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Hi.
I’m planning on doing a research project on soccer’s popularity in the U.S. While I was gaining information sources for the project, I realized that the Olympics’ TV ratings in the U.S is much higher than that of the Worldcup. Some people might say that this is because soccer isn’t popular here, but there aren’t that many sports played during the Olympics that is popular here in the U.S either. At least we have a professional soccer league that is known to have an attendance of 15,000 per game in average.
#1. Do you think the Olympics is more watched by Americans because Americans see it as an event that is much more than just a sports competition?
#2. Or do you think Americans are more interested in it because the U.S is good at it?
necause soccer isnt big here
The Olympics contains almost every sport on the planet, so it has a little bit of everything where as the FIFA World Cup is soccer and, no disrespect to soccer, Americans don’t like soccer much. Well, Americans do like soccer but not enough to follow it.
Of the two, I would say that #2 is closer to the truth but it doesn’t explain it all.
Soccer is a popular sport here, but it has more popular sports to compete against. There isn’t an NBA, NHL, or MLB in Europe and around the world.
I think too that many folks outside the United States blame us Americans for the lack of popularity here that soccer has elsewhere when in fact, there is very little live coverage available here.
MLS is all we have at the moment and personally, I think they are taking better steps than NASL did to gain popularity here.
You must consider that as children, we are likely to pick up a basketball, football, or a baseball long before we kick a soccer ball around. Sports other than soccer have as large a stature in American culture as soccer does in Brazil or England.
One could be asking “Why do Italians care more about the World Cup than the NHL playoffs?”
It’s all relative to the culture and not necessarily a concious dislike of any one sport.
#1 – People in the U.S. watch the Olympics because they want to watch Americans compete, especially in gymnastics, track, figure skating, basketball. I don’t think Americans watch it because its “more than” a sports competition – they watch it because they want to see Americans win!
#2 – if the U.S. soccer team had greater success, then, MAYBE soccer would be more popular. But besides in 2002, they haven’t had success. Plus, the best athletes in our society play basketall/football/baseball.
meand my friends watch the world cup we don’t root for the US but we watch the world cup. Olympics is only good for basketball.
Because more Americans participate at a higher level and have much more of a chance to participate in sports that are in the Olympics that participate in, play or ever being in soccer at the level of the world cup
Because it’s the “Olympics” oooooooooooo
Not, it’s the “World Cup” ooooooooooo
Also because this is the US and not Europe…they are crazy about their soccer there…
In response to your questions, I think that it’s both…
To Americans, the Olympics is HUGE-especially if there are good teams……
I’m a fan of the World Cup and I love it!!! Hopefully, in the future, America will start to realize what they’re missing…
Americans need breaks from watching things and soccer is the most drawn out sport with no breaks that there is and that is the major reason why it will never be a ultra popular sporting event.
1 Americans like variety and they like drama. The Olympics is a variety show, but many of the less popular sports are barely shown for their live competition. Bob Costas and company talk about the most dramatic parts over and over.
2 The Americans have been leading the Summer Olympics with no one close behind them since the Soviet Union broke apart. The US does not make it out of the round robin in the World Cup