WOW!! Where do I start??!! I guess I could be lazy and agree with everything Sandra said, because I do....
eek
..but I thought I would put my 2 cents in MY way.
True. But for soccer's tiny cadre of North American supporters, that is not enough. I has to be only we oafish Americans and Canadians that do not understand the "beauty" of kicking a ball back and fourth to one another. They have to spew out the idea that pertty much everybody else in the world cares.
I doubt it's "tiny", soccer leagues for kids 15 and younger and spring up faster than any other sport in the US form where I have read. ALL due mostly to the huge latino community that is growing y leaps and bounds.
First, of course, sadly, for most of the world, life is a short, hard, difficult struggle. Spectator sports and sitting around the TV with a can of beer for a few hours is not how most of the world lives. These soccer numbers of billions and billions are just pulled out of thin air and an unawareness of what the world is really like.
That is quite the elist look at the world. YES, there is struggle all over the world. BUT there is WAY more than enough here in the US. Australia and western Europe has alot less struggle than the US...(there ends my political rant!:rant:
)!!! WHERE you are getting the "billions and billions" numbers, I do not know. You seem to be pulling THAT out of thin air.
FIFA had estimated somewhere around a billion fans for the World Cup Finals, but even they admitted that was a VERY generous estimate. In reality it is about HALF of that or a little less...somewhere between 250 to 400 million fans watch. That is STILL at a minimum, 3 to for times the amount that watch the Super Bowl.
Second, as with anything, lots of people in the parts of the world where soccer is actually popular (western Europe and southern Latin America) follow other things. "Everybody" never does anything. "Everybody" doesn't follow the NFL, because somebody is at the symphony, somebody took a walk, somebody is watching TV bowling, and somebody is reading a book.
Let's rephrase here...ALL of Latin America and ALL of Europe and ALL of Africa. Also, there are TONS of people that take on "the symphony, somebody took a walk, somebody is watching TV, and somebody is reading a book."
Third, there are plenty of parts of the world that ignore soccer, and by ignore I mean treat it like we do. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, India, Pakistan, the Carribean, etc.
LMAO!! WHERE did you get THIS ONE?! Australia loves soccer...maybe not like central America or western Europe, but it is almost tied with basketball for 4th most popular sport behind Australian rules football and rugby. Same goes with New Zealand. Japan and China, baseball is barely ahead of basketball and followed by soccer. In India and Pakistan, only cricket surpasses soccer. And finally, in the Carribean...??!! Really??!! Seriously...??!! I have been all over the Carribean INCLUDING Cuba and it's baseball in the more developed countries followed by basketball and soccer and the lesser developed countries it's almost a 4 way tie with soccer, basketball, cricket and baseball.
It is just great to see people lose money on soccer in North America. The Market is speaking to those that will listen to it. Business people who listen to It, and not to the insufferable arrogance of its tiny cadre of fans, will do well.
The lose money comment is the simple and TYPICAL 'American arrogance' response. Always make light or fun of things you do not or want not to understand. When the World Cup came to US, it was a HUGE success(I was at openning ceremonies in Chicago and initial game).
I do not like futbol as much as the average fan, but I do like the sport and really do not understand why soccer and soccer fan get so much heat. I just think NON-soccer fans do not like and understand how rabit soccer fans are about their favorite sport and quite possibly upset that those same fans in the US do not support and go crazy for something "more American"....
...just saying...
