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OT: Official Soccer thread

Gator Mike

Gator Mike

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Donnie Shulzhoffer said:
Because every World Cup we get crammed down our throat how it is the sport of the future and how it could soon be more popular than hockey in this country and then it ends and it is just the MLS and more people watch poker.
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What makes you believe that the TV ratings for the MLS Cup Finals are in any way indicative of the popularity of soccer in the United States?

Sure, there are MLS fans in the US. But there are plenty of soccer fans in the US that wouldn't give MLS the time of day. There are English soccer fans, Mexican, Italian, German, Argentinian, etc.
 
Donnie Shulzhoffer

Donnie Shulzhoffer

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Gator Mike said:
What makes you believe that the TV ratings for the MLS Cup Finals are in any way indicative of the popularity of soccer in the United States?

Sure, there are MLS fans in the US. But there are plenty of soccer fans in the US that wouldn't give MLS the time of day. There are English soccer fans, Mexican, Italian, German, Argentinian, etc.
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Yeah I guess they were all listening to it on the radio
 
BergyDGD

BergyDGD

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Gator Mike said:
You should ask Everton fans about this.
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Yes I know he had two loan spells at Everton compiling 2 goals and 7 assists in 17 appearances, even winning player of the month once. But you can't honestly say Donovan had a successful career in Europe. I will say this for him he said he wanted to help grow soccer in America (or something to that affect) and he absolutely did. My post about him doing squat in Europe was a lot due to anger over the MLS Cup (maybe 1 of 5 people who cared lol). It's funny though how accessible soccer abroad has become to an American because 10 years ago I wouldn't be criticizing Donovan's lack of European success or be able to reference his struggles coming up with Bayern Leverkusen because I wouldn't even know who Bayern Leverkusen was or what the Bundesliga was. 5 years ago I never thought I'd be waking up on a Saturday or Sunday morning to watch Arsenal play or some other big EPL match. In fact the USA not having the number 1 league in the world for a sport not too long ago seemed foreign to me. Anyway long story short I'm very happy my college buddy took me as a freshman to a Revs game back in 2006 because it was the beginning of a very fun journey following the game of soccer. Also as a side note I know college soccer doesn't get much attention but as a Friars fan I am very happy to see PC reach the Final Four in soccer.
 
BergyDGD

BergyDGD

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Gator Mike said:
What makes you believe that the TV ratings for the MLS Cup Finals are in any way indicative of the popularity of soccer in the United States?

Sure, there are MLS fans in the US. But there are plenty of soccer fans in the US that wouldn't give MLS the time of day. There are English soccer fans, Mexican, Italian, German, Argentinian, etc.
Click to expand...

Exactly!
http://www.businessinsider.com/soccer-popularity-english-football-mls-2014-7

There's a reason NBC pays 80 million annually for the Premier League and MLS receives 30 million annually from ESPN, NBC, and Univision combined. The article also says MLS will benefit mostly at a local level and look what happened a couple weeks ago, the Revolution drew their largest crowd for a playoff game with 32,698 on hand for the Eastern Conference Finals and attendance was up about 13% on the season.
 
Donnie Shulzhoffer

Donnie Shulzhoffer

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BergyDGD said:
Exactly!
http://www.businessinsider.com/soccer-popularity-english-football-mls-2014-7

There's a reason NBC pays 80 million annually for the Premier League and MLS receives 30 million annually from ESPN, NBC, and Univision combined. The article also says MLS will benefit mostly at a local level and look what happened a couple weeks ago, the Revolution drew their largest crowd for a playoff game with 32,698 on hand for the Eastern Conference Finals and attendance was up about 13% on the season.
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Am I supposed to be impressed with these numbers? 80 million to broadcast, that doesn't even equal the total salary of an NFL team. Fox and CBS pay a little over a billion annually to broadcast and most teams sell out. All you are proving is that the only soccer that people care about is outside of the US and they don't care about American Soccer teams.
 
EverettMike

EverettMike

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MLS hosting its title game on an NFL Sunday is the epitome of stupid.

Did those numbers include Univision and whatnot? Because often times soccer viewership in America is split up over 3 channels.
 
BergyDGD

BergyDGD

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Jun 25, 2007
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Donnie Shulzhoffer said:
Am I supposed to be impressed with these numbers? 80 million to broadcast, that doesn't even equal the total salary of an NFL team. Fox and CBS pay a little over a billion annually to broadcast and most teams sell out. All you are proving is that the only soccer that people care about is outside of the US and they don't care about American Soccer teams.
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Americans and actually people in general tend to enjoy watching sports at their highest level, that does not exist in MLS. Would you fault someone in Finland for preferring the NHL to the Finnish Elite League? Honestly, I myself probably watch many more Arsenal games on tv than Revolution games but I go to many Revolution games because I enjoy the game live. I think the MLS is going in the right direction but that's a different discussion. Yes there is a good population of American soccer fans who look down their nose at MLS and only watch the EPL, Serie A, Bundesliga, etc. The NFL comparison to the EPL tv contract seems kind of out of place considering the NFL dominates every other American sports league let alone a foreign one, I never said soccer is or will ever be as popular as the NFL. But look at the NHL, received about 75 million annually from Versus/NBC until inking their 2 billion deal with NBC in 2011. The broadcasting of soccer leagues abroad is a pretty new commodity in sports television and we'll see what the next tv contract brings. To sum it up MLS interest is not a direct correlation of Americans' interest in soccer.
 
EverettMike

EverettMike

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BergyDGD said:
No, the Revolution played at NY that weekend on a Saturday in the first leg of the Eastern Conference Finals. To the larger point though MLS Cup going up against NFL Sunday is incredibly stupid.
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They played the first playoff game with New York on a Sunday, November 23rd. The game in New York.
 
BergyDGD

BergyDGD

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EverettMike said:
They played the first playoff game with New York on a Sunday, November 23rd. The game in New York.
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Yep, you actually are right. It wasn't the same time, Revs played at 1:30 and Pats played at 4. I was trying to remember why I could remember watching both. Either way going up against the NFL no matter what time is a battle the MLS and all sports will lose 100 out of 100 times. Even as a soccer fan I'm watching some neutral game in the NFL over say a Seattle Sounder vs LA Galaxy playoff game unless the Revs have already clinched a spot in MLS Cup and the result determines who they'll play. Actually, I'm more likely to watch an NFL game I have no rooting interest in over anything except hockey.
 
Gator Mike

Gator Mike

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A potential HUGE development for the US Men's National Team... 17-year old Gedion Zelalem has gained US citizenship, and according to USSF president Sunil Gulati, at Zelalem's request, the US has begun filing paperwork to make him eligible to play for the USMNT.

Zelalem is of Ethiopian heritage, and spent his early years living in Germany. He moved to the United States at age nine, and spent six years living outside Washington D.C. before being spotted and signed by an Arsenal scout. He currently plays for the Arsenal Reserves, where he's been called the best Arsenal prospect since Cesc Fabregas. At age 16, he played for the Arsenal Senior team in a Carling Cup match against Coventry City last year, and appeared against Galatasaray in the Champions League last month.

Here he is at age 17 playing against Aston Villa's U-21 team. Five minutes of video, and I'm already comfortable saying he's got a better first touch than 98% of the players in the National Team pool.

 
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