SOCCER NOW 3RD MOST ATTENDED SPORT IN USA

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  • SatansFuton
    SatansFuton Posts: 5,399
    I'm not sure about those numbers, just because the story says "according to" and then names some website I'm not familiar with. It might be true, the way they put it, but they also put a lot of conditions on sporting events in order to shoehorn soccer to the top 3. And attendance does not necessarily mean popularity, as the NBA (and NHL for that matter) play in smaller venues than soccer. A sell-out in the average basketball/hockey venue is 20,000. I bet if you look at the TV ratings, the NBA probably beats out MLS.

    Another thing, this just mentions professional sports leagues. It is worth mentioning that NCAA Football averages way more spectators than soccer in the U.S. in average crowd size per game. 45,000 to be exact.
    "See a broad to get dat booty yak 'em, leg 'er down, a smack 'em yak 'em!"
  • FenwayFaithful
    FenwayFaithful Posts: 8,626
    Oh, I dont actually consider NASCAR a sport. But many people do, so its worth asking.
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  • brother123
    brother123 Posts: 792
    nhl-logo.gif

    Still number one in my book

    soccer (football) is so boring
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  • markymark550
    markymark550 Columbia, SC Posts: 5,254
    I'm guessing that this is just for professional sports? If you include college games, there's no way soccer draws more than basketball in raw attendance (maybe attendance per game).

    Still, it's about the fourth or fifth most popular sport. In the sports world, there's nothing worse than watching a soccer match. I'd rather watch grass grow...
  • The Juggler
    The Juggler Posts: 49,599
    SatansFuton wrote:
    I'm not sure about those numbers, just because the story says "according to" and then names some website I'm not familiar with. It might be true, the way they put it, but they also put a lot of conditions on sporting events in order to shoehorn soccer to the top 3. And attendance does not necessarily mean popularity, as the NBA (and NHL for that matter) play in smaller venues than soccer. A sell-out in the average basketball/hockey venue is 20,000. I bet if you look at the TV ratings, the NBA probably beats out MLS.

    Another thing, this just mentions professional sports leagues. It is worth mentioning that NCAA Football averages way more spectators than soccer in the U.S. in average crowd size per game. 45,000 to be exact.
    pro sports. and i said in my original post that this doesn't include tv ratings and stuff. soccer is not more popular than those sports mentioned. however i bet it is closing in on hockey.

    this is just referencing average attendance in pro sports. mls has a higher average than the nhl and the nba right now. that's the only point of the article. the numbers are available for anyone to see. i think this is a pretty significant step for soccer in this country.
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  • SatansFuton
    SatansFuton Posts: 5,399
    In overall popularity and TV ratings (just in professional team sports) soccer is still 5 out of 5. Last years MLS Cup drew an estimated 750,000 viewers in the United States. That's about the same as the average NHL regular season game on Versus. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals averaged about 8 million viewers, but topped out at over 9 million at the peak of viewership. 15 million watched last years (even more this year) World Series deciding game, 23 million watched the Mavericks win game 6 of the NBA Finals, and you don't even want to know the Super Bowl figures. OK, it was 111 million.

    So to recap last seasons championship game ratings

    Super Bowl - 111,000,000
    NBA Finals - 23,000,000
    World Series (Rangers Giants) - 15,000,000
    Stanley Cup Game 7 - 9,000,000
    MLS Cup - 750,000

    Also, all the revenue numbers for the other sports are billions higher than MLS. NFL is the highest with 9 billion. The NHL rounds out the top 4 with 2.9 billion. MLS makes 280 million in the 5th spot.
    "See a broad to get dat booty yak 'em, leg 'er down, a smack 'em yak 'em!"
  • The Juggler
    The Juggler Posts: 49,599
    SatansFuton wrote:
    In overall popularity and TV ratings (just in professional team sports) soccer is still 5 out of 5. Last years MLS Cup drew an estimated 750,000 viewers in the United States. That's about the same as the average NHL regular season game on Versus. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals averaged about 8 million viewers, but topped out at over 9 million at the peak of viewership. 15 million watched last years (even more this year) World Series deciding game, 23 million watched the Mavericks win game 6 of the NBA Finals, and you don't even want to know the Super Bowl figures. OK, it was 111 million.

