How popular is soccer in the US? I increasingly hear about more and more people getting into soccer over there. So how popular is it on a scale of 1 to 10? Out of basketball, 'football', baseball etc? With such a large country, youngsters such as Freddy Adu popping up, and large sport fan-base i'm sure soccer in the US will keep improving. The clubs are quite wealthy as it is, i'm sure there are great things to come. One thing however I have noticed about fans in the US as they're not as passionate about the game as in Europe and South America... is this true? Or just cameras playing tricks on me?

Freddy Adu is over-rated IMO, good wee player though. Landan Donovans good, too.

With the US being a large consortium of many cultures and countries of origins, most major sports have large followings. Soccer is probably less popular than Football/Baseball/Basketball/Hockey, but still large enough to have a relatively decent sized national league.

It is gaining a lot of popularity. Especially with European clubs. I see some kids walking around with soccer jersey's on from AC Milan and a few others. I enjoy watching it, and playing a friendly game or two. I wish I was better at it, but I prefer to play other sports. I love watching a good game, you might actually catch me yelling at the TV a few times.

Here's my estimate of the relative importance of these sports in the US:


Football - 10

Baseball - 8

Basketball - 7

Auto Racing - 5

Hockey - 3

Soccer - 1

Of course the importance varies regionally. Where I am I would place it as:

Football- 10
Baseball- 9
Basketball- 7
Hockey- 5 (Although if you bring college hockey into the picture I'd put it at a 7 as well)
Racing- 5
Euro Soccer- 3
MLS Soccer- 1 or possibly less.

Despite proximity, I don't know anybody with a Chicago Fire jersey, and only one person who has been to a game.

Racing is really among the most popular sports in the country, and a lot of Americans are actually surprised to hear it. I guess the racing crowds don't really make it onto the internet too often, but they're out there.

You guys are overrating basketball I think, which is a shame because it's going through a great stretch of it's history right now. I hardly know anyone that's into it and the TV coverage is pretty pathetic. TNT on Thursdays, ESPN on Fridays, local teams, and that's about it. ABC gets Sundays (I think) halfway through the year.

As for soccer, yeah, no one really cares for it. I can't figure out why it's just this one country, but hell, I find it unwatchable as well. Fun to play, awful unbearable horrible to watch.

Soccer is a pretty popular sport here in terms of what kids play/high school sports. It is never aired on TV, however.

I live about 2 minutes from Toyota Park(Chicago Fire) and never been to a game.

I would say with the Chicago black hawks actually being on t.v now, that Soccer could die down even worse. So around here, with Rose coming to the Bulls, Bears, Sox and Cubs, soccer is dead last again..

Football
Baseball(with 2 teams has to be over basketball, post Jordan era)
Basketball
Hockey
Racing
WWE
Soccer

It goes something like this:

Football
Racing
Baseball
Basketball
Hockey
Fighting
Golf
Bowling
Reruns of aforementioned sports
Soccer

Bowling isn't that important, trust me.

I think it would go something like this

Football
Racing
Baseball
Basketball
Fighting
Hockey
Soccer
Tennis
Golf
Bowling

How close do you think Football and Racing are?

I'd say pretty far apart. I'm willing to bet almost all racing fans are football fans, while not all football fans are racing fans.

Where I am its..

Basketball-10

Football - 9

Baseball - 5

Soccer - 4

Hockey - 3

I didn't rate racing because only hicks watch that and I don't associate with them. Its probably like an 8 though.

I think Americans prefer to watch high paced sports like basketball where the players are constantly moving around. With soccer, it's more like a social event we like to sit with friends/get afew beers with, half watch the game and half argue/debate results and signings. I don't really like watching it, only when drunk really, although hearing the results and dissapointed people is far more exciting.

where i'm from (bay area) i'd venture it's:

basketball 10
football 10
baseball 9
tennis 7
golf 6
hockey 5
soccer 4

everybody plays soccer and loves the world cup, but no one gives a shit about the mls

mls/college soccer is extremely unpopular but at least in my area soccer and baseball are the main sports that little kids play and all of the high schools also have pretty serious teams with no shortage of players.

9.8 - Baseball
9 - NFL
8.5 - College Football*
7.51 - College Basketball
7.5 - NBA
7 - Racing
5.5 - Pro Wrestling
5.3 - Hockey
5.275 - Hunting/outdoorsy crap**
5.25 - Golf***
5 - Fighting in various forms, excluding Boxing
4.75 - Soccer
4.2 - Skateboard, bmx, etc
4.1 - Tennis
4 - Olympic stuff
1.6 - Horse racing (though I guess it's kind of a regional thing)
0.7 - Cycling/Lance Armstrong in general
0.6 - WNBA
0.5 - Bowling/Billiards/Darts ****
0.3 - Competitive Eating
0.11 - Ultimate Frisbee
??? - Boxing*****





* A huge enough deal to warrant it being another entity
**It has it's own television channel. And ESPN has a block of hunting/fishing programs airing as I type this, it will be over in a few hours. Don't underestimate the redneck sports just because they don't go the internet out of fear it will steal their guns.
***Tiger Woods - 6.25 ... The rest of Golf - 4.25
****And throw in some other pseudo/drunk sports in here
*****I'm sure it's right around the middle but I feel wrong ranking it. It fluctuates and is sort of on a downhill swing I think.

