Soccer beats Hockey in the US

[Bear of Bad News]

the nhl MIGHT" break their all time attendence next season" ....if only a certain team in st. louis could help a little more than they did last year.

The reasons for the lower St. Louis attendance over the past few years are obvious and has been discussed here ad nauseum.

But to recap - if the same situation happened in a Canadian market, the fans would be lauded for being "discriminating hockey fans who appreciate a good product and are voicing their displeasure by not attending".

 

[It Kills Me]

Never heard of "mls" I assume its major league soccer. ORginal name. What cities is it in?

It's the Multiple Listings Service . If you've ever moved you'd know about it .

http://www.mls.com or .ca for us Canadians .

 

[armani]

This is just one game and the Stanley cup is seven.

I'd be so sad if Soccer is more popular then Hockey . The reason why Soccer doesn't succeed in NA is cause of Basketball. It's a better sport and just as cheap to play .

1. Have you ever played soccer?

2. To play b-ball, you need a rim at the very least. To play soccer, you just need a ball. You can make goal posts out of your shoes, water bottles, pylons, garbage...soccer is the cheapest sport around, which probably also attributes greatly to its popularity around the world.

As a player of both hockey and soccer, I can say they are very comparable sports. Basketball just plain sucks!

 

[Killiecrankie*]

It's the Multiple Listings Service . If you've ever moved you'd know about it .

http://www.mls.com or .ca for us Canadians .

wow I feel stupid

 

[Whiplash27]

Soccer and Hockey are two very similar sports, it's funny how hockey fans don't realize it.

 

[jsginsocal]

Wow, this is a shocker. A bunch of Latino's in the U.S.A watched a Mexican national team soccer match on the Latino television station. WOW!!
Are you kidding me! How is this a surprise?!?

 

[Levizk]

Why are we comparing a broadcast of two countries vs each other, in a rare event with a rivalry, against the Anaheim/Ottawa finals again?

 

[DickSmehlik]

When David Beckham plays his first game for the Galaxy next month, I really do believe that the MLS will be the focal point of the entire sports media's attention for that entire week. Unlike the NHL, the MLS is shown on ABC/ESPN, and that Beckham game (the merits of his talent can be best debated in other threads) will be a ratings bonanza. Unfortunately for the NHL, ESPN is often what drives the major sports stories in America, and they will build up that moment like no other. All of their shows (Sportscenter, PTI, ATH, Cold Pizza, Between the Lines, etc...) will have Beckham/MLS related content. Given the fact that adidas is also a major contributor to the Beckham deal, and given their vast marketing machine, they will pump millions of dollars worth of resources into promoting his arrival as well.

Even though to many the MLS is considered a joke league, I really do think that it will become somewhat popular this summer because of that increased exposure to the casual fan. What could threathen the NHL ultimately is that the MLS has a tremendous buzz factor with the arrival of Beckham, while it seems that even one of the greatest teenage talents the NHL has ever seen has hardly created any buzz for the casual American sports fan. That's why as an NHL fan, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the MLS's status in America.

I remember when the U.S Women won the World Cup in 1999 it was supposed to put soccer on the map in this country. Before that it was hosting the World Cup back 1994 and even before that Pele was supposed to sell soccer to The United States.

I don't think Beckham is going to do anything significant for the long term growing of soccer in this country. It may be big news for the rest of the soccer loving world but despite all of the media attention, I just don't think Americans are going care.

 

[Lee Van Cleef*]

Soccer's a lot more popular in the United States because most kids from all backgrounds and nationalities all grow up playing Soccer in school for cheap and thus can follow the game....
where hockey is exclusive.
Hockey equipment can cost hundreds per year, renting arenas and enrolling your kid in a hockey team can cost hundreds... where soccer does not cost a fraction of that. All you need is a ball and an empty field with grass. A sport any kid can play.

You don't need grass either, gravel or concrete works fine, heck in Brazil sand works too.

 

[mooseOAK*]

San Jose had an MLS team and it died, Mexico plays Ecuador in an exhibition in Oakland and 60,000 people show up. There are probably thousands of Manchester U supporters in the US who wouldn't go to an MLS game either.

 

[Killiecrankie*]

I got free tickets to see a british soccer game in pittsburgh, but went to the bar instead. My town has no interest in soccer, its boring.

 

[krudmonk]

1) The Gold Cup final was better than most Stanley Cup playoff games this year.

2) It was the two national teams with the biggest followings here, not the least popular team in Canada versus the least popular team in California.

 

[SenorDingDong]

I got free tickets to see a british soccer game in pittsburgh, but went to the bar instead. My town has no interest in soccer, its boring.

Sounds like your town needs a case of

FUTBOL FEVER!!

but yea the MLS is on the rise in popularity I think. Especially since the new thing seems to be once players get too old to compete in europe they'll just come to the MLS and own it up.

 

[frivolousz21]

Sounds like your town needs a case of

FUTBOL FEVER!!

but yea the MLS is on the rise in popularity I think. Especially since the new thing seems to be once players get too old to compete in europe they'll just come to the MLS and own it up.

one of there games on espn or espn 2 was watched by 65K thousand people on tv..and there was 10K there.

some of there games dont even get a .1 rating on a ESPN network.

considering millions of american kids play soccer...and have been playing for decades..I played on a soccer team as a kid...when we got older...none of us would watch soccer..maybe a English premiere league game...never watch the mls.

