Why isn't football / soccer that popular in North America, United States / USA ?

[marquis2]

Football/soccer = England

America has rebelled against England for centuries. We created our own sports as a result.

Our Football in place of Rugby.
Baseball in place of cricket.
Basketball just for the hell of it.

We kept certain sports because they applied to the social elite on this side of the Atlantic as well - like golf, tennis, etc.

Our sports became more about tradition and history overtime, and they are no longer about rebellion - just history. Just like the rest of the worlds history is now rooted in soccer, we are rooted in our sports. Change is a hard thing everywhere.

In short - we are rebels and we aren't changing for anyone.

Baseball is an English game but normally only played by children.Up until about 1900 baseball and cricket were equally popular in the US. Cricket and baseball have much in common being a duel between two players at a time but with a team supporting the one with the ball. Cricket is a much tougher and dangerous game than baseball although it has an aura of gentility.Two examples-you can aim the ball at the man to intimidate him and except for the keeper no gloves are allowed by the fielding side.
There is a variation of soccer called rugby football which in my opinion is light years better than soccer. A bit like American football but they dispense with the padding and just get on with the game.Without all that armour of course everything can move much faster.

 

[KungFuDude]

Baseball is an English game but normally only played by children.

I believe you are talking about rounders. Baseball was invented in the U.S. And ironically soccer is considered mainly a kids game here.

Up until about 1900 baseball and cricket were equally popular in the US. Cricket and baseball have much in common being a duel between two players at a time but with a team supporting the one with the ball. Cricket is a much tougher and dangerous game than baseball although it has an aura of gentility.Two examples-you can aim the ball at the man to intimidate him and except for the keeper no gloves are allowed by the fielding side.
There is a variation of soccer called rugby football which in my opinion is light years better than soccer. A bit like American football but they dispense with the padding and just get on with the game.Without all that armour of course everything can move much faster.

Baseball has been more popular than cricket since it was invented in the mid 1800's. People never really played cricket here either.

Basically you're trying to convince us cricket and rugby are better? Not happening dude. The reverse is also true if I try the same thing on you.

 

[poggy]

This is getting a bit too us vs them and it doesn't prove anything at all either way.

I don't know what you're on about BNF. This thread makes me laugh everytime I come here. Plus it's a lot milder than many threads I've seen on this topic been discussed.

The main thing I've always found when this is brought up is simple. You get one side of the none liking football. Making the judgement purely on the lower level of the football they are used to seeing. As the women's football in the US is 10 times stronger than the men's. No disrespect intended. As the other side can argue the point more strongly on a number of levels. The reason been such as me. I've played most of the US's national games. Basketball, baseball in school. As this was a norm when I went to school for my generation. I've had a go at ice hockey too. Then American Football is on the TV here every weekend live and highlights.

So it becomes a little case of the educated against the uneducated. As I've had many a American friend tell me football hasn't really been given a go over there properly.

But then again when you look at a post like the one below...

Baseball is an English game but normally only played by children.Up until about 1900 baseball and cricket were equally popular in the US. Cricket and baseball have much in common being a duel between two players at a time but with a team supporting the one with the ball. Cricket is a much tougher and dangerous game than baseball although it has an aura of gentility.Two examples-you can aim the ball at the man to intimidate him and except for the keeper no gloves are allowed by the fielding side.
There is a variation of soccer called rugby football which in my opinion is light years better than soccer. A bit like American football but they dispense with the padding and just get on with the game.Without all that armour of course everything can move much faster.

Baseball isn't a English game. What baseball was taken from is though. Rounders that is mainly played by women over here is what Baseball came from.

Cricket is boring and isn't a sport. This coming from a Yorkshireman.

Now football actually has it's roots in rugby football. But that's a long story.

Football it's self came from the English, who still have the oldest football team in the world. Who this year are celebrating 150 years of playing football. Sheffield FC are just below the professional league here in England. But it wasn't the English who spread the game round the world. The Scottish pirates did that. Taking it to such places as South America and Europe. But that was a very early type of football that still had a little bit of rugby mixed in.

