I was in New Jersey for the holiday weekend and there was no talk of the football game. Went to a bar for lunch and the soccer games were on the tv's. Of course I was in Rutgers territory and they don't follow their own team let alone others in the big whatever.
Interesting ratings for two Sporting Events over the weekend.
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I know the NBA is popular but I can't remember the last time I watched a game. Seems very boring to me. I couldn't tell you who SGA is.
Lol, nice try. The MLS is arguably not in the Top 20 soccer leagues in the world. Soccer is the #4 sport in the US, getting very close to baseball in terms overall popularity (but will NEVER get close to football). But you cannot use MLS as any type of barometer. Its like saying basketball isnt popular in China because Chinese League ratings arent good. The Chinese League is terrible, they watch the NBA.
The EPL draws higher ratings than the NHL despite not having the luxury of home team bumps. That's all you need know. I said it a million times, but if Man City moved to NY and Chelsea moved to Philly, Liverpool to Boston, Arsenal to LA, then that American league would breeze past MLB and probably past the NBA. But dont worry, never the NFL and probably not high level college football.
Yeah, not surprised in the numbers. There are enough soccer dorks, guys like me who watched a half, and so many us/foreigners who grew up with soccer as their main sport.
Cool. Folks are free to watch whatever they want. These forums would be more pleasant if people didn't feel compelled to argue about how Sport Y is actually really cool and fun or that they're so cool and edgy because they don't want that boring Sport Z. Not directly replying to you here, just the general attitude of the forums any time soccer, the NBA, or baseball come up.
I know so many people who hated soccer and didn’t understand it…then their kids or grandkids played the sport and it was their gateway into the sport. I wish this fate upon you…but mostly I wish it upon the people who go out of their way to rip it instead of those who simply feel the need to say they don’t like it.
I don’t know how old you are, but may your final decades be spent in a sideline chair on weekend mornings watching youth soccer, or on your couch watching EPL football.
There’s also no way to accurately account for the viewership numbers for soccer. Everyone I knew either had a party or went to a packed bar to watch the game.
18mm seems light in my opinion
18mm seems light in my opinion
That’s an interesting point. Soccer more so than other sports, seems to have a group viewership culture. I don’t know why that is.
I am not an NBA fan and have expressed that from time to time on these boards but not very often because no one cares about my opinion. But I do read the various NBA threads and if I do comment on the league, it’s only to praise it for its greatness and the popularity it has. The NBA athletes and the world footballers seem to have a real appreciation for each other and love each other’s sports. When the athletes are on break, you’ll see NBA players in EPL stadiums, and when EPL players are off, they’re often coming over to the states to take in NBA games. And you always see them wearing jerseys of their favorite teams and players.
Personally speaking, if I had a rooting interest, I know I’d enjoy the NBA. It’s the same with MLS soccer. But I’ve tried, and I can’t get hooked. I wish I could because as a sports fan things would be better for me if I did.
I also thought it was light. USA/Portugal in 2014 drew 25 million. Reasons?
- Although we think it was a great time slot, some people still had to work that day and it was up against 2 college football games, not great games but college football is the #2 sport in the US. USA/Portugal was 6PM on a Saturday or Sunday.
- Fox. They are doing a nice job with the coverage but just being on ESPN gets you a bump
- Cord cutters - The game was free over the air but fewer Americans have cable or a cable substitute than in 2014.
People in the United States also respond to soccer with what we tend to do. "Want to make it better". And soccer is not our sport, and the world would prefer we stay out of it. I hate the phrase that's oft use "well that's football" to justify some inane call/rule or play. In the US, we have that natural tendency to then want to fix that. But "that's football" prevails.
Soccer guys, tell me if I am wrong here? It is not a criticism as much as it is an explanation. I mean some things me, an American would want to improve on are:
1) Ridiculous dives, writhing on the field, flailing like he has been hit by AR15 fire in all his limbs for literally minutes while the game stops. Instant Yellow Card for the dramatics and have to sit out 5 minutes for his "recovery".
2) Fix the damn offsides rule.
3) Have a flagarant 1 and flagarant 2 fouls in the box. Way too punitive for just a slightly late approach versus something that is obviously intentional. 1) is a free kick 2) is a penalty kick
I don't know how to inject more goals, but it is more chances and shots you want. But outside of really changing the game, that is something that you can't do. I mean in college FB you have Iowa and you have USC. Completely two different styles and approaches. Same with soccer.
*I agree with the “diving”: it’s silly and a game distraction. There are rules against it, but there’s reluctance for the referee to make that call. It might turn the game into a series of endless replay reviews…? Similar but different: punters are known to dive in American football; our referees rarely make that call, too.
*Soccer referees also have the option to give yellow cards for not only flagrant fouls, but also “habitual” (or frequent) fouls. So if you have one player fouling repeatedly, he can be yellow-carded, even if the fouls aren’t flagrant. But we rarely see that called as well.
