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Could major league soccer become bigger than the prem?
big brother 9
Posts: 18,153 Forum Member
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Does anyone see a day when major league soccer could become bigger than the premiership or even European football?
Now that soccer/football is enjoying a little bit of increase in popularity over in america could this be the time when Americans finally take soccer/football to their heart's?
I know that they have had numerous attempts at making football/soccer huge over there when pele, Beckenbauer and others went over in the 70s at new York cosmos.
Becks was at galaxy for a few year and Henry is still there but it still hasn't picked up in a massive way, the game has increased in popularity but not to the dizzying highs that the money men would have wanted.
With beckham soon to own a club and man city's involvement with new York City and the popularity of the national team at the world cup, could this be the time for football/ soccer to finally be one huge?
With all the money the Americans have if football/soccer did take off over there I could see a day when the world's best players don't just go over to end their career with a big paycheck but to go over for the prime of their careers and earn huge wages.
If it was to happen I think it could be pretty damaging to English, Spanish and the German football leagues as the world's best would leave and head over the ocean.
One good thing is it might mean English sides have to rely on English players which would benefit our national team
Now that soccer/football is enjoying a little bit of increase in popularity over in america could this be the time when Americans finally take soccer/football to their heart's?
I know that they have had numerous attempts at making football/soccer huge over there when pele, Beckenbauer and others went over in the 70s at new York cosmos.
Becks was at galaxy for a few year and Henry is still there but it still hasn't picked up in a massive way, the game has increased in popularity but not to the dizzying highs that the money men would have wanted.
With beckham soon to own a club and man city's involvement with new York City and the popularity of the national team at the world cup, could this be the time for football/ soccer to finally be one huge?
With all the money the Americans have if football/soccer did take off over there I could see a day when the world's best players don't just go over to end their career with a big paycheck but to go over for the prime of their careers and earn huge wages.
If it was to happen I think it could be pretty damaging to English, Spanish and the German football leagues as the world's best would leave and head over the ocean.
One good thing is it might mean English sides have to rely on English players which would benefit our national team
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I think it would be good if they could get more people watching and playing club level football, but it is going to be as huge ask, as the rival sports will do everything in their power to stop that from happening.
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Don't go over the top with your answer mate, you didn't need to go into that much detail
In a few years time, the USA will have their own World cup with only the USA and Canada allowed to enter.
10 out of the 19 teams qualify for the playoffs, meaning it's easier to qualify than not.
too much competition from the established sports
the national teams get a lot of support but I think that's as much because of the gung ho patriotism you find in the US as anything else , I don't think they have the same level of support at club level but happy to be proved wrong
The soccerball can get decent attendances because they play in massive stadiums.
Ice Hockey is limited to the size of the arenas.
The playoffs that they have are ludicrous to say the least, at least In the championship over here its not a playoff for the title
Seattle regular get nearly 50,000 which isn't too shabby really, but then others don't do so well, I guess similar things could have been said about this country when Wigan were in the Premier League.
That's the thing - it'll never ever become as big as NFL, MLB, NBA etc. Certain areas of the US really have taken to it (Florida being one place where it thrives) but then you go to other parts of the country and they wouldn't have a clue who or what it was!
In TV terms, NBC had the 3 most watched months on US cable TV for Premier League coverage last year but the averages were 476k (February), 442k (March) and 414k (January) respectively... for a country the size of America, those are poor figures.
In comparison, cable TV figures for the NFL last season were 13.6m while the free-to-air coverage got between 18-21m viewers.... basically, the Premier League is light years behind their other sports in terms of popularity!
wish I'd thought of that!
to the answer the OP's questions, no way (<<<bit more detail!)
However that wont ever happen because despite what the propaganda might like to tell us "soccer" has got a long, long, long way to go before its at NFL levels of popularity.
I think the thing that's really pushed to the upswing in popularity over there (aside from the popularity with the growing Latino immigrant community) is the big controversy that came about former NFL players having severe brain damage after years of playing and the NFL trying to cover it up. That has made some Americans, including President Obama, openly start to push it as a safer alternative sport to the barbaric NFL.
If they're half decent and the MLS still isn't great then they can hop over to Europe and probably make a decent wage.
Well, there is the Club World Cup. In this country there's only one team that's ever bothered with it but they don't matter. No-one that matters cares about them.
A couple of things would help. An international title and a superstar American player.
Players will always follow the money and I certainly can envisage a future where the American league would have more than anyone else in several decades time. Not saying it will happen, mind, just that it could.
That's actually a really good and relevant point! No doubt they'd try to work some sort of TV timeout into it like they do for the NFL! Even on screen now during football matches they work in loads of adverts clogging up the screen while it's in play
Slight skewed by the fact that most premier league matches kick off before midday eastern time in the US (and even earlier on the west coast) whilst NFL of course kicks in more prime time slots for the big matches.