USA women win big in the world cup final

crimsonaudio said:

Bazza, you're going to have to host those photos on imageshack or similar and link from there - it appears that gatorcountry doesn't allow hot linking.

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Sorry and thanks for the head's up! Sheesh....those gators!

Selma... Not going to quote your post due to length but the evidence is becoming less and less anecdotal.

First, it's really unfair to try and compare league to league numbers, for example MLB to MLS. While the MLB is the only real professional league for watching baseball, the MLS certainly is not the only league for watching professional soccer. In fact, last season over 100 million U.S. households watched EPL games. And that doesn't even count the number of Americans watching International soccer games via internet streaming - which typically is the only option for watching many particular teams and/or leagues in the U.S.

Last year's men's World Cup, in fact, was reported by ESPN to be their most streamed sporting event / series ever - more than any Super Bowl, NBA Finals, or World Series.

When you combine both TV and internet viewers for all professional soccer leagues - as opposed to just TV viewers for MLS - the numbers compare very favorably to MLB and even NBA numbers.

At this point, it's not just anecdotal and it's not just a pipe dream; it's a trend. Every year, soccer in general receives more and more airtime in the U.S. and, every year, more and more Americans are watching soccer.

There's no "boom", to which you alluded, but there is a steady, increasing trend. And if that trend continues, then it's only a matter of time before more households in the U.S. are watching soccer on a regular basis than baseball or basketball.

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uafan4life said:

Selma... Not going to quote your post due to length but the evidence is becoming less and less anecdotal.

First, it's really unfair to try and compare league to league numbers, for example MLB to MLS. While the MLB is the only real professional league for watching baseball, the MLS certainly is not the only league for watching professional soccer. In fact, last season over 100 million U.S. households watched EPL games. And that doesn't even count the number of Americans watching International soccer games via internet streaming - which typically is the only option for watching many particular teams and/or leagues in the U.S.

Last year's men's World Cup, in fact, was reported by ESPN to be their most streamed sporting event / series ever - more than any Super Bowl, NBA Finals, or World Series.

When you combine both TV and internet viewers for all professional soccer leagues - as opposed to just TV viewers for MLS - the numbers compare very favorably to MLB and even NBA numbers.

At this point, it's not just anecdotal and it's not just a pipe dream; it's a trend. Every year, soccer in general receives more and more airtime in the U.S. and, every year, more and more Americans are watching soccer.

There's no "boom", to which you alluded, but there is a steady, increasing trend. And if that trend continues, then it's only a matter of time before more households in the U.S. are watching soccer on a regular basis than baseball or basketball.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

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Last years Super Bowl drew 114 million viewers while the Portugal vs USA game drew 18. The excitement of soccer goes more if the us is winning and against good competition. The us was in the group of death so there were more than usual but had we been in a pansie division the support and views wouldn't be near as what they were. I think soccer is bigger than what it was in the us but it won't overtake baseball and basketball as the 2nd or 3rd sport. I'm not even sure if it would take over an extremely loaded ufc fight card.

TIDE-HSV said:

I suspect you are right about women's soccer in Europe. I like o read the German media to get their viewpoint. Today, I ad to dig down to the third level in Sports even to get an article to read. I was once in Switzerland for the winter Olympics. The little hotel, where we'd stayed several times before only had one decent TV, in a common room. There were a number of events displayed, slalom, etc. We were gathered in, a mix of mostly Swiss, but a few Americans were there. The Swiss stayed only through the mens' downhill. The Swiss guy "lost" in that he only won a bronze. That was it for the Swiss. It wasn't only they didn't stay for the womens' events, they didn't give a damn about any winter event except for the downhill. Doesn't surprise me at all about lack of interest in womens' soccer. Germany has a lot more married women who are primarily "hausfraus" than America...

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You're right. Women's sports are much bigger in the U.S. than in really any other country. People complain here that the U.S. Women's National Team makes a little less than the Men's National Team. In virtually every other country, their Women's National Teams make a small fraction of what their Men's National Teams make. There was a point made multiple times during this World Cup about how many players - even specifically from Countries like England and Australia - weren't able to train full-time for their sport because they had to also have at least part-time, regular jobs to support themselves... even if their Country had a professional women's league. Basically, for the women, if you're good enough to play for the NWSL here in the U.S. then you get to play soccer full-time; otherwise you have to have some other, additional means of support.

This is also, of course, why the U.S. has the best women's professional soccer league.

81usaf92 said:

Last years Super Bowl drew 114 million viewers while the Portugal vs USA game drew 18. The excitement of soccer goes more if the us is winning and against good competition. The us was in the group of death so there were more than usual but had we been in a pansie division the support and views wouldn't be near as what they were. I think soccer is bigger than what it was in the us but it won't overtake baseball and basketball as the 2nd or 3rd sport. I'm not even sure if it would take over an extremely loaded ufc fight card.

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I think you may have missed the entire point of the post you quoted...

However, you did inadvertently hit upon a good point, which is the question of how you measure a sport's popularity in the U.S. Is it based upon the sport's highest rated, single event? Is it based on a sport's cumulative rating for all its games? Is it based on a sport's average rating for all its games or, perhaps, just its regular season or post-season games? Or is it based upon the number of households that view a particular sport at any point during a year or regularly during a year, which then requires you to define "regularly"?

