Ann Coulter Is Right to Fear the World Cup

[CountDeMoney]

Good job, Seedy

Oops

You have any idea how tough it is to post on Languish on an iPhone while on the crapper?  With these thumbs?

[OttoVonBismarck]

Eh, the number of Americans watching soccer now compared to the number of Americans watching soccer 30 years ago is a huge difference. The audience is growing and while it will never overtake football it will find itself a solid niche in the coming decades.

It's still astonishing to me that NBC shows every single English Premier League game live on tv and streaming for free. The amount of soccer content available now is light years ahead of where it was just ten years ago and the ten year olds playing baby soccer on the weekends today will grow up having access to the game that I never had. That access means something and will contribute to the popularity of the sport in the coming decades.

And to me that goes back to what I've been saying--people like the sports they grow up watching. The real question is what controls what they watch on TV and what they don't. To some degree I think a small group of people get to make these decisions. In Japan they literally adopted baseball as a national sport because the government decided they wanted it to be so, because they wanted to emulate America.

Some sports are just never going to be popular on TV--softball, bowling, amateur wrestling, competitive skateboarding etc.

By the time TV started baseball and football were the most popular spectator sports. This was the 1960s (not when TV started, but when you started to see a lot of televised sports all the time), so people really weren't making a choice between watching soccer and watching football. That choice was made for them by the networks, based on the existing live attendance and radio fans. To figure out why football and baseball were the live attendance and radio kings and not soccer in the United States, you have to go back to the 19th century. To me, the history makes it look like it basically just happened organically to some degree. There's not a good reason for/against it, it's just what happened. For the first 40 years or so of big time televised sports, air time was so limited and the channel lineup along with it, that there wasn't going to be room for more major sports than we already have. With ESPN, Fox Sports, + the Networks, + the ancillary sports networks I'd argue it makes sense that now we may see a sport like soccer get more air time in the United States. But I think its long term health will depend on the MLS being good or not, because in terms of fanship I think English Premier League and the world cup every four years won't be enough.

[garbon]

But I think its long term health will depend on the MLS being good or not, because in terms of fanship I think English Premier League and the world cup every four years won't be enough.

Yeah.

[alfred russel]

American football isn't slow (excluding TV timeouts). There is constant action: depending on the level, you may have ~80 guys on a side, and a bunch of substitutions between plays. If you understand the teams, watching the substitutions, pre - snap looks and adjustments is quite interesting, and is occurring very quickly (even a team moving at a glacial pace has to get plays off every 40 seconds).

People that don't understand the sport may only focus on the game action, but that isn't a flaw with the game.

[viper37]

As much as I like American Football, I find broadcasts often painful to watch. What's nominally a 1 hour game will often be a 3 hour broadcast, with a probably a third or more of it being commercials, and only a fraction of the time actual plays. More than with other team sports I find myself doing something else while leaving an NFL game mostly on in the background, occasionally turning my head to the screen when a play is about to commence.

Whenever I watch a hockey or football game, I record it first, then I start 1hr into the game, skip the ads, the breaks, the soul searching in between plays, etc and I arrive at the end like everyone
It makes games much more enjoyable that way.

[Admiral Yi]

American football isn't slow (excluding TV timeouts). There is constant action: depending on the level, you may have ~80 guys on a side, and a bunch of substitutions between plays. If you understand the teams, watching the substitutions, pre - snap looks and adjustments is quite interesting, and is occurring very quickly (even a team moving at a glacial pace has to get plays off every 40 seconds).

People that don't understand the sport may only focus on the game action, but that isn't a flaw with the game.

Plus that's when they show the slo mo replays of the previous play from four different angles, which is the best part of the show.

NFL play clock is less than 40, isn't it?  35?

[FunkMonk]

Eh, the number of Americans watching soccer now compared to the number of Americans watching soccer 30 years ago is a huge difference.

The number of Americans now compared to the number of Americans 30 years ago is also a huge difference.

There are enough Americans watching soccer now to get coverage in mainstream sports media.  That means it has arrived in my book.

Yeah, pretty much. Soccer in America has matured enough to where it won't die out, barring a catastrophic match-fixing scandal in MLS or something. A lot has been made of the sport having a "defining" moment that makes Americans take it seriously, but I think what has happened is lots of separate forces coming together that has brought soccer into the "national sport discussion" for lack of a better term.

