights to the Champions League. Fox paid $425 million for the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Unlike major American sports, TV spending is spread on a larger number of leagues and competitions.

No USA is not a soccer country. Man i hate the word soccer lol

But in all serious, you guys are not a soccer country but you are certainly up there in the world rankings. USA is no pushover when it comes to soccer!

Did you not watch the Ghana match?

No way is the US a soccer country.

Football, basketball, baseball and even hockey WAAAAAAAY before soccer. Lots of kids play soccer these days in the US, but for whatever reason, those numbers are not translating to adult fans.

College soccer is unpopular, while youth soccer has more participants than any other sport and in fact more than in most if not all other countries. But ratings are up a lot, the U.S.-Algeria game last time out to get into the knockout rounds had as high a rating as the average NBA championship game last year, and the most attended World Cup of all was in the United States, twenty years ago.

So, soccer is on the rise in the U.S. in many ways. It is still a football and basketball country (football in $ and attendance, basketball in participation throughout the ages), but soccer is growing and there is a growing immigrant population supporting this rise.

We did this on another thread already. When you combine all of the broadcast rights for the different competitions, soccer in the US is roughly a half billion per year business. That makes it the 4th biggest team sport behind basketball and ahead of hockey. It's approx. 1/3 of baseball and 1/10 of American football. Of the 5 big team sports, soccer has by far the fastest growth.

Is the US a soccer country? I don't even know what that means. There are 13.5 million soccer players in the country according to the US Census, that's 1 in 24 Americans and more than the entire population of 9 of the nations in the World Cup. So yeah, the US definitely is a soccer country but not *only* or *primarily* a soccer country.

soccer reality wrote:

College football is the route to the NFL. College soccer is barely a step up from high school age club soccer. Real soccer players the world over are playing for real club teams at that point. The NCAA has nothing to do with that.

The US is not a soccer country, but it's not a 100-fold gap.

Exactly. By the logic quoted in the first post, the U.S. isn't a baseball country either. I mean, who the heck goes to college baseball games?

Just like baseball, soccer has never been a major collegiate sport. It has its own system for bringing athletes along.

It has been stated several times that the US has had the most citizens travel to Brazil to watch the world.

With football concussion/long term brain damage issues just now coming to the surface. Soccer is growing in this country at the youth level, Soccer is way way bigger than it was a decade ago.

800 dude wrote:

The World Cup frenzy in the US really demonstrates this feedback effect. People in bars and parks around the country were going absolutely nuts after Brooks scored his late goal against Ghana. ....... Or consider growing interest in EPL. I used to watch games at home or at an expat bar. Now that most of my male friends watch EPL, I catch about twice as many games because I feel like I'm part of a fan community.

People like to get excited and yell and jump up and down about something. It gives their lives meaning. Also, they love to have yet another excuse to go to a bar, drink, and watch sports. Now YES, before you say- 'this is true with all sports, how is soccer different?' I agree, it's true with all sports. BUT...I think that with many other sports (in the USA), the fans are more *truly* passionate, truly care about the games they are watching. With soccer, I think many of the "fans" in bars are "faking" it a bit. Yes, I really believe that. They watch the fans around the world having a great time going nuts over their teams and feel they are missing something. So they want to join in.

And the World Cup is once every 4 years, so fans are able to get motivated for this, just like the Olympics, where all sorts of people who don't give a crap about figure skating really are glued to their tv's watching every move (or the same with swimming). and of course there is Patriotism angle to getting fired up for "your team" in battle of countries.

You said something about "I feel like I'm part of a fan community" in relation to EPL. This is similar with the World Cup. People see people in bars, drinking, having fun, and getting excited for the matches so....why not join in and be part of it?

In summary: yes, it is no longer "uncool" to care or pretend you care about the World Cup as it maybe once was. But I DON'T think you can measure the true caring, the true passion for the sport based on how many people are in a bar, imitating fans from other countries, by singing songs, getting drunk and going crazy when their team scores a goal.... once every 4 years. Most of those people really don't follow the sport, really don't care, and won't watch another soccer match for 4 years. Really, believe it.

The US is definitely NOT a "Soccer Country", not like most countries are. But sure, they care a little, and more than they used to.

Wørd wrote:

Is the US a soccer country? I don't even know what that means. There are 13.5 million soccer players in the country according to the US Census, that's 1 in 24 Americans and more than the entire population of 9 of the nations in the World Cup. So yeah, the US definitely is a soccer country but not *only* or *primarily* a soccer country.

No. There are a Zillion "runners" in the USA too. More than populations of many countries. But the USA is NOT a "Running/Track country". Not by a long shot.

We are talking more about passion for watching/following/caring about results of the sport than participation.

Lots of kids play youth soccer and than never watch a professional match for the rest of their lives. Lots of people run a few 5k's and have absolutely no knowledge who Galen Rupp is. A huge majority of american football fans never played football, but obviously the sport is huge in this country.

Case closed.

Most football fans

4.5 million players are registered with US soccer.

A 68,000 attendance at Seattle - Portland and 9,000 fans on the season ticket waiting list at Wen-Jen would indicate it's doing OK in the Pacific Northwest.

Average attendances:

National Football League (67,604)

College Football (?)

Major League Baseball (30,514)

Major League Soccer (18,807)

National Hockey League (17,455)

National Basketball Association (17,274)

Overall though it has some way to go. MLS TV ratings are terrible.