To achieve the pinnacle/Win the World Cup takes multiple decades.
France was in the Semi Final in 1958, 1982 and 1996 before winning its first World Cup in 1998 and again in 2018. They reached the final in 2006 and 2022 losing both on penalty kicks. This is after playing international soccer since the early 20th century. In reality USSoccer has been somewhat relevant only since the 1990 qualification to the World Cup. That is only 35 five years. We have a unique sports calendar system that is a major detriment to the soccer development in the U.S. Again, worldwide a soccer season lasts nine months not four/three months. We want instant results. That is fine but think about the US National team like a basketball franchise. It takes time to assemble the right pieces.
I bring up facts too.
Attendance, TV ratings, media deals, and revenues.
Those are the best measures of popularity.
The MLS, and pro soccer overall, are way behind the Big Four, and NASCAR, in all of those areas, and those are the facts/stats that substantiate/establish that reality.
When I was a kid growing up, lots of kids played soccer; few people I knew growing up played hockey.
For that matter, more kids played soccer than American football.
Guess what?
That did NOT make soccer a more popular spectator sport in America than hockey or football decades later.
As I said, which sport more kids are playing is neither here nor there.
Won’t ultimately determine the sports popularity with paying spectators.
That is an understatement. They hired the wrong coach in this cycle. I watch a ton of games almost every USMNT game and it is frustrating. We will flame out in the WC, again.
You see cgrbkr I agree with you. They were two obvious choices. The problem has been with USSoccer for a long time. There is one coach that is going to go back to Germany that was the obvious choice besides Marsh. That is Cherundulo.
At the end of the day above average players like Pulisic feel they are more important than the USNT. To play for the USNT is the highest US soccer honor.
This soccer club world cup was forced fed to us by the same people that are behind USSoccer financial arms. To play after a long season is unhealthy for the players. The player’s association is clearly against it.
Soccer fans, answer me this.
I listen to Sports radio, everyday…all day and soccer fans NEVEr call to talk up their sport…ever.
There is more talk about SEC Media Days than reviewing the players on the US National Team or even talking about the favorites for the World Cup.
I can count on one hand any soccer related discussion at all…and if a random call happens…its an extreme one off and then back to sports people are interested in
On the Dynano, do we have fans?
Ive literally NEVER heard a single caller call in to discuss the Dynamo or any MLS squad.
Most real soccer fans in the US are not primarily watching the MLS, they are watching the European leagues where the best players are.
I rather watch my favorite team in the EPL than the Dynamo.
Sports radio? You mean the thing my dad listens to where they scream the same 5 hot takes over and over for 365 days an year and just paint them different team colors for an audience with a room-temperature IQ?
I imagine the demographic for soccer aren’t generally big sports radio callers.
Oh yeah? Are you a screener? Do you even know if they get calls in about soccer?
Seriously, all of this negative/anti soccer bashing is laughable. You don’t like the sport? Fine. You ignore basics information of all of the new new soccer franchises around the U.S. is a choice you make.
You are very much like law. law gave us an attendance stat. He told us soccer had half of the NHL attendance. But the …t never mentioned the number of games being played.
82 NHL games
34 soccer games
At this rate we have more soccer fans attending games. He can excuse himself by mentioning the NHL arena are not as big. So what? Build bigger arenas then.
Listen, I am not going to change your mind and that is fine. Have a wonderful, playful, enjoyable weekend…with or without SOCCER.
Indoor venues are never as large as a general rule.
That’s silly.
Are you saying that the MLS is more popular than the NBA based on attendance per game? That would be the logical extension of your faulty reasoning. Of course not. Don’t be RIDICULOUS.
Yes, hockey is bigger in the USA.
NHL TV viewership tops ALL pro soccer viewership in this county combined, and is several times higher than the MLS.
Revenues and attendance are also far higher.
In fact, consider this.
NHL attendance basically MATCHES NBA attendance.
Quote: * NHL attendance almost exactly the same as NBA’s 2023/24 regular season total
And there’s NO WAY pro soccer matches the NBA in popularity in the USA.
So if the NHL can match the NBA in attendance, which it can and does, then that should tell you ONE thing: the NHL likewise buries pro soccer and the MLS in popularity.
Moreover, college hockey attendance and TV ratings for the Frozen Four are way higher than college soccer attendance and viewership; college hockey has the third largest revenues of any college sport; only football and men’s basketball beat it. It’s bigger than college baseball.
Hey listen, I’m not a soccer hater.
But you’d be a fool to think that soccer is bigger as a spectator/fan sport than hockey in the USA, or that soccer any bigger than #5 in this country in that regard. In fact, it likely #6 if you count NASCAR and its popularity with the ‘necks.
Why not?
Could it be because there are simply comparatively a lot fewer of them?
What exactly is the non-caller “demographic?”
Soccer has overtaken ice hockey to become the fourth most popular sport in the US : r/ussoccer https://share.google/0zpJLibl1VtQhTlOl
Not sure if its different in the morth but there is no way hockey compares to aoccer…Most kids have plauedc a soccer game, most kidsxhave never been on a ice rink…
I don’t veiewship or sports talk shows will reflect that.
But lets thinknif ot as Family Feud
If a 100 Americans are surveyed on the top sports in America, how do you think it would rank?
Soccerr or Hockey get more votes?
Given that that’s a LIMEY publication, trying to discuss AMERICAN sports, it can be safely disregarded.
The viewership of ALL pro soccer in the USA is exceeded by a mere three NHL broadcasts on ESPN and TNT weekly. Throw in local and regional broadcasts, and it isn’t close.
As I said, NHL attendance matches NBA attendance in America, revenues are way higher than soccer, and college hockey blows away college soccer in following and revenues.
Unless and until that changes, and it won’t, don’t insult our intelligence by claiming that soccer is any higher than #5, maybe #6.
I’m not denying that Soccer is much less popular in the US than any of the Big Three major sports. But also, sports radio listeners (and I assume, by extension, callers) tend to be comprised mostly of Baby Boomers and Gen X, whereas soccer’s viewership mostly comes from Millennials, who don’t really consume any over-the-air media, besides live sports. Younger generations are much more likely to listen to a podcast or watch something on YouTube, rather than listen to sports radio.
FIFY
You seem to only have one metric for figuring out a sports popularity. I don’t believe veiewship is the only variable to take in account.
Its just common sense that people in America are much more likely to play a soccer tjsn to ever set foot on a ice rink.
But maybe its just because I lived in the south my whole life, i just can’t see Hockey being as loved as soccer is.
How do soccer fan podcasts compare in popularity with podcasts for the Big Four.
I’m a Gen X that regularly listens to college football and basketball podcasts.
It’s big three. Hockey lags the other three substantially. It has like half the revenue of MLB.
That article’s reasoning is flawed.
It argues that soccer has passed hockey on the basis of a 2.2 billion pound TV deal (2.7 billion USD) for EPL.
Conveniently IGNORING that the NHL has a FOUR AND A HALF BILLION DOLLAR US TV deal, to go along with a $7.7 billion Canadian TV deal.
And then you can add millions more for local TV broadcast deals.
Again….even using that article’s logic……DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH.
NOT close.
And then the article goes on to say that soccer will “close in” on BASEBALL???
Again, don’t make us laugh.
That article is a joke.
But is well ahead of soccer, which makes it the Big FOUR.
Five is NASCAR, thanks to the ‘neck demographic.
Soccer is sixth.
That’s pretty hard to say; viewership/listenership/download numbers aren’t as well-defined for digital media, given that each platform has its own internal reporting methodology.