    So to recap last seasons championship game ratings

    Super Bowl - 111,000,000
    NBA Finals - 23,000,000
    World Series (Rangers Giants) - 15,000,000
    Stanley Cup Game 7 - 9,000,000
    MLS Cup - 750,000

    Also, all the revenue numbers for the other sports are billions higher than MLS. NFL is the highest with 9 billion. The NHL rounds out the top 4 with 2.9 billion. MLS makes 280 million in the 5th spot.

    right. and the mls is 3rd in average attendance behind the nfl and mlb. :lol:
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  • mickeyrat
    mickeyrat Posts: 45,660
    For youth sports , you'll find more soccer fields than any other. It continues to grow in interest.
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  • Wobbie
    Wobbie Posts: 31,844
    I only watch it to see the ridiculous floppers.
    If I had known then what I know now...

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  • SatansFuton
    SatansFuton Posts: 5,399
    The Juggler wrote:

    right. and the mls is 3rd in average attendance behind the nfl and mlb. :lol:

    I've been to a few MLS games (on account of a friend who is a soccer nut), a majority of the crowd are kids soccer coaches with their entire teams (most of whom look completely un-interested) because MLS practically gives tickets away (at least around here) because there's no demand for them. I can go to an FC Dallas game for cheaper than it costs to see a movie. And there were nowhere near 17 thousand people at any game I went to. I've been to high school football games with bigger crowds. I think average attendance ranking is a pretty useless way to rank sports when 2 of the top 4 sports in popularity play in venues that are intentionally smaller. You could say that an MLS game draws more people than a Pearl Jam concert at Madison Square Garden, that just means it is all that MSG will hold.

    If you look at overall attendance, MLS is 15 and 16 million less than the NHL and NBA respectively. Those leagues play more games, but that also counts to the lower average attendance as they are marathon seasons. Well, so is MLB for that matter. But with an average attendance of around 17 thousand people for game, the NBA and NHL are really only 1-2 thousand people shy of selling out most arenas every night, in a season 3 times longer than the MLS season. And these are people paying a significantly higher ticket price.
    "See a broad to get dat booty yak 'em, leg 'er down, a smack 'em yak 'em!"
  • The Juggler
    The Juggler Posts: 49,599
    SatansFuton wrote:
    The Juggler wrote:

    right. and the mls is 3rd in average attendance behind the nfl and mlb. :lol:

    I've been to a few MLS games (on account of a friend who is a soccer nut), a majority of the crowd are kids soccer coaches with their entire teams (most of whom look completely un-interested) because MLS practically gives tickets away (at least around here) because there's no demand for them. I can go to an FC Dallas game for cheaper than it costs to see a movie. And there were nowhere near 17 thousand people at any game I went to. I've been to high school football games with bigger crowds. I think average attendance ranking is a pretty useless way to rank sports when 2 of the top 4 sports in popularity play in venues that are intentionally smaller. You could say that an MLS game draws more people than a Pearl Jam concert at Madison Square Garden, that just means it is all that MSG will hold.

    If you look at overall attendance, MLS is 15 and 16 million less than the NHL and NBA respectively. Those leagues play more games, but that also counts to the lower average attendance as they are marathon seasons. Well, so is MLB for that matter. But with an average attendance of around 17 thousand people for game, the NBA and NHL are really only 1-2 thousand people shy of selling out most arenas every night, in a season 3 times longer than the MLS season. And these are people paying a significantly higher ticket price.

    the nba and nhl play about 50 more games a year than mls teams. :?

    i am by no means a big soccer guy at all. played it through high school and that was that. but i think this is a significant step in the sports arc towards main stream in this country. i don't know about dallas but the philadelphia team sells out every game. place holds 18,500. i'm a huge sixers fan but they average about 12,000 a game. soccer is by no means more popular than basketball. but it shows that the sport is gaining more momentum now than it ever has. all union games will be broadcast on one of the main sports radio stations here beginning next year too. these kinds of things were unthinkable around here 10 years ago.
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  • The Juggler
    The Juggler Posts: 49,599
    imalive wrote:
    I only watch it to see the ridiculous floppers.


    you're a ridiculous flopper.


    POW!
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  • Wobbie
    Wobbie Posts: 31,844
    The Juggler wrote:
    imalive wrote:
    I only watch it to see the ridiculous floppers.


    you're a ridiculous flopper.


    POW!
    ouch.

    I actually watched a little of LA vs. NY two nights ago....beckham gets kicked...red card comes out....donovan makes a ridiculously easy PK and....at 2-1, we say "fuck it; it's over." that's why soccer sucks.
    If I had known then what I know now...

    Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
    VIC 07
    EV LA1 08
    Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
    Columbus 10
    EV LA 11
    Vancouver 11
    Missoula 12
    Portland 13, Spokane 13
    St. Paul 14, Denver 14
    Philly I & II, 16
    Denver 22
    Missoula 24
  • SatansFuton
    SatansFuton Posts: 5,399
    The Juggler wrote:
    the nba and nhl play about 50 more games a year than mls teams. :?