I disagree, competitive eating is MUCH more popular than the WNBA. Consider this: Most people know two stars in the world of competitive eating, Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. Can you name two WNBA stars? I can't. I'll go a little further: everybody knows Kobayashi, but can anybody name ONE WNBA star? Again, I can't.

I'd say it goes like this (most popular at top)


Eating

Baseball

Football

Basketball

Hockey
Racquetball

Fencing

Horse Racing

Swimming

Running

Beer Pong

Broom Hockey

Any other sport we can make up

Soccer

I think more people in the US know Lisa Leslie than Kobayashi. But still, change wnba to women's basketball, since college is more popular.

In the Northeast It is fairly popular, All of my friends and most of the people I know enjoy watching a match, as long as it's European. MLS is pretty much Trash. I know that the champions league is ESPN 2 and ESPN classic when there are fixtures.

I have fox Soccer channel and Gol TV, So i get to watch a good deal of soccer. Personally I route for Chelsea, though I am no fanatic.

Bingo. Soccer tickets are way cheaper than any other sports tickets (pro) and the games are usually held at second rate venues.

Never aired, never covered on ESPN (ok maybe a little), no one really gives a shit.

I know one person who goes to MLS games and he is British and just moved here 5-6 years ago.


i'd say

Football - 10
Basketball - 7
Baseball - 6


everything else is just not that popular.

In Canada

NHL - 10
NFL - 9
CFL - 8.5
UFC - 7
MLB - 4
NBA - 3
NASCAR - 3


I don't know where soccer would go. I know a good amount of people that watch but they're all recent immigrants. I'd say somewhere between baseball and football.

NBA - 3
NASCAR - 3



doh
Well the Raptors are pretty popular in Toronto aren't they?

doh
Well the Raptors are pretty popular in Toronto aren't they?

Yea, after hockey and football. But the rest of Canada has no NBA franchise, same with baseball.

I should clarify my chart. It's more like;

Hockey

























Everything else.

How popular is football (soccer) in the US?

Significantly less popular than dome (head).

One of my friends is like those guys that blow up their enemies' bars. Seriously, it is polarized. In most parts of the country, people will laugh at you if you say that you are going to a soccer game. Where I live (raleigh, nc) it is WAY more popular. Soccer might even trump baseball in popularity.

http://i38.tinypic.com/23kymic.jpg

We like high scoring, fast paced games. We only like hockey because they hit each other and get in fights. Soccer is WAY too slow and boring to be interesting. I don't know why baseball is popular, because it sucks ass too. Soccer and baseball are pretty much the most boring major sports, and I don't see how anyone could like them.

I agree. But I can stand playing soccer or baseball, I just hate/dont get why people watch them on tv or even go to see games.

Ahh... silly Americans you make me giggle. I don't know why you're saying soccer is slow... in American football they stop every 30 seconds. It's probably because you have shit teams. In europe, you're brought up supporting your local team, playing soccer in school, playing out of school, going to the games, talking about it and arguing about it. It's a lifetime hobby. It's a great feeling to believe in your local team and meet other passionate supporters. Finding out new players each season is one of the more exciting aspects... your team signs a big-name player and everyone goes wild... he plays good for your team. Getting beat off a smaller team adds to the thrills. Being at a game in the stadium singing/shouting or even watching it at home is very exciting... the fouls... everyone shouts... it's great. I don't even see anyone singing in American sports... theres no passion. The hatred for your teams rivals is immense, i'm sure you've heard of the hooliganism involved in European soccer.

It will catch on in afew years

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vjiRXOIlszA&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7xvegPH_Lw
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OavtF97BCs4&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K0UTxQdF8ys&feature=related BOUNCY BOUNCY NANANA

Ahh... silly Americans you make me giggle. I don't know why you're saying soccer is slow... in American football they stop every 30 seconds.

We say soccer is slow because we're wrong. I think the low scoring is more of an issue than the "slow" pace. I can't watch a bunch of guys kick a ball up a field knowing that there's only a 0.2% chance of it actually going in the net.. I think that's the key issue for Americans.

well, considering i' m in northern Mexico (southern California) it is all i hear about. not mentioning that i myself am a mexicano......horle!

