Not threatened but just never got into the sport myself
It definitely has it's share of fanatics in the world as do any sport.

I think one of the differences is that in a lot of countries, soccer/football is THE sport...in the US, we have more sport choices and soccer/football generally isn't in them...but younger kids are playing soccer in bigger numbers than ever before while little league players are dwindling in numbers.

It's a cultural thing.

Plus, in a lot of US sports like baseball and football, you generally need more equipment to play it so it can be prohibitively expensive for those in poorer countries (just like basketball tends to be bigger in poorer neighborhoods as the equipment required to play is cheaper/more readily available).

In Europe, the countries are close enough together, so you can have country rivals. Here, it's about state rivals and the once in awhile rivalries with Canada and Mexico.

For me growing up... Soccer was something kids did. And when I say "kids" I mean 3rd graders. By 4th grade we were involved in "real" sports meaning Baseball, Football, and Basketball.

I'm not saying it's not a real sport, but instead when I grew up it was like playing kickball. We did it for fun, but we didn't have a league for it or anything.

We [Americans] are programmed NOT to like soccer from birth. Even as a young kid, if you played one of the major three American sports; Football (the one you can use your hands and hit people without them flopping), baseball, and basketball, you were in the cool group. To us, soccer players were the weak ones that couldn't make it in the other sports. And that's because we were programmed by the media NOT to like soccer. The reason? There's not a lot of ad revenue to be made in soccer. Could you imagine any station in America showing 90 minutes of continuous sports play without one single commercial break?!?!? What they did is "pushed" the other sports on us and that dealt soccer the American deathblow. The NFL, the most popular sport in the United States takes 3 1/2 hours to play a one hour game. That's 2 1/2 hours of money making ad revenue pouring in and why the NFL is worth Billions.

They tried to have MLS in the U.S. and it pretty much failed. They're still playing, but no one is paying attention. There is no ad revenue and you don't find too many professional soccer players with million dollar endorsement deals. An unproven NFL rookie, just drafted will sign a multimillion dollar endorsement deal. A professional soccer player will sign an endorsement deal for Ed's Pawnshop on the Corner of MLK and 22nd.

It's not that we're threatened by soccer, we're just greedy about money. And from a media standpoint, soccer is not a money making sport - if there's no time for ads, don't waste our time is what the networks say. The MLS is having problems filling up stadiums with just 1,500 seats - and ticket sales and concessions aren't going to make anyone want to invest. So there's your answer, that's why Americans don't like soccer. The media programmed us from the time we were able to watch Sesame Street, and continue to program us to this day.

i find it boring along with most sports besides football.

Not enjoying/understanding != threatened. I assure you, no one is threatened by cricket either.

I enjoy the sport.

interesting mate, would make sense

It certainly would make sense, if it were true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_L...y_and_revenues

This! :thumbsup

The real question is, why are you worried about it?
I don't get all butt hurt when people get on my about liking motor sports.
I just ignore them, and go on enjoying it.
I couldn't care less if they like it or not.

I don't like most sports
I do watch some Nascar and some drag racing, those are probably not very big where you are at.
I also like rodeo from time to time, and because I was introduced to horse reining, I rather enjoy that as well, you guys probably don't even know what that is?

Fiddy non-threatened Americans.

Let me sum it up for you non-Americans. Ready?

We cannot be 'threatened' by something we ignore, find pointless and could not care less about. So run along and play your little kicky-kicky and leave America out of it.

Fixed :2 cents:

Maybe you should educate yourself.:1orglaugh

i don't have a prob admitting I don't understand the game. I don't understand soccer. That said, a quick read of the rules, watch 30 minutes of game play ask a couple questions and I'd bet I'd have a grasp of the sport.

Let's not make it out like it's over people's heads.

It's pretty simple actually, not hard at all to understand. It's idiots like The Porn Nerd that want to make it sound like Americans have no interest in learning it, because, well, it's boring and not a real sport. :)

This is changing. Soccer in USA is growing every year. Last game from USA agaist Portugal beat all previous records. Next one in 1/8's, it will have an even bigger audience.

Interesting take. I used to be an American football fan. Once I went to a football/soccer game in another country, I was hooked. The pace is constant.

they are not good at it :1orglaugh...americans actually tried to change the rules and introduce wider goals and 4 quarters instead of 2 halftimes and no offside :1orglaugh

also the NBA and NFL is jacked up on steroids like nobody else, I remember during some olympics they did not let the olympic anti doping committee test the NBA LOL, so is baseball and everything else american = fake doping crap for the media...

steroids do not mean much in football...yes the players fall sometimes like bitches and fake injuries but its nowhere near the american fake standard of everything...

last but not least: how funny is it that americans call rugby "american football" :1orglaugh:1orglaugh foot.......ball......LOL (foot as in foot not hand LOL)

fake is the norm in the USA :1orglaugh

It's not so much being threatened, as it is just finding it silly to watch dudes running around on a gigantic field, kicking a ball all over the place with no control, with the ultimate goal of putting it into a giant-ass net -- which seems to be almost impossible for some reason.