1) Youth soccer is huge for some reason
2) Demographics (immigrants bringing their love of the game with them)
3) The sport's appeal to millennials and younger
4) "Big" moments like World Cup fever and crap like that
5) Increased access to foreign leagues with better quality play

Overall, I'd say soccer has arrived and has a bright future as complementary sport to football.

[crazy canuck]

Hard to say, the CFL isnt that popular here despite what BB thinks/hopes.  Most people prefer the NFL.   At least in the major markets.  Relative popularity is hard to measure in part because North American soccer leagues have not been run very well and Euro league games are at odd hours but there are a lot more Canadians watching the world cup than ever watch a CFL game on TV.  Also soccer is the most popular sport in Canada as measured by participation by a long way.

Are we talking about sports Americans watch or that they play?

 

You asked me whether the CFL was more popular than soccer in Canada.

[crazy canuck]

American football isn't slow (excluding TV timeouts). There is constant action: depending on the level, you may have ~80 guys on a side, and a bunch of substitutions between plays. If you understand the teams, watching the substitutions, pre - snap looks and adjustments is quite interesting, and is occurring very quickly (even a team moving at a glacial pace has to get plays off every 40 seconds).

People that don't understand the sport may only focus on the game action, but that isn't a flaw with the game.

Ok, if you think watching people walking back to a huddle is "action" then I think you have proven the point I made earlier about people learning to accept that this slow paced game is in fact not slow at all. 

[Valmy]

Ok, if you think watching people walking back to a huddle is "action" then I think you have proven the point I made earlier about people learning to accept that this slow paced game is in fact not slow at all. 

Probably the same way I think people talking in movies is more entertaining than 90 minutes of wall-to-wall explosions and car chases.  Constant action is not entertaining.  At least not to me.  But I don't consider continuity of play sports as "action".  Players are moving stuff around, setting up plays for awhile in soccer.  In Basketball we all have to stop for a bit while the point guard calls the play and blah blah.  They have their own stops and starts.

[crazy canuck]

Ok, if you think watching people walking back to a huddle is "action" then I think you have proven the point I made earlier about people learning to accept that this slow paced game is in fact not slow at all. 

Probably the same way I think people talking in movies is more entertaining than 90 minutes of wall-to-wall explosions and car chases.  Constant action is not entertaining.  At least not to me.  But I don't consider continuity of play sports as "action".  Players are moving stuff around, setting up plays for awhile in soccer.  In Basketball we all have to stop for a bit while the point guard calls the play and blah blah.  They have their own stops and starts.

You have made the all Martinus team with that analogy.

By definition walking back to a huddle is not part of the play.  There is a stoppage in play to allow the players to regroup. 

[Syt]

Besides, if you want a fast paced, continuous game with more physicality than basketball, you may want to watch handball.

[Valmy]

By definition walking back to a huddle is not part of the play.  There is a stoppage in play to allow the players to regroup. 

Yes but when they are playing they are going 100% and it is pure violence and everybody is running as fast as they can.  That hardly ever happens in basketball except for very short bursts as well because it cannot.  So overall I do not see the big difference in the  actual action.  I think the little stoppages help me get a better grasp for the strategy and give me a second to digest what I just saw on the previous play.  However, I have little problem talking about the strategy or discussing previous plays at a soccer match or basketball game because there is also plenty of downtime. 

You have made the all Martinus team with that analogy.

Oh for fucksake. 

That is what walking back to the huddle is all about.  Talking about the play, thinking about what happens next.  Then you have the setup and then the action when the ball is snapped.  Just like a drama you have the build up to the climax and then the ball is downed and we do it again.  The exact same way you want a little time between explosions and car chases to build context and excitement.

[Valmy]

Besides, if you want a fast paced, continuous game with more physicality than basketball, you may want to watch handball.

Something that Iceland is good at?  I don't know...

[derspiess]

Baseball is a sport that is/was well suited for radio, the way the action unfolds it's a great sport to listen to when you're doing something else.

Yep.  Great to listen to in the car or while I'm doing something around the house.

Likewise it's great to go see in person, because then it becomes a social activity, you can get some beers, talk with friends etc while the game is going on.

The "new" stadiums that replaced the 60s/70s cookie cutter stadiums helped this a lot.  Especially if you have kids.

But as a TV sport baseball is hard to watch because the breaks between the meaningful moments are long and terrible. When you're at a ballpark that doesn't bother you, but at home you just get bored.

I wish they ran the MLB StrikeZone channel more than twice a week.  It's by far the best way to watch baseball on TV.