This is the World Cup! Why wouldn't their bosses demand that they invest the time needed to do their job correctly before each game of the sport's most important competition? Would Fox's NFL announcers be given a free pass if they were to refer to "Ben RETH-lis-berger" or "Colin KAY-per-nick"? OK, maybe not Colin, since they probably are told not to mention him at all.
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Any Opinions on World Cup Viewership?
- Thread starter landtuna
- Start date
This is the World Cup! Why wouldn't their bosses demand that they invest the time needed to do their job correctly before each game of the sport's most important competition? Would Fox's NFL announcers be given a free pass if they were to refer to "Ben RETH-lis-berger" or "Colin KAY-per-nick"? OK, maybe not Colin, since they probably are told not to mention him at all.
I cannot answer the "bosses question" but can say the overwhelming number of Americans don't care about the WC. A moderate number might care if we were actually playing in it but......well, you know.
It works the other way too. How many fans does the "World" Series or the "Super" Bowl have outside the friendly confines of the USA? We don't invite their teams to our championship so they probably feel the same way.
We don't invite baseball teams to the World Series unless they are part of the two "major" leagues in the US / Canada. While baseball is played in a small handful of other countries, it's absolutely not a world-class sport. Nor is American rules football which, when played outside the US is mostly for expats and local folks who went to school or college in the US.
The difference is that while there is no mass migration of baseball fans to Ecuador or football fans to Namibia, there is huge, ongoing migration of soccer fans to the US.
It's about on a par with cricket in terms of number of nations, but with Great Britain, Australia, South Africa and India major players in the original bat-and-ball game, cricket obviously has more people following it than baseball, which has only the U.S., South Korea and Japan as major nations, population-wise. The game is catching on in Australia, the Netherlands and Germany, I've heard, and the Red Sox and Yankees will be playing a couple of games in London next year, but it's still a tiny niche outside North America, the Caribbean, a couple of South American countries (Colombia and Venezuela) and Korea/Japan/Taiwan. For what it's worth, I've succeeded in making baseball fans out of a few internet friends in England. How have you done in getting others in this country to share your love of soccer?
Baseball Latin America: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico (dying, though). Coastal Venezuela. Some parts of northern México. Nicaragua (bigger by far than soccer).
In the Dominican Republic, baseball is viewed as a doorway out of poverty. The English, French, Dutch and Papiamento speaking areas of the Caribbean are soccer fans (with some Cricket left as a vestige of colonialism)
Colombia has a winter baseball league and Curacao and Aruba produce big league players, although I don't know the status of the sport overall there. And before you snarkily condemn cricket as a vestige of colonialism, you surely must remember that soccer was brought to the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of this hemisphere by colonizers as well. Ask a full-blooded Taino if he can tell you what his forebears' favorite pastime was before the Spaniards came. Oh wait, the Spaniards saw to it that there are no full-blooded Tainos anymore.
The Taíno population, like the Arawak population extending farther down the Lesser Antilles, mostly fell victim to European disease. While the Europeans brought the diseases, it was not their intent to decimate a population that they would have found useful as a labor pool.
There is nothing snarky about saying cricket remains, albeit sparsely distributed, in the former British West Indies colonies. It was originally game of the elite, and only became more egalitarian as the local teams sought out new talent to play.
On the other hand, there is some evidence that the Mayan ball court game, played as a religious ceremony where a ball was thrown through a vertical hoop or loop, may have influenced the creation of basketball. (See my paper, later published by the University of Pittsburgh, on the ball court "game" at https://www.davidgleason.com/1962_Tikal.htm)
Soccer, on the other hand, came to the Americas long after all those nations had won their independence. In fact, two of the four nations where soccer is not the national passion, Cuba and Puerto Rico, were the ones that remained as colonies for a far longer period (a status in which, renamed, Puerto Rico remains).
The Colombian Winter League is a minor sport, practiced only in a couple of cities; the stadium in Bogotá holds less than 3,000 persons in a city of about 8 million. And it's not accepted into Caribbean League play by that extension of MLB.
Oops, silly me. Forgot that the rules of association football were not codified -- by the English -- until the late 19th century. Of course, games involving kicking a ball/stone/fallen enemy's skull have been played all over the globe for centuries, so chances are those pre-independence, post-conquest Latin Americans were playing a soccer-like game as well -- probably minus heading, given that stones and skulls were being used. I'll have to check out your thesis on basketball. Since modern basketball is traceable to one man, Naismith the Canadian-born college gym teacher from up I-91 in Springfield, are you saying he somehow had heard about the Mayan game, then? I have no doubt that the Mayans, and likely other peoples, were throwing round things through hoops or loops or into fruit crates long before Naismith came up with his off-season activity for his college athletes, but to say that the sport as it's played globally today was influenced by the Mayans' religious ceremony would require knowledge of same by Naismith, no?
