The eternal question of football/soccer and its survival in the United States is: Why won’t the sport be huge and break into the Big 4 of US Professional Sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR)?
Well we have 5 answers to that question that will make you think and hopefully bring out some emotion in favor or against these arguments. So let’s reveal the Top 5 reasons why soccer will not be huge in the U.S.
#5 – Outside Soccer Snobbery
My colleagues at Mad About Futbol might take offense or disagree but foreigners from soccer loving/mad countries look down & raise their noses to the US game. There is no doubt that the US game is of lower quality than in Europe, Africa, and South America. The structure of college ball in relation to the professional game and the ludicrous rules of the college game have certainly contributed to the slow progress of the US game from a skills perspective.
For the game to grow in the US, those people from soccer loving nations outside the US have to stop bad mouthing the quality and look at the MLS and the college game for what is. It is important these “Soccer Snobs” look at the game here through a different lens and stop comparing it to their home leagues and expecting MLS or college teams to play like a team from their home 1st division league.
#4 – No Patience
Those of us who love futbol know that its takes great patience to watch 90 minutes of a match. The fact is Americans are some A.D.D., ridiculously short attention span having peoples. The most common complaint is that there isn’t enough action to sustain watching a soccer match. Americans are not conditioned to appreciate the subtlety of football because American society as a whole is about instant gratification and the quick fix. The artistry & skill of soccer is lost
on Americans because there isn’t a goal being scored every 2 seconds or someone isn’t getting the snot blasted out of them on every play. A game of patience cannot become huge in an impatient society.
#3 – Freak Athlete Factor
This might be the most overlooked of the reasons, the Freak Athlete Factor. Americans like their athletes freakish, whether they are unusually tall like basketball players or unusually muscular like American football or the roided up baseball players. There is a real life, comic book quality that Americans like in their athletes. Soccer players are tremendous athletes but compared to athletes in the Big 3 sports, there is nothing about their size or physical stature that
makes them stand out.
If you didn’t know who Lionel Messi was and he walked down the streets of a city in the US, you would walk right past him and not think twice. The 2 greatest players of all time, Pelé & Maradona are 5’8″ and 5’5″ respectively, their heights alone would have made it damn near impossible for them to be successful in the NBA, NFL, or MLB. Without sounding condescending, soccer is the common person’s game with its stars & icons looking as common as their rabid fans.
#2 – Rich Country, Poor Game
Football/Soccer is the game of the poor and the US is the richest country in the world. (Honestly, poor people in the US live better than poor people in most other countries). How many times have you heard of an American footballer growing up learning to play barefoot in the street and fashioning a ball out of plastic bags or socks? Zero. That’s a regular occurrence in many countries all over the world. In countries with worse poverty, their ticket out is soccer. In the US,
poor kids see basketball & American football as their way out. It takes a lot less equipment & “stuff” to play soccer than American football or even basketball. The poorer you are the less “stuff” you can afford, the easier it is to take up soccer.
#1 – The American Way
The number one reason that soccer will not be huge in the US, is American isolationism. Americans are adamant about doing things the “American Way.” That’s why in the States, we don’t use the much easier metric system, health care is not socialized, and why soccer is looked down upon. The prevailing notion in the US is that soccer is as an immigrant sport played by short guys with one name who aren’t masculine cause they don’t use their hands. See Jim Rome’s ignorant,
isolationist ass. A nation founded by immigrants has grown to view immigrants as dirty and the scourge of a nation. This American isolationist mentality & air of superiority has carried over to the promotion & marketing of soccer, thus stunting the growth of the Beautiful Game in the US.
There you have it, the 5 Reasons Why Soccer Won’t Be Huge In The US. I’m an American born & raised and I don’t care if soccer breaks the Big 4 of US Pro Sports as long as there’s enough of a following for my child to make 6 figures playing professionally in the States. The internationality of soccer is alluring enough for me to make The Beautiful Game my #1 sport till I die.
I agree. I think that college athletics is such a big business that we in the US are brainwashed into thinking that something is wrong with developing adolescent children for profit of their own, instead of profit for the university. Another problem is US soccer is sometimes financially difficult due to the fact that their clinics and camps are expensive. Image-people in the US see soccer as an upper class sport instead of the street image of south america. The final reason is advertising. American television can’t handle the idea of only one commercial break during a match.
What are some of the “ludicrous rules of the college game”?
the big difference is that they dont play 45 min clock running halves. its more like a basketball game with the clock stopping and starting and with 4 quarters
I almost disagree with all of that. Nascar is far from exciting and still big, hockey is also low scoring. In america the only people I knew growing up who played soccer were people with money (ahem…soccer mom syndrom) game of the poor? Isn’t that boxing?. The reason soccer/lacrosse and certain sports aren’t big is because ESPN is a monopoly and (until like last week) never covered it. If a kid never sees players on tv, they aren’t going emmualate them. ESPN didn’t want us to follow soccer, because they can’t get their advertising dollars in, so they just pretended it didn’t exist.
Brad, I have to disagree. People have no problem forcing their kids into sports for their own benefit in the us.
paul,
In your statements did you consider the following:
-Nascar fans watch the races to see the crashes?
-Hockey is a full-contact sport with many checks and a handful of fights?
Also, hockey is not a low scoring game. Soccer may be a low scoring game but the scale is shifted way out of proportion. Take basketball (2/3 pts per “goal”) and [american] football (3/7 pts per “goal”). The scoring system vastly changes the desired outcome for the game. Soccer, hockey and lacrosse all have basically the same scoring structure and (aside from lacrosse where you are using a stick and a tiny ball to greatly increase the speed with which one can shoot) the end results of games are fairly the same.
As for your comments about it being a game for the poor, that tidbit was about the general scheme of the world. In other parts of the world soccer can be played by anyone, anytime, anywhere. How many other sports can you play with no shoes, no real “goal”, no uniform/gear and a makeshift ball? Soccer is the cheapest sport to play hands down.
Lastly, ESPN is bogus. How many times can you re-air the same SportsCenter or have multiple shows talking about the same player trades and other sports info and not actually show any real sports? FSC has maybe 5 hours a day of commentary, most of which is showing replays of the games and the rest is games or replays, GolTV is almost ALWAYS showing games or clips and Setanta is always showing something. ESPN has done to sports what MTV has done to “music television”. Instead of showing sports (what they were founded on and what their name still says they do) they play other garbage.
“Those of us who love futbol know that its takes great patience to watch 90 minutes of a match.”
Eh? Not this lover of futbol.
I mean, “great patience”? You’re describing it as if it’s a chore. You’re also buying into the idea that soccer has less “action” than other sports, and thus requires some sort of refined eye and temperament for properly appreciating the game’s nuances. That’s nuts. Soccer is basically nothing BUT action.
“Honestly, poor people in the US live better than poor people in most other countries”
Yes, indeed. In fact you could say that poor people in the United States live better than non-poor people in most other countries.
It is getting more popular though. But there are loads of reasons why it will never take off fully. It’s not an American sport, it can be quite boring – 90mins not one goal! And it would take years to get American players up to the level of say Brazilian team who play soccer as soon as they can walk! Americans should just do what us Irish do – get people from other countries to play for us and pretend they’re Irish. Someone always has an Irish granny!