I saw an MLS game on HD net..it looked great...but they were playing like a A baseball team would be.

 

[guyincognito]

News Flash: West Minster Dog Show beats Hockey in the US

Not if it was running over 1,000 dates with the dogs broken up into 30 groups, only 2 competing against each other at a time.

Once a year, every dog in one place.

 

[guyincognito]

Sounds like your town needs a case of

FUTBOL FEVER!!

but yea the MLS is on the rise in popularity I think. Especially since the new thing seems to be once players get too old to compete in europe they'll just come to the MLS and own it up.

Doesn't look like it on TV, the only crowd I've seen on a TV is at a Toronto home game. The rest of the games look like they're giving out free Ebola to the second ten thousand fans to turn out.

The old farts aren't going to pop the ratings and bring ticket sales up unless every team gets two. And even then, they're diminished anyway, and what in the world are they playing for? The MLS Cup? FEEL THE EXCITEMENT. Seriously. What is going to make Beckham play to a high level there, a big game against Real Salt Lake?
This after international play, the World Cup, the Euro Championships, Champions League, EPL..... LOL.

Get rid of the damn MLS and you'll pop soccer interest in the US, maybe then the men's players would have to go overseas and get actual experience instead of all playing against each other in a two-bit league. Then maybe they could make some noise against the top squads in the world. What do they have? A win against Mexico and one against Portugal, because Portugal has one of their many off nights?

 

[saskganesh]

clearly, the NHL should do a Beckham and sign more Europeans who are coincidentially married to former pop stars

 

[Wranglers110]

Why are we comparing a broadcast of two countries vs each other, in a rare event with a rivalry, against the Anaheim/Ottawa finals again?

Because I like to have the sports I'm interested be accessible on television. The future of soccer is far, far, far brighter on the television media front than hockey. And people can rationalize and explain things away as those "durn for'ners" accounting for the popularity, but advertising dollars are going to go where the viewers are. The viewers watch soccer.

Soccer and Hockey are two very similar sports, it's funny how hockey fans don't realize it.

Here, here....as a fan of both, I don't know how you can be a fan of one but not the other.

Soccer seems to me like the "purest" team sport. As in, most other team sports are just soccer with more rules. Bat and ball games excluded, of course.

 

[Meichel Kane]

The title should read "Mexican soccer watched by Mexican-Americans beats American/Canadian hockey watched by Americans."

The article is quick to point out that the ratings that beat hockey were from just 1 of 2 stations, but then no mention of CBC...

 

[Raoul Duke*]

But to recap - if the same situation happened in a Canadian market, the fans would be lauded for being "discriminating hockey fans who appreciate a good product and are voicing their displeasure by not attending".

You mean like when the Oilers almost won the Stanley Cup then sold their entire team for scraps.... including the heart and soul in Ryan Smyth - but still sold out?

 

[Westguy13]

I got free tickets to see a british soccer game in pittsburgh, but went to the bar instead. My town has no interest in soccer, its boring.

Ok so because you didn't go to the game that equates to nobody in Pittsburgh likes soccer? lol

On a side note about what 2-3 hours away Philly sold 68,000 seats (a record for sporting events in Philly) to a US national team game.

 

[Randall Graves*]

Soccer is more popular than the NFL worldwide, the NFL is introuble. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, that doesn't mean the MLS is, it's pretty much considered a second rate league by people into that sport.

If you had US vs Brazil or Argentina the ratings wouldn't have been that high but due to the large Mexican population in the US it shouldn't surprise anybody.

But those that twist things will continue to do so.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

You mean like when the Oilers almost won the Stanley Cup then sold their entire team for scraps.... including the heart and soul in Ryan Smyth - but still sold out?

Sure. If the attendance dropped in Edmonton, fans and media would be saying that Oiler fans are just "being smart fans".

But if it happened in St. Louis, or God forbid somewhere like Tampa, ZOMG!!!!11 move the team!!!

 

[Raoul Duke*]

Sure. If the attendance dropped in Edmonton, fans and media would be saying that Oiler fans are just "being smart fans".

But if it happened in St. Louis, or God forbid somewhere like Tampa, ZOMG!!!!11 move the team!!!

Yeah, but that's a big IF to say attendance in Canada drops. You're just assuming, in a hypothetical situation that isn't going to happen. So who's really doing the generalizing now?

 

[Cawz]

Soccer's a lot more popular in the United States because most kids from all backgrounds and nationalities all grow up playing Soccer in school for cheap and thus can follow the game....
where hockey is exclusive.
Hockey equipment can cost hundreds per year, renting arenas and enrolling your kid in a hockey team can cost hundreds... where soccer does not cost a fraction of that. All you need is a ball and an empty field with grass. A sport any kid can play.

Any kid can play hockey. All you need is a stick and an empty street.

I grew up playing hockey in my cul-de-sac, with blocks of firewood as goalposts and a tennis ball as a puck. If you really want to play hockey, its not expensive. Thats only if you want to play organized hockey on real ice.

Street hockey has always been a part of Canadian culture (and maybe some parts of the US, I dont know). If you are a fan and really want to play, its not expensive. You dont have to play in an official organized ice hockey league to appreciate it.