You may have misunderstood my point......which was.....we proudly declare (usually while pounding our collective chests) the "worldly" nature of our baseball, football and basketball championship series. "WORLD Champions" and all that. We all know they are not and will not be world champions unless and until the competition is open world-wide (like the World Cup and Little League World Series).
You might wonder why I didn't mention hockey. It is because hockey is different. The Stanley Cup is a North American championship series and does not use the word "world" in its description. There are several other tournaments around the world open to teams from other nations and then the Olympic Games of course.
I got your point, and it is well taken. I have been questioned many times in the manner of "why does the (insert expletive here) United States" have world championships when they provide the only teams that play?" It's seen as arrogance by a nation perceived by many as having no world view.
Hockey has a World Championship tournament every year. Unfortunately, it coincides with the NHL playoffs, so only players from NHL teams that don't qualify for the playoffs participate in it, along with a few from playoff teams that go out in the first round (plus players from the European domestic leagues, the strongest of which are the Swedish and Russian leagues).
Exactly! It has been one of my bones of contention since childhood. There is some history here though.
For the USA's first 100+ years as a nation we tended to be very isolated. "We" consisted of a collection of states, mostly friendly, but separated from the ROW by two oceans. For that 100+ period we were "the world". Now, of course, things are very different. Two world wars saw to that, in addition to all the technologies that move the countries closer together. Unfortunately, our education system has always touted the USA as "the greatest nation on Earth" and a goodly number of our citizens actually believe it despite statistics showing we are somewhere in the middle now. Nevertheless, the name and bragging rights stuck, however undeserved.
https://deadline.com/2018/06/mexico...ord-telemundo-deportes-nbc-sports-1202418532/
An Update specifically for Mexico Vs Sweden game.
An Update specifically for Mexico Vs Sweden game.
https://deadline.com/2018/06/world-cup-telemundo-racism-morning-show-south-korea-1202419029/
Update some of the World Cup Pundits on Telemundo is facing racist allegations.
Update some of the World Cup Pundits on Telemundo is facing racist allegations.
https://frontpage.pch.com/article/1...ings-down-42-percent-without-american-team/tv
Fox clearly didn't count on the US not qualifying when they purchased the broadcast rights to the World Cup. Shaping up as a complete bust.
Fox clearly didn't count on the US not qualifying when they purchased the broadcast rights to the World Cup. Shaping up as a complete bust.
It's too bad, because there have been some tense and truly entertaining games played, and really, I'd much rather watch France or Brazil play soccer than the U.S. team, which has limited skill, no style and no clue. Fox has tried its best to get Americans to choose another country to root for, but that effort was doomed from the start. Americans just don't watch international competitions unless their home nation is involved -- and even that hasn't drawn eyeballs to the World Baseball Classic, just the Olympics.
I am absolutely sure that the WC would be drawing better viewer numbers had the USA been part of it but I also think the majority of USA "sports" fans consider soccer a foreign sport and, as such, just do not take an interest in it. My guess is if the WC were American football it would be viewed in an entirely different light. The language is different (pitch vs field, match vs game etc.) so it just sounds foreign (and remember the old days when "foreign" meant substandard?).
Consider that soccer teams from the rest of the world (ROW) have players that have very limited exposure here - mostly limited to posters on high school players bedroom walls. They play for teams having limited exposure here (although it is better than it used to be). The announcers sound like they are describing the Second Coming of Christ and the scoring is virtually non-existent (which used to be a common complaint with hockey as well). Although there are demographics within the USA that remain passionate about the game they are still in a minority. As they grow in numbers soccer interest may rise as well.
Consider that soccer teams from the rest of the world (ROW) have players that have very limited exposure here - mostly limited to posters on high school players bedroom walls. They play for teams having limited exposure here (although it is better than it used to be). The announcers sound like they are describing the Second Coming of Christ and the scoring is virtually non-existent (which used to be a common complaint with hockey as well). Although there are demographics within the USA that remain passionate about the game they are still in a minority. As they grow in numbers soccer interest may rise as well.
https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/world-cup-finale-reaches-16-million-us-viewers/
A take on the World cup final ratings
A take on the World cup final ratings
Interesting numbers. Thank you. My guess regarding the final was that France was so favored that anyone not rooting for a Croatia upset didn't bother to watch (and the Croatians watching probably gave up after the score went 2-0).
In the USA I noticed a ton of viewers are like my little brother who pays no attention to soccer except when the WC is played. He usually goes to a bar and joins the drunkards.....er, I mean drinkers to while away a Sunday afternoon. He was the one who dragged me to the WC in 1994 and I've never forgiven him for it.
In the USA I noticed a ton of viewers are like my little brother who pays no attention to soccer except when the WC is played. He usually goes to a bar and joins the drunkards.....er, I mean drinkers to while away a Sunday afternoon. He was the one who dragged me to the WC in 1994 and I've never forgiven him for it.
Drinking is the one part of the global soccer culture that Americans seem to grasp.
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