Yep, another ESPN thread (MOD: Soccer popularity)

[KevFu]

The NFL is not niche sport. Neither is the NBA or MLB.

You're using "niche" in a completely arbitrary way.
It means "a distinct segment of a market."

Soccer isn't any more "a distinct segment of sports fans" because the vast majority of sports fans also follow a variety of other sports.

It's a matter of fact that only small subsets of the non-immigrant population follow pro soccer. I don't see any way around that. It's just the truth. Same as hockey, but smaller subsets.

If we're being honest, a lot of it has to do with that same Euro-phile demographic which follows pro soccer in the first place. You mentioned that you'd get up early, go to the pub and drink Guinness while watching soccer. I assume you were part of a social group that all did the same; everyone goes to the pub (British), drinks Guinness (Irish) and watches Manchester City (English). It wouldn't make sense to replace the English soccer club in that scenario with, say, the Columbus Crew. It screws up the English-ness of the whole activity. If you're gonna do that, you might as well drink Miller Lite at a bar and watch baseball.

A perfectly fantastic hypothesis you just put to prose, except for the fact that the celebration of Englishness has nothing to do with it.

I go to the pub because I don't have Fox Soccer in HD.
I go to the pub because if I watch FSC SD on my couch, I'd probably fall back asleep (I'm not a morning person).
I watch English Premier League over the other elite leagues (Spain, Italy, Mexico) because I can understand their announcers. Otherwise, I'd sleep til noon, drink my Guinness (which has nothing to do with Europe as much as it has to do with deliciousness) while watching Guatelajara play at a time of day that isn't ludicrous.

I also got into soccer by going to college games; I've never been to any other countries but USA, Canada and Mexico. And ethnically, both sides of my family have been in the United States for nearly 200 years and my heritage is more black than it is English.

It has less to do with the English nature of the event, but more with the fact that I work nights and weekends and love sports, drinking, and hanging out in bars (I just had the idea for a Monty Python remix: I put on English Soccer, and Hang Around in Bars... I'm a soccer fan and I'm okay...)

Even in places where MLS is successful, say Seattle, they're self-consciously English about holding up their scarves and making up chants and so forth. The sport isn't assimilating into American culture; if anything, it's become a popular alternative to American culture. And as long as it holds that niche, it's kind of hard to imagine it ever breaking into the mainstream regardless of how many marquee players it attracts.

I agree there's a lot of "trendiness" in soccer.
But I don't necessarily think that's regional as much as people's insecurities. The Northwest culture is vastly different than the midwest culture. But there's hotbeds of soccer in Texas, St. Louis, Ohio, Carolina, Florida, California and Hawaii. All of which have vastly different cultural values.

There's a mindset of "I'm part something other people just don't get, so I feel cool and special." (Which, is not unlike us here on HF with our affinity for hockey. We feel like we get hockey and a lot of people are too stupid to get it, so we're better than those 'necks in the South watching NASCAR, college football, etc. The West feels the same way about volleyball).

And making up chants and singing the whole game isn't elitist, or even decidedly English. It isn't even decidedly soccer for that matter.

What it is, is awesome.

Sports fans -- especially NCAA basketball -- pride themselves on being the rowdiest fans. Boston, Philly, the Yankees "Bleacher Creatures," the Cameron Crazies, The Izzone, Texas A&M's 12th man... they all feel like they are influencing the game. They're loud, obnoxious and abusive. When I was in college, Jay Bilas named our place one of the Top Five Most Hostile Homes in college basketball. Duke, Michigan State, Kansas, Arizona and... St. Bonaventure (which one of these is not like the other one?). And that fueled us to be even worse.

Soccer songs are awesome because not only are they unique and make you feel like you're part of the environment of the game (and come on, like we don't have similar things in hockey: the whole arena BELTING out Oh Canada; the Islanders-Rangers "1940" vs "We Want Fishsticks" and "Potvin Sucks" and even Nashville coming up with the random TV timeout ovation for no reason), but they're also far far wittier than what everyone in "North American sports" do.