Speaking of which, I've never understood why the MLB playoff were called the "World Series" and why the Superbowl winners were called "World Champions" :upsidedow

You may know about other sports, but you seriously sound like you don't know what you're talking about here. No control? Almost impossible?

In all fairness, I doubt any team in the world would be able to beat either the NFL or MLB champions.

like dudes dressed up in girly protective padding, running around on a gigantic field, throwing a ball around with no control, to get it over the giant-ass pitch-wide line? Seems to me it's just like everything else americaland related - dumbed down to fuck to cater to a bunch of thickos. The sporting equivalent of a custard pie in the face as 'comedy' :1orglaugh

ps I don't really think the above of course, your post made me laugh though, well played :thumbsup

yeah, no control.

Sometimes a player will just kick the ball wherever and hope a teammate gets it. Don't say that doesn't happen -- a lot.

He might be clearing the ball out of a danger area. Other times teams use strategies to kick the ball down the field and have one of their faster, more skilled players run it down. To the untrained eye it can seem like a bad game of ping-pong with the ball being slapped back and forth.

A sloppy game of soccer/football is unbearable, I will admit that. It's probably even more boring than poor games of other sports.

Gotcha. So you have never played or watched the game.

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/3796159232/h834E7D8D/


http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/1/13924000...2c1e924efc.jpg


http://worldsoccertalk.com/wp-conten...rs-kissing.jpg


https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/3164318976/h14F86A76/


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W7eWkHvFdN...cer-is-gay.jpg

Aww a little butt hurt that Americans don't give a fuck about your wee wittle kicky kicky 'game'? What the fuck do you care how Americans feel? You're the idiot for thinking Americans don't "understand" something ridiculously simple.

We DO understand soccer/futbol. It's just that we also find it BORING and UNINTERESTING. Again, we need more to amuse us than kick, pass, yawn. We understand the subtlety and complexity of the game just fine. We Americans have just judged the entire sport to be lacking in excitement.

You don't care but you continue to post about it and you even started a thread asking people to explain it to you because you can't understand for yourself.

Ah missing the point again, as so many do here on GFY. I wonder why I even bother at times...

My thread was asking what the APPEAL was, not asking about the sport or trying to understand it. People explained their opinion to me as to why they think soccer is so universally loved but not in America. I understood their responses. But at the end of the day i STILL do not see the appeal of the game.

WHY do you soccer fans like to watch people kick a ball around for 90 minutes? That's my point. Not if the game is hard to 'get' or not. We GET it. We just don't LIKE it.

Someone fucking score already.

Soccer is like coffee. Sooner or later everyone is having some.

I understand that NFL, MLB etc are worth a ton of money, it's apparent with the salaries that the players get but think about the top soccer players in EU and what they earn, it's on par with your top Baseball/Basketball players, there isn't many of them making that kind of money but the top top guys can pull in $30-40 million a year with salary and endoresements.

High level players make anywhere up to $300,000 a week and your average players in major leagues are making $30-70k a week, so while the top range isn't enjoyed by the majority, the average range is certainly higher than what your average NFL guy will get.

My point is, there is huge advertising revenue in EU Football, the Barclays Premier League just renegotiated their TV deal for $3 billion per season, just for the top tier league which is 20 teams. Put merchandise, season tickets, other competitions, player sales etc all on top, the biggest teams are worth more than your biggest NFL or Hockey team.

Source NFL top teams: http://www.forbes.com/nfl-valuations/
Source EU top football teams: http://www.forbes.com/soccer-valuations/

And oddly enough you feel a need to bash it. That was my point in the OP. I could counter attack on stupidity of American sports but don't see the need/appeal.

I think his point has some validity in that the major sports didn't want the competition. TV sports were dominated by the big three(4) networks for decades. The money on the TV ads is not what they want or expected. The NFL takes breaks to get more ads in. Can you imagine doing that in soccer? The guys just stop the action and stand around so that TV ads can be shown?

You can imagine in countries where soccer is almost the only sport that their advertising revenue is going to be bigger. The US splits between the big three with some sad sisters who do surprisingly well.

I think the better question is. Why is the OP so delusional.

They "might" be the best, but because it's not an actual World Tournament or Cup, they should be called US champions and US series. :2 cents:
It's a little pretentious don't you think? :helpme

Anyway, huge game today!

Suarez or Balotelli ???