Ahh... silly Americans you make me giggle. I don't know why you're saying soccer is slow... in American football they stop every 30 seconds. It's probably because you have shit teams. In europe, you're brought up supporting your local team, playing soccer in school, playing out of school, going to the games, talking about it and arguing about it. It's a lifetime hobby. It's a great feeling to believe in your local team and meet other passionate supporters. Finding out new players each season is one of the more exciting aspects... your team signs a big-name player and everyone goes wild... he plays good for your team. Getting beat off a smaller team adds to the thrills. Being at a game in the stadium singing/shouting or even watching it at home is very exciting... the fouls... everyone shouts... it's great. I don't even see anyone singing in American sports... theres no passion. The hatred for your teams rivals is immense, i'm sure you've heard of the hooliganism involved in European soccer.

It will catch on in afew years

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vjiRXOIlszA&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7xvegPH_Lw
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OavtF97BCs4&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K0UTxQdF8ys&feature=related BOUNCY BOUNCY NANANA



Soccer sucks ass and football is only mildly interesting because of the contact. I think football players should stop being the pussies they've become and play defense too like they used to.


I don't see how kicking a ball around for 3 hours is considered a sport. Basketball is the best sport in terms of action.

Basketball has too much scoring, and not enough contact.

Soccer has too little scoring, and a bunch of Oscar winning douchebags who fall down if you touch them.

Ahh... silly Americans you make me giggle. I don't know why you're saying soccer is slow... in American football they stop every 30 seconds. It's probably because you have shit teams. In europe, you're brought up supporting your local team, playing soccer in school, playing out of school, going to the games, talking about it and arguing about it. It's a lifetime hobby. It's a great feeling to believe in your local team and meet other passionate supporters. Finding out new players each season is one of the more exciting aspects... your team signs a big-name player and everyone goes wild... he plays good for your team. Getting beat off a smaller team adds to the thrills. Being at a game in the stadium singing/shouting or even watching it at home is very exciting... the fouls... everyone shouts... it's great. I don't even see anyone singing in American sports... theres no passion. The hatred for your teams rivals is immense, i'm sure you've heard of the hooliganism involved in European soccer.

It will catch on in afew years

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vjiRXOIlszA&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7xvegPH_Lw
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OavtF97BCs4&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=K0UTxQdF8ys&feature=related BOUNCY BOUNCY NANANA

I see no appeal in anything that you said or the videos that you posted.

I don't see how kicking a ball around for 3 hours is considered a sport. Basketball is the best sport in terms of action.

Goddamn its the same fucking thing. Instead of kicking a ball around for 1.5 hours (fixed), you're throwing it around. I hate when people try to over-simplify something to prove a point. Its like saying having sex is just moving you're dick in and out of a hole for 30 minutes so what's the big deal?

Goddamn its the same fucking thing. Instead of kicking a ball around for 1.5 hours (fixed), you're throwing it around. I hate when people try to over-simplify something to prove a point. Its like saying having sex is just moving you're dick in and out of a hole for 30 minutes so what's the big deal?


Ok, then lets analyze it.


With basketball, there's one person who controls the ball, dribbles it, and tries to avoid defenders. He can shoot the ball, shoot a layup, or fucking DUNK on someone's ass, and there's constant scoring.


In soccer, someone kicks around the ball while someone chases after them trying to kick it away and gain control. There might be one or two points scored. That's it.


Regardless, watching or playing - basketball is MUCH more exciting.

Both games involve alluding defenders to put a ball through an object in different ways. So, pretty much, your argument boils down to basketball is better because it has more scoring? I like basketball as well so I can see where you're coming from as to how it might be more exciting, but I still don't see how its more of a sport.

It's not more of a sport. There's just more you can do and it's much more exciting.

something like this

american FOOTBALL
Baseball
NBA
College Football
College basketball
Racing
NHL
Tennis
Arena football
golf
wnba!!
Soccer

Arena Football and Tennis don't have their own TV channel. You're forgetting the middle aged rich white men demographic.

You are a retard. Golf is really popular in the US.

You are a retard. Golf is really popular in the US.

Srsly, golf is probably top 5.

You are a retard. Golf is really popular in the US.

His whole list is retarded from top to bottom but I guess thats to be expected.

Its mildly popular I would say. The MLS really isn't that fun to watch, average crowds around 10,000 to 15,000, maybe 20k on a good night. But the best athletes in the US go into sports like football, basketball, baseball, so we don't really have the players to compete for the world cup. The national team is the most popular and can draw a large crowid for matches like qualifiers and shit, but still soccer just will never catch on America.

Soccer is pretty big with the Hispanics here.

Golf has supposedly the biggest fan-base in the world.

It's not more of a sport. There's just more you can do and it's much more exciting.

No way. How is it more exciting? The fact that so many points are scored detracts from the excitement. When a goal is scored in football (soccer), it's much more exciting because it's much harder to do, because defences are strong and teams are organised. It makes the goal mean more, it's special. Obviously games can be quite boring, but on the other hand some games are packed full of excitement, action and goals. But it's all about supporting your team through thick and thin. The pitch in football is much bigger than a basketball court, and much more is going on. Competitions like the World Cup are some of the most exciting you'll ever see.

you realize this can't possibly be true?