Most people want to throw out TV ratings when berating soccer's popularity in the U.S. because, I assume, it's a relatively easy comparison to make and is traditionally how we've compared the "big four" sports in this Country. However, as I've alluded to, using TV ratings to try to compare soccer's popularity - as a whole - in this Country to other sports is simply stupid. After all, more households in this Country regularly watch soccer matches via the Internet than on TV.

You mentioned that the Super Bowl drew 114 million viewers. Probably half of those viewers were only watching for the commercials. Okay, probably not half but I would wager it's not an insignificant percentage. Even so, more people - 115 million - watched last year's World Cup in the U.S. via the Internet than that!

It's also stupid to try to compare the sports' popularity by looking at league to league numbers, such as comparing the MLB or the NBA to the MLS. After all, more people watched the EPL (England's Barclay's Premier League) than the MLS in the U.S. last year. For a general comparison, you should really combine all sources:
Football: NFL, NCAA
Basketball: NBA, NCAAM, NCAAW
Baseball: MLB, NCAA Baseball, NCAA Softball (?)
Soccer: MLS, NCAA Soccer, USMNT, USWNT, NWSL, EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, Liga MX, Champions League, FA Cup, et al.

If you look at all of the sports, in general, and combine all of the U.S. viewing numbers for the available men's and women's leagues from both TV and Internet sources you'll be surprised at the results. Well, except for the first one. What you'll find, first, is that Football (NFL + College) is lapping the field. What you'll find next is that hockey is lagging far behind Football, Basketball, Baseball, and even Soccer. And, depending upon how you decide to measure a sport's popularity from the earlier paragraph, you just might find that Soccer is nestled right in between Basketball and Baseball, a little ahead of Baseball.

When most of the people who watched sports actually cared about the sport, there was never much money in it. That applies to all sports.

Does this thread being on Non Sports mean soccer isn't a sport?



:biggrin2:

TIDE-HSV said:

To add to my little Swiss story, it took place in a little crossroads called Unspunnen, outside Interlaken. Perched up on a plateau above Interlaken is the little village of Wengen, where there's a downhill every year on the pro ski circuit. I'm sure that's part of the reason that they are so enamored of the downhill. One year, we were over there skiing and were part-time in a class. They were running short of instructors and called on a guy who used to be on their Olympic team, as a downhiller, nice guy. On the cog train chugging up to the Jungfrau, I looked over at the permanent frozen fog (Eisnebelmeer) at the foot of the Eiger and said "Im Fruetau zu Berge." That's the title of a German folksong, which means "In the early morning dew, to the mountain." I thought he'd never stop laughing...

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Beautiful country there.

I'm sure you probably already know this but I'll share it anyway.

There are three mountains there, the Eiger, Jungfrau, and Mönch. In German / Swiss German, Eiger means "javelin", Jungfrau means "virgin", and Mönch means "monk". There's an old joke about it being amazing how long the Monk has been standing next to the Virgin with her still being a virgin. :biggrin2:

Back to the original topic, I was really glad that Carli's performance earned her the Sliver Boot (she somewhat got robbed of the Golden Boot, imo) and the Golden Ball. For the uninitiated, the Gold Boot and Silver Boot are given to the best and second-best goal scorers of the tournament, respectively, while the Golden Ball goes to the best overall player of the tournament, basically an MVP award.

Given the derisive comments Pia Sunghage, Carli's former USWNT coach, made about her earlier in the tournament, Carli's performance was basically a big middle finger to Pia's face. :biggrin2:

TIDE-HSV said:

That's interesting. I've never heard "javelin" before. Normally, that's just "Speer." I've asked a bunch of Swiss and they don't really know. Most guess "Ogre," which is "Oger" in German. Swiss pronunciation is so different from standard German, I guess it's possible. Weirdest one I heard was "acer," Latin for "pointed." I believe that Swiss is about as far from high German as Dutch is. I finally got to where I could understand about 75% of it. I had one interesting conversation with a clerk up at the Jungfraujoch. She was complaining about being forced to learn high German in school. She called it "Fremdsprache" (foreign language). Funny thing was that the conversation was taking place in high German and she didn't even have the characteristic Swiss accent...

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That's just what I was told: javelin or spear.


I think the Swiss offense to "hochdeutsch" is similar to many Britain's offense to the Queen's English.

bama579 said:

Does this thread being on Non Sports mean soccer isn't a sport?



:biggrin2:

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Funny you should bring this up.

I came this close.....



......to starting a thread in the football forum on Sunday....especially after our first goal in less than 3 minutes!

I think it would have been well received given the time of year and the 'patriotic' nature of the event. Plus....soccer is kinda like football anyway isn't it?

Bazza said:

Funny you should bring this up.

I came this close.....

......to starting a thread in the football forum on Sunday....especially after our first goal in less than 3 minutes!

I think it would have been well received given the time of year and the 'patriotic' nature of the event. Plus....soccer is kinda like football anyway isn't it?

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Well, technically soccer is football.


Soccer is short for "Association Football", as opposed to "Rugby Football" or "American Football".