    Yes, that's why I was saying that it has an effect on average attendance at NBA and NHL games, a marathon season is going to see interest spread out across a longer season. The only exception to that would be MLB, but baseball in America is another monster all together.

    I'm not questioning you guys have good attendance, but this article I'm reading, written in October, says your team has 10 sellouts since 2008. Maybe they aren't counting artificial sellouts, which MLS is prone to doing. To be fair, Mark Cuban is prone to doing that for the Mavericks as well.

    I know you're not saying soccer is more popular, I just think this story is kind of a reach and putting too many conditions in to make it sound better. After all, "MLS continues to be unpopular" isn't nearly as interesting a story as saying that it's surpassing other sports. For the past 15 years I've been hearing about how soccer is on the rise, but it has never stopped being a niche sport. Every time there is a World Cup it's supposed to raise soccer in this country, when Beckham came over it was supposed to put it in the public eye, it never does though.

    And I'm not saying this as somebody who dislikes soccer. I played it growing up as well, and I enjoy watching it in moderation, but I'm just trying to be real.
    "See a broad to get dat booty yak 'em, leg 'er down, a smack 'em yak 'em!"
  • The Juggler
    The Juggler Posts: 49,599
    edited November 2011
    SatansFuton wrote:
    The Juggler wrote:
    the nba and nhl play about 50 more games a year than mls teams. :?


    I know you're not saying soccer is more popular, I just think this story is kind of a reach and putting too many conditions in to make it sound better. After all, "MLS continues to be unpopular" isn't nearly as interesting a story as saying that it's surpassing other sports. For the past 15 years I've been hearing about how soccer is on the rise, but it has never stopped being a niche sport. Every time there is a World Cup it's supposed to raise soccer in this country, when Beckham came over it was supposed to put it in the public eye, it never does though.
    .

    i'd say averaging higher attendance than the nba and nhl means it's on the rise. of course it's a niche sport. the fucking nhl is a niche sport in my opinion. but it's gaining in popularity though as these numbers have shown.

    and the union have only been around since last year, not 2008. to average over 18,000 fans a game in their first two years is pretty fucking impressive...especially considering where that stadium is located. there have been plenty of years when the phillies averaged about that same amount.
    Post edited by The Juggler on
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  • The Juggler
    The Juggler Posts: 49,599
    imalive wrote:
    The Juggler wrote:
    imalive wrote:
    I only watch it to see the ridiculous floppers.


    you're a ridiculous flopper.


    POW!
    ouch.

    I actually watched a little of LA vs. NY two nights ago....beckham gets kicked...red card comes out....donovan makes a ridiculously easy PK and....at 2-1, we say "fuck it; it's over." that's why soccer sucks.

    how about the aggregate scoring for the playoffs? what a bunch of nonsense that is too
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  • EZ1221C
    EZ1221C Posts: 2,645
    Watch out for the MLL. Now there's a real league.
    PLAY THE SOUTH
  • aspoonfulweighsaton
    aspoonfulweighsaton Posts: 2,066
    This really is a misleading story. Why don't they talk about the percent to capacity of the venues these sports are played in? MLS games are played in football stadiums that usually are at least twice the size of NHL and NBA arenas. They could play at 50% capacity and still draw more fans than an NHL game at 100%.
  • eeriepadave
    eeriepadave West Chester, PA Posts: 43,812
    aspoonfulweighsaton wrote:
    This really is a misleading story. Why don't they talk about the percent to capacity of the venues these sports are played in? MLS games are played in football stadiums that usually are at least twice the size of NHL and NBA arenas. They could play at 50% capacity and still draw more fans than an NHL game at 100%.

    actually most hold about the same as an NHL or NBA arena.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ma ... r_stadiums
    8/28/98- Camden, NJ
    10/31/09- Philly
    5/21/10- NYC
    9/2/12- Philly, PA
    7/19/13- Wrigley
    10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
    10/21/13- Philly, PA
    10/22/13- Philly, PA
    10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
    4/28/16- Philly, PA
    4/29/16- Philly, PA
    5/1/16- NYC
    5/2/16- NYC
    9/2/18- Boston, MA
    9/4/18- Boston, MA
    9/14/22- Camden, NJ
    9/7/24- Philly, PA
    9/9/24- Philly, PA
    Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
    Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
    RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
  • Thoughts_Arrive
    Thoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    I thought it was Rodeo.
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