Now the common mistake like was made above was to say rugby is like American Football which it isn't. About the only thing they have in common is the three ways to score...
Try - Touchdown
Conversion - Extra Point
Drop Goal - Field Goal
As rugby has no padding, you can only kick the ball forward and hand pass it backwards. Plus there are no timeouts and the clock keeps running for the 80 minutes the game lasts. 40 minutes each half. This also is why rugby isn't popular in the US. As the TV can't fit ad breaks into it either.

Cricket would be as you can leave that anytime and when you come back nothing would have still happened


PS
Oh and the defending World Champions from 2003 at rugby are in the final for the second time. England who was a disaster just a year ago have suddenly remembered how to play to win.

 

[om3ga]

I could type reasons why I think American Football, Baseball and Hockey are inferior to Footy, Cricket & Rugby and an American can do vice-versa. Unfortunately I don't think we'll find any common agreement on this thread, our cultural differences are too great, imo....

It doesn't help that Americans have the MLS, which is nowhere as good as European footy - just as we had the unlamented World League of American Football (later NFL Europe) which was a poor imitation of the NFL

(oh...and I played, Footy, Cricket, Rugby, Basketball, Hockey and Softball at secondary school - and was on that school's senior year hockey team)

 

[KungFuDude]

Footy

I like that word omega. I think America should change the name of soccer to Footy. Not Football, just Footy.

All in favor - say AYE!

 

[om3ga]

I like that word omega. I think America should change the name of soccer to Footy. Not Football, just Footy.

Heh - I prefer using the label Footy (or Footie) instead of "Soccer" (UGH).....

 

[poggy]

Heh - I prefer using the label Footy (or Footie) instead of "Soccer" (UGH).....

Well the answer to that is simple Om3ga.

Footie is the nickname we gave it.

I'm still trying to workout where the soccar tag came from. As we invented the game and never called it that at anytime

 

[slikpulla152]

maybe they played it with socks on..

 

[titsrock]

Judging by the length of some of the responses....

This is a passionate issue. I currently play pick-up soccer as an adult. I never played "American Tackle Football" as a kid or in high school. But I watch enough of all sports to comment on this.

1. The rise of "Soccer" is a given in the United States. I give it another 3 years before Soccer replaces Hockey as THE 4TH SPORT in America.

THe question I have for International People---Do you really care AND WANT the US to take soccer seriously? We have the athletes and Money to dominate the sport if we REALLY WANT TO.

If the US took soccer seriously...we would field a side of 6'4" players who could all run 4.4/40 yard dashes. We could literally put out a side of physically dominating players...if we really wanted to. We are a wealthy nation and our players are simply healthier then the rest of the worlds...for lack of a better description.

American Tackle Football--you know as the NFL--is an incredibly boring sport that had been "analyzed" to death. It is a very simple game with incredibly stupid and complex "rules" that basically are designed to take the free-flow play aspect out of the sport and make it an over-analyzed chess match in pads, basically. The winning Professional team is the one that figures out which player in which position has a massive advantage over his opponent. That's about it, in a nutshell.

Soccer is a much more interesting sport to watch. My American countrymen are a lazy group of people who have the attention spans of 4-yr olds. The reason why they complain about lack of scoring in Soccer is because they are too dumb and lazy to appreciate a game that unfolds before their eyes with little stoppage in play. Hate to be harsh but it's the truth. If American Men gave TV soccer a chance they would become just as passionate as every other country because WE ARE A NATIONALISTIC PEOPLE, even if we sort of downplay it globally. If you visit the US during an Olympics, you'll meet an entire nation of "experts" in all the little Olympic sports, for example.

The Major League Soccer league will become a realistic option for the English premier League BIG TEAMS to use as their #1 "minor league" training option within 4 years, I predict. Look at all the American Businessmen that own EPL teams. Colorado and Arsenal will be the first "PARTNERSHIP" between the EPL and MLS...mark my words.

