On Soccer in the US
In a post about a few things, Doc Searls asks this about soccer's (lack of) popularity in the US:
Is the relative lack of professional soccer popularity in the U.S. perhaps due to the absence of advertising opportunities, since the game goes on for 45 minute periods with no time outs?
That explains part of the TV coverage problem (although banner ads would certainly work). Part of it is simply what Americans are used to seeing. When we watch a sport on TV, we are really, really used to instant replays. With the way a soccer game flows, there's often no time for that. Sure, using a DVR you can do it yourself - but it's not the same thing.
Another thing is scoring. Soccer games can go a long, long time without a score - the just finished world cup finale went from minute 19 to the shootout without any scoring - and after the Zidane headbutt, Italy had a man advantage for about 10 minutes. American sports fans are simply used to higher scoring games.
I think it's as simple as "tastes differ". Trying to "fix" soccer so that Americans would like it better would probably irritate the (very large) fan base in the rest of the world.
Comments
HDTV will make soccer more popular here
[Robert Scoble] July 9, 2006 19:28:39.000
Soccer is a MUCH better game on HDTV than it is on a smaller set. Particularly, like you said, if you have instant replay capability in your hand.
Why? You can see much more of the field. The jockeying for position is what makes soccer an interesting game and you just can't see that much of it outside the ball's area on normal TV but on HDTV a lot more of that is visible. Also, the sharpness makes the footwork a LOT more interesting and entertaining.
You have to play it
[ Terry] July 9, 2006 19:40:08.000
Comment by Terry
I think another important reason is that if you played it in high school or college you are more apt to be interested in watching. I think it will gain popularity as youth soccer expands and kids demand high school soccer teams.
Re: On Soccer in the US
[ James Robertson] July 9, 2006 19:57:19.000
Comment by James Robertson
I was watching on HDTV, and I played soccer for 3 years in junior high and high school. I'd still rather watch baseball or football :)
Space
[Baz] July 10, 2006 4:17:35.000
Partly it's the nil-nils. You can go for hours without seeing your team scoring, so when they finally do it's an incredible feeling.
Partly, it's the fans. There's not much that can match hearing 30000 people spontaneously bursting out into song (normally Go West) - "1-nil to the Nottingham" or (more often in my recent history) "we're s*** and we know we are".
But mainly, football (soccer) is about space. Part of the reason that Carlos Alberto in 1970 is regarded as the greatest of all time is that, watching on the TV, it appears that the ball is played to nowhere. But Carlos Alberto is charging up the wing, it turns out that the pass was perfectly weighted and he strikes it into the net, seemingly out of nothing. The best dribblers seem to have a yard of space around them that the defenders cannot touch. The best passers can spot the gaps. The most effective attacking moves are the through-ball into space for someone to run onto or the cross from the wing directly into the gap between the goalie and the last defenders.
Unless you understand that, football can look like 22 men running around like headless chickens.
Repaired to damage
[Chris] July 10, 2006 7:18:38.000
Football (call it soccer, call it whatever you want, it's still football!) is more a cultural thing than "defining rules", "statistics and instant replays". That's why it's so emotional in most countries and that's why you US Americans cannot grasp the game. Sorry.