Achtung! Sooooooooooo any of you guys interested in the international sawker cup?

Dexter Inferno said:
England-Italy tomorrow the first proper dull match this tournament then. :wink:
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As ever, I'm looking forward to watching England crash out. Preferably after a bit of success so it gets harder for them to pretend they don't believe their own hype for a while. As far as the US goes, as long as we beat Ghana and don't embarrass ourselves against Portugal, I'm happy.
 
Here's a question maybe someone has some insight into:

Why is the USA one of the few countries in the world where football is fairly unpopular as a sport?

I get that stuff like baseball and American football obviously have a long history and geographical reason for being so popular but christ, maybe apart from Australia, you'd really struggle to find a country outside North America where football isn't a religion and given how many European immigrant flooded into the US particularly from the 1870s and 80s when professional football was starting to emerge... it doesn't really make sense to me.
 
jbj said:
Here's a question maybe someone has some insight into:

Why is the USA one of the few countries in the world where football is fairly unpopular as a sport?

I get that stuff like baseball and American football obviously have a long history and geographical reason for being so popular but christ, maybe apart from Australia, you'd really struggle to find a country outside North America where football isn't a religion and given how many European immigrant flooded into the US particularly from the 1870s and 80s when professional football was starting to emerge... it doesn't really make sense to me.
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It is indeed quite weird.
 
I'm not really a fan.
I liked to play it when I was in high school. I was good at slide tackling.
Even watching my grandkids play is mild torture.

But I don't really like to watch North American football, either. I played that in high school, too.


Oh and this made me laugh.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1402753783.914096.jpg
 
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It's not unpopular per se. In fact about every other kid is forced to play it at some point.

I'd say one of the biggest reasons for soccer's failure to command mainstream attention is simply that the other major sports have had a very long tradition in the country,; they have the foothold soccer doesn't, plus boku capital. Also I think any individual aspect of more popular sports in the country trump what soccer has to offer. American football has more strategy, hockey and basketball have more speed, and baseball has um stats I guess. And they all have more scoring. Muricans like scorin!

But don't worry footie aficionados, the powers that be are trying their damndest to make soccer a thing here. And with the ever increasing Hispanic population it will be.
 
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jbj said:
Here's a question maybe someone has some insight into:

Why is the USA one of the few countries in the world where football is fairly unpopular as a sport?

I get that stuff like baseball and American football obviously have a long history and geographical reason for being so popular but christ, maybe apart from Australia, you'd really struggle to find a country outside North America where football isn't a religion and given how many European immigrant flooded into the US particularly from the 1870s and 80s when professional football was starting to emerge... it doesn't really make sense to me.
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Well you could ask the inverse -- why aren't American football and baseball more popular in Europe? -- and get the same answer you just cited: history, geography, etc.

The popularity of American football here in the U.S. keeps it profitable and feeds the promotional juggernaut that maintains its popularity. And baseball and basketball aren't far behind. It would be a tough market to crack now.

Also, American football fits nicely on a television set, which is how 99% of the fans are following the games, and leaves plenty of breaks for commercials. It's the perfect game for American tastes in the age of television, just as baseball was the dominant sport in the age of radio.

Now that there are widescreen HD televisions that can actually show soccer as something more than tiny figures chasing a white dot around the screen, maybe things will change. But probably not.
 
Tralfaz said:
Well you could ask the inverse -- why aren't American football and baseball more popular in Europe? -- and get the same answer you just cited: history, geography, etc.

The popularity of American football here in the U.S. keeps it profitable and feeds the promotional juggernaut that maintains its popularity. And baseball and basketball aren't far behind. It would be a tough market to crack now.

Also, American football fits nicely on a television set, which is how 99% of the fans are following the games, and leaves plenty of breaks for commercials. It's the perfect game for American tastes in the age of television, just as baseball was the dominant sport in the age of radio.