As a Mets fan, I've chanted "Larry" at Lawrence Wayne Jones, Jr. (you might know him as Chipper). But other than that, or "Booo!" and "____ suck!" is basically the extent of mocking opponents. Sure, you occasionally get Maryland fans chanting "F--- You, JJ" at JJ Reddick, or "---hole" at someone. Even "DUI" at someone who made a bad decision.

But compare that to Manchester City and Carlos Tevez:

Burned as a child, when Tevez was on Man United, the fans sang:
His Neck Scars Proves he's lost his head, Tevez Tevez,
He'll never shag a sexy bird, Tevez Tevez,
An angry t*** and ugly c***, they sewed his head from back to front,
Carlos Tevez, Herman Munster Head.

Slightly more witty than "Boo" don't you think?

Of course, they signed Tevez. So they had to change it:
He used to be a dirty red Tevez, Tevez,
But now he is a blue instead, Tevez, Tevez,
He's shagged so many sexy birds, we had to change the ****ing words,
Carlos Tevez City 'til he dies

And now he's leaving again. So there will be a new one.

And that's awesome.

 

[KuralySnipes]

All I know is that I live in New England and I never hear anything about the New England Revolution. I also saw that the Revelution drew a 0.13 on CSNNE on tvbythenumbers.com last year and the highest MLS Rating was Seattle at 3.00, and then Portland is at 2.27 but then afterthat the highest is a 1, then of course it just goes down hill from there . This year they are drawing a 0.07 (I have a friend who works in that department at the network) and says soccer isnt a good brand in the northeast. Anyways, like I said, there are no Revolution jerseys anywhere , no news coverage on them, 90% of Bostonians according to a NESN poll cant even name 1 player on the Revolution. Didn't they make the MLS Cup a few years ago? Well there was no coverage on that either. CSNNE is tring to get the popularity of the Revs up, but it's obv not working. People go to the games because the tickets are insanely cheap and are giving away for free at alot of soccer clinics everywhere. I betcha 70 out of 100 people in the crowd don't know anything about soccer but they bought tickets for $5 on the corner some where and just wanted to spend time with kids. In new england its Pats, Sox, Bruins/Celtics, Blazers, NASCAR, Revolution. BTW, at the Man U- Revs game most of the crowd was from Europe cashing in on the cheap opportunity to see Manchester United. I remember flipping past it on TV seeing the whole stadium cheer for Man U but only a few for the Revs.

EDIT: here is the ratings for the MLS on ESPN, FSC. The LA game on ESPN did great (for the MLS) but after that, not impressive. http://sonofthebronx.thevoiceoftv.c...pn2espn-fsc-galavision-march-15-july-10-2011/ .. One game did so bad it only averaged 20k viewers..

And of course the average ticket price for the Revs in in the teens

 

[KuralySnipes]

and for those of you bashing baseball, you need more skill to hit a ball going 96 MPH 400 ft into the air then kicking a ****ing ball back and forth for an hour and a half. Watching soccer is great for me when I need to go to sleep. Soccer and Golf are the two worst sports to watch .

 

[GirouxGiroux]

All I know is that I live in New England and I never hear anything about the New England Revolution. I also saw that the Revelution drew a 0.13 on CSNNE on tvbythenumbers.com last year and the highest MLS Rating was Seattle at 3.00, and then Portland is at 2.27 but then afterthat the highest is a 1, then of course it just goes down hill from there . This year they are drawing a 0.07 (I have a friend who works in that department at the network) and says soccer isnt a good brand in the northeast. Anyways, like I said, there are no Revolution jerseys anywhere , no news coverage on them, 90% of Bostonians according to a NESN poll cant even name 1 player on the Revolution. Didn't they make the MLS Cup a few years ago? Well there was no coverage on that either. CSNNE is tring to get the popularity of the Revs up, but it's obv not working. People go to the games because the tickets are insanely cheap and are giving away for free at alot of soccer clinics everywhere. I betcha 70 out of 100 people in the crowd don't know anything about soccer but they bought tickets for $5 on the corner some where and just wanted to spend time with kids. In new england its Pats, Sox, Bruins/Celtics, Blazers, NASCAR, Revolution. BTW, at the Man U- Revs game most of the crowd was from Europe cashing in on the cheap opportunity to see Manchester United. I remember flipping past it on TV seeing the whole stadium cheer for Man U but only a few for the Revs.