International Stars who are in their early 30s, like Becks and Blanco, will decide to come to MLS rather then play out their careers for some shithole team in some shithole country way off the grid....that will happen. Thierry Henry will be in MLS in 2 years...for example..rather than go play in Saudi Arabia for some noname team. He will still have some pretty impressive skill as a 33 yr old.

The easiest way to indoctrinate Americans into loving and appreciating Soccer is for Arsenal Gunners games to be shown exclusively in the US. They play a free-flowing, exciting game that anybody and everybody can INSTANTLY appreciate. They do not flop and dive (van Persie excepted) and they are made up of a wide collection of people--latin players--euro players--which can reflect America's diversity too...

The best example of American Tackle Football is played in American Colleges. College Football is a MUCH OLDER sport then Pro Football, has less STUPID RULES then Pro Football, and is much more intense and passionate sport then boring ass pro football...genuinely speaking. There are ruthless rivalries in college. There are no rivalries in pro football.

If you European people really want to watch American Tackle Football...watch any Division 1 College game and you're likely to see an entertaining, Rugby, style game. There are Rugby-tosses in College Football, called "Quarterback Option" plays...this does not exist, for a variety reasons, in Pro Football...

 

[titsrock]

Because they wear queer looking uniforms:dunno:

So says the baseball fan whose team wears jailbird pinstripes...

 

[poggy]

Re: Judging by the length of some of the responses....

THe question I have for International People---Do you really care AND WANT the US to take soccer seriously? We have the athletes and Money to dominate the sport if we REALLY WANT TO.

Well it'll take you roughly around another 100 or so years to reach the level the other world leagues have got too.

As most of the big leagues in the world are that old or more.

That's what the problem has been all along in the US with football. They've tried to buy it instantly. They did it in the seventies and it was a disaster. Now they are trying it again now.

But as I've explain before here and in football forums. They need to start at grass roots and build it up. As it will never catch on unless you can make the people feel it and live it. Meaning getting them to play it as well as watch it. To live breath and survive on it. As this is what you find most other football loving supporters do. This is something that won't happen unless you can find something to attach too. Buying players and paying big wages to them from abroad isn't going to make that happen.

Now I support Liverpool all my life. They have been bought by two Americans. The first thing they noticed and the main reason they bought the club was, to quote them...

"The fans are just so passionate about the club. It's like they are all in a family and feel everything that happens to it. We've seen passion before but this is just another level."

This comes from years of blood sweat and tears of supporting the game. Not something that happens overnite. Plus they do own sporting clubs in the US and Canada. Both baseball and hockey.

 

[nightwanker]

This is getting a bit too us vs them and it doesn't prove anything at all either way.

I didn't and don't want to offend anyone!
But sometimes it's fun to tease a little.
So I'm enjoying this thread very much! Also the arguments against "our" football!
And by the way through all this you can even learn something.

 

[local568]

I think some hockey fans might not agree. The key here is the word fan. Some sports are easer to watch then others. People watch what they like. Its easer for me to watch the sports that I participated in.
I don't mind soccer but I would rather watch football or baseball because I played them.

 

[titsrock]

Re: Judging by the length of some of the responses....

Well it'll take you roughly around another 100 or so years to reach the level the other world leagues have got too.

As most of the big leagues in the world are that old or more.

That's what the problem has been all along in the US with football. They've tried to buy it instantly. They did it in the seventies and it was a disaster. Now they are trying it again now.

But as I've explain before here and in football forums. They need to start at grass roots and build it up.

I should've clarified my earlier claim. I did not try to imply that MLS will be on par with EPL, Serie A, etc. THAT WILL take time.

I meant that the US could become a consistent World Cup Quarterfinalist and Contender with a concerted infusion of cash.

We have the physical athletes that get diverted to Basketball and Tackle Football because that's where the Fame and Glory in America is. It is not in Soccer.

Professional Sports are going to get on the "global" bandwagon in the next 20 years. The NBA is desperate for Teams in Italy and Spain right now...for example. The linkage between American Owners of EPL teams and MLS franchises they own now or WILL OWN in the future seems like a no-brainer "synergy" opportunity....

