SBM Exclusive Feature: What We Know Now – Ten Things Soccer Needs To Do To Gain Popularity in America
Now that we are into the off-season for the “real” soccer leagues, it is time to give the American Major League Soccer some tips so it can actually become a “major” league. One of my favorite sports blogs recently did a piece on why soccer sucks and will never catch on in America. It its current configuration, Aidan from Worcester is absolutely right. The trouble is that his piece is very American-centric, and therefore misses some important points. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; the last time I checked Massachusetts was still in America.
The more I hear the assorted rants of the “soccer will never be popular in America,” I can’t help but notice they sound just like the guys 40 years ago who kept saying nothing would ever surpass baseball as the de facto national sport. Well, baseball got passed in the 1980′s, and whether you want to admit it or not, soccer is gaining in popularity ever day in this country. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying soccer would ever become the national sport of this country; that’s just never going to happen. But it easily has all the opportunity to become a very major sport, but it also isn’t doing anything to help itself achieve that status.
So, here’s where I’m going to ask you to make a decision. If you are a fan of soccer and think it can grow in popularity in America, go read Aidan’s piecefirst, then come back to this one. Conversely, if you think soccer sucks, then read this piece first , then go over to his article. Either way, read the one you agree with last so that nobody tries to find either of our houses with an enraged mob.
Now, let’s get to the ten things American soccer must do in order to not repeat the mistakes the North American Soccer League (NASL) made 30 years ago.
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11 comments on “SBM Exclusive Feature: What We Know Now – Ten Things Soccer Needs To Do To Gain Popularity in America”
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Dubsism 
A great philosopher once said that, “Soccer is the sport of the future and it always will be.” It will NEVER be a top sport in the US because we Americans like high scoring games. Precisely why hockey never really took off. We like our home runs in baseball and those 100 point + games in basketball. We even like NASCAR when there are multiple crashes and a few deaths thrown in. But soccer? NEVER!
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And you and every other American who keeps telling me that is over-looking one point. The population of this country has a large and growing segment of people who weren’t born here. Those people grew up as soccer fans, and that’s what they are going to stay.
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I don’t get it…soccer is soooooooooooo boring. I would rather listen to fishing on the radio…
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Once again, an American completely misses the point. I get that there is a segment of the American population who will never watch soccer. But that segment is shrinking as a percentage of the population as a whole.
And I’m sure we are not far from fishing on ESPN Radio.
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How do I “miss the point”? I watch a game for 2 hrs or more…the score is 0-0 at the end. Was that exciting? If you watched an NFL game, and it ended at 3-0, would you love it? How about an NBA game and the final score was 20-18. Would that be thrilling?
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The point is that it isn’t about you or me. The population of this country is getting more foreign-born every day, and those are the people who are going to drive soccer upward in the American sports food chain.
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Soccer is popular all over the world, in my opinion, because it doesn’t take much to play the game. 2 nets, a large field and a ball. Unlike baseball, hockey, golf and tennis, etc. But the fastest growing sport in the world in the last 25 years is basketball. Also, not much of an investment in equipment. 2 hoops and a patch of concrete. Basketball is truly international, being played in Australia, China and most of the Middle East, Africa and most of Europe. What’s up with the UK? I always thought that basketball would be the sport of the future and here we are, in the future. I also agree with shawnpmcclellan. Soccer is sooooooooooooooooooooo boring. Even more so than watching golf on TV. My last colonoscopy was more exciting.
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That actually a great point about basketball, and it raises another. What soccer and basketball have in common is global appeal. This is the boat the NFL has missed on several occasions, and it one of the reasons why the NFL won’t be the king of the American sports hill in 25 or 30 years. The global markets are where the growth is, and the rest of the world feels about the NFL like you guys do about soccer.
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I get it. The demographics in the US are changing. But, that doesn’t mean that the children of immigrants will want to take up the sport of their fathers. They just may want to fit in with their peers in school and gravitate towards baseball, football and basketball. We already know that Mexicans love baseball as much as soccer so that’s a tossup.
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Wait…What? You realize that in Mexico, baseball is as popular as soccer, so if the kids are watching it, aren’t they watching the “sports of their fathers?”
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I’m not falling for that shit. I’m not talking about Mexican kids in particular. I’m talking about kids who’s parents come from other parts of the world. Latin American kids play baseball. Worldwide, they are the exception to the soccer rule. If I lived in a country where soccer ruled, I guess my kids would play soccer. That doesn’t mean that I’d like it. The same holds true for parents who’s kids want to play the popular sports in their new country. Kids play whatever sport is popular in their own country. Once they get dumped into another culture, they learn to adapt.
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