EDIT: here is the ratings for the MLS on ESPN, FSC. The LA game on ESPN did great (for the MLS) but after that, not impressive. http://sonofthebronx.thevoiceoftv.c...pn2espn-fsc-galavision-march-15-july-10-2011/ .. One game did so bad it only averaged 20k viewers..

And of course the average ticket price for the Revs in in the teens

lol at trying to draw conclusions about MLS based on New England. The people who own the Revs don't even care about the Revs.

 

[Confucius]

All I know is that I live in New England and I never hear anything about the New England Revolution. I also saw that the Revelution drew a 0.13 on CSNNE on tvbythenumbers.com last year and the highest MLS Rating was Seattle at 3.00, and then Portland is at 2.27 but then afterthat the highest is a 1, then of course it just goes down hill from there . This year they are drawing a 0.07 (I have a friend who works in that department at the network) and says soccer isnt a good brand in the northeast. Anyways, like I said, there are no Revolution jerseys anywhere , no news coverage on them, 90% of Bostonians according to a NESN poll cant even name 1 player on the Revolution. Didn't they make the MLS Cup a few years ago? Well there was no coverage on that either. CSNNE is tring to get the popularity of the Revs up, but it's obv not working. People go to the games because the tickets are insanely cheap and are giving away for free at alot of soccer clinics everywhere. I betcha 70 out of 100 people in the crowd don't know anything about soccer but they bought tickets for $5 on the corner some where and just wanted to spend time with kids. In new england its Pats, Sox, Bruins/Celtics, Blazers, NASCAR, Revolution. BTW, at the Man U- Revs game most of the crowd was from Europe cashing in on the cheap opportunity to see Manchester United. I remember flipping past it on TV seeing the whole stadium cheer for Man U but only a few for the Revs.

EDIT: here is the ratings for the MLS on ESPN, FSC. The LA game on ESPN did great (for the MLS) but after that, not impressive. http://sonofthebronx.thevoiceoftv.c...pn2espn-fsc-galavision-march-15-july-10-2011/ .. One game did so bad it only averaged 20k viewers..

And of course the average ticket price for the Revs in in the teens

JEZUZ! Toronto area sport fans must have big S's stitched to our foreheads. I have season tickets and pay $61 per seat, some of the games have premium pricing and cost $67 per seat. They are good seats but not the best, I believe my brother inlaw pays $100 per seat for his.

 

[Sorry]

and for those of you bashing baseball, you need more skill to hit a ball going 96 MPH 400 ft into the air then kicking a ****ing ball back and forth for an hour and a half. Watching soccer is great for me when I need to go to sleep. Soccer and Golf are the two worst sports to watch .

You have to play to appreciate how good the players on the PGA are.

 

[nyrmetros]

The Revs need a stadium in downtown Boston and a security staff that do not harrass and arrest both home and visiting fans...

 

[billycanuck]

The Revs need a stadium in downtown Boston and a security staff that do not harrass and arrest both home and visiting fans...

I have been to a Revolution game and I agree that the stadium location and size does not help the team.

Don Garber is hoping the owners will build a new soccer specific stadium soon. There were plans to do build a new stadium, but 2008 happened and the Kraft family decided to hold back on further plans.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/.../2011_0329mls_revs_agree_on_need_for_stadium/

The situation isn’t as dire as the stadium crisis in Washington — Revolution investor/operators Jonathan and Robert Kraft control the stadium and derive the benefits from its revenue streams — but it does make Garber wonder how much the Revs could grow if they played in a more intimate venue closer to Boston.

“The issue is what do we need to do to fully capture the opportunity,†Garber said last night. “This is a wildly passionate sports town. I have no doubt that (the Revs) would be one of our most successful teams if (they had) a stadium in an urban environment.â€