Lack of respect for Soccer

[stayNskool]

well thats where you are wrong... the highest rated collegiate sporting event? if you guessed the football National Title... well, you'd be wrong. Try the NCAA basketball Finals... therefore we now know you don't have your facts straight... and Soccer is becoming more and more popular, and Football is not King out west or up North... while popular it is behind soccer largely thanks to the big Hispanic populations as well as overall cultural diversity

[OwlsGK30]

StayNSkool is right, although football is the un-arguable king of the south when it come to highschool sports, it is not the king in the entire country. I use to live in Michigan, and though high school football was big, and did raise a lot of money, the high school sport that brought in the most money was the high school hockey team. Also, in Michigan, I am sure most people would turn down NFL tickets to any team to go to an NHL game like a Detroit Red Wings game. So it's unfair to say football is the king of sports in this country, you should check other regions beside the south before saying that.

[mnewballer21]

StayNSkool is right, although football is the un-arguable king of the south when it come to highschool sports, it is not the king in the entire country. I use to live in Michigan, and though high school football was big, and did raise a lot of money, the high school sport that brought in the most money was the high school hockey team. Also, in Michigan, I am sure most people would turn down NFL tickets to any team to go to an NHL game like a Detroit Red Wings game. So it's unfair to say football is the king of sports in this country, you should check other regions beside the south before saying that.

yeah well i would turn down a ticket to a detroit lions game too b/c they are horrible, at least the red wings are good and should be winning the stanley cup here in the next few days, if they dont play like they did today and get beat 3-1, but they still have a 2-1 series edge, the title is theirs this year even after dumpin all those players in the offseason

[stayNskool]

darn you people from Michigan....

[OwlsGK30]

WOW, now the topic of the Red Wings is in here! haha, I could talk about that forever! Everyone needs to watch game 4 on Tuesday, I'll be there! LET'S GO RED WINGS!

[stayNskool]

Bus youre such a dork... I will be watching... I can't believe you scored playoff tickets! ... Go Wings! Atlanta needs to change their mascot... but Ilya Kovalchuk is the real deal...My cousin and I met him and some of the Other thrashers at Fado Irish Pub in Buckhead... he bought a round ... it was sweet....

[oline]

O.K. a little perspective here. The NFL is the most successful of the big three, heck pro soccer is not even a factor. Is there any college soccer program that is more popular than Michigan or Michigan St. football in that state? No Way! If soccer is so popular then why don't they have a big time T.V. contract like football? Because the networks will only sink $ into what they know the public wants. If you think high school soccer is more popular than high school football then your just not being realistic and its like debating with someone that can't look at 2 sides of a story, they only see their side.

[stayNskool]

Oline... when you can make statements that can disprove that soccer and basketball are more popular in the Northeast and Western parts of american Ill believe you... youre prolly one of these people who has never left the South eastern part of america and therefore only has the perspective of what its like down here...Heck in Miami the Fusion routinely sold out Dolphins Stadium before they were contracted thanks to America's lack of interest in poorly played soccer(thats what MLS was, although its improving) ... Look at the numbers for european soccer and tell me soccer cannot compare... sorry pal, if american investors woud take the initial hit to their bank accounts for the greater good of soccer they could buy better european players and really get some great soccer being played in america... the public wants a good product adn right now MLS is subpar when compared to the product(soccer) that european leagues are able to produce... when american investors take the financial risk to buy high quality goods(players) they will be rewarded with huge consumer sales(tickets)... its basic ... all america needs is investors willing to take an initial financial hit knowing that down the road they will reap the benefits...

[soccerguy10]

soccer is getting bigger in the us, but slowly....example using the championsworld tours of this and last summer. with teams like manchester united, chelsea, ac milan, roma, celtic, barcelona, championsworld obviously had enough confidence in americans to bring those teams here and know that the stands will be the full....after watching manchester united play juventus in new york last summer and the mass excitement that took over that entire city, it is obvious that good soccer is well appreciated in america, it wll become much bigger some day if the quality in play in the mls becomes merely close to that of europe

[oline]

Sorry staynskool but no one wants to see a bunch of little soccer dudes from Europe running around acting hurt everytime they get hit when we can see American beasts that are trying to hit each other and hurt each other. I respect the soccer guys athletic ability and they are the best at what they do but the Majority of Americans just don't want to see that game compared to what we have. Just because the world loves soccer doesn't mean we should to. I might be interested if tackling and hitting became legal like in American football. Oh yeah, have you any comments that actually prove that soccer is more popular out West and in the Northeast? Lastly Miami is an exception only because it is about 75% Cuban. Don't forget as well, a few years ago the NFL had a preseason game in Mexico City that drew well over a 100,000. Your turn....

[stayNskool]

I don't have the numbers handy, but I do have knowledge from my family that lives in new jersey as well as california, as well as having visited and watched high school soccer matches in both areas. as for those cubans... sorry pal, cubans love baseball, and if they are going to soccer matches in america they are more than likely official americans now and count even on the census. as far as your little football match in mexico stadium... that place is a soccer facility, and it is sold out for every sinlge match that, that professional team, mexico's national team, their womens national team, as well as junior teams that play there... theres not a football facility in america that can stake that claim...oh and those europeans that noone wants to see... well they just so managed to sell-out 70,000 and 80,000 seat stadiums all last summer during their visit. on one final note football would garner more respect if they didn't have so many pads and if you caould take the non-athletes out of the gaem... cause noone likes watching fat,slow, dim-witted, trash talking, adultering, wife beating, dope smoking/dealing, jerks run around the field and think they are something....Oh, one final note. SOccer stadiums ALL OVER Europe are between 70,000 and 150,000 in capacity(including standing room only), and even the bad teams sell-out their stadiums night in and night out(unlike american football where Green Bay is the only guaranteed sell-out) sorry buddy, but soccer is far mroe popular world wide than american football will ever be, america just needs to put good soccer for americans to view and we'll see an increase in popularity

Edited April 12, 2004 by stayNskool

[ohsref23]

nicely stated, not to mention that professional soccer players have the highest paid salaries of any other sport world wide(disregarding the US). so yeah soccer is the world's sport.