Now that there are widescreen HD televisions that can actually show soccer as something more than tiny figures chasing a white dot around the screen, maybe things will change. But probably not.
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Yeah but as I pointed out, the US was swarmed by immigrants from traditional European footballing countries (UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Italy, Spain and so on...) all throughout the late 19th C and well into the 20th whereas that wasn't the case for Americans coming to Europe.

I just find it interesting as a historian (who was pretty shit at it, but nonetheless studied a bit of sociology at uni) that all of these people somehow or other decided they'd get into baseball, hockey, basketball or US football and forget about the game they left. If they hadn't then surely, money aside because let's be fair BIG money in all sports only came around the last half of the 20th C then you would think football would be much more popular in the US.
 
jbj said:
Yeah but as I pointed out, the US was swarmed by immigrants from traditional European footballing countries (UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Italy, Spain and so on...) all throughout the late 19th C and well into the 20th whereas that wasn't the case for Americans coming to Europe.

I just find it interesting as a historian (who was pretty shit at it, but nonetheless studied a bit of sociology at uni) that all of these people somehow or other decided they'd get into baseball, hockey, basketball or US football and forget about the game they left. If they hadn't then surely, money aside because let's be fair BIG money in all sports only came around the last half of the 20th C then you would think football would be much more popular in the US.
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Well, I have to assume (because I'm too lazy to actually google it up) that even at the height of European immigration to America in the 19th century, the fresh immigrants still were a minority of the population here. For whatever reason, baseball took hold first, followed by American football. And I suppose then (as even now to some degree) the pastimes of the immigrants were looked down upon and discouraged from taking root in America -- by both the established population and by the newly arrived immigrants wanting to fit in. Sort of goes hand in hand with a lot of the other discrimination against and anger directed toward foreigners in America.
 
jbj said:
Why is the USA one of the few countries in the world where football is fairly unpopular as a sport?
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One word answer: Budweiser.

Seriously -- unlike ever indigenous US sport that has a multitude of time-outs, breaks in the action, and other opportunities for us to be treated to a panoply of commercials for alcoholic beverages, fatty foods and erectile dysfunction medications (coincidence?) in soccer, once the whistle blows to start a half -- you will have 45+ minutes of nonstop play -- no time for commercials. Let's face it -- sponsorships and advertising have had a huge roll in making these others sports (esp. pointy-ball) cultural phenomena, whereas soccer is a sport that grew from the bottom up -- rather like baseball in this country. It's part of the fabric of society in most of the world. It IS changing, however: I see many more kids on their own kicking footballs these days than playing pickup baseball or pointyball.
 
jbj said:
hy is the USA one of the few countries in the world where football is fairly unpopular as a sport?
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I've always been into less traditional, non-ball sports such as surfing, skiing (water and snow), skating, skydiving, motorcycles, and of course road/track/MTB cycling.Not just watching, but participating. "Life is not a spectator sport."
I do enjoy watching football, baseball, and hockey, but rarely watch soccer.
Why not?
It's the fucking acting to draw a card from the ref's. I hate that pussy bullshit. :facepalm: Eliminate that and the viewership might just increase.

That said, the comeback by Costa Rica today was awesome! :thu:
 
jbj said:
Here's a question maybe someone has some insight into:

Why is the USA one of the few countries in the world where football is fairly unpopular as a sport?

I get that stuff like baseball and American football obviously have a long history and geographical reason for being so popular but christ, maybe apart from Australia, you'd really struggle to find a country outside North America where football isn't a religion and given how many European immigrant flooded into the US particularly from the 1870s and 80s when professional football was starting to emerge... it doesn't really make sense to me.
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When English and Scottish people went to the continent or South America in that period, they went for a few years to build railroads or whatever, and then expected to return home. So they were more likely to maintain their "Britishness", including football, which was picked up by the locals. Typically, when people moved to the US, they were coming to stay, so there was more pressure (whether internal or external) to Americanize and leave some of their European traits behind.
I have no evidence for this or anything, but being a fan of the game in the US, I've thought about it some.
 
That Costa Rica match today was amazing. As frustrating as those Central American teams can be as a US fan, it's always nice to see CONCACAF teams doing well at the World Cup.
 
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