 

[titsrock]

I think some hockey fans might not agree. The key here is the word fan. Some sports are easer to watch then others. People watch what they like. Its easer for me to watch the sports that I participated in.
I don't mind soccer but I would rather watch football or baseball because I played them.

I think Poker has replaced Hockey already as the 4th most popular professional sport in America.

Hockey is a great sport to watch on TV or in person. Nobody plays Hockey outside of New England/Michigan/Minnesota. That's simply not enough American Economic Power to sustain a sport today.

Hockey would be better off financially if it became a Canadian/European Sport. That's where the interest is.

Even if the games returned to ESPN...there simply isnt enough casual interest in Hockey anymore. Look at Boston. THe Bruins are an afterthought in a passionate marketplace that has moved on to Baseball/Football/Basketball.

 

[slikpulla152]

i'm just as athletic as your average college athlete. I've made it to semi-pro balanced with collegiate soccer... imo, the problem is the style these coaches are trying to make us play. It's too conservative, which can also make the game boring to watch.

When i get the chance the see the European leagues and tournaments, they move the ball around and up and down the field consistently. Almost like basketball, *no bullshit*. Here they don't want you to turn the fucking ball over.. this isn't the nfl, that's a bullshit way to try and make us play.

 

[L3ggy]

Re: Judging by the length of some of the responses....

The question I have for International People---Do you really care AND WANT the US to take soccer seriously? We have the athletes and Money to dominate the sport if we REALLY WANT TO.

Is that why USA is one of worst teams in hockey?

 

[titsrock]

i'm just as athletic as your average college athlete. I've made it to semi-pro balanced with collegiate soccer... imo, the problem is the style these coaches are trying to make us play. It's too conservative, which can also make the game boring to watch.

When i get the chance the see the European leagues and tournaments, they move the ball around and up and down the field consistently. Almost like basketball, *no bullshit*. Here they don't want you to turn the fucking ball over.. this isn't the nfl, that's a bullshit way to try and make us play.

I think you're 100% correct, Slik..I just bring a fan's perspective. Men's College Soccer is the most boring soccer played on the planet. It truly is a horrible game to watch and it looks dreadful to play.

Women's college soccer is much more exciting AND Technically sound, I think. You can see these players "make runs," you can see them pick out passes...they hardly ever foul a player. It's a game that actually has some pace!

Your comment is especially strange given the kind of soccer the US Men currently play under Coach Bradley. They play an attacking style with some nice runs by Beasley and even Donavon. My only problem with the US Men's team is the apparent reliance on getting fouled in the box and trying to earn a PK. I wish we would simply shoot more.

I had no idea you played soccer. Slik is the coolest cat on Freeones!

 

[local568]

Re: Judging by the length of some of the responses....

I should've clarified my earlier claim. I did not try to imply that MLS will be on par with EPL, Serie A, etc. THAT WILL take time.

I meant that the US could become a consistent World Cup Quarterfinalist and Contender with a concerted infusion of cash.

We have the physical athletes that get diverted to Basketball and Tackle Football because that's where the Fame and Glory in America is. It is not in Soccer.

Professional Sports are going to get on the "global" bandwagon in the next 20 years. The NBA is desperate for Teams in Italy and Spain right now...for example. The linkage between American Owners of EPL teams and MLS franchises they own now or WILL OWN in the future seems like a no-brainer "synergy" opportunity....

Your probably right about poker. I don't watch hockey myself. The sports I watch have balls they can be round or oblong you can kick, throw, hit or strike them I don't care.

 

[titsrock]

Re: Judging by the length of some of the responses....

Is that why USA is one of worst teams in hockey?

Pretty much. The elite American athlete gets steered away from Hockey. Unless Hockey fixes it's economic outlook for the American athlete...you'll see it even more. Are college Hockey teams recruiting more American or "global/Canadian" players?

Tennis is facing the same thing...not enough elite American players are considering tennis as a sporting career. They are flocking to golf instead.