Steve Rushin - Soccer Nazi

So now we are judging Americans interest in soccer by the numbers generated by the MFL? I thought we were talking about the US, not North America.

 

I couldn't find the numbers, but I'm willing to be millions of McDonald's hamburgers are consumed worldwide on a daily basis.
Me? I'm more likely to eat at Sonic, or to get fries only at McDonald's and get my burger elsewhere.

I'm sure millions of cans of Coke are put away daily.
Me? I'm more likely to like a crusty battery than I am to drink a Coke. If I even consume a soda, it's going to be Dr Pepper or root beer.

There's two simple examples of products that are dominate across the globe. Yet if someone implied you were flawed or wrong because you didn't like either of them, you'd reject them out of hand. So why, then, do we have the same reaction toward people who don't like soccer?

 

I was looking at a few of the ratings articles and it looks as if 8.9 million people (combining Univision and ABC numbers) in this country watched the Mexico-Iran game. ;D

Sunday night's NBA game had an 8.0 rating...drew about 8.8 million viewers. And that was UP 17 percent from last year.

 

Watching Hold Em on TV is more interesting than any soccer match I've ever seen.

 

Crass, I never, ever said "nobody cares." I'm simply saying that while the numbers are growing, they're not as big as some would like to think.

And you're interested in the ratings of the Cup versus NASCAR? What would it say, if the numbers were even remotely close to each other, that a regular-season race in NASCAR might draw close to the same numbers as the world's biggest sporting event?

For that matter, the NBA allegedly drew 100,000 less than Mexico-Iran. Draw what conclusions you will from that, but from a percentage of our population standpoint, neither number is overwhelmingly impressive.

 

Clearly part of ratings increase is because ESPN/ ABC televising. Its a built in bias.  You cannot compare 2002 rating to 2006.

 

Re: Steve Rushin - Soccer Natzi

That is 70 percent of this country in a nutshell.

 

If you want to see a show that will get ratings it would clearly be MILTF.

 

A huge chunk of this country doesn't give a rat about ANY sport.

 

Boom, the last World Cup was broadcast. A lot of it was shown. There are several differences:
1. The time of day. Before I was waking up at 2 am to watch games. Now, they are on in the middle of the day.
2. The expectation of the US. However, the numbers I'm referring to are before the US game was shown.
3. There is a larger amount of interest.

I'm referring to the ratings of that which is broadcast in America.

I've stated all along that the interest those living here have is not necessarily in the MLS or US soccer. If you want to guage interest in soccer, check the numbers. People living and working in the US are watching it.

Hell, I watch the MFL games when they are on and I can only count to five in Spanish.

If you want to go with numbers generated by white people only, then sorry, you have a narrow definition of what an American is.


Allen, if the numbers for Mexico/Iran are similar to the NBA Finals, which have been whored out to no end, then it is showing the interest is there.

Mexico/Iran was NOT a do or die match. It was game one of their group. The NBA Finals match has been whored at every turn, true the World Cup has been pushed, but not exactly the specific game times. The NBA Finals had commercials during the Mexico/Iran game.

All that shows you is that despite the NBA containing bigger names and a far more prime-time spot, they didn't do as well.

The interest is there. People care. A lot of people care. Thus, Rushin is an idiot for trying make this type of argument.

 

What exactly counts as watching a sporting event and being calculated into the ratings?

For example, Adam Abercrombie does some channel surfing and watches a WC game for five minutes and then goes back to watching Laguna Beach reruns or America's Next Top Model. Do those five minutes of the WC footage he watched get tallied into the ratings?

 

ESPN and ABC combined in 1994, '98, and '02 as well.