*I wish that American football had a “sit-out the next game” rule for flagrant/intentional personal fouls and fighting. That, IMHO, would clean-up the game quicker than anything.
1. I agree about the flopping and injury faking. You are seeing less of that at the WC because they are adding back injury time second for second. I'd clean it up by real-time reviewing it and carding players. Its not as bad as college basketball flopping though. College basketball is basically just a game of 3 point shooting and flopping. Awful, awful sport.
2. Offsides - yes. This needs fixed. Frustrating to see goals overruled because a nose or toe is offside.
3. As for more goals, nothing you can really do in the main leagues but I'd like to see some fledgling American league start which has some offensive minded rules like
- no offsides
- only a certain number of defenders in the final third
- cant pass the ball backward in the other half
There's only one soccer game that casual fans in the USA care about, Michigan/tOSU is a big traditional CFB matchup, but not everyone cares about an Ohio St/Michigan game, I don't sit and watch it, I might turn it on, but it's not a must see for me, like Pitt vs Anybody is.
Relaxing the substitution rule would likely pick up the pace and allow more attacking and offense. Always thought it was a stupid rule that you can only sub x number of times and they can't come back into the game.
I'm old enough to know what I am talking about. I was a member of my school's soccer team while my father was stationed in England. When he got discharged from the military, we came back to Pittsburgh and very few discussed the sport. Not until I was in high school did the sport get on the local high school sports radar. The sports I played in high school were during the same season as soccer and by then, I had lost interest for the sport. I actually went to watch a couple of friends play a game while in high school and left after about 30 minutes. Hardly any one there, about 25 people and it was boring to watch.
As I said in an earlier post, to ME, for the sport is slow and boring. That doesn't mean people have to agree with me, just my opinion. I do have to laugh though, because Fox has been shoving the fact that the game this afternoon between the USA and iran is for more then just a soccer game. I will admit, that I do plan to watch the game only because of that jackass iran reporter spoke to the USA soccer player yesterday. I give the young man credit, because he handled that situation a lot better then I would have. Not only do I want to see the USA win, but now I want to see them win by HUGE margin. In the sport of soccer that may only be 3-0 or so, but I want to see it happen.
By the way, I do watch the EPL on the weekends when I wake up. It is usually the only sport going on in the morning and I will put $5.00 down on the game being shown and I always bet the under on the total goals for the game.
Fix to 2 is to get rid of the replay. Linesmen do a great job calling these. No reason to let it play out. Make the darn call and move on. If it is really close, accept the imperfections for the sake of the flow of the game.
Good lord, you'd make the game unwatchable.
But on the other hand, you must love that six on six girls basketball that some of the schools out in the plains states play where you have to have three players in the offensive half of the court and three players in the defensive half at all times.
I would ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT in every sport. I'd rather the results be less perfect, replay to me has been a blight on sports.
Same here. I watch the NBA a little bit, but I never heard of that person until now.
YES!! Again I find myself having to agree with SMF. Besides your suggestions, I' like to see them change the way players are changed on the field. No more of that stopping the play to change players. I hate watching them slowly walk off the field while clapping to the crowd. Perhaps allow unlimited changes of players during the game in a style similar to that of Ice Hockey.
Also, it is almost 2023. There has to be some way to have the official time shown on the scoreboard, INCLUDING the injury and other extra time that is added at the end of each half. Why is it left to the referee to determine how much time is added and left in each game???
Just as the time is kept on the field by the NFL officials and visible to all in the stadium, the same thing should be able to be done in soccer.
Soccer has plenty of things that need either fixed or tweaked. Here’s another. —-don’t let the goalkeeper come out of his box. How many times do we see a ball sent in and behind and it looks like it’s going to be a breakaway with a player 1v1 with the keeper, but then the keeper runs off his line and gets to the ball before the forward gets to it.
We’d see more goals with that change.
But then, you also have to think about unintended consequences. When hockey eliminated the two line pass to increase scoring, we actually saw less scoring. Same could happen in soccer. Maybe with a rule change like I mentioned, teams stop playing a high line and we see even less scoring.
The problem is that there were too many goals being called off for offsides. Mo Edu vs Slovenia in 2010 for example. I just think the rule needs changed. Having a toe offsides isn't an advantage. Your full body should have to be offsides
I'd just like to see it to see what it'd be like. Have Vince McMahon do XLS or something.
Its more for tradition than anything. You'd be horrified to know that in the stadium, the clock only goes to 90 so if you're there watching it, you dont know how much time is left. This is because the ref is the official timekeeper....which is stupid.
If it were me, I'd study how much "ball in play" time there is in an average game. Lets say its 40 minutes per half. Then I'd count to 40 but just stop the clock every time the balls goes out of play
I dont care if its successful, I just want to see it. Get Vince on the horn.
Speaking of Vince, this would be up his ally and I think would do well: A Bikini Soccer League. They tried this in football but with the equipment they have to wear and the muscular nature of the